It’s August – time for a new one of these.
What have you all got planned?

I’m currently looking at a week at New Year with the boy and maybe some decent Scottish snow?

Val Thorens in early March

😎

Saalbach Feb half term with the family. Hopefully a week somewhere else with mates but doesn’t get decided until much later on. Guessing resorts will be much busier than last year!

Not sure yet. A load of us are going somewhere in early March for a long week for my (elder) sisters 50th birthday. Might be Samoens but not finalised yet. Depending on funds that could be it next year…..😞

This will be my first Winter living in Finland, so I’m looking forward to riding without having to get on a flight somewhere. In-Laws are in Lapland, so we’ll probably ride some of the higher resorts a couple of times throughout Winter.

I miss the Alps though, hopefully next year.

Grand Massif in January. May get a season pass so we can go back out later as well. Might get to meet @sprootlet who I recall often spens January in GM?

Work is getting in the way of our preferred month of skiing in January !
Hope to be out there for 2 weeks though, will look at skillico for the lift pass as the seasons pass is probably not economical this year. Might be able to do some touring in Verbier towards the end of the season.

I’d usually be looking to get something booked in August, but with spiralling costs at the moment the ‘ski-fund’ is empty! This is not a satisfactory situation as I refuse to miss another year, 1 mid-covid was enough.

Les Mens was excellent in March this year, although lacking in fresh snow. I’m very tempted to ski-train it to hills next year too.

Hopefully if I can convince the SO after she broke her wrist last time. Think I’ll get her ski lessons rather than snowboard.
Otherwise my mates are off to Andorra at some point.

6 weeks in Verbier for me from the middle of Feb. Accommodation booked. I CANNOT WAIT.

Les Arcs end of Jan/beginning of Feb

Whistler for Christmas!

Just added my kidney in the classifieds

We’ve got a week in January somewhere, probably a package of some sort and about 12 days in the camper in March.

Wife just started looking last night, anyone got any info on Cervinia?

Champery in Feb, might be the last one with the boy.
Not wanting to put an immediate downer on things but has anyone seen the chat about possible limits on skiing in Europe due to power shortages this winter? Is this a realistic risk?

@phil5556 Did Cervinia last year. Generally great but would describe runs as easy/cruisy. I forked out for expensive pass to include Zermatt and only got over 1 day – doesn’t take much to close the link.
Good for snow reliability and didn’t feel ridiculously expensive. We did Airbnb in Ciel Alto and self drive from Milan.

Saalbach a few times for me and I suppose a possibility of Solden. I’m thinking about joining a gym this week as lockdown laziness hasn’t gone away yet and last winter was a struggle.

St Anton 1st Feb, 4 days with the lads snowboarding. Excited as it will be 3 years due to the obvious.

Wife just started looking last night, anyone got any info on Cervinia?

I’ve been loads as we used to go at Easter. I’m a fan, especially with the link to Zermatt, but it’s very open with few trees – not as pretty as some of the Dolomites resorts. It does have the longest continuous run in the Alps, starting in Switzerland and finishing at Valtournenche. Restaurants and bars are OK. On slope options are OK too.

Broached the subject when the ski club put out details of the annual trip (Tignes for £1100 in March), didn’t receive a favourable response.

My partner wants to visit an ailing cousin in Vancouver, our youngest daughter and just need to convince her we should visit in March!

Other than that, fingers crossed for some Scottish skiing!

Doc has said that I can ski again in the new year. I’ll be teaching again this winter if the resort is ok with me not teaching until after Christmas. I’ll be interested to see what happens with skier numbers in Colorado this year. In 2008 the numbers seemed as high as ever despite the recession and high lift ticket (at the time) prices.

If anyone is planning on coming to Colorado and are thinking of taking lessons message me, I know instructors at a lot of the resorts who I could put you in contact with, if you don’t already have someone in mind. The instructors will make a bit extra on a request lesson, and it’ll give you the chance to find out if they’d be right for you before taking the lesson.

Verbier for 6 weeks. That sounds lovely.
Cervinia, you should get a refund for days where you can’t use the extension. Try now, you never know!

Our plans, booked La Tania for NY. Looking at options for Easter. Contemplating Cervinia as it happens. Never had a bad week at Easter.

Cervinia is good v wide cruisy pistes. Not sure about a week there though. If you have a car the aosta valley pass gives you access to a range of locations and you can pick your fancy and the weather conditions for the day.

Cheers, Cervinia is off the table for now, maybe one to look at fora day or 2 when we’re in the van instead.

Ischgl is now booked with Crystal. It was the trip that got cancelled at the beginning of covid so going to try again.

Val Cenis for us over Christmas, daughter worked for MGF last season so she’s keen to show us all the secret stuff. My family are all competent off piste skiers except for me, so I’m a bit nervous and will be looking for any excuse to get back on piste!

We normally stay in chalets or hotels, any tips for finding a decent apartment? Ideally one with a proper oven – the last one we rented just had some weird combination microwave / oven thing that we couldn’t figure out how to work properly. Specifically looking for a place in Flaine in March…

Stay in one of the MGM or CGH complexes. Much nicer than the rabbit hutch sized Pierre et Vacances ones built in the 80’s.
We book through Peak Retreats as they include Flexi Plus crossings both ways.

We normally stay in chalets or hotels, any tips for finding a decent apartment? Ideally one with a proper oven – the last one we rented just had some weird combination microwave / oven thing that we couldn’t figure out how to work properly. Specifically looking for a place in Flaine in March…

RockyPop hotel in Flaine has fully fitted apartments too which have proper kitchens. I’m stopping there in January though just in the hotel.

Has anyone any advice for getting to the Alps from northern areas without flying? Trying to weigh up options for a family trip during school holidays. Currently considering (a) Newcastle-Amsterdam ferry plus train (b) train all the way, changing in London (at least) (c) driving, but can’t realistically see us driving each way being a recipe for happiness all round. So any suggestions/experiences of trying to do this gratefully received!

We drove from Manchester this season for the first time. Worst bit was getting to Eurotunnel, driving in France was a million times better. Hoping to use the train this year but the booking doesn’t open until 2 or 3 months before the date of travel, so I’ve booked refundable eurotunnel tickets as well. We set off Thursday night, got the Eurotunnel on Friday, then into resort on Saturday. Coming home, we actually left resort on Friday night and drove a couple of hours, then on Saturday drove up to just short of calais. The last leg home on Sunday was then relatively easy. We shared driving between 2 of us, but only traveled for about 8 hours per day. If you had more drivers and / or could drive for longer then you can do it quicker, obviously. I do know people who’ve left work on Friday and still managed to be skiing before the lifts close on Saturday, but that did involve driving through the night

How many drivers have you got? How happy are the younger family members in the car?
We drive from Bristol, not as far as you have to travel, I suspect.
We usually drive out with a stop in Dijon, stop at tea time, leave in the morning arrive early afternoon after a big shop in Bourg St. Maurice. We do the return in a long day.
Perversely we all tend to enjoy the drive, kids get a chance to mong out listening to audio books or reading.
Driving on the French auto route is a breeze. My wife and I share driving (75% me).
Its cheaper than flying, we all have our own kit (Cheap used kit for the kids off Ebay, but they use that on plastic) Saves lots on hire, we take lots of stuff, too. We self cater, and take pre prepared food for a couple of nights.
Nice thing this easter was that we managed to extend our stay for an extra day, flexi plus tunnel tickets made that even easier.
I am convinced it’s the right way for us to go skiing for the time being.

Thanks for the replies @TheDTs and @nbt – we’re probs 500 miles from Folkestone, 9hrs continuous driving I imagine, 2 drivers. Advantages are taking gear with us (only a small car but can manage). The driving on the UK side is more frustrating than in Europe – hence possible Amsterdam route (can sleep overnight half the driving). Similarly, more than happy with trains in Europe (used them all the time for ski trips before living in UK) but the UK leg seems more liable to not run smoothly (other than changes in Paris as another possible PITA with kids).

Yes, that’s quite a chunk more than we have to get to the channel..

We drive to Austria 4 times a year from Wirral.
For years we’d leave around 10am, drive down to Dover to get a 4pm ferry, get to Luxembourg around 11.30pm. Cheap hotel then set off after breakfast and get to Austria late afternoon.

Last couple of years we’ve gone Hull/Rotterdam,
We can leave Wirral at 5pm, the ferry sails at 9pm, a bite to eat and bed. Then we do the 630 miles in one go the next day, usually takes 12 hours taking it really easy with a few stops.

Although the Hull ferry is a lot more expensive, the route is around 230 miles shorter each way and saves 2 hotels, so a similar cost overall but much more pleasant.

There was a discussion on Snowheads around rail travel to the Dolomites Here

They seemed to suggest an Interail card as being the best way!
Although if you have children with you that could add extra cost and stress.

Personally I’d go for the ferry option and drive, we are a similar distance from the Channel ports as you.
We’ve driven to Annecy from Edinburgh once via Eurotunnel and it was not a joy filled experience, particularly in the UK!

I considered Amsterdam and indeed have just checked for prices. Currently no available sailings for our dates, so we can’t book that anyway, but it’s an extra 2 hours driving versus the eurotunnel. On the UK side, it’s 2.5 hours to Hull vs 5 hrs to Folkestone. Friends have advised that driving in The Netherlands is not as pleasant as driving in France, so we were happy on Eurotunnel, but as you sau, going via the ferry would save a full day’s holiday and that’s more limited than I’d like

“some decent Scottish snow”

We can all hope for that one!

Prob Cervinia before Xmas but would really like to some more time in on my splitboard. I’m hoping it will shift my covid kilos.

“some decent Scottish snow”

I’m hoping the Col du Sherrifmuir is reopened. 😉

We’re debating trying to squeeze a trip to the Alps (Morzine) between Christmas and the start of term, but Christmas falls on a Sunday this year so lots of places seem to be taking Christmas / Boxing Day bookings and not whole-week bookings. Or offering whole-week bookings Tuesday – Tuesday. We’d be driving via Eurotunnel so travel itself isn’t a huge problem, just the logistics of time off work… or possibly bunking off school if we opt for 31st Dec / first week of Jan.

@Pierre, we are leaving on Boxing day (Early) Aiming to get to La Tannia in a long day, come back on the 1st in two days.
The weeks don’t align well with Christmas this year, we looked at some apartments and it was very inflexible. Gone for a private rental not an agency as it was easier to get what we wanted. I don’t like Air BNB for skiing as it is always vague locations. I like to know where I am going to be.

not contemplated skiing for a couple of years for obvs reasons but just starting to look this winter now…

what the hell has happened to the catered chalet market? all our usual haunts are accom only now!

what the hell has happened to the catered chalet market?

Brexit. Can’t just ship chalet staff out from the UK and pay them a pittance, have to staff chalets with properly paid staff and abide by french employment laws. There are still places available but it’s not as cheap as it used to be that’s for sure