Chalets Direct for out of season abnormal rental periods.
You place an ad with your requirements and the owners will get back to you if they have any availablity.
If you cannot get anywhere then book F1 or Etap near the slopes. I have stayed in Annecy and driven up each morning , coffee and a croisant then off we go. Bucket seat to GVA , then rent a car and Etaps are £20ish a night. Good to explore small resorts that tour ops dont bother with.

Yes DD, but will Mrs DD be skiing in her undies, or will you finally have bought her some ski trews?

Ah, no igm, Mrs DD is coming on the family trip on 30th Jan. The March outing is a sausage party! 😀

Where are you going on 30th Jan, DD? Might see you at the airport – we’re off to La Plagne! Morzine mid-March this year for us.

We’re headed for Reberty (just up from Les Manures) in the 3V. Flying with Sleazy to Lyon at silly o’clock in the morning of 30th – 0650 IIRC. What time are you guys there? Fancy taking a toddler for the week if we leave him with security? He’s great fun, honestly. No trouble at all. 😮 😆

Snowed in Tirol last night – nice surprise when I woke up, but could do with a lot more…

Haha! Er, no thanks! 😆 You went there last year, didn’t you? Looks fab.

We will be on the 0600 to GVA. Hadn’t thought of flying to Lyon in winter before – will check that out next time.

New jacket recommendations please!
Requirements;
Shell
Vented
Removable powder skirt thingy
Goggle pocket
Thumb cuffs
Removable hood
Black or dark grey, with minimal branding, as I’d like to be able to use it as a jacket in normal life as well

To replace and old Eider Tahoe that’s leaking like a sieve now!

Oh go on, go on, go on, go on wallop.

Lyon flights stay cheaper for longer than GVA (IME). Can’t remember what we paid but not more than £150 for three of us (excl luggage). It’s similar driving time to 3V from either. (Think similar to La Plagne too actually so could be an option.) Plus they do that nice early flight. Much less options though and return flight means leaving resort at stupid o’clock on the Saturday as well.

Ha, nearly posted that question myself Flashy.

Ended up in a shop and bought on the spot. Salomon for me, a brand I seem a bit of a whore for these days.

That’s really cheap! We paid £250 for two pax including 1 x ski carriage – and I booked them in March last year! 😆

It’d be a much more straightforward transfer to the Tarentaise than from Geneva as well.

I would take him (because he’s so cute) but I don’t think we’d fit him in our hire car…

Dainese Grual in black? Can get them for half price on Sportpursuit.

And while I’ve mentioned Dainese… I noticed quite a few people wearing back protectors last week (especially kids) – mostly when they had their jackets off at lunch. There was only piste skiing available due to lack of snow and it wasn’t too busy.

Why and what for?

Probably the local racers. To reduce spinal injuries as you’d expect. Junior uses one whenever he goes out.

These were kids out with their parents. Watched a couple of them, they didn’t look too race ready.

Just checked wallop – it was £140 for the three of us (obviously dd does go a little cheaper) not incl bags, so takes it up to £200ish. That was booked in October. IIRC car rental from LYS is a bit cheaper than GVA too. Definitely an option from Bristol. I’d never considered it until I was looking at where Reberty was from GVA last year on Google Maps and thought, “hmmm, Lyon…wonder how much that would be…” It was pricey enough as we booked in Feb for March but still £350 for 2 + 1 + 2 bags for flights booked only 3 weeks before we left. By that stage GVA was £500+++

DD – I’d gladly look after Master Darcy for you. I’m unable to ski this year so drop him off. Mrs D. can borrow all my gear if she likes.

Can’t for the life of me work out who the ‘big boned’ chap is 🙂

4 of us did this Xmas return brizz to Geneva and back for £550 return with one bag for one leg for £36

I’ve booked a Tues/Mon return in early Feb for just £57 return BRS>GVA , an absolute steal.

Even managed a March Saturday to Friday for £85 return.

Given it costs me £75 return wverytime I take the train to London, flying to the alps always looks good vfm

And then there’s the cost of transfers….

The whole Sainte Foy helicopter thing is being massively over-reported and people are getting very much the wrong impression. Many seem to be under the impression that snow was being brought-in from some glacier or something.

The snow was coming from a stockpile of snow-cannon snow produced by the resort. It was being moved to elsewhere in resort, out of reach of the cannons.

It may well have been 100 trips, but each trip was about 5 seconds.

I think the poor resort/tourist-office people are having a hard time of it. They made a big deal of it in a “look how much effort we’re putting in to make sure you have a great time skiing!” and they’re getting a big, misinformed backlash over it!

Similarly, the request for locals not to ski was just that, a polite suggestion, not any kind of rule. It was intended to reduce over-crowing in one resort where there were limited runs open, not any kind of wide-spread edict.

These things make great stories, but the truth is usually a bit less impressive….

Thankfully, the story now is “Holy &&*&! Look how much snow there is!”.

Transfers €22 e/w

GVA to Morzine transfer is peanuts.

Thankfully, the story now is “Holy &&*&! Look how much snow there is!”

Not quite, there’s a lot compared with last week, but it’s still way less than they’d normally have by this time in the year.

great stories, but the truth is usually a bit less impressive

It is puking again right now though…

Holy CRAP I’m so excited.

I’m heading out in the 16th jan so very pleased to see the forecasts.

I was getting a bit twitchy!

I wear a back protector in resort. I spend a lot of time trying to ski trees and I’m not quite good enough. Some of our friends children spend plenty of time in the terrain park (sweamrs got a set of twin tips for Christmas 😀 )  so it’s also in case I end up in there and partly to set an example. Do personally know one person who was badly injured skiing at Louise which also changed my perspective.

Ironically the only time I’ve been really glad I was wearing it was for a DH mtb crash.

I either wear my Forcefield motorbike back protector or my Leatt MTB full body armour these days. Got 2 dodgy shoulders to look after and I’ve also landed on my back on chunks of ice before (side piste) serious painful.

Thanks for the replies everyone. We’ve taken on board your suggestions…it looks like we’ve worked out a way of getting transport and accom in France relatively cheaply. However, it’s lift passes and ski hire which is tipping it over into poor VFM at the moment – a full week away is more or less the same price.

13 sleeps to two weeks of dangerously out of control high speed hoonery.

Considering having a few boarding lessons this time out, pretty sure I saw touring options at the resort too.

ski hire

Have you looked into brokerage companies? I use snowbrainer.com to arrange my hire and it’s pretty good value.

As for lift passes, well, nothing much you can do about those. The most you can get sometimes is a discount for buying two…but that’ll only be a few Euros at best.

for ski hire , intersport website is often the cheapest .

ski passes are always expensive . you will struggle to find anywhere with discounted prices .

Flashy – I’ve got a Berghaus Goretex Pro shell in black that I might not be using if you can lower yourself to secondhand (but virtually unused) – SPursuit came calling with silly prices on Sweet Protection. 45″ chest though.

45″ chest though.

Probably gonna be too small.

Just for you, DD. 😉

Thanks, IGM, but not really my bag. I have an ill founded, but strangely strong, dislike of Berghaus dating back to the mid-90s!

Your link is bringing up what I think you’d hoped. Wipe the pie off your blackberry before posting again. 😉

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It was a beautiful day in Colorado yesterday.

Woohoo! Last minute long weekend away booked: flying late next Thursday to Geneva from Bristol; ski Fri – Mon in Avoriaz; and return late Monday night ready for work on Tuesday.

Whoop whoop! I’m SOOOOOO EXXXCCCCIIITTTEEEDDDDD!!!!!!!!!

I wear a back protector in resort. I spend a lot of time trying to ski trees

Do you ski backwards? 😉

EDIT: And I refuse to allow the term “switch” to be applied to skis. You can have backwards or arsewards.

Not intentionally 😀