Hate to break this to you, but most of the cheese they use in fondue isn’t vegetarian. Raclette definitely isn’t.

TBF I’m not a full on vegetarian. I’ve just had/chose to stop eating meat for medical reasons. A few other things have been cut down on or cut out of my diet, but cheese isn’t going to be one of them!!

A few days late posting but had a good day at Weardale on Saturday. Enough snow and lots of people out. Got a bit thin in the afternoon but my first skiing for 3 years and visibility was good. Good day out all round.

The last few days in the Grand Massif has brought out some ‘idiot’ scary, fast skiers.
These people don’t seem to care about the safety code of piste skiing. Dangerous in popping off piste and then popping back on without looking, standing in the middle of the piste usually below a dip and just plain speeding around on busy pistes, many with children in ski school. It’s been particularly bad on this trip since we had fresh snow on Tuesday.

I did have a particularly horrible incident with a young skier desperate to push into a 2 man chair lift queue, then the ‘lifty’ shouted at me to take my backpack off before getting on the chair, amazingly I wasn’t wearing one :O)

Ski or snowboard in control please and be aware of others. It’s called being considerate.

Ski or snowboard in control please and be aware of others. It’s called being considerate.

Maybe I’ve been lucky but haven’t seen any of this on this trip. One slightly agitated lady after she was cut up by a struggling snow plougher, apart from that just a lot of people having a great time.

We’re just on the way back North through France, just south of Dijon at the moment.

First day was Weds 8th.

Les Arcs for 2 days. Snowed overnight as we arrived and the first day, bit wet but helped to top the pistes up. 2nd wday good on piste up high but soft & wet lower down. Left because rain forecast.

3 Days in Val Thorens / 3 Vals (would have been 4 but storm day). First day snowing all day, top lifts not open but powder everywhere, half price ticket 😁. 2nd day storm day, chilled out mostly in the van. 3rd day morning cloudy, clearing for the afternoon, still plenty of fresh snow to be found. 4th day went over to Courcheval for a cruise, spring conditions low down.

2 days in Sainte Foy – epic, poured with rain for an hour after we arrived before turning to snow for the night and next day. Best powder I’ve seen for years & great accessible off piste. 2nd day bluebird – perfect 😎 Avalanche risk high so didn’t stray too far. Will definitely be back. Also zero queues and awesome hot dogs from the mountain restaurant.

1 day in La Rosiere, nice cruisy day. Went to La Thuile on the worst & longest drag lift ever. Thuile appeared to be a mostly flat plateau, didn’t stay long.

2 days in Le Corbier. Wished we’d gone back to VT. Spring seems to have given way to summer! Pistes were in awful shape and it was HOT. Finished today after tartiflette at the top.

All in an awesome trip, we did well at following the snow and making the best of the conditions. The dog came with us for the first time and he loved playing in the snow. The camper did great, only casually being the radio aerial from the weight of snow sitting on it 😞

If I was on my way to France now I’d probably go to Val T and not consider anywhere else unless there’s some snow forecast (there might be some due late this week?)

Off to La Plagne on 31st. The ever optimistic Snowforcast predicts a bit of new snow but I have never seen as much fall as they predict.
Still as mentioned earlier, as long as there is enough to ski on, that’s fine. We aren’t going at Easter expecting mid winter conditions but there is always hope!

It was raining in Morillon this morning, so maybe this turned to snow at the top.

We’re heading home now after enjoying most of the weather that phil556 had.
The storm last week was amazing. Everyone was talking about it the next day, as it’s quite rare at the end of winter/start of spring.

@TheDTs enjoy 🙂 I’ve read that the pistes in La Plagne have been holding up OK so hopefully they’ll still be good, especially if they get a bit of a top up.

Can we stop talking about rain etc.

I’m going out to PdS on first of April and I’m quite happy in denial.

The amount of rain forecast you might as well be in the nile.

igm
Full Member
Can we stop talking about rain etc.

I’m going out to PdS on first of April and I’m quite happy in denial.

😬

Anyone else heading out for Easter? Looks like a fair bit of snow could arrive end of this week. Wooohooo!
Headed to La Plagne. Keep high (out the rain)

Yeah, cervinia on Saturday. Nice big dump of snow over this week then blue skies next week. Joy.

Not sure we will be back with a tan if the forecast is to believed but I’ll take that over fresh snow.

Last minute sub into a ski holiday at Les Arcs this coming week. It looks like there’ll be some fresh snow in time for it too… fingers crossed!

Yeah, cervinia on Saturday. Nice big dump of snow over this week then blue skies next week. Joy.

Not jealous at all 🤬 🙂

Paradiski next week, Haute Maurienne, based at Val Cenis, the next.

The Paradiski holiday was last minute from Sunweb, for £320 each including the Paradiski liftpass.

Haute Maurienne we booked on the 1st day after last season ended. The lift passes were discounted at 60% off.

A book early and a book late combo makes the drive from Scotland worth it… I hope….

Bargaintastic Trout! Were you staying? B&B for that I would expect?

Loading the van in the morning with bikes and getting the Hull ferry tomorrow evening, then driving down to Austria.
12 days of boarding & biking!

Phenomenal conditions out here in Cervinia. Wall to wall sunshine and fantastic piste conditions. Off piste is a bit tracked out but we’ve found some decent untouched bits

PdS – not good below 1400m, but above is lovely.  Spring snow in places, fresh and fantastic in others.
And empty. Nobody here.

Anyone on the hive mind of stw ever skied the grand sablat in alp d’huez? Im trying to find info about how you get back into resort/town and what condition is the glacier in? Seem to have lost all my maps so need to wait till im over tjere to buy one but trying to find some info now

Ffati, Try Snowheads.

Zermatt today. Good high up, struggling lower down despite being at a similar altitude to Cervinia. Lots of green and brown with the pistes only just hanging in. The 10k run back down to Cervinia village was an absolute joy today

La thuile this week- cold, excellent snow above 1600m, staying in good condition all day on the Italian side, the south facing stuff over in La Rosiere softening a bit in the sunshine. Brilliant condition for Easter- having a great time.

Sorry for late reply. Booked with Sunweb. Self drive, self catering. The accommodation and liftpass was cheaper than a liftpass alone! Nice apartment too.

La Plagne and Les Arcs is excellent at the moment. Knee deep freshies on the Glacier on Monday. Still little pockets of fluff to be found.

@ffati:
skitour

Result, we have agreed to extend our accommodation for an extra night. We get to ski Sat and drive back Sunday. Both days should be quieter for skiing and driving. Win win. Weather looking favourable too.

Plenty of snow cover Val Thorens and above (2300m) staying firm well into late afternoon.

Home run to St Martin (1450m) still open but very much Spring conditions going slushy lunchtime.

Snow forecast tomorrow then 3 days of sunshine to explore 3 valleys.

@fooman, looking over at Courchevel & La Tania from Champagne (La Plagne) yesterday conditions looked much better than they were at NY!
Heavy snow in Plagne Soleil this morning. 🤣⛷️❄️
Off to get the big skis out again👍

Dumping in Cervinia today. Zero visibility up top but should make for a great day tomorrow

My teenage kids have had their first taste of skiing this week with their school. They’ve had a blast unsurprisingly.
Mrs L and I haven’t been for 20 years due to insufficient funds so I’m out of the loop for the best value way of doing a family week in the Alps.
If we were looking for next year where’s the best place to start looking? Complete packages or build your own?
We’d all need some lessons and ski hire.
Cheers

igm
Full Member
Can we stop talking about rain etc.

I’m going out to PdS on first of April and I’m quite happy in denial.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>
oh ye of little faith. Snow overnight when we arrived and the same the next night, couple of days of freeze-thaw corduroy, and today 4 inches of powder on top on the piste. Still coming down, sun tomorrow.</span>

If we were looking for next year where’s the best place to start looking? Complete packages or build your own?

If you want the hassle free way I’ve been plenty of times with Crystal and always had great holidays. If you book at the right time when they have offers on you can often get deals or lift passes or ski hire. Our January trip we got BOGOF lift pass. It’s the only time I ever book package holidays to anywhere.

Also done it by booking everything separately and flying or driving, you can often find deals especially if you are flexible with dates (although I suspect you’re not if you’re taking kids). Don’t underestimate the cost of transfers if you’re booking separately – they’re not cheap.

@lister. Drive is the best way of saving £ ime. (Based on 4 people) Take as much stuff inc food as you can. I would be listening to trout of this parish though, as he seems to have good form!
Edit. Easter rather than HT. silly(er) prices at HT.

Drive is the best way of saving £ ime

I’ve been driving to the alps for 15+ years and it’s very expensive even when you split costs. Ferry or tunnel is expensive now. Fuel is high. Tolls etc.

4 of us flew from Edinburgh to Milan this week. £600 for the 4 of us including all bags. £200 for car hire. Not a chance we could’ve driven here for £800

Depends where you live I guess.
We take everything, skis & boots for all of us, no hire costs, cheap used kit for the kids of eBay/Snowheads, a few prepared meals, shop in the valley on the way up, if you self catered and bought everything in resort or ate out every night that would be expensive. We book with Peakretreats which comes with flexi plus Euro tunnel. We also added an extra day on this week which is great. It works for us.

We’ve driven to Morzine in the summer a few times so the drive isn’t a massive turn-off and paying for the tolls the following month through a TAG does help with costs.
Hadn’t really thought about self-catering as it’s not what I’ve ever done on a ski holiday but it’s food for thought.
I’m completely out of the loop about which resorts are good. We’d only need 1 medium size location as the kids are beginners and we haven’t been for so long. A bit of variety is nice but we probably wouldn’t need access to huge areas.
I guess a small apartment in an 80s concrete block is the cheapest option.

@lister

100% self drive. It costs a little more in time, but gives you other options. We drive out from Scotland, so likelihood is your drive will be shorter.

We have to make it back to home in 36 hours next sat/sun to be back at work on Monday…

First up, think when you want to go. It is cheaper outwith school holidays, but this might not be an issue. It is for is as we are both teachers.

Before we had kids we would drive out and visit a different resort every day, which means we have skied at most resorts across the French Alps.

My advice would be to pick a smaller resort if using Ski School. They will start and finish at a set place, usually for a morning (pick this if you have a choice) or an afternoon. This means that you simply cannot cover the ground of a Mega Resort, and will not get value from the lift pass. A Paradiski liftpass for a week costs 345 euro!

Next week we are in Val Cenis in the Haute Maurienne. We bought our skipasses for this year last April the day after the season ended, netting a 60% discount. 89 euro for an Adult and 74 euro for a Child. You still get 125km of ski runs, and up to 2800m of altitude. As an added bonus you get a day at 4 other resorts in the same valley. Even if you ski school in the morning, you can jump in the car (self drive bonus!) and scoot 30mins to La Norma, Bonneval sur Arc, Valfrejus or Aussois.

Aussois is a wee nugget of a resort. It only has 4 chairlifts, and is south facing, but we picked it from all the places we had skied for our first family ski trips when my boys were 7 and 4. Cheap, slopeside accommodation, where we could open the door and get to ski school easily.

DO NOT choose a resort where you HAVE to get a bus from where you stay to the skiing. This is a joy-killer.

My target for a week skiing, door to door, self drive, with lessons for the kids, for a family of 4 used ro be £2000. We don’t need to hire gear though.

I think you could easily beat that by booking last-minute with Sunweb. They have a deal currently for 4 people, self catering in St Francois de Longchamp for £99 per person and that includes the liftpass! Insane.

Last year we got a week for the 4 of us for £536 in Valfrejus, self catering, including the liftpasses!

Lessons will likely be in the region of £150 per person for 6 mornings.

Self cater to keep down costs. Either scooter back to your apartment for a baguette based lunch, or take a sarnie with you. Eating out will gobble your budget…

We have used Sunweb a few times, and tend to book about 6 weeks before we travel, as I reckon this is the sweet spot for lowest price/ availability.

Thanks wrestler of trouts, you have given us much to think about (and hope!).
I may have more questions when I’ve processed this bottle of wine I’ve just drunk 😂

I reckon on around £180 per person per ski day, all in (airport parking, eating out, eating in, kit hire, transfers, the works) based on three years analysis of Austria at Feb half term.