⛷️ ❄️ Skiing and Snowboarding 23-24 🏔️ 🏂

To those who are planning on staying in a central area then driving out to different ski resorts every day, do not be tempted to leave anything out in the car the night before, it will be very cold. Also make sure your boots are well warmed up before setting out. It won’t be pleasant trying to get chilly boots on.

I’ve found some deals in Oberau Austria and Gressoney

Very different resorts those. Not been to Overau in almost 40 years, but it’s a tiny, lowish resort with limited runs.
Gressoney on the other hand is huge, with high pistes and amazing off piste, but does get windy….

I leave them too it, get out for an early ski with the wife and come back mid morning to do the ticket shuffle

But then you have to factor in how getting marched off to the Gendarmerie/ Polizei might impact your holiday if it goes wrong.

Gressoney on the other hand is huge, with high pistes and amazing off piste, but does get windy….

Ta. Will cross Overau off the list.

Try Sunweb

My word, that’s a much better site than the big operators. A lot more specific in filtering ideas 👍

Try Sunweb

Based on an experience of using it once, the transfer we paid them for from gva to resort was a shambles. 2+ hours waiting to eventually be given a cab driver from the taxi rank, it was his second ever trip into the mountains, I know because he told us as he tried to film it with his mobile while driving up the road to Tignes … my wife would have punched him if we didn’t need the ride, instead she took his phone to film the pitch dark trip for his kids to watch the next day.

Return leg went perfectly, so 50:50 I suppose!

A mate had one of the minibus transfers from Cham to GVA. Turned up very late and was still apparently pissed from the night before. Already running v close to missing their flight they had little choice. Offer to drive and He did sit up front so he could at least have an airbag and keep an eye on him. 😳

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 🙁

I’m off to zell am see in March and somewhere in January when conditions are buff

Thanks btw all that answered my “ski resort near GVA”.  2 of the guys have thrown is “ski in/out” as an essential.  I’m kind of inclined to agree but limits our options.  I’ve rented a 9seater van as there’s 6 of us with bags so other than not wanting to drive for hours we’re pretty free to go where we want.

I did look at Italy but every time I look at the properties I always come away thinking they’re pricy and likely to still have a 80yr old nonna sitting in the corner!

I’m really trying to avoid Avoriaz as I love the place and am there for 10 days with my fam but that’s the kind of thing I’m looking for.  Myabe I have to drive to the 3 valleys

@jedi

I’m off to zell am see in March and somewhere in January when conditions are buff

I’ll expect videos of you boarding the north shore drops at the bottom of Leogang.

My lad and I tried boarding the big jump line (Hot Shots) a few years ago. No one else had hit it so we couldn’t quite get the speed in the powder. Definitely doable though 😀

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.

@villageidiotdan you should consider  la clusaz or le grand bornand.  

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.

Ibis Styles Dijon Sud was nice

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.