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Has anyone seen any good uninsulated ski trousers in the sales?
@ElShalimo what size do you take? I have some uninsulated Westbeach trousers, they "lost" the pair I sent in for repair so sent me a brand new replacement pair - but all they had left were uninsulated. I prefer insulated (I actually use merino leggins as well as insulation) so have never used them.
They are Westbeach Upstart in combat green, size small (about a 32" waist)
https://www.sportpursuit.com/catalog/product/view/id/1296217
yours for Not Very Much At All
@TroutWrestler considering the Maurienne got battered with snow over the weekend (Bonneval sur Arc in the Haute Maurienne had 140cm of snow!) that webcam looks awful. Have skiied Les Sybelles, but have never felt the need to return
My wife is thinking of a week early in April. This would be the latest she has ever skied. Is it just a case of picking a high resort like Tignes/Les Deaux Alps or is there another way of trying to get the best conditions? North Facing, Glacier etc?
@bentandbroken during April anywhere with a large proportion of pistes above 2000m would be wise.
For Les 2 Alpes, the resort itself is at 1650m, so it isn't uncommon to download at the end of the day later in the season because of the heavy going or lack of snow.
Le Corbier wasn't great on 17th March last year...
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Wife took the dog for a walk instead of skiing...
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The season is ending better than it started:
Whistler has had about 1m of snow in the last few days, which it needed. Mind you there’s a heatwave coming next weekend with temps in the village set to hit 14.
The Alps reached a new record low for the amount of snow on the ground in February
Any recommendations for a shop in Les Gets or Morzine where I can get snowboard bindings?
Plenty of shops in Les Gets will have bindings, walk through town and you see them in the windows, but I wouldn’t really recommend any of them. The resort is mainly set up around rentals, maintenance and the occasional distress purchase.
Are you there now? Because if not I’d buy away from the resorts if possible.
The shop I trust most is Pure Experience down a Les Perrières - great friendly owner, decent workmanship etc, but even then he’s really rental and maintenance.
@WEJ try The Woods in Morzine, I bought a board from them last month. I couldn’t really find anywhere else decent.
Back last night from a week in Passo Tonale. I wasn't expecting much as I picked it as a beginner resort for the missus. This is my 30th season of snowboarding so I'd kind of written it off before I got there and just wanted then missus to progress.
I ended up absolutely loving it. Did way more riding than I expected and the terrain was great. Helped by about 2m of snow the week before we arrived plus another 50cm over the week we were there.
Really efficient lifts. Nice wide open pistes. Huge descent from 3000m down to 1200m.
The town itself is just a street at the top of a mountain pass but it was much nicer than I expected. Brilliant Apres ski and the prices were insanely cheap even for Italy. A pint of Moretti AND a glass of wine was £7 in total.
Just back from La Thuile yesterday, mostly a good week.
Friday and Saturday conditions higher up the mountain were challenging with very little visibility.
It was also snowing from Saturday lunchtime and was still chucking it down when we left yesterday.
On a side note looking for a bit of advice.
My daughter bought a pair of ski boots last year from Craigdon Sports Edinburgh.
She had them fitted by one of the guys in store.
She commented to him at the time that they were a bit tight around the toes and he assured her they would bed in when she wore them.
First day of the holiday was pretty much ruined for her as they were so uncomfortable looking at the boots later we removed the liner and her big toe was pretty much jammed into the toe box.
So WWSTD and where do I stand with returns etc?
Has your daughter grown since last year? Junior needed new boots every year when growing, exceptionally they laster two seasons.
If not clearly missold but after a year I doubt you can do much apart from slag them off online 🙂
Her shoe size has not changed in the last 4 years at least.
I have mailed them will wait on a response failing that it'll be a visit to the store!
Great to hear all that. We are going on the 23rd for my first ever winter skiing holiday.
We are off to Paradiski on 30 March for 1 week based at Les Coaches for easy access to Les Arcs and wider La Plagne.
After much deliberation we have just booked for the following week, 6 April, at St Sorlin d'Arves, for the princely sum of £700, all in, accomodation in a 6 bed appt with an indoor pool, and lift passes for 4 of us. It could be a disaster of late season speculation, or it could be the bargain holiday that we bang on about for years.
2 years ago we paid £536 for 4, appt and liftpasses in Valfrejus, and had a brilliant time in the Haute Maurienne. Here's hoping that Les Sybelles deliver. Paradiski is a hard act to follow, so expectations are tempered.
@Giant Scum, Most good ski shops will have some sort of fit guarantee. (Ellis Brigham & Snow & Rock do) Check what the shop you bought from has to offer, go back to the shop and see what they can do.
MrsDTS did exactly this with EB in Bristol, they couldn't have been more helpful.
Buying and selling ski boots is quite a tricky thing to get right. Lots of variables and lots of room for error with little scope for correction.
I've done Stubai, Ski Welt and St Anton but looking for a family friendly ski area in Austria? I really don't know it that well as I've always aimed for 2hrs from Geneva airport.
We'll be a group of 6 adults and 5 kids who are all comfortable on Blues. Adults might need a bigger area to not be bored!
We prefer sole occupancy of a Chalet foe the group.
Check out the Hochkoenig Area, Maria Alm in particular. I’m biased as we have a place there but it fits your brief.
If it’s for this season though you might want to head somewhere higher as it’s not a great year for snow in a lot of Austria.
2 years ago we paid £536 for 4, appt and liftpasses
I mean, at that price..... surely lift passes for 4 alone are more than that?! Hell of a deal!
We're heading out in the motorhome again on 20th of this month. Looking like we'll head to Montgenevre again to start with. Quite fancy Serre Che again, not sure what conditions are like there currently?
I don't know about Serre Che and Montgenevre but it has been dumping in Risoul, Vars and Les Orres.
Hi folks,
Driving up to Tignes le Lac on Saturday AM from Lyon. I know Saturdays can be hell for traffic (have previously gone on Sundays which are quieter) - does anyone have any useful insights about timing to minimize sitting in queues (I've got my bip and go in my pocket but suspect that will only be minimal benefit)
Coming home the following Saturday morning - same thoughts on timing.
Planning to stop in Albertville for the hypermarche - any alternative places worth stocking up?
Thanks
The bottleneck is Moutiers to Aime, so your choices are either get through early (traffic will start to build from about 9am) or late. If you can get there early, there's a massive LeClerc just off the autoroute at Aime (it has it's own slip), or there are a couple of big places just as you exit Bourg St Maurice. If you can;t get through early, tkae your time, have a look around, shop in Albertville then go up after the traffic.
Note, if you're on the autoroute when you leave Albertveill you can't get off it. I have no idea how busy the local roads are, but you might consider using those instead of the autoroute to get as far as Moutiers. You're still stuck with the main N90 to get through from Moutiers to Aime though, there's a tiny road that goes RIGHT up but I suspect that wil be closed and even if open, will not be any faster
We’re heading out in the motorhome again on 20th of this month.
I’ll give you a wave at the Eurotunnel if you’re on an early one? 🙂
I’m driving down with the dog, wife is flying down at the weekend. We’re probably going to head to Menuires again, with a day trip over the La Rosiere to see a friend.
The French school hols are over, there won't be bad queues heading up unless there's a lot of snow on the road or closures due to avalanche risk. It'll all be on traffic info sites.
Car and plane, well if your going on a high carbon holiday you may as well do it properly. No heliski in France but there is just over the border in Italy. 😉
Car and plane, well if your going on a high carbon holiday y
Like lots of us in the UK I suspect Edukator... 6 of us so no vehicle to drive all the way down. Picking up a 6 seater at Lyon airport is greener than getting a transfer that likely would need to do 4 legs instead of just 2.
Good to know about the French hols, last weekend looked horrible traffic wise.
Thanks NBT, will take a look at those options on the map and see how we go with traffic.
Holidays may be over but there will still be queues, count on it
Currently on Lago di Garda. Arrived on Sunday and it was pissing it down. Anything above ~1600m is white. Was half tempted to go to Andalo/Paganella with the snowboard rather than ride my bike, but 65€ for a day pass put me off.
Although it's not all good news, unless you want to shred the trails as opposed to the pistes.....
Via Euronews: ‘Ski season is over’: Snowless winter forces Austria’s resorts to turn to summer sports in March
They’ll still order another 20 million “Radfahren Verboten” signs to cover the next couple of years.
They’ll still order another 20 million “Radfahren Verboten” signs to cover the next couple of years.
Do I detect a hint of irony?
Grundsätzlich hat jede Person das Recht, Wald zu Erholungszwecken zu betreten und sich dort aufzuhalten. Das Fahren im Wald (einschließlich der Forststraßen und sonstigen Waldwege) ist jedoch grundsätzlich verboten, unabhängig davon, ob mit Kfz oder Fahrrädern gefahren wird.
"in principle everyone has the right to use the forest for recreational purposes. Driving in the forests is explicitly forbidden, whether with a car or bike."
@susepic, check this thread over on snowheads about Tarentaise traffic...
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=168883&highlight=
Thanks @nbt, very useful. Had been thinking early start on Saturday, but reading that I might bring it up an hour.
It seems pretty busy here in Tignes for a mid March week, so the discussion about folks coming up because lower resorts have no snow seems reasonable.
Good snow here mostly, but getting heavy below 2400m pretty early in the day. Had a drink at the restaurant below the cable car to the Grande Motte yesterday and it was 6degrees at least in the sun.
@susepic, how was the journey up to resort? What time did you set off and how long did it take?
@nbt, we left Lyon close to midday after a bit of hire car faff (lots of England rugby fans going to the match and then off skiing). It was pretty clear (moving steadily but not stopped) until that moutiers to Aime section where they were controlling the flow with lights (can't remember if that's the Siaix tunnel) Once we were through there it was steady up to Tignes and we were here by 5pm, which doesn't sound too bad. We included a stop at the Albertville intermarche too.
The car hire faff probably saved us an hour sitting in traffic - not sure which is more boring
"They’ll still order another 20 million “Radfahren Verboten” signs to cover the next couple of years.
Do I detect a hint of irony?"
???. There's nothing ironic about that statement at all. Sadly
Dog was enjoying the sun today!
Spring mode fully activated in Les Menuires. The off piste under the Bruyeres lift was surprisingly good and not totally tracked out.
My wife is moaning her bag off that we've not bought our dog this year, that picture isn't helping Phil! We got to the Aire in Serre Che (Monetier le Bains) this afternoon.....17 degrees 😳 Not sure what to expect when we get on the mountain tomorrow, but im assuming slush! Probably heading to Montgenevre early next week, and I'm hoping to shake off a serious bout of manflu that started on Wednesday FFS.
Sorry! Just had a great walk all around resort with him, he’s having a great time 😁
2000m up there was some decent snow this morning, but it’s all very soft & wet by the afternoon, as expected really. I got a decent couple of runs up high in VT but wasn’t in a queueing mood so sacked off Cime Caron.
It’s supposed to be cooling down the next few days & there’s a little bit of snow in the forecast 🤞
Hope the man flu doesn't stop you riding, have a good one!
@phil never mind the hound, that your campy truck?
Afraid not! Mine’s nowhere near as exciting.
Been raining this morning 😢
Ha he's an absolute cracker Phil!
20degrees at 2100 metres in Serre Che today. We had rain in the night here too, beautiful sunshine now though. Never know it this warm before, pistes we're screwed by 10:30! I'll be taking a board not skis tomorrow!
Just back from a week in Flaine, mornings were ok for the first 2 hours, then village level turned to slush. Legs are more tired than normal from working through the slush. There's some really thin patches of snow and exposed rocks in places too. Good luck to anyone who's headed out to any resorts this week!