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What about somewhere like Verbier @villageidiotdan? You could get somewhere on the outlying parts of the ski area so not as pricey but still good access to the whole area. I’m looking at options at the moment in Le Chable but know people who’ve stayed in Nendaz before and rated it.
👍
@villageidiotdan, Flaine or Morillon 1100 are definitely worth considering for ski in/or and short drive from gva
Just booked morzine for new year whoop whoop. Had a look on sunweb and others but zero suitable availability. After coming to the conclusion that airbnb has got v expensive found a good sized apartment for reasonable money via the tourist info office website.
@NBT. Ironically yes, that's why I'm on the search again, I'd booked Morillon months back but they just cancelled having sold up :(. Good shout on Flaine, will see what's about
@tuboflard. Good call, did Verbier last time around. Feel like the guys want something new so will look at La Chanel and Nendaz, appreciated
Try @dozofoz, he has a place in morillon
If you can cope with a lift up and down rather than ski in/out, then look at Courmayeur, i love it and it's perfect for a weekend. The apres is all in town and is great
Courmayeur is a good shout, some lovely terrain, when the snow is good it’s an amazing place to go. And the on mountain eating is amongst the best there is. I’d happily have my last meal at Chiecco.
Haha, will do, thanks both. That's the place that at a glance on Airbnb the accom felt very dated but in fairness I have only been looking on Airbnb so will try sunweb, vrbo and local tourist office options. Anywhere else I should be looking? - used to love Abritel.fr but they got hoovered up by Vrbo
snowtrex, gites de france, and don't discount the local tourist office website / the resort website
we found a lovely place in morillon off here, but that was for s 2 week rental (we're going back to the same place this year)
https://www.alpsaccommodation.com/accommodation/ski-in-ski-out/
@nbt thanks for the mention.
Morillion 1100 is great for ski in/out but if 6 blokes want some even reasonable Apres then its probably not the place. Flaine probably better for that. Somewhere around Vercland gives a bit of both - options of Samoens for Apres and short walk to the new fast telecabin.
good call re vercland.
I’ve been to Grand Bornand a couple of times and stopped up in Chinaillon both occasions. I really like it. Very family feel to the resort and just enough of an area to not get bored, though you can pretty much do every run in a day. My only issue is it’s pretty low down and unless I’d know there’s a good base I’d not book to go there that far in advance. Same with La Clusaz, it’s usually meant to open to May but this year when I was sorting a late season trip at the end of April whilst you could ski back in to Val D’Isere with full coverage, La Clusaz was a sorry muddy mess at resort level.
We (2A+2C) have just booked a week in Les Coches, La Plagne for Easter. Being right by the Vanoise Express means we can make use of the whole Paradiski area which is massive with great variety. I have never been there and not had a great time.
I will wait until later to look for a last-minute deal for the 2nd week.
Anyone have any experience of Les Sybelles or any of the others in the Maurienne?
Am looking for a January or March week with the Mrs, perhaps somewhere new. She is fit and strong, likes plenty of intermediate terrain to zoom around on and good grub.
Anyone planning to travel by train? I'm looking at Interrail passes for us to get to Cervinia from Scotland via Paris and Turin. The price isn't bad, but it does add on 2 extra says for the travel. I think we can leave Edinburgh around 12:00 noon and be in the resort by 16:00 the next day. 🤔
Anyone planning to travel by train?
Yep, but it's relatively easy from Belgium. Eurostar put on snow trains to a bunch of resorts during the ski season. I just can't do the 10 hour drive any more and flying isn't happening. Have taken the sleeper a couple of times as well and that's a nice option if available
Grrrr, i typed up a bit reply to two questions then lost it when the page refreshed as i switched tabs.
Anyway, yes we've skiied Les Sybelles. It was ok, nothing special, we've never been back
Took the train the year, it was great and would recommend. Interrail is a question though, iirc you need to pay extra for the Eurostar leg and possibly for some intercity trains on the continent. Would advise checking on Snowheads as it's been discussed there recently i think. On that note though, check this thread, you're probably not going to get to Cervinia by train as a massive rockfall in the Maurienne means the Paris-Turin line likely won't run till next summer
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=165791
Sorry to be slow on the reply, busy week at work. Still looking but it's been great to get some ideas so thank you
Thanks @nbt. I did know about the reservation fees, but I haven't checked the costs yet.
Looks like that rock fall may have killed the plan anyway. 🙁
I'll have a shufty on snowheads.
This mayhelp you if you still fancy trying the train @oldtennisshoes
https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/paris-to-milan-alternative-trains.htm
Thanks @nbt I had considered the Milan route, but I assumed it would take longer than that. That looks very doable 🤔
Currently looking at a long weekend in Jan with a mate, French Alps most likely as his Mrs wants to do Italy and we want to be able to make this a regular thing so not pissing the wives off makes good sense. Think we'll book it over the weekend.
I've not had a snow holiday in probably 15 years so I'm somewhat looking forward to it! Back when I last went helmets were a rare sight so I need to sort one of those out and as Mrs M has no idea what my goggles look like I might just sneak a new pair in while I'm at it. Thinking a Smith Vantage lid coupled with Smith I/O goggles - gonna be a large lid so not sure whether to go standard or XL I/O's ... could be a case of tossing a coin!
Reckon there's still life in the jacket & trousers, they've had plenty of outings in MK/Hemel over the years. Might give them a wash and re-proof though.
Does anyone know what time in the morning the Eurostar snow train tickets go on sale? I know it is the 17th Oct (for the Belgian ones anyway) but don’t know how early I need to wake up. Cheap tickets seem to go instantly
In case anyone is ever looking for this info (or me when I forget and look again next year) then answer is that Eurostar tell you the time about a week in advance and that time is 9am. The cheapest tickets also go within a couple of minutes but there are still some cheaper youth tickets available 25 minutes later in standard class. All the adult tickets in 'comfort' class are gone before they ever make it to the eurostar site.
The eurostar site isn't great for getting the cheap tickets as you can't select the times until 9am which slows you down. I had it all set up in a Belgian train site so I could just click 'search' as soon as 9am rolled round so I managed to get them on the second attempt.
In the end you save 20% although if you are taking a bunch of people 26 and under and go for standard class then there is probably 50% to be saved.
Driving to Morzine for Feb half term. Changeover day is the Sunday so we’re thinking of leaving Hampshire Saturday lunch time and stopping Sat night part way down through France.
Any recommendations for cheap, clean, family friendly hotels?
Ideally, I’d like to push on as far as Dijon but Troyes would be good to. Reims is too far North as I like to brake the back of a journey before stopping.
Troyes is a decent town, think we stayed in a roadside hotel (likely ibis as well), had an underground carpark and was a short stroll into town. It was a long drive from the tunnel, but if that's what you want, it's probably a good option.
Stopped in March on the way to Chamonix and it was t-shirt weather there at that point, just.
Troyes? Just be wary of the local sausages and you'll be ok.
We made it to Dijon but had a mid morning Eurotunnel train. Wouldn’t have wanted to go much further. It did let us get into resort (grand massif so more or less same as morzine) by lunch so we could ski in the afternoon
Thanks folks, ended up booking a Logis hotel near Troyes. Thought Dijon would push it.
Thinking of booking Hemsedal in Norway for the second week in April, anyone got any experience of there or indeed any other Scandinavian resorts which would be good for that late in the season? Desperately trying to get my resort count up to 50 in 50 in time for my birthday in April… (at 47).
If anyone is thinking of Zermatt this winter shoot me a DM. Mrs 10 does ski vacation stuff, and there's a package trip to Zermatt, nice hotel restaurants etc. Apparently, it's good for non skiers and skiers.
anyone got any experience of there or indeed any other Scandinavian resorts which would be good for that late in the season?
Did Stryn as a rest day on a kayaking trip... it wasn't great.... But it was July, so fair enough.
Riks was mind blowing. Skiing at 90kmh behind a skido on a frozen lake was a highlight. Amazing powder almost every day. That was beginning of June iirc.
Also done Gauatablick and a few others further south. Highlight was some crappy little one lift effort that we headed to a rest day on an ice climbing trip when there was too much snow to safely climb ice.
Empty carpark. Lift not running. Nobody about.
" oh no, why are you closed?"
" we're not closed, there's just nobody else here. Give me a minute and I'll fire up the lift."
I guess we must have ridden for three solid hours without taking the rear foot out of the bindings. Just round and round and round with fresh tracks through the trees every time. The afternoon was more crowded as another carload of people turned up.
That was twenty odd years ago though, and I'm guessing it's got warmer since 🙁
It looks as though the base for this season is going well. Let's hope there isn't a warm patch and most of it thaws.
I concur!
Had my first turns of the season today, took the splitboard up to the top of the funicular at Tignes. Nice snow all around, lots of grooming going on on the pistes. Lots more snow forecast.
Quick pano on my insta story if anyone wants a look, didn't get any riding shots.
I have some questions for those familiar with the Grand Massif.
I'm interested in a smaller resort this year with some fun runs but nothing has to be massively challenging. Holiday will likely be wife and me only, in the past we've gone as parts of bigger groups and also just as a 4 with friends who are more capable than we have been. Resorts over the past few years have all been ace places like meribel, Les mens, tignes, so parts of really well put together resorts.
Looking at Flaine and I was thinking it looked promising as smaller, but still good enough. Then read 65 drags Vs 26 chairs. Am I being spoiled thinking I'd rather look elsewhere as I prefer a quick hop in a chair as opposed to an irritating drag to the top of a run? (And yes, yes I am generally quite spoiled!)
I've done quite a few weeks in le Grand Massif, staying in Les Carroz rather than Flaine, but skiing across the whole area. The main uplift is either gondola or chairs, with little reliance on drags to access most of the good stuff. I wouldn't be over concerned.
Half the drag lifts at Flaine are never running anyway 😉
samoens seems to have about 12 just on the beginner ski school plateau
can honestly say I hardly remember catching a drag lift at GM except for the Gers bowl lift, which to be fair gives access to probably the best off piste in the resort
Yeah - you can almost always avoid the drag lifts in GM. Aside from Samoens beginner slopes, there are 4 in Sixt (I've never made it to Sixt in 5 visits to GM, aside from skiing Cascades down to it and getting the bus back to samoens), there's the fun park in les carroz, a couple running parallel to the kedeuze gondola and Lapiaz in flaine which runs parallel to Aup De Veran. You can reach the top of those from the gondolas anyway.
Gers and Veret give access to some pretty lovely off piste. The biggest drag-only area is the stuff on the extreme skiiers left of the flaine bowl - Grand Grenier and Aujon leading to pistes like Calcedoine and so on. Quite mellow terrain but can be good if there's fresh snow and when pisted can be excellent as the pistes are so rarely used becuase of the drags. Aujon is a bloody vicious drag though, I've seen it lift adults off the ground...
I liked Flaine, a long time ago, but would consider going back. Too long ago for any useful info though.
On another topic, 2nd hand gear. Anyone got any tips for buying and selling? I've got an eye on eBay but are there any other good classifieds (I'm not a member on snowheads)? Looking to buy/sell some kids boots etc and maybe get something to use on dryslope.
there are a few groups on facebook. = skibay, skibay uk, ski and snowboard buy & sell uk, plus various others with names relating to skiing and boarding. those three seem fairly active
snowheads is free to join and use, you will just need to host images elsewhere