Large resort or Small Resort

A snowHead

I was brought up from 10 years ago with Skiing / Snowboarding with extremely well run School Ski Trips mainly in resorts in Italy / Austria which typically wouldn't be found in a Ski Holiday Brochure that you would pick up in your local travel agent.

The resorts would be short total length of runs say about 70 - 100kms of runs, and would usually have a central hub where the group can meet at lunch and at the end of the day.

Because they were small they were usually quite quiet (for a Feb half term), well maintained and have modern lift facilities, by the end of the week you would have experienced every run in the resort, and had time to repeat the good ones so you get your moneys worth, it also gives you more time to explore the half pipe or snow park.

Now that i have left school i now ski with the family as part of a bigger group in the larger French resorts and they aren't the same, we find that we rush and tear just to try to roughly cover the whole resort and its usually quite busy during the January window that we go in, i never know why they bother.

Meeting up with others for lunch for instance is impossible and makes the social aspects of skiing very much reduced.

But then again i suppose that these high resorts do have their advantages in that there's room for maneuver if the weather is poor and variety.

But in the 10 years i have been Skiing / Snowboarding it was the family skied large resorts where i have experienced the piste closures, but then again you'd just ski another slope because there is so many to choose from, it seems a kin to watching sky TV with these big resorts there's so many runs but you wont use them all, even in small resorts such as ones in the Dolomite's, they are normally quite close to others so it could be a short bus ride away to the next resort.

So really is bigger any better, in my opinion no but that wont stop me from going to bigger resorts but it gives me reason to think why we bother to get the millage in and perhaps we should be focusing more on the local area, maybe even to the point of purchasing the local lift pass.

Once things for sure id love to revisit my School Mountain Days.

A snowHead

Different strokes for different folks. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, so just go with what suits you best.

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Interested in the feedback here. Still trying to decide if Grand Bornard will have 'enough' skiing for us - having recently skied Tigne/Val, Les Arcs, La Rosiere/La Thuile, Grand Massif we have generally bought 'the full area' pass, but with the current exchange rate a local pass is looking the more sensible option.

Definitely glad though that we didn't buy the Paradiski in Les Arcs - one look at the lift across to La Plagne and it was very obvious we wouldn't be going LOL! I couldn't even bear to be near it.

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We seem to be going through phases.

MrRibena is a mountain-native and a really confident skier and as I've improved to catch up with him, we seem to have developed a craze for mileage coverage. At the moment we are loving going off on adventures and lunching in one village and coffee in another. However, I think that we might be turning a corner after this season. The bigger the resort, the more pressure we put on ourselves to ski as much of it as possible. We are both keen first-to-last-lift types and a bit competitive, so it can get out of hand and I often end up with legs like jelly at the end of the day.

When I was proper rubbish we placed more emphasis on having a nice resort to walk around and go swimming and ice-skating in the evenings. Mind you, that was back when we were more romantic, before one too many ski-related rows knocked the corners off us Smile

We have talked about a change next season; we might go somewhere a bit smaller and maybe try our hands at more off-piste stuff (which I've never tried) or we might even (don't shoot me) try some snowboarding, which neither of us has tried. If we had kids, it would definitely be a smaller resort for a while too.

So definitely different strokes for different folks and maybe what appeals to you evolves (revolves?) too.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Funny, we were just talking about this today. At the moment I've got about 500km on a season pass - Les Contamines (been twice) Combloux (been 3 times but will go again as we like it a lot) Megeve (been past the Montd'arbois bubble twice) Les Houches (seperate pass, been 5 times) and the 'hometown' of St Gervais/St Nicolas with about 135km where I happily spend 95% of the time and am far from bored......and we've been here since the beginning of December, so that 95% is way more than a weeks worth Asrob@rar, says it depends what floats your boat. I prefer places with personality and getting to know a place really well. By and large though not exclusively that tends to make small best for me. But then my idea of heaven would be hell for someone else.......Oh and it is dead here today snowHead

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foxtrot_mike, First, I would describe 70-100km as a mid-sized resort, rather than "small".

But then as others have said, it just depends on what you want. I would never do as you suggest your family has, and "rush and tear just to try to roughly cover the whole resort". But on the other hand, it is nice to have enough available that you don't spend all your time doing laps of the same few runs.

Last year I went to the Zillertal, and two years before I went to the Dolomites. I didn't ski anywhere near all the runs on either occasion. But that is fine, it just means I want to go back again to do more Smile

But the main thing to remember is that you are on holiday. The main aim is to enjoy yourself. Which means choosing the type of resort you like, and doing the type of skiing you want to do - although when going with a group, you will obviously have to compromise to some extent unless everybody wants exactly the same.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Routinely get asked by prospective guests if "there is enough skiing in Sainte Foy to keep me occupied for a week." I have to admit, I never know how to reply. To me, the question is completely baffling. I live here and have ridden here 150+ days and loved every single one of them. How could there possibly not be enough for 1 week? Puzzled

Still riding new lines regularly.

After all it is free

This is the lift map (I hope) for Solitude resort, just outside Salt lake City in Utah. We spent the last day of our recent trip there - admittedly we had great conditions as we arrived to 8" of fresh snow and it continued to snow through the day

(click to downlad PDF)

When I arrived, I took the Moonbeam express lift, and skiied down to the bottom of Eagle Express. I spent the rest of the morning going up Eagle Express and skiing back down to it, and never took the same line twice. Just before lunch, we varied the routine and dropped over the ridge into Honeycomb canyon, which eventually led us back to - yep, Eagle express.

At lunch, we skiied back to the base so some of the group could stop for lunch, but given the excellent conditions a number of us chose to ski straight through. We took the powder horn lift and dropped into Honeycomb canyon, at a higher point than before. This allowed us to take the honeycomb return lift, but from the top we dropped back down into Honeycomb canyon and again went back round to eagle express. We spent the rest of the afternoon going up eagle express then dropping into Honeycomb canyon - if we dropped to skiier's left, we'd take the honeycomb return lift, otherwise we'd just ski back round to eagle express. When we took the Honeycomb return, why then we'd drop back into to skiiers right and ski round to eagle express.

I arrived just before 10.30, and took my last lift just after 3.30, completely knackered. I have no idea how many time I rode Eagle express, but it must have been well into double figures.

If you have the right conditions and the right terrain, you don't need hundreds of kilometres of piste, you just need one lift and no queues (and good mates and beer waiting for you at the end of the day!)

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Depends on the resort, but I would say not - the bigger the resort, the more skiiers, the more likely it is that the off-piste will get tracked out VERY quickly. Chamonix, verbier, espace killy are all tracked out almost before the storm ends unless you;re prepared to go hunting - we never unclipped skis all day !

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nbt, all those resorts have a big reputation for off-piste, so attract more skiers and boarders who will track it out quickly. Les Arcs, a similar sort of size, doesn't have that reputation, attracting more families and fewer hardcore off-piste skiers. Consequently the off-piste isn't tracked out so quickly as Espace Killy, for example. So I'm not sure it's entirely size dependent. I skied fresh tracks all day without any lift queues on New Year's Day in Les Arcs, simply by heading to the far end of the domain and finding a slope which was the perfect pitch for me to ski.

There is a lot to be said for getting to know every inch of a smallish resort. I've found myself in a few larger resorts mumbling to myself "this isn't nearly as good as ... ". Exploring is great, but when you know where the goods are and there is nobody else there to compete with, that is golden.

You know it makes sense.

In Flaine a couple of weeks ago. Spent half a day on "Cascades" and saw my wife's confidence return because the speed could be taken out naturally. I enjoyed the swoop the sided undulations gave. My conclusion was a better lift would have been great! Normally I like lots of different miles but questioned that!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

I find this topic very interesting.

Personally I see my skiing as an adventure around the mountain. I rarely ski down the same piste consecutively. The reason I like to ski around the whole resort/ski area is so I don't miss out on areas that are truely gems. I won't continually ski them all day, instead I'll go back and ski them later in the week.

I haven't been a skier for very long. For the first couple of years, I returned to the same resort (a medium sized resort with 100km of piste, linked to a large area), I hold that resort in high regards. I kept wondering whether it was a mistake not returning there for another year. We went to another resort, due to its thermal baths and for the sake of change. By going to a much larger ski area . I rather liked the fresh feeling of not knowing the resort, and discovering my new favourite pistes. I didn't miss the old resort to be honest.

I think I would get bored skiing the same run constantly.

A snowHead

Interesting thread...

I've been to most of the big French resorts and probably haven't covered anywhere near half of them. Most visits were Uni and school trips and we always seemed to stick to the same terrain. But now I can't afford to go to France I'm visiting cheaper resorts in Italy and Austria with around 100km of piste and finding them more to my liking. I get to cover most if not all of the resort and relive the best bits, plus you often see the same people and you get quite a community feel from it. Then there are often nearby resorts you can visit by bus for a day trip to add a bit of variety. There's a fine line though, less than 60km of piste and no other accessible nearby resorts would probably put me off...

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I think a skier/boarder needs to try the big resorts. Whether they like them enough to come back is another matter.

The time of the visit is crucial as a large resort can be just as deserted at some times of the season as the small resorts in busy times.

I estimate an average piste user would cover 20 to 30 km piste in a day so he/she is unlikely to get bored in any resort with 200km piste.

Small resorts can be very entertaining if one has a car or an easy means to go round them to sample the variety.

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Did a season in the 3Vs and got no where near to even scratching the surface of what it has to offer. What's more, at peak times those types of resorts are pretty unappealing- from the lifts it's actually like watching an army of ants swarm down the mountain. I'm now defo a fan of the smaller resorts which offer easily enough variety of skiing for a week without the crowds and prices of the mega-resorts. It's also nice to come across a run occassionally (such as Cascades in Flaine) where you can ski on-piste without having numerous lifts dotting your view.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

This is a really interesting thread, glad i posted it.

One thing ive also noticed in the bigger resorts is that I find the lift systems a bit of a faf in that sometimes you have to take 2/3 sets of lifts before you get to the top and often they criss cross and dont always go uphill, ie diagonally.

The smaller resorts are usually one lift to the top then you are skiing again and that makes navigation around a smaller resort that much simpler in my opinion, less time faffing and deciding on what run to take and more time skiing.

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foxtrot_mike, But the lifts in the larger resorts, tend to be new. Therefore they are much quicker. The detachable chairlifts are twice as quick and that means more time skiing, even if you have to take a couple of lifts.

I'm not a huge fan of the slow chairlifts which give your thigh bruises. There are much more of them in smaller areas, which have smaller budgets.

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Large resort or Small Resort

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