The STW Ski and Snowboard thread: 2021-2022 Season

Cheesed off hotel owners and resort staff on TF1 this evening. Whether closing the border will slow Omicron spread enough to save the February holidays for the French I have no idea.

Great day out on rando skis today; sun, great snow and not a breath of wind. Still in a T-shirt at over 2500m.

Scuppered! We were going out on 26th for LaTania. All the COVID pass, tests and admin was only just about manageable. So disappointed. I don’t even trust Sturgeon enough to contemplate going to Scotland. Fingers crossed things ease up early enough for some of the livelihoods that rely on tourists.

Does anyone know what the score is with ski areas that cross borders?
Specifically if you are staying in La Thuile, Italy can you ski over into La Rosiere, France?

Thanks all.

I’ve seen mention over on snowheads that the link between la thuile and la rosiere is open and not policed

Ditto in PdS, have friends who are skiing backwards and forwards.

What do we think the chances of France re-opening before the end of Jan? I see that they’ve just tightened restrictions domestically.

We are booked to France in mid January by Ski Train and consider the trip unlikely to go ahead.
We can cancel up to 15 days before so we are doing that now.

Mid January I consider will not happen. End of January I consider unlikely, but who really knows.

Maybe Edukator will be kind and able to advise the word on the streets of France.

Germany is debating a triage law today and here in France ICU units are approaching capacity limits. There’s a ‘plan blanc’ in our local hospital and many others.

The pressure on hospitals is still increasing with no sign of let up. It will take several weeks of decling case numbers to improve the situation in hospitals.

All that says no relaxing of measures for a month apart from the isolation time if the scientists agree on it.

I can’t see any change in policy on UK visitors in January. As I alluded above saving the French February ski holidays will be a priority not opening up to non-EU guests.

Your best indicator is ICU capacity, follow that. Overloaded to the point of triage for well over month on current numbers. ☹️

Sounds like February Ski train is going to be a non-starter 🙁

Let’s hope it gets snowy in Scotland (assuming that’s open in Feb!).

Anybody know if you can block book a ski dome :(…

We strongly prefer train to flying so are trying to move our booking to March 22, February seems too uncertain.

Not much snow in Scotland right now, hopefully that will change in 22. We should be open for visitors in February unless something dramatic changes.
Last winter was not good with plenty of snow but also plenty of travel restrictions.

Thanks @Edukator. easyJet are still assuming we’re flying on the 22nd but assume that stance will change at some point.

We’re driving over to Austria tomorrow via Hull/Rotterdam. Spring conditions over there right now but the pistes are good apparently.

@colp Are you aware of the new travel restrictions for Austria?

We’re boosted and have done a PCR today, fingers crossed the results get back to us clear before the ferry tomorrow!

Have been doing alot of snowboarding here in Sweden. A couple of splitboarding trips as well, but the days are short.

Had a cracking day yesterday. 20cm new snow so got the swallow tail board out. So much fun and christ alive did I sleep well that night. Would post pics but dont want  to piss people off who cant make their trips.

Anyhow, less snow now and looking cold tomorrow, down to minus 20. Might stay home and iceskate

Wäre boosted and have done a PCR today, fingers crossed the results get back to us clear before the ferry tomorrow!
We were in Zillertal just before Xmas. There was loads of snow and still a bit at the bottom of The Valley and the pistes were practically clear. Just bare in mind you need FFP2 masks everywhere in Austria also on the ski lifts. I attached mine to the helmet which was more comfortable than around the ears. Take your mobile with you at all times as all restaurants want to see your vaccination and you need to sign in on a tracing app when you sit at a table.

Cheers fella.
Picked up 30 FFP2 masks from Screwfix the other day.
There’s 95% piste coverage with snow cannons in the Hochkoenig area so the pistes are always good. Fingers crossed we’ll get a dump soon to get some off piste in.

I’m almost ready to cancel holiday this year and buy splitboarding gear instead. I’ve been hovering over the buy button for a while. Anyone got experience of gear? Thinking Jones Frontier, Union binding and g3 skins.

@howsyourdad1
Please post up some pics, will def be jealous but not pissed off.
It will however start me wondering about trying to get a transfer to gothenburg again with work

@colp. Then happy travels. Just one last thing. Prepare for a long wait at the border as they are doing spot checks and I would imagine with British plates you’ll almost certainly get pulled over.

howsyourdad1 – I too would like to see your photos (although can’t deny to being envious).

I’ve booked my first trip in 5 years, always hated a holiday after 7 years of seasons but I had the urge to snowboard this year for some reason.
Book for first week of March. Hoping it will be chilled by then. Self employed so any hints of isolating and trip gets binned!

I missed my 2020 trip, was due to fly in March the same day the French resorts all closed down. The first time I’ve missed a ski/snowboard season in over 20 years 😕. 2021 never happened either.

So next year we’re meant to be off to Oregon for a week in March around Mount Hood (Timberline and Meadows is the plan). I really hope it comes off as desperate to get some snow under my feet. Anyone with experience of either resort, views welcome.

We have just called off our January trip to Val Thorens and moved it to March.
Hopefully things will be more settled by then.
We could have cancelled however we have booked with Travel Ski on the Ski Train and wish to support their initiative in getting the Ski Train running for 21/22.

Scrapped Morzine for the 9th of Jan obviously so currently looking for cheap digs in Switzerland, poss saas fee.

Friend lives in Geneva so he’ll happily drive to whatever resort we find.

Just hope the Swiss don’t tighten there restrictions any more than the current ones.

I see that holidays to Bulgaria are still available for 2 Jan. Teens need a PCR to travel out of the UK and that’s it.

Would you in the current environment?

Just moved my flights for tomorrow to Milan for Cervinia out to October and Mallorca.
It’s a sorry state of affairs. 🙁
Got feb to look forward to, but I’m not convinced that will happen either.

For those driving ( @cobrakai you may be affected), be aware that British citizens aren’t even allowed to drive through France to get to their destination country as of yesterday

https://mobile.twitter.com/LeShuttle/status/1476245791027179524

On the Hull/Rotterdam ferry, no problems at check in with clear PCR tests (£34.99 Randox collect / drop off), should get us through the Austrian border tomorrow evening.
Brought my ebike for a blast in the morning with the dog then boarding in the afternoon.

Ski Sunday
Sunday 2nd January. 8.00 p.m BBC Two

Whoop, whoop.

For all those who are missing out on skiing in France at the moment think yourselves lucky. Dreadful icy snow, traffic jams into the resort with non-residents being turned away, queues for everything everywhere in the resort. Then someone will try to board the same gondola as you without a mask. Apparently people do this for pleasure. It’ll be amusing reading the papers tomorrow to see how it’s reported.

I am in the process of moving my January off-piste camps from Sainte Foy to Switzerland. Upsetting, but seems like the best way for my clients to get some shredding done. Nice for me to ride somewhere else too! Kind of looking forward to it, once I get the stress of re-organising out of the way.

Hope the off-piste is better in Switzerland than here Steve. The snow has been rained on and frozen; it’s slippery corrugated iron. That’s why we were on the groomers with the hordes. 21°C forecast on the plain tomorrow, they’re calling it a Winter heat wave.

Flying in to Geneva NBT so staying in Switzerland entirely.

Booked 5 nights in Anzere from the 10th to the 16th. Never been but flights and digs came in at under £400. Looking forward to it!*

All subject to swiss restrictions staying the same and avoiding the rona between now and then!

For all those who are missing out on skiing in France at the moment think yourselves lucky. Dreadful icy snow, traffic jams into the resort with non-residents being turned away, queues for everything everywhere in the resort. Then someone will try to board the same gondola as you without a mask. Apparently people do this for pleasure. It’ll be amusing reading the papers tomorrow to see how it’s reported.

Similar reports from my friends who made it to Cervinia. I swithered until the last minute about going, but I think I made the right call.

Does anyone know if there are any further planned restrictions in Italy?

We’re supposed to be going to Val Gardena in early Feb but that could be just after the omicron peak☹️

Snow all gone at my local resort on the Aubrac but had 2 good days skiing before xmas. Hoping to go for a few week-end in the Alps later.

It’s spring conditions here in Austria for the next 5 days but temperatures dropping after that. Piste skiing still ok though.

Absolutely no issues at all driving through NL/DE/AT, just need valid tests

Good luck to all those that get out. I’ve moved my Feb hols back desperate to board.
Ive seen videos of the USA and it’s rammed to hilt it looks very uncomfortable .

this is our last day of five skiing in Austria (Badhofgastein) and it has been really good. Plenty of snow, a little springy at times and some low vis, but overall pretty good. The whole mountain is treated as 2g and so we have only had to show covid passes once despite coffee, lunch and apres stops every day.

ski lifts are a 100% compliance on ffp2 mask wearing but you soon figure out a way to make it work.