 Poster: A snowHead
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Finally managed to get some Wi-Fi here in Les Orres.
Great journey in,and got lucky with a 2pm check in, when the rain turned to big fluffy snow, and later arrivals were on chains / socks ( could be they were all on summers, and chanced it!)
As it was, day 1 was a blast with ( mostly ) blue skies and good piste conditions. Yeah, there's a few Muppets and 'Candide' wannabes, but on the whole this is a little gem of a resort, not touched by the brits too much yet.
The open air pool (very warm) at 1800m looking up the mountain wins every day!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hmph, that probably means it will be manic next week for us
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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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| Quote: |
later arrivals were on chains / socks ( could be they were all on summers, and chanced it!)
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They were probably French, and very likely on summers but not "chancing it" if they had chains and were prepared to use them. The common Snowheads argument that anybody driving to the Alps for a week is criminally negligent if they don't have winter tyres is way over the top. 
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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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Flying to Innsbruck on Saturday morning, staying in Axams with three days skiing at Axamer Lizum while my kids are with their dad over half term. Back Wednesday afternoon, at Chill Factore for holiday camp lessons with the kids on Thursday 
Starting a new job on the 26th and wanted to get away before I started, only booked last Thursday because that was when the dates I could use were confirmed.
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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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Read a couple of posts on FB suggesting 3V and ADH are more like an off peak week in terms of busyness.
But also a post showing a massive lift queue in iirc Val Cenis.
What's the truth SH Feb HTers?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Layne wrote: |
Read a couple of posts on FB suggesting 3V and ADH are more like an off peak week in terms of busyness.
But also a post showing a massive lift queue in iirc Val Cenis.
What's the truth SH Feb HTers? |
Been walking straight onto most lifts in Val Cenis with hardly any or no queues all day apart 1st lift in morning and link lifts about 430 pm ish that get you back to your last run, and they are 4-5 mins at most. Pleasantly surprised.
Snow cannons are now on blasting snow onto the pistes - unfortunately there's one literally right outside my bedroom window - the noise goes on all night. 
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La Plagne is super busy, large queues all day out of the centres, which you seem forced into. Only quiet times are lunchtime and end of day
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| Quote: |
Snow cannons are now on blasting snow onto the pistes - unfortunately there's one literally right outside my bedroom window - the noise goes on all night.
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White noise. Supposed to help you sleep! You're like the folk who moan about the cow bells in the summer.  Val Cenis sounds like a success.
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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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| Quote: |
White noise. Supposed to help you sleep! You're like the folk who moan about the cow bells in the summer. Val Cenis sounds like a success. |
Actually the noise was fine and quite soothing- abit like a mountain river but not quite as nice. It did also help divert away from the normal high pitch sound of tinnitus that I suffer with.
So far Val Cenis has been great for us. Kids really enjoying and progressing really well. 10 year old daughter (3rd day of skiing in life) loved the green escargot run from top to bottom, it was so nice that she could actually get to see the whole mountain and not be confined to one or two nursery slopes. The weather is fantastic also which really helps. (Though not improving the snow depths)
A success as a family holiday and would defo come again but I do prefer the (pre kids) vibe of an atmospheric Austrian resort complete with lively apres ski.
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@Layne
We’re at AdH, it’s busy, though does feel slightly less busy than last year.
Big queues at the bottom for the usual busy lifts but as usual quiet over the scare chair and not too bad once you get further out from the centre. Big queue (45mins +) for the Pic Blanc lift yesterday as we skied past.
As usual really quiet at lunchtimes so we’ll be heading up Pic Blanc today while it’s quiet.
It was oddly quiet yesterday coming down from Dome de Rousses at 11:30, we had to get back for a ski school pickup at 11:45, hardly anyone on the Bartevelles, Chamois, Jeux route back down.
Snow Saturday & Sunday helped, bit cloudy Monday but yesterday was beautiful weather and forecast the same today. Not ideal for snow conditions as a little warm, but having some sunshine and being able to sit in a T shirt having a beer is definitely pleasant enough as we are on holiday after all.
Pistes are in good nick, and there was some fun to be had in the fresh snow Sunday & Monday, getting a bit tracked out now in the easily accessible places.
Kids are progressing well with Mel @ Masterclass who is excellent.
Hope everyone is having a great HT
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@KeithWakeley, great info.
I've managed to or rather chosen to avoid HT aside from one year but it's interesting to hear reports on how bad or not things are for future reference/planning.
Also thanks to @dazzle109 and @daveqpr for helping build up the picture. Whilst I love the La Plagne it can be glitchy in the Centres at the best of times. High capacity lifts means it's not always as bad as might be first seen but nonetheless. But in general it seems are not too bad at Val Cenis and ADH.
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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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What's the traffic generally like on transfer out day on Saturday - we had a relatively pain free run into resort last Saturday and now am looking at how early we need to leave this Saturday.
We're traveling from Valloire to Geneva which is normally about two and a half hours, so would normally leave about 9 to arrive into Geneva by 12. But wondering how much extra time we need to factor in.
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Hope everyone is having a good drive home.
Hopefully the 'party' of about 25 who left the Campanile / Premiere Classe in Troyes (Bucheres) are a bit quieter coming home than they were at 6pm.
Anyone on here staying tonight? (Lots of GB plates in the car park)
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You know it makes sense.
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Left Val cenis about 930 clear run till the traffic got quite bad coming off Maurienne autoroute and joining the autoroute towards Chambery which was then very slow. - think we lost about 45mins to 1 hour. We left the autoroute at chambery and never saw any more hold ups - went through tunnel de chat using side routes to Amberieu en Bugey (fuel stop) and then autoroute to our stop in Saint Quentin Ibis Styles arriving at 1900. Lots of UK plates in car park. On dfds ferry tomorrow - kids 1st time on ferry so they are very excited.
Great holiday had by all - kids are now converted to (hopefully) a lifetime of skiing.
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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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@Checkflaps, we left Val d’Isere at 3.45 and had an easy drive. Although seeing the road up horrified me. Staying in a quiet budget Ibis south of Dijon so we’ve still a long haul tomorrow.
Drive safely all who are still en route.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Left Val Cenis 0645 easy drive up few heavy traffic arras but not bad at all. Arrived ar tunnel 1720 it was busy and for some reason always allocate my car as high vehicle probably as I add roof bars and snowboard, however it's still under 185 luckily a sensible French chap saw us queuing with the office block sized Defenders with roof boxes and said move into under 185 queue which was a lot quicker so note to self for next year..
Arrived home 2000, good drive all in all.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We had intended to drive home in one go on Saturday but decided lunchtime Friday to overnight. Left 3.45pm Fri, drove to Troyes on mostly clear roads (rained again at night tho, where was that precipitation on the mountains:( ) and arrived about 10 and a nice easy drive home yesterday.
Glad we changed our minds. If it has been fantastic conditions I'd have stayed until the end but as it was, happy to have left earlier
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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.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@James77, we’ve an X5 and have been given a high vehicle tag. We fit in nicely but width is a challenge. We’ve only an inch either side for the wheels.
That said we are currently sat in the passport control queue at Chunnel. Loads of French desks open but massive queue afterwards. Doesn’t compare with going uphill yesterday!
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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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So Eurotunnel Friday evening (16th) was eerily quiet, no queues for anything, not even a car ahead of us at passports/customs. Only experienced that in the early hours or a weekday. Weather is very warm in La Plagne so early mornings and late long lunches are our coping strategy. May have to consider no thermals, feels like Easter!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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So thought I would do a write up of our trip as I think its an interesting output from us.
Last year we split the trip into 3 sections Hampshire -> Ashford, Ashford via tunnel -> Annecy and then Annecy to Val D'Isere. Last year it was done in an SQ5 and this time in a Model Y Performance (but running 19s with all-seasons). It's family with two kids so we did end up stopping every so often. We used the following charges
* Fully charged at home in Hampshire
* Maidstone just to top up a bit in case the eurotunnel was busy - 28Kwh. Chargers was fairly empty
* Eurotunnel while waiting - 28Kwh. Chargers was fairly empty but it was around 5am
* Aire D'Urvillers for Breakfast - 59Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Troyes for Lunch - 55Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Aire du Jura for afternoon stack - 59Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Albertville for Breakfast - 62Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Val D'Isere with 61% left of the battery
So the trip out probably took just under an hour longer than last year which is fine. Cost was interesting as charging cost us £71.40 vs last year around £83 each way in diesel so it ended up costing less which I was not expecting given this was all public charging. Worth noting that the drive this year overall did take a bit longer again but purely as we were limited to 110 vs 130 due to rain for a chunk of the journey though France although did go 125/130 when ever we could so were certainly not trying to drive efficiently, we just drove like we did the year before.
The trip back took a bit longer - we split it into two stopping at Reims for the night on Saturday. The stops didn't quite line up so well and it was busier - Troyes with 26 chargers were full and at one point when we got out spot had another 7 lined up but there was a ranger keeping a queue and cars were moving on so only had to wait 5-10 minutes. At Reims we also had to queue up for 5 minutes too so it did take us a bit longer coming back.
Overall it was not a problem. Fairly painless. Is it the same and as quick as a non EV no - is it for everyone No but for us it was. We did choose the chargers rather than rely on Tesla routing and used ABRP because we needed to make sure we had enough charger to get back down the mountain and also didn't want to get to chargers with <10% which was often suggested. It also allowed us to line them up for lunch etc.
We didn't buy the EV for the trip to the Alps but have found that its essentially made no difference for us to drive vs our old SQ5 - much more space in the back for the kids.
Below is a graphic of my charges
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@Rob_Quads, until I can get 500 miles and a 5 minute charge up I'll stick to ICE. Plus Teslas are really fugly and build quality crap. Respect the effort though.
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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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| Rob_Quads wrote: |
So thought I would do a write up of our trip as I think its an interesting output from us.
Last year we split the trip into 3 sections Hampshire -> Ashford, Ashford via tunnel -> Annecy and then Annecy to Val D'Isere. Last year it was done in an SQ5 and this time in a Model Y Performance (but running 19s with all-seasons). It's family with two kids so we did end up stopping every so often. We used the following charges
* Fully charged at home in Hampshire
* Maidstone just to top up a bit in case the eurotunnel was busy - 28Kwh. Chargers was fairly empty
* Eurotunnel while waiting - 28Kwh. Chargers was fairly empty but it was around 5am
* Aire D'Urvillers for Breakfast - 59Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Troyes for Lunch - 55Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Aire du Jura for afternoon stack - 59Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Albertville for Breakfast - 62Kwh (15 minutes max over last year)
* Val D'Isere with 61% left of the battery
So the trip out probably took just under an hour longer than last year which is fine. Cost was interesting as charging cost us £71.40 vs last year around £83 each way in diesel so it ended up costing less which I was not expecting given this was all public charging. Worth noting that the drive this year overall did take a bit longer again but purely as we were limited to 110 vs 130 due to rain for a chunk of the journey though France although did go 125/130 when ever we could so were certainly not trying to drive efficiently, we just drove like we did the year before.
The trip back took a bit longer - we split it into two stopping at Reims for the night on Saturday. The stops didn't quite line up so well and it was busier - Troyes with 26 chargers were full and at one point when we got out spot had another 7 lined up but there was a ranger keeping a queue and cars were moving on so only had to wait 5-10 minutes. At Reims we also had to queue up for 5 minutes too so it did take us a bit longer coming back.
Overall it was not a problem. Fairly painless. Is it the same and as quick as a non EV no - is it for everyone No but for us it was. We did choose the chargers rather than rely on Tesla routing and used ABRP because we needed to make sure we had enough charger to get back down the mountain and also didn't want to get to chargers with <10% which was often suggested. It also allowed us to line them up for lunch etc.
We didn't buy the EV for the trip to the Alps but have found that its essentially made no difference for us to drive vs our old SQ5 - much more space in the back for the kids.
Below is a graphic of my charges
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Really interesting for me - thanks for posting this. Looking to take my model Y to the Alps glad it went well for you.
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| James77 wrote: |
| @Rob_Quads, until I can get 500 miles and a 5 minute charge up I'll stick to ICE. Plus Teslas are really fugly and build quality crap. Respect the effort though. |
Sorry - meant to post this to the EV thread - as for build quality - early days yes crap - now much better. As said - they are not for everyone.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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well heading to chamrouse at 10.Feb i found only a little bit traffic round chambery.
Almost 10 min delay.
But heading back to Germany was terrible.
In FR was ok, but in Switzerland and further was a lot of traffic. Almost two hours more.
Strange but in Chamrousse i didnt have to wait for the lift more than 3-4 min.
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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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Tunnel bookings open for next February half term. Who's pulled the trigger on already?
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| James77 wrote: |
| Tunnel bookings open for next February half term. Who's pulled the trigger on already? |
I've pulled the trigger for next feb half term but on flights to Germany instead (heading for Salbaach instead of Val Cenis)
I did do a dummy booking on eurotunnel though and it came in at £355 for the Friday to Sunday week (14th to 23rd feb) with roof box for a kia sportage versus £600 for 4x return flights.
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You know it makes sense.
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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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@daveqpr, great flight price. Presume you'll hire a car too?
I'm not organising enough for logistics with flights probably need to research a little more. Would prefer to ski in Austria I moss the Austrian experience.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| James77 wrote: |
@daveqpr, great flight price. Presume you'll hire a car too?
I'm not organising enough for logistics with flights probably need to research a little more. Would prefer to ski in Austria I moss the Austrian experience. |
Yes quite a good price but afterwards noticed could of got flights to Nurembourg for £450 for 4 (including luggage) though it's a bit further of a drive - broken up by overnight stops to give saturday to Saturday skiing over 8 days.
Yes we're hiring a car - it's £250 for the 8 days for Nissan Quasquai size car.
I also prefer the vibe of an Austrian holiday, though we won't be able to do the full on Austrian apres like we use to before we had the kids!
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FAQ
