 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
As the hum of the new season gets louder, I'm thinking about the "not with the family" bits of skiing and what to do?.
I did the UCPA offpiste week in Val T which was excellent, tho I've been "too old" for UCPA for some years now. Travelling alone, arranging flights and transfers can be a bit of a pain, went on the coach last time, not good.
I could just leave it and do a late booking with flights and transfers but it's pot luck who there is to ski with ( I like steep blacks / offpiste). I'd be up for the snowheads offpiste week in January if there were some firm dates fixed.
Someone suggested I take my work transit that has 2 extra seats in the back if I could find anyone else mad enough to fill the seats
Bad points
It's a 10 yr old transit base model builders van with the luxury bits removed, vinyl seats etc
The seats are probably as bad as coach seats, not good for big people, no side window in rear
Good points
It has the 125hp tdci motor that is marginally quieter and a lot quicker than the standard transit and is relatively low mileage (90k)
There is enough room for as much kit as you can carry.
Portable DVD player for the journey
Already fitted with winter tyres and I have chains
Long but door to door journey
Do the French peage routes charge more for Vans?, I expect that when I look further into it, by the time I have paid for any driver insurance, breakdown etc, it will be a non starter unless there is someone who literally wants to take a van load of gear?!.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I like your style, hope someone joins you. I think tolls might be more, as based on height, but not 100% on that, some one with a roof box will no doubt be along to confirm/moan.
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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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tangowaggon, given your unenthusiastic but honest appraisal of the Transit, why would it be better than the "not good" coach?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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A few years ago for a Scotland double header we took a 9 seater Ford Transit Jumbo from Glasgow to Alicante and back Via Liechtenstein in the Space of 9 days - circa 4000 miles in effectively 5 days of driving, of which I personally did about 80%. While we all had a great time, it was a bit of an ordeal at times and I don't know if it's what you'd want, particularly after a week's skiing.
We drove from Glasgow to Liechtenstein in a little over 24 hours including some horrendous weather/traffic/roadworks in southern England, so I'd imagine from the south you could do alps door to door in under 18 hours with shift driving.
Other downsides were that the tolls are higher for vans than cars - although I think you can work them out on the viamichelin website, and we didn't get anything like the fuel economy we'd hoped for, as frankly, driving at 55-60mph is really boring.
We also got stopped on the Swiss/French border and got accused of being drug traffickers, despite being 8 (mostly pissed) men in kilts and football tops. Our luggage got turned upside down at gunpoint and I thought we were all headed for a full cavity search until what I can only assume was some kind of supervisor emerged from the customs station, took one look at us and said what I can only guess was French for "What the f*ck are you doing to those guys? Drug mules?! Stop being a fanny and let them go Pierre!"
I also went to collect the van from where we had left it in Alicante to find it had been towed and the guy at the impound spoke not one word of English besides "No".
Coming home from Spain and going over the Pyrenees in that van was also less than pleasant - it was the 3.5 litre version I think, but we still found ourselves crawling up a lot of hills.
Good Luck!
P.S. - If you do decide to go for it, ensure each man has a pringles tube or milk carton to avoid too many relief stops.
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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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ensure each man has a pringles tube or milk carton
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and a steady hand. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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tangowaggon, given your unenthusiastic but honest appraisal of the Transit, why would it be better than the "not good" coach?
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I can get the van from my garage rather than having to get to central London first!, stop whenever we want to and, I know you shouldn't, but a makeshift bed in the back for the off-duty driver sounds good!. marginally better legroom, possibly faster, this van is the same model that the female German racing driver used to try and beat Clarksons time round the Nurburgring when he was in a 530d BMW, she almost did it!.
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It's strange that you never get tired of dabbing the brakes at motorway speed when someone is standing up trying to relieve themselves in the corner in the back!
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Not when it's MY van!!!!, next time I do a bathroom job, I'll save the bog and have it plumbed in!!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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 kind of dosh you reckoning?
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what kind of dosh you reckoning?
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In reality I expect that it would be about £700 to get the van from Yorkshire to the Alps, It does about 30 mpg on short journeys around home so on a run like that, I would expect 25 - 40 mpg depending how fast we go, tolls, channel crossing, additional driver + continental insurance, breakdown cover etc.
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You know it makes sense.
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You can buy a lot of flights and transfers for £700. In fact £730 will buy you flights (from Birmingham), transfers and a fully catered week, for one, in Val d'Isere in Chalethotel Moris, 12th January. And it will save you 15 hours' driving.
https://www.markwarner.co.uk/
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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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Sounds relatively sensible to me. My friend got from London to Val D'Isere in this 18 year old cab last season ... and back again.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I got to kaprun glacier and back in my 40 year old Vw, so definitely not completely mad at all. (It was in summer though)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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tangowaggon
You talking about only one week? or longer?
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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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Sounds relatively sensible to me. My friend got from London to Val D'Isere in this 18 year old cab last season ... and back again.
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Lucky boy! It's tough enough finding one that'll go South of the river!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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im interested. depends on dates though.
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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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I'm planning on heading out 1st or 2nd weekend in jan for 1 or 2 weeks, I like the sound of the UCPA offpiste steeps courses
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tangowaggon, We've travelled a lot in France in a big motorhome (9ft tall - 25 ft long) and always paid class 1 tolls
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tangowaggon, I don't really get why you are driving out? If you are staying with UCPA, book with Action Outdoors and they sort out your transfer for you for £50 to £70ish depending on resort so no hassel there. Flights will be reasonably priced - you say you live in Yorkshire, plenty to Geneva from Leeds or Manchester.
I don't see the advantage of driving?
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tangowaggon, I don't really get why you are driving out? If you are staying with UCPA, book with Action Outdoors and they sort out your transfer for you for £50 to £70ish depending on resort so no hassel there. Flights will be reasonably priced - you say you live in Yorkshire, plenty to Geneva from Leeds or Manchester.
I don't see the advantage of driving? Thu 17 Oct, 13
21:04
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There are many advantages to driving out if the circumstances are right, but the quote for extending my insurance to European cover and any driver has effectively killed this idea
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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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Don't do any driver. Named drivers with full NCB shouldn't add much. If they don't have full NCB don't let them drive. My basic policy covers me for most of EU. Have to pay extra for Spain. Never had a policy that didn't. Maybe it is an Oirish thing though...(although I am still in the UK)
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FAQ
mmm? an uninsulated, unheated van in the Alps in January?, maybe not 
