⛷️ ❄️ Skiing and Snowboarding 23-24 🏔️ 🏂

It’s great when the kids get to an age when you don’t all need to rush out the door to get to ski school. That never brings out the best in anyone. I remember having to bus up to Tignes from 1800 to get the kids into lessons. Bunch of about 150 trying to get in a 50 seat bus with small kids and kit. Carnage!

New ski family, package option for sure. Don’t buy all the kit, borrow if you can. You won’t all need snow boots, you will need good sunglasses and probably goggles. EBay, FB marketplace and Snowheads are good places for used kit. Also check out you local charity shops we have had loads of good kit from ours.

Thanks for the info. I’ll speak to the other families. I think I’ll do the prodains the first morning, then have a look at the other options.

Bathgate Ski Club trip to la Thuile in March.

Apart from that hoping for some decent snow on the Scottish hills.

@Earl,

First timer as in beginner?

Yes indeed!

1) Assuming you are 30+ they advice would be to warm up / stretch/ mobility routine in the morning prior to putting the skis/ snowboard on. You will fall. Being warm you may hurt yourself less

Thanks, great advice!

2) It’s very very easy to have a big night on the turps when you are out on the snow. So much fun. Recognise that your ability to operate two slidey sticks on your feet may be impaired.

Not a drinker, so no worries there!

Whistler in March for 3 weeks. Decided to go for a decent amount of time to maximise the chances of really good conditions. It feels like everytime we go for a shorter stay the best snow is always just before or after we leave.

Yes indeed!

Great, it’s a lovely experience and a school trip helper is probably a great way to have a first time experience, rather than a stag do or something which isn’t focussed on the mountain activity.

I honestly wouldn’t worry – mountain resorts are generally incredibly supportive and focussed on first timers or novices in the main.

You don’t need to spend mega pounds on anything in advance. Obviously hire the main stuff. As with every other sport, Decathlon is just fine for essentials, but you’ll find that waterproof kit from other activities works just fine on skis.

Absolute Snow is basically the Chain Reaction Cycles of snowsports, if you did want to look into “stuff” a bit more.

We are off to the Grand Massif for 2 weeks in Jan, fingers crossed for better weather than this year.

No new kit. I’ll still be looking like a short, green frog in my lovely Norrona jacket although I did buy some green replacement lenses for my goggles to complete the frog look

Season passes purchased, before the discount expires. Ouch. Another month before the balance is due for the apartment

Remind me NBT, where did you decide in the end?

Back to Verbier from mid December until end of Feb. Yup @NBT lift passes – ouch indeed!

Stop complaining you two. I’m struggling with jealousy as it is. 🤣. Very much a plan once the kids are packed off to uni. A few years to wait unless I win the lotto though.

Another Q for NBT, what did you do about the 90 days? Stay under or sort visa?

We’re doing two trips to stay under the 90 days, coming home for a month in the middle over half term to avoid the high prices / big crowds. Main stay is Morillon in the Grand Massif with a trip to Ste Foy Tarentaise so we can ski with friends

Starting to think about another ski holiday next year. Last time, and the last holiday I’ve had, was back in early 2020 just before the pandemic kicked off. However, I’ve got a long term knee injury that needs checked out, so might need an hour on the slope at the chill factor to see if it holds up.

Off to the Three Valleys in February.  Haven’t been on a board or skis for 9 years but i’m sure it’ll come back to me soon enough.

Ooooh @nbt you’re off to Morillon, we spent our honeymoon there.

We had our first experience of a UCPA holiday in Flaine earlier this year and it was fantastic, hotel, 3 meals a day, lessons, ski hire and kids clubs all included in the price.

We enjoyed it so much we’re off to La Plange with them for new year.

Looking at going away in Easter with junior750, Any recommendations? Anyone been to Hajfell ?
She is a competent skier but looking to learn snowbaording

We are off to Serre Chavelier for the first time at half term looking forward to a change of resort, driving down again fingers crossed for lower temperatures than last year.

We had our first experience of a UCPA holiday in Flaine earlier this year and it was fantastic, hotel, 3 meals a day, lessons, ski hire and kids clubs all included in the price.

@scaled – would be interested to hear more about ucpa family weeks. I’ve done some ski touring/off piste with the Argentiere centre so the basic principle of ucpa appeals.

Looking for a recommendation of somewhere to stay in France, normally we just get transfers and stay in a resort.

However this time, one of the group wants to stay out of resort and try visit a few resorts by driving. Any suggestions?

@mlltt the immediate options which spring to mind would be to stay in the Chamonix valley area (maybe somewhere like St Gervais) which means you can access the ski area there but also drive to Contamines (please don’t tell too many people about it as it’s great), up to Les Houches, all of the areas down to Vallorcine and even through the tunnel to Courmayeur. Enough to keep anyone busy for a week.

Alternatively you could try Bourg St Maurice as a base and access Les Arcs on the funi, drive up to La Plagne, drive up to Tignes, Val and Sainte Foy as well as Rosiere. Again loads to go at and more than enough to keep you busy.

 one of the group wants to stay out of resort and try visit a few resorts by driving

Check out Denfinella’s trip reports over on snowheads, he’s a master at this sort of trip and his reports are REALLY good

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=162891

Just bear in mind that starting each day with a drive of 30 minutes to an hour (followed by the same trip hom at the end of the day) can quickly become a chore – you need to plan well and be up early to make it to resort and park up (especially on a powder day), and it does limit the idea of having a quick slurp after you finish

Yep the driving to and from the lifts can become a bit of a drag (though pretty much the default for USA and Canada).

Hence my suggestion of a base which still has access to the slopes but is near enough to other areas to mix things up. I’ve done exactly this both from St Gervais and Chamonix in the past which gave enough variety between the ski areas to feel like you’re definitely somewhere new instead of munching up the miles on the piste going from one end of a resort to another.

I’m off for a weeks cat boarding in north macedonia with maverix snow

anyone ridden over in that neck of the woods?

done a back country course with Neil McNair in sainte foy last year which was awesome so hopefully will get some decent powder

Thanks, will have a look into Bourg St Maurice as we’ve done Chamonix a few times.

Trying to avoid morzine as there last summer and booked for next summer.

Anyone ever fly into Lyon instead of Geneva? Flights and car hire seem much cheaper

yeah last time we flew we did lyon for the tarentaise and hired , no problems with it

Snap(ish) GraemeTheJock!

Off to Kosovo / Albania border with Lynx for a week cat boarding end Feb – something completely different for us.  10+ yrs doing various backcountry offerings from WhiteRoom in St Foy is our normal trip…

Looking fwd to the ‘adventure’ associated with our trip this year…

I spent a week with lynx last year. Great cat operation and the terrain is pretty special when it’s on.

Just booked my two trips for the year.

Snowheads birthday bash in Arabba in the epic Sella Ronda
Snowheads off piste bash in Serre Chevalier with most of the time spent in La Grave.

Epic trips necessary due to ski buddies having young kids and me not having young kids lol.

Might fit in a sneaky week at the end of the season in Val Thorens depending on the snow.

Hmmmmm. Very much torn on this….
From when the kids were born we’ve always had one or two ski trips a year, sometimes with a Scotland trip or two thrown in. They’ve generally been excellent, or better, and we’ve always managed to keep the cost below about £2.8k all in for four of us.

But we’ve not really been since COVID, bar a few days last new year in stubaital. And I’m not sure whether to bother booking this year…

Part of the problem is money, as I doubt we’ll get any change from £4k for 4. But that’s not the real problem…

The lack of decent snow these days is a big issue admittedly. I used to think it was just my bad memory, or a blip but I’ve realised that there just isn’t the conditions so often any more that there used to be. Fair enough there’s always enough on the piste, but really, who wants to ride on piste…

Which brings us to the bigger problem. The wean is now 16 and I’m sure he is now more capable on skis and board than me, and hungry as hell for off piste. Which is an issue, because it’s dangerous. We all carry probes, shovels and Pieps. We all practice PPS. The kids have airbags. We pay attention to the avalanche warnings, but the fact remains…

I suppose we could cough for guiding, but that’ll add another £2k to the cost. And the quality is so hit and miss that I’m not sure it’s worth it.

Hmmmm

Hmm, just had my accom out of Geneva cancelled on me for January.

Not tied to a resort but kind of looking for close transfer from Geneva as its only a long weekend – what do people recommend pls?

Quite interested in the thread above about lower towns with a funi but the group has quite a wife spread of wealthy and, erm, me 🙂

Grand Massif is about 1 hour from GVA, got the choice of Samoens, Morillon, Les Carroz and Flaine for accomodation.

Chamonix valley is not much further and both areas have a wealth of transfer companies which operate from GVA.

Villageidiot, Cormayeur is a good option from GVA.

Generalist, I know what you mean. The olden days did seem more reliable conditions. I think that I have had to temper my expectations. Go with what we get and make the most of it. I do like a bit of off piste that’s my real aim, If it’s good. I am mostly skiing with wife and kids and it was great to spend time with them improving their off piste. The urge to ditch them is strong when conditions are good though. I would also say that I definitely do enjoy a good bloody hoon on the pistes though. With the right skis for the conditions that is a pleasure.

Also looking for a bit of advice. I thought there was a recent thread about first time family skiers, but sadly can’t find it.

Thinking this might be the season to drag the kids to try skiing. I’ve done it once before, about 20 years ago, wife has done a bit of boarding also 20+ back. Kids have never done it (x3 from 8-13)

Family has suggested to go down the hotel route, half board, hiring everything for a first time.

We want to go around Xmas time. We’ve done a Santa trip to Levi in Lapland before and are tempted to re-do that but over 4 nights (clearly before Xmas!) and just doing the core Santa stuff, and skiing. This is going to work out around 6k. Levi’s not exactly rad to the max, but it’s shortish fun flights, 20m transfer, about -5C to -10C, get winter kit included. For a bunch of beginners getting a couple of days in, I thought it was a decent idea. Particularly if someone doesn’t enjoy it or breaks themselves! Wife doesn’t like heights or exposure either – she’ll do it but veeerry slowly. This is likely to frustrate the **** out of me 😁

The 6k ish price and what leave we can get also leads me to look at departing on 30/31st December for a week.

I’ve found some deals in Oberau Austria and Gressoney Italy that would work well. 2hr transfers, shortish flights, about 7-7.5k. Hotels are generally well reviewed. One has a pool.

No idea about either of those places though, and finding out about the likely snow over the new year period is tough.

So, any advice would be greatly appreciated! I appreciate I’ve gone down a path already, but I was just after any insight about what we’re thinking of doing.

I wouldn’t be spending anything like that for a first time ski trip. Obviously the Santa stuff is always going to add cost and may be an easy intro to skiing. Just seems like lots of money to me. Each to their own.

So how would you do it keeping it easy and cheap?

Remember I’ve zero experience of this, so saying that is not particularly useful.

If you DIY (as opposed to a package deal) it can be cheaper but obviously needs a bit more planning.

My tip to save on lift tix is never buy the full family a weeks pass up front. The saving isn’t that great, all it takes is 1 to miss a day and the group to do a half day and the savings for buying a weeks pass disappear. If you can put up with topping your passes up daily then look at that.
my teenagers all ski but get up late, I leave them too it, get out for an early ski with the wife and come back mid morning to do the ticket shuffle. In 1 week I reckon there is on average only 1 day we would have bought 5 full day passes

……i should point out, this requires ski in ski out accom to be near a ticket office, else it would be a pain

Sorry.
We drive, that saves lots for a family.
Timing, Christmas is an expensive week and not as snow sure as other times. Days are short and can be colder. Last year it was warm and very wet in many places, though.
I have an aversion to the whole Xmas in the Lapland thing. So my negativity may have showed in my original post!
Resort and accom, French self catering is cheap by comparison to Austrian hotels ime.
First timers, I would say get a package to a smallish french resort. Try Sunweb.
Hire skis and boots there, get ski clothing that you need here on eBay, fb and have a great time!