 Poster: A snowHead
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Last year was the first year we visited chamonix, we were impressed with it as a town lots going on and busy but as a ski centre it is disjointed but I guess that isnt unique with old ski areas. Not sure I would stay there for a season we much preferred st Gervais but if I was young free and single and wanted to party Cham would be much better
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Do people actually go to a ski town if it doesn't have all of above as a bare minimum?
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Yes.
Somewhere convenient to the slopes no long walks, no busses or driving - that would rule out a lot of resorts in n America where there is a tiny number of extremely expensive accomodation options at the ski resort with most people staying in the closest town and driving/bussing to the resort each day. I think Banff to lake Louise is around 40 mins, Bozeman to big sky is around 50. Most are shorter. I would prefer to be in the resort, but I can't say a short drive is particularly terrible.
Somewhere where there are sufficient bars and restaurants honestly I couldn't care less. Bars and restaurants in ski areas are usually super overpriced and for me it's not part of the holiday experience.
Somewhere where I can gaze on the mountains and think wow! arguably you get a better view of the mountains from a bit of a distance. Skiing is a winter sport, assuming you spend your days on the slopes (presumably offering best views), there isn't a whole lot of hours of sunlight left once you've finished anyway.
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Somewhere where there is a swimming pool, or other activity for the evening
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After a full day snowboarding I don't need an evening activity. Some relaxation and a film/book is ideal. Quiet evening in with friends is also good.
All of this is personal preference of course. Different people have different priorities. For me the point of a snowboard trip is to snowboard. Priorities are 1. Good terrain, 2. Good snow (of course there is some luck with this), 3. Avoid crowds. The town has little interest to me, it's just a place to sleep and obtain anything necessary to snowboarding. I've spent about 5 months in golden BC which as others have mentioned is a crap town, but I'd happily go back as the snowboarding is fantastic.
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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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I took a punt on a last minute cheap deal to Bardonecchia in March 2019. The skiing was ok, split over 2 hills. We stayed in the Campo Smith area which is doorstep skiing, but what I found intriguing was the town itself. It was Mid March and not much snow in the town so not at it's prettiest, but its a sprawling suburbia of houses and apartments, 99% of which seemed uninhabited. A ghost town. It was really quite depressing to see. Few restaurants or bars and def no ski town buzz. I got talking to a bar man and he explained that there had been a fair bit of corruption around the 2006 olympics and the mafia had been involved. A real shame, not the most amazing skiing, but the town had so much more potential!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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to be honest i didnt find any ski town (or village) which brings me these crap feeling
what i dont like it exactly what johnboy said...where there is no ski buzz
thats why i dindt find nice e.g. the Villach or the Lienz in AUT although the skiing is good
i dont like to drive every morning to lift parking place, and seen other people going to work
i know that everywhere people get to work...but there is a difference between Innsbruck or Dorfgastein
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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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Lot of hate for St Anton in this thread. I’m guessing these people have never been to Borovets.
It’s like St Anton but with less charm and worse skiing. It’s rife with drugs, prostitution, bars selling watered-down knock-off booze and naked fat men on stag weekends belly-flopping into puddles in the road at 11:30am.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Chalky, could you tell us the bits you didn't like about Borovets? 
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| Chalky wrote: |
Lot of hate for St Anton in this thread. I’m guessing these people have never been to Borovets.
It’s like St Anton but with less charm and worse skiing. It’s rife with drugs, prostitution, bars selling watered-down knock-off booze and naked fat men on stag weekends belly-flopping into puddles in the road at 11:30am. |
Sounds great, where do I sign?
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Bansko
Half completed holiday apartment blocks that will never been completed, full of howling dogs, at night.
Dodgy shaven headed gangster types in black leather jackets and tinted windows SUVs.
Children asking you, 'What's a sex shop?'
Smog over the valley.
Arrive/depart via Sofia, a city actually designed to drive a Soviet tank through.
Enough?
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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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| philwig wrote: |
Whistler. It snows all the ****ing time. And they don't bash it flat! So there's all this fresh snow there, littering the pistes which otherwise would be ok and making it hard to ski. On the plus side, if you ignore most of the terrain and pick just one or two key runs, you can manage to avoid the fresh snow, although it's always crowded there. There's a lot of terrain off the piste which they don't bash at all, and down which they could easily put pistes, but they are too lazy to do that. They mark the boundary of the resort with stupid signs telling you not to cross it - outrageous authoritarianism. They also have speed cops, taking all the fun out of my 200km/h straight line snowploughing runs.
There are no pistes at all below the resort, so everyone has to get up in the mornings, which is just stupid. They even manage the queues, so you can't push in like you can in the Alps! Worse, you're not allowed to smoke anywhere! I can't imagine what they're thinking.
They have also designed the resort all wrong, with the freezing level not always below it. Quite often there's rain or very wet snow on the lower slopes leading back to the village. Downloading is for morons, so you just have to learn to ride wet snow and buy hyper-expensive GoreTex clothing. It's a scam arranged between the resort and the shops, which they own.
Rentals are terrible - instead of just having a few levels of old gear to choose from, they have current-season gear from which you can make your choice - bewildering. And you can change it every day - crazy. The ski school is a joke, with teachers who could not hope to win an FIS race and who actually try to teach people. The kids love it, but they're kids. Those free resort guide people are the worst thing - they're clearly not UIAGM qualified and their FIS points are likely zero; how they can have the legal right to guide people round beats me.
The resort itself is horrible - it's hard to drive around and they don't let you park where you want, like on the pavements or generally where you'd obstruct others. Nanny state. Food-wise, there's just too much choice. The McDonalds isn't the same quality as at home, although I'll be sure to review it shortly. The saunas are cold and the hot tubs full of thin people. They don't even let you talk in some of them.
Now Mr Trump has made America Great Again he needs to sort out his ski resorts. |
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| DocP wrote: |
Arrive/depart via Sofia, a city actually designed to drive a Soviet tank through. |
I once spent a week in Sofia and really enjoyed it actually. It does look a bit grim in some parts, but the city centre was brilliant. Great food too.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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In the early 90's I spent some time working in Sofia. The town was a grim and dirty in winter but my hotel room over looked Vitisha mountain which was beautiful and we could go down to Borovets for the weekend. In summer it was actually quite a nice place to be. With the exception of Turkish restaurants the food was grim - basically nothing but mixed grills with chips, partly, I suppose, due to the lack of vegtables in the winter months. The wine was nice.
Though Vitisha was on the outskirts of the town I don't really think Sofia fits into this post.
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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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Killington Vermont, never have I been to a ski town with so little to do. There isn't even a center to the place, just a 2 mile long access road with the odd intersection, and if you are lucky, a bar or restaurant located every few hundred meters. Anyone who travveled there as a "winter holiday destination" would be massively disappointed if you like any sort of nightlife/apres ski. Thankfully i was passing through as part of a 16 day trip and we had 4 days here.
The skiing was fantastic though.
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Not at all. You've forgotton 90 minute queues for the one lift out of town, over crowded 72kms only of skiing, suspect snow record, clapped out hire gear and iffy instructors. 
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FAQ
