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Skivanning!

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I was reading the thread about mountain driving, and wandered if anyone else had towed a caravan or used a motorhome as a base in the alps. We spent three weeks in a caravan touring the Austrian resorts last season, we skied in some of the more obscure places as well as the biggies. Oh and we found all the other motorists far more considerate than the idiots we have encountered on the road to Tignes.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I have some friends who have done a similar thing, and they loved every minute of it - it was one big winter road trip for them, once they had got used to a few hardships (mainly being cold in the morning).

In fact the campsite down the road from me is open in the winter season, and surprisingly busy. Brisk jog/sprint to the showers in the morning I would have thought. They even get people in tents, but not many.....
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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?
I've seen this quite a lot in the smaller resorts in the Poconnos in the USA. Basically there aren't any hotels so people stay in camper vans and tents Shocked i understand that there was even one guy who hollowed out a snow drift and lived in there for a while.............. rolling eyes
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It's quite surprising how many people do this our local campsite in La Rosiere is open during the season and at Easter ther'e usually a big influx of caravanners/motorhomes, mostly Belgian and Germans though. They just seem to appear because I've never seen on the road to and from the resort.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Every year as a child my parents took my brother and I skiing at Feb half term in their Motorhome. We were always joined by a like-minded group of families which was great fun.

We stayed on winter campsites in Austria - some of which have easily outdone (in terms of facilities & cleanliness) some of the "package" accommodation I've experienced since as an adult!

For example, we often visited one that had a sauna, whirlpool, heated floors, dry room, bar, restaurant, its own lit sledge run and it's own learner ski slope with FOC tow rope!

Modern motorhomes are fully kitted for winter use and include central heating, hot water etc. The only drawback I can remember was space, but then again, at New Year I've paid significant sums of money for a 20sqm space in a resort residence!

My husband and I are renting a property & spending the forthcoming season in the alps Very Happy and we are just in the process of selling our Nissan 4x4 to buy a small camper so that while we're out there we can do weekends way in other resorts!
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LJ, Good luck, sounds like we may have a roving snowHead reporter amongst the Alps to steer us towards the best or away from the poorer conditions! snowHead
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
HG wrote:
I was reading the thread about mountain driving, and wandered if anyone else had towed a caravan or used a motorhome as a base in the alps. We spent three weeks in a caravan touring the Austrian resorts last season, we skied in some of the more obscure places as well as the biggies. Oh and we found all the other motorists far more considerate than the idiots we have encountered on the road to Tignes.


[rant]
Sorry, but I take serious issue with that Very Happy People driving camper vans or towing caravans in the mountains considerate ? You must be having a little joke Very Happy

It's the ulimate motoring two fingers to everyone else on the road, people who do it must reason they don't mind travelling at 30kph up the road and then impose that on everyone around them. It's deeply, deeply inconsiderate in a way that other slow vehicles, vans, tactors, busses, just aren't. It's just saying that as long as something's convienient for them then don't care about the adverse effect on anyone else. And, it is, in nutshell a fine example of much that's wrong with our society.

[/rant]
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
crikey ise!
Not sure, but I read the considerate driving bit as meaning that HG found drivers in Austria more considerate than idiot drivers in Tignes.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
ise wrote:


[rant]
Sorry, but I take serious issue with that Very Happy People driving camper vans or towing caravans in the mountains considerate ? You must be having a little joke Very Happy

It's the ulimate motoring two fingers to everyone else on the road, people who do it must reason they don't mind travelling at 30kph up the road and then impose that on everyone around them. It's deeply, deeply inconsiderate in a way that other slow vehicles, vans, tactors, busses, just aren't. It's just saying that as long as something's convienient for them then don't care about the adverse effect on anyone else. And, it is, in nutshell a fine example of much that's wrong with our society.

[/rant]


In my experience of all the slower moving traffic on the roads it's only caravan owners who will actually pull over and let faster mover traffic past.

In the UK highway code it's stated that if you are at the head of a queue of 12 (or possibly 14 I can't be bothered to check) vehicles or more you should pull over at the first safe place and let the vehicles past before continuing. I have only ever experienced caravanners doing so. Not all of them mind you. There are ones who dawdle along oblivious, but that trait is not reserved exclusively for caravanners. I've never seen a lorry or van pull over in the same way.

Oh and if you think buses aren't a problem going up mountain roads then you obviously weren't behind the Dutch coach we were going up to Val Thorens this year. I don't think he could have went any slower up the mountain to be honest (the weather was fine and dry as well). He finally turned off at Les Menuires and the queue of traffic behind had became monsterous by that time.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
Lager, that wasn’t my point about buses, they are irritating as are tractors or lorries, it's just they serve a more useful purpose.

It's camper vans that especially annoy me, at least with caravans people get to their destination and unhitch them. Camper vans they take out the next day on their day trip over some mountain pass, or down to the supermarket, fantastically convenient for them but a pain in the back bottom for everyone else. They’ve obviously worked out they’ll live with the inconvenience without any regard for anyone else.

I got stuck behind 4 or 5 Belgium camper vans going over the col du Grand Saint-Bernard a couple of weeks back, obviously in a convoy bunched together so close you couldn’t pass, way, way more irritating than the catching up with the Italian service bus on the other side of the col. And we crawled up to Morillon at the weekend behind another camper van.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
ise wrote:
Lager, that wasn’t my point about buses, they are irritating as are tractors or lorries, it's just they serve a more useful purpose.

It's camper vans that especially annoy me, at least with caravans people get to their destination and unhitch them. Camper vans they take out the next day on their day trip over some mountain pass, or down to the supermarket, fantastically convenient for them but a pain in the back bottom for everyone else. They’ve obviously worked out they’ll live with the inconvenience without any regard for anyone else.

I got stuck behind 4 or 5 Belgium camper vans going over the col du Grand Saint-Bernard a couple of weeks back, obviously in a convoy bunched together so close you couldn’t pass, way, way more irritating than the catching up with the Italian service bus on the other side of the col. And we crawled up to Morillon at the weekend behind another camper van.


Don't get me wrong, I agree with some of the sentiments, I just think you used a pretty broad brush when you were ranting. There are a lot of inconsiderate people who drive all forms of transport. It should be drummed into people. If you are going markedly slower than both the speed limit and other traffic on the road* you should pull over and let traffic behind pass at the first possible opportunity, whatever you are driving. People who do that should be treated with respect, even if they choose to drive a campervan. People who don't deserve your condemnation and I feel it isn't too much to ask that car mounted missiles be made legal for use in this situation.

* Whether that road be in the mountains, a twisty country road or wherever.
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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.
What annoys me, in a nutshell, is that if you set out in camper van the most likely outcome is inconvenience for anyone unlucky enough to be behind you for no ones benefit but your own. That inconvenience is effectively a cost of your choice but you get someone else to bear it.

In terms of transport, we'd see a lot less traffic on the road, both private and haulage, if the owner/driver of that vehicle were bearing that cost in some way.

The world might also be a nicer place to live if peoples first consideration were if their actions would have a detrimental effect on others rather than their last consideration or not one at all.

There, that's the entire world put to rights on the strength of a thread about caravans Very Happy
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
To get back to the original point............... I lived in a 16ft 30 year old caravan for 2 winters and one summer here in LDA. It was fine. I must say, however, that I did have electric hook up, had added some insulation (as it had none originally), and had made alternative winter water tank arrangements.

It was the space (lack of) that finally persuaded me to rent a flat: that and the caravan started leaking! It cost me £50 and I lived in it for 3 years in all, so what a good deal. Very Happy Very Happy

ise, Shame on you. Evil or Very Mad I agree it can be very annoying, stuck behind a motorhome or a caravan on a mountain road; however the italians with 5 up in their silly little cars are just as slow.

I suggest you try towing a 23ft caravan on the motorway at 35mph (max before all sorts of nasties happened) and try to get into the right lane when the motorways divide. No-one will let you out - how inconsiderate is that? Acceleration is out of the question. Now: you live in CH and I live in FR, so we're lucky - we can ski cheaply and easily. Lots of people couldn't afford to ski if they had to pay the full whack.

Moan over. Smile
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
ise, I regularly pass a motorhome on the road near home, usually on a weekend/FRiday morning, they pull behind an old Fiat-one of those really small ones. The solution to the supermarker trip I suppose.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
easiski, why would I want to tow a caravan at 35mph? I wouldn't simply because it was inconsiderate, it would also be illegal in the UK strictly. As for whether they can afford it, that's the point I made above, part of the cost is just moved to someone else, it's wrong. Plenty of things most of can't afford, that's life.

We do live close to the slopes, it's not lucky in any way at all, I chose to and I do, I presume you made a choice as well.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Bodie Miller skied out of a motor home throughout the last World Cup season.

Maybe that's the trick that'll help you make the breakthrough to the next level?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quote:

I suggest you try towing a 23ft caravan on the motorway at 35mph (max before all sorts of nasties happened) and try to get into the right lane when the motorways divide. No-one will let you out - how inconsiderate is that?

If you think that's bad, what about this(I believe Kev M is a member of this site)

For cheapskates who want to travel light and not irritate the likes of ise, I recommend travelling with a four season tent.
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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?
The above linked MPEG is rather large!
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ise, when I had that caravan there was no minimum speed limit on motorways. The caravan was great, towing it was a pain.

It is true that those of us who live in the alpes have made a choice, but not everyone is free to make that choice for a multiplicity of reasons. Those poor things have to pay through the nose for their ski-ing (especially if they have kids - a quite normal choice). Many of my clients struggle to pay for their ski-ing, a motorhome is another way of doing it on the cheap. Sad
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
sorry, odd to get two of my "buttons" in the same thread Confused

People say this to me sometimes, something like being lucky, it just winds me up, sadly. What you do is hard work and took a lot of of commitment and effort to achieve, obviously an idiot can work in IT (and most do) but it still took some effort and some risk to get to live where I want and live how I want, I know it's just a common turn of phrase but luck doesn't come into it.
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Caravanning for us is not about cheapness etc.. its about the FREEDOM to find the snow. I spend every other minute of the day considering my affect on people around me and the world around me. To be lumped under the word "inconsiderate" really gets my goat. I'm not infalable.

ise, you appear to have a good life, deserved or otherwise, just enjoy and realise that others have one too. It may not fit in your box but what other people do or think is entirely up to them. So you have to go slow behind a caravan or camper occasionally, just chill out, back off, enjoy the mountain views .....

Hope to see you my rear view one day - give us a wave and pull over for a beer.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:

Hope to see you my rear view one day


Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked

Laughing Wink
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
I think that rather proves my point, you can't think of any reason why the rest of us are supposed to put up with it, other than it suits me. The fact my preference for not having caravans and campervans can't be imposed on you is the only difference.

One downside of living in the Alps, and in the Peak District when I was in the UK, is the amount of people who under the illusion they have a right to inconvenience others because they're on holiday or a day trip. Or the amount of people in life in general who suffer from illusions about rights for that matter.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
What colour is the sky in your world?
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Kit Wong wrote:
The above linked MPEG is rather large!

But worth a look.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
HG wrote:
What colour is the sky in your world?


slightly smog colored due to the large number of people who, having a choice, put their convenience before their effect on others or the environment.
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