 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi, looking for suggestions for a resort in late Feb 2017 (after half-term) for adult beginners & early intermediates. Been to Cervinia, Italy twice but fancied a change to somewhere with long easy confidence-boosting runs. Ideally with a fairly short transfer from airport (or Eurostar) & good snow record.
Would appreciate any advice please.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Risoul is a great little resort with some nice long beginners runs - been there and it was great. Les Deux Alpes has some nice beginners runs in resort and some nice runs up the mountain to graduate on to. Alpe D'Huez looks great from the point of view of long green runs - not been though. You may want to check on French school hols, though - the French resorts may be busy if it's still French hols. For something different have a look at Hemsedal in Norway - great for beginners. W/c 20th Feb is Oslo school hols so don't go that week - it'll be rammed.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Courcheval 1850 fits the bill.
Lots of wide easy long blue runs.
Make sure you lunch at least once in the Bel Air.
Transfers
Geneva 2.5 hours
Lyon 2 hours 15 minutes
Grenoble 2 hours 15 minutes
Chambery 1.5 hours
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Agree with @dobby, Les Deux Alpes and Alpe d'Huez are both good for beginners - I spent several holidays learning to ski in both resorts.
Les Gets could be worth a look too - and ticks the short transfer box.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Kronplatz in the German speaking part of Italy is worth considering
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Go to a small resort. There's no point in going to a mega resort and subsidising the entire lift system for others.
And if you go to the Bel Air, you will only lunch once - you'll be skint afterwards
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Snow won't be an issue anywhere at that time of year. I second the recommendation for a smaller mellow resort.
Don't go to LDA anyhow - it's a marmite place and there is a fair chance you'll hate it.
ADH would be great but relatively large.
I've heard good things about Les Gets but not been there.
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Not France.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Les Gets would be ideal. Snow should not be an issue in Feb.
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Are you trying to keep Chamonix for yourself 
I would agree though, keep France until it matters to you whether there are scary exposed gullies at 3000m or unpisted mogul fields. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good French resorts for learning, but they don't do relaxed as well as the Austrians
Look at Austrian options. The big centres like Skiwelt and Saalbach/Hinterglemm are excellent for long early inter mileage. For a smaller resort SkiJuwel (Alpbach etc) has a good rep for learning. Reasonable transfers from Munich, short from Innsbruck if you can get flights. Really depends on what you want from the village. Saalbach is party town, Alpbachtal more family based. Only examples, there are literally hundreds of good small village resorts within reach of Salzburg/ Innsbruck / Munich
All are based in pretty villages and there should be no snow problems in Feb. Austria is exceptionally good at snowmaking and piste maintenance. The area is further north and east and so has a different climate from France so you don't need as high an altitude for snow reliability.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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+1 for Kronplatz (although all other suggestions above re small resorts are good too). Just because you will all be able to spend a lot of time on the cruisey blues at the top of the mountain admiring the views of the Austria Alps over the border whilst learning or improving - as opposed to being stuck at the bottom of a resort on poorer snow, which is the case in some but not all larger resorts. Unless a whiteout of course- which in that case there are plenty of treelined opportunities further down: white outs make lots of people freak but trees provide visibility by breaking it up (also helps in telling which way the world is whilst in the middle of the cloud/blizzard).If any one makes really good progress there are also limited reds and a number of reasonable blacks (depending on snow conditions). Big bonus is that some or all of you will be able to ski from top to bottom which is a nice feeling. You can even ski to a train and take it to an outlying ski area. Or hire taxi/car to visit Corvara or other ski stations in the area.
This is perhaps its biggest asset. It is in Italy and part of the Dolomiti ski pass area. Hence Italian and Tyrolean food at Italian prices and Dolomiti snow making technology. We went twice last year and skied on the Xmas artificial snow (excellent) and then later in March on real snow. Even better.
Wherever you go, hope your next question is where to go for improved skiers! 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Layne wrote: |
Snow won't be an issue anywhere at that time of year. I second the recommendation for a smaller mellow resort.
Don't go to LDA anyhow - it's a marmite place and there is a fair chance you'll hate it.
ADH would be great but relatively large.
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Agree with ADH - short transfers (relatively) from Grenoble and Chambery. Greens I bowl above village for beginners and can progress higher up mountain, and for those with more experience runs to Villards, Oz and across to Auris may suit.
IIRC you can get passes suitable for beginners which exclude the higher and far flung parts of the area.
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Back in France...Flaine is also a good bet for beginner and early intermediate skiing, if you don't mind the architecture, with a fairly short transfer from Geneva.
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You know it makes sense.
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@balernoStu, sorry to disagree, but I didn't like Flaine that much as a nervous intermediate. The greens towards the bottom of the bowl had lots and lots of poling, especially if you're too scared to get up speed on the steeper sections. The blues from the top of the mountain, I found terrifying, and the one day I went out the bowl I couldn't face skiing tourmaline to get back and ended up begging a lift back to Flaine. The only runs I did like were the blue and green off Gerats lift, which I had to ski (at least one of) every morning to get down to the main village from where we were staying, but once you were down in the main village there's no way of getting back to them without skiing tourmaline, which I wasn't going to do(!) and the petit balacha run was ok too, but got a lot busier once they replaced the terrifying whiplash-inducing drag with a newer smoother drag lift.
What I really missed in Flaine were slopes which were more difficult than the ones at the base of the bowl, but easier than the main blues down from the top of the mountain. I just couldn't find the right slopes I needed to progress, it went from easy to terrifying as far as I was concerned.
Places I have liked as a interminable nervous intermediate were;
Yllas, Finland - amazing set of slopes for progression, always something just slightly harder than the last and easy to get around to go back to easier slopes if you loose your confidence. Also not too far from the airport, I got a public bus, I think it took an hour or so, but I may be forgetting.
Montgenevre, France - Brilliant greens from the top of the mountain down, and again lots of blues with a good range of difficulty. I got the train and then a public bus again, but my friends had a relatively short transfer from Turin I think.
Alta Badia, Italy - Nice range of blues around the mountains, although there's less at the absolute beginner end (at least from where we were based in San Cassiano) but plenty for a nervous intermediate to get their skis into. This was a longer transfer, a couple of hours, but still not too bad.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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For nice easy nursery slopes, and readily accessible slopes for when you progress I'd look at Courchevel 1650. As a beginner there's so much to be said for being able to ski down the mountain at the end of the day rather than finding yourself facing some nightmare slope that dents your confidence. Any early intermediate would find the long blue runs from the top of the resort area back to the bottom excellent. Both 1650 and its swankier neighbour 1850 have the added bonus of access to good native english speaking ski instruction. Your dates do coincide with french ski hols still, so it could be a bit busy.
Alpe d'hues-lots of good wide nursery slopes, but the town itself is a bit shabby and low rent. La Rosiere might be another one to look at too.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Rcav, fair enough, a different experience and interesting to hear. My wife did her first week's skiing there, and later her friend came for a week with us also learning ski there, both finding it ideal. Both ladies may not have fitted the 'nervous' tag though, cautious perhaps.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@balernoStu, I also had a friend who was an absolute beginner and got on very well there and its not all bad, there were slopes I could ski, but I got very bored of doing the same ones again and again and didn't really progress much over the 2 weeks I spent there. Probably also didnt help that we had a ridiculously warm week the second year, - over 20 degrees, so the snow conditions were rubbish.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for all the replies everyone - really helpful to pick the brains of those in the know. Some of the french resorts you've suggested look perfect but I'm wondering if France is best to avoid as we plan to go in the French School Holidays & cannot go later? Possibility of going at beginning of Feb but need to explore this further. Just to clarify competence levels, 2 of us have skied twice before (so not complete beginners but low-confidence & cautious) and 2 have skied 3 or 4 times and are fairly confident intermediates, so we don't need complete beginner facilities just slopes to practice on & improve on without scaring the life out of us!
Austria looks worth looking at (if you guys think best to avoid French hols) and I'll also take a look at Kronplatz. As mentioned before we have skied Cervinia twice & fancied a change but obviously don't want to change to somewhere that's not suitable for us!
Any other suggestions welcome - very grateful for everyone's input.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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School holidays
4th or 25th Feb should be fine - only one zone on holiday and outside UK half term.
Got to say with that skier profile the French mega resorts such as 3V, Paradiski, ADH would be ideal. Masses of middle of the road pistes, ski in ski out. As long as your not bothered about lots of nightlife and can handle the odd gallic shrug there isn't a lot to not like.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| dobby wrote: |
| Risoul is a great little resort with some nice long beginners runs - been there and it was great. Les Deux Alpes has some nice beginners runs in resort and some nice runs up the mountain to graduate on to. Alpe D'Huez looks great from the point of view of long green runs - not been though. You may want to check on French school hols, though - the French resorts may be busy if it's still French hols. For something different have a look at Hemsedal in Norway - great for beginners. W/c 20th Feb is Oslo school hols so don't go that week - it'll be rammed. |
We arrive Thursday 16th February, for 5 days.
We will probably play on Korkertrekeren, and Oslo Vinter Park.
We are very novice skiers, and I day that in the loosest sense of the word.
So it will only be the first baby slope at Vinter Park.
Where do you guys find out about the snow reports?
I only look on yr.no. but I am sure there are better snow forecasting website's.
Vette .
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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But it's French school hols till 4 March - I'd go somewhere else if you have the choice. Crowded slopes are horrid for beginners. Horrid for everybody, come to that.
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have you looked at dolomites? after extensive research i booked colfosco (but also considered san cassiano and corvara). from the 3d piste map it looks like there are loads of long blues/easy reds
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@pam w, +1. Need to go somewhere nice and quiet to start with, if you can.
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FAQ
