Poster: A snowHead
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er..well that's it really, anyone else live here ? My GF tends not to ski both days every weekend so if anyones around I could take a short break from being Billy no mates.....
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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My uncle has a chalet near Champery. Sadly, I don't make it out there very often.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Elizabeth - if you're based/arriving in Geneva w/o transport, Gstaad is probably the most convenient, 1 - 1 1/2hr max on a direct train from Geneva.
Villars also worth a look; both v pretty, neither especially challenging. Probably ideal for a Sunday pm relaxed ski.
Both are quite low with fair amount of wooded runs, which my be important if you have limted time and the weathers poor. w/e queues in either, Villars possibly slightly better re. this.
Depends a lot on the time/transprt you have, and where you need to be at the end of the day. If you don't need to be in Wengen area, might be worth considering heading SE out of Geneva down toward Chamonix etc. Avoiraz (spelling ?) might well be worth a look - more harder stuff and less trade, as (according to brother who used to live round there) w/e'ders bypass it for Cham etc..
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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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austin7 wrote: |
Depends a lot on the time/transprt you have, and where you need to be at the end of the day. If you don't need to be in Wengen area, might be worth considering heading SE out of Geneva down toward Chamonix etc. Avoiraz (spelling ?) might well be worth a look - more harder stuff and less trade, as (according to brother who used to live round there) w/e'ders bypass it for Cham etc.. |
You're kidding I presume? Geneva to Wengen via Chamonix ?
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ise you might want to re read Austin7's post, he said "If you don't need to be in Wengen area"
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doh.. quite right, I didn't read it well at all. If we're offering irrelevant advice then I suggest lunch on the promenande at Nice, there's a direct flight from Geneva.
Had I read it properly I'd probably have commented on the direct train between Geneva and Gstaad as well
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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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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hi ise, it's me again (from weather thread) - I'm trying to work out where in Switzerland you are. We used to drive to Nendaz every Easter (super choice of chalets, and quick access to whole of "4 Valleys"). Also been to Zermat (x2) and Verbier (x1). Zermat and Verbier resorts with a real "buzz", but for relaxation and lack of hassle I preferred Nendaz. Switzerland is lovely. You're a very lucky guy.
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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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Elizabeth B, sorry, I assumed we all English and deployed sarcasm. There's no direct train from Geneva to Gstaad. You change onto the MOB at Montreux.
Do you have transport or not ? If you do have a car then you'll be coming Geneva, Luasanne, Fribourg, Bern and onto Wengen. For a small detour you can get to Leysin which I like a lot. More direct to the route would be :
Chatel St Denis which has two areas, Les Paccots and Rathvel. These must be the closest to your route but they're pretty small.
Then near Bulle, you have Moleson, La Berra, Juan, Charmey and La Chia. These are all also quite small, for my money Charmey is the best and just about provides a days skiing.
Then, as you say, from Bulle you can go to Gstaad. On the way you'd pass Chateau d'Oex, this place surprises me, I believe UK companies go there but in fact there's only 30km of piste and it's no bigger than Charmey. Amusingly the car park is shared with the coop so while you're skiing dozy shoppers ram your car with supermarket trolleys. The other car park is at Gerignoz but the lift's typically closed so don't bother.
Gstaad itself is further on from Chateu d'Oex, the first place you come to is Rougemont. From here you ride up the lift to La Videmanatte, if it's bad visibility don't try and ski down, look around and you'll find a little cable car that you down a couple of hundred meters to the top of a chair. From here you need to look hard on the right for the run that'll take you towards Saanen and Gstaad. Nice area, 'relaxed' piste marking, very rural with some lifts practically in farmyards and very quiet. I presume that the last load of package tour punters got lost and never made it back so the operators probably advise them against skiing there.
Driving on, you'd pass Saanen and could go to the Rüebeldorf lift which'd be the same area as Rougemont.
Otherwise, you'd be at Schrönried, blink and you'll miss the signs for the lifts though but it's near the station and ski school etc. Same area as Saanemöser and Zweisimmen which are down the road. Probably the best variety of skiing of Gstaad actually.
For Gstaad, Rougemont would save you 15 mins in the car.
What else ? There's Schwarzsee in the Fribourg direction, small and low though.
It depends how much time you've to kill, Charmey is nice, quiet and cheap, if you normally ski the bigger commercial stations then it'd be an experience. While Gstaad is a major station with good, but mostly intermediate skiing.
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Unfortunately I don't have transport (apart form the excellent rail network). I need to get to Wengen at a reasonable time in the evening, and won't be through Geneva much before 11.
I'm not too bothered about what level the resort is - my main skiing will be done in Wengen, and I can handle virtually any pisted run....it's just something to make the most of a day that would otherwise be spent travelling.
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You know it makes sense.
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I can't see you'll manage to ski anywhere else, the train from Geneva to Wengen would go via Bern and Interlaken I imagine, I bet that's a 4 hour trip at least. To go to Gstaad you'd go GVA to Montreux, from there you can pick the MOB (Montreux-Bern) line which'll stop at several ski stations but I'll bet that's a three hour journey alone. Allowing for connections I can't see how you arive much before 1500 in Gstaad.
Bern's a nice city though, take a walk around, Interlaken is supposed to be very nice but I've only ever passed through.
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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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Elizabeth B Wengen from Geneva is easy enough I did it back in February, Catch the train to Bern and then the connecting train from there to Interlaken Ost.
Total Journey time about 4 hours from Geneva to Wengen
What I'd be tempted to do would be get to Lauterbrunnen as early as possible, sort out ski hire if you need to (so you dont need to waste time the next morning) shops shut about 17.00-17.30, If you already have skis etc then you should get about 2 hours skiing in in Wengen, from most of the other resorts your still not going to get much more than 3 hours of skiing before you have to get onwards connections to Lauterbrunnen in order to be there no later than 8pm
Ise's suggestion of stopping in Bern is a good one it's a beautiful city well worth spending a few hours there if you have the opportunity.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That's what I'd do, as a side point I've just seen that the Holiday program tonight BBC1 7pm is supposed to be coming from amongst other places Gstaad
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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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Cool. I'll have to look out for it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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ise, on the old pre MO day on the SCGB site there used to be a guy called Mike Fox who ran Fox Hiver - a holiday chalet in Switzerland. I'm sure there's a website. I can't recall the resort, but it might be worth following up.
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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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Mark just for you and after a 5 second web search http://www.foxhiver.com/ the email address is to mike so I guess that's the right one !
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D G Orf, you may have noticed, but I can be a lazy b@stard sometimes. Thanks
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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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Lucky fellow, wish I was off too
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