How do you spend your ski holiday?

A snowHead

7 years later and my preferences haven’t changed a bit.

Still love the social element as much as the pistes.

Have you changed. How do you like to spend your time when skiing?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We didn't ski at the time when this thread was started, though I've enjoyed reading all the replies.

My children are 10 and 8 now. They were 8 and 6 on our first ski holiday last year. Mornings are spent making sure everyone is ready to go. Then we drop them at ski school at 0930 and head straight to the adjacent nursery slope to warm up our legs whilst we wait for the goldola queue to go down (between 0930 and 10 seems to be peak queue time).

Up the lift and then ski until about 11:45, when we arrive at whichever pub the children's instructors have told us to be at. Children arrive at 12:00 and stay with us until 13:00. We have lunch, snowball fights, they build snowmen/play with the other children, we enjoy beer/tea and fabulous views. Children return to lessons 13:00 until 15:00 and we ski, possibly taking in a bar along the way.
After ski school, we meet the children armed with donuts and drinks and set up camp at the bar/cafe on the nursery slope. Children spend the next hour going up the drag lift and coming down whilst we watch. We may ski together more on the upper slopes going forwards as the boys are older now and we all increase our confidence.

Then back to the apartment, children chill on tablets, have a simple dinner and maybe head to the pool after that.

Occasionally we will take a morning or afternoon off to enjoy the village or spa when it's quiet. SmallOwl also likes the occasional lazy morning, but BigOwl likes to be on the slopes for every possible moment. Mr. Owlette is happy to have a lazy morning with SmallOwl, so on those days I'll drop BigOwl off and enjoy a couple of hours of solo skiing and then we'll all meet for lunch and go from there.

We don't tend to go as a group, or get into the après scene. It's more about skiing and relaxing as a family.

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Having done the 'wee wee up' bit early on when learning to ski mostly in Bulgaria when it was cheap and we were a group of blokes I now try to make the early lift, a midmorning coffee, lunch and see how I feel for the afternoon if the legs are good carry on untill 3pm ish then a beer in town possibly 2 and back to the accomdation for a shower and a rest I may have a couple of drinks in the evening usually in bed by 10.00ish.
It has been known to go wrong, we were once advised by the late night bus driver 'No Ski' as we tried to get/fall? off the bus complete with skis and still in ski boots.
As a rule I take the view that Rugby tour is for drinking, and Ski trip is for skiing.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@jaxskis,

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Ski, coffee, ski, lunch, ski, beer on the way back to town, couple of apre beers hopefully with some live music, back to digs, kip, shower, dinner, more beers, bed. Rinse and repeat Laughing

After all it is free

What a lovely thread... Happy

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I used to do the resort apres-ski nightlife most nights when I first started, as those in their early 20's did, but nowadays its all about going all in on the skiing during the day, a few drinks before and after an evening meal and then I'm often fast asleep before midnight.

snow reports

good breakfast at about 8:00
ski from 9:00 until about 11:30 when a quick stop for drink / snack
ski through lunch hours when slopes are quieter, until second drink stop about 2:30-3:00
off the slopes by about 5:00
cake!
shower, then stretching if needed
chill out until dinner at 7:30ish
a few post-dinner drinks
bed at around 11:00 - was typically 01:00 when younger!

These days: First(ish) lift, ski until it's ok to drink a beer 11ish!, lunch around 1, ski until 3 or 4 and then start to plan the route home via a few bars. Always ski home once the lifts have shut and you have the place to yourself - one of skiings true pleasures. Sauna if possible, dinner and bed by 11 normally.

Previously, all sorts. French discos until dawn (anyone remember 'Au coin gourmand' in Morzine, where you could get saucisse frites and a carafe of rouge at 6am?). Student days where you had to be at the course inspection at 8am irrelevant of what state you were in. Hitch hiking around Andorra in the wee small hours.

I've enjoyed it all and one day I'll even have a coffee stop in the morning instead of a beer...... but not yet.

You know it makes sense.

Ski hard from lifts open until they close, head back to the chalet and start drinking heavily and then get shitfaced at apres and go to bed no later than 21 o'clock. Rinse and repeat for the duration of the stay. Works really well and the hungover just disappears after the first run Eh oh!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Winter:
Up early as always so down to bakery for bread and pastries. Make breakfast for the 4 kids and wife. Huge effort to get everyone out, normally close to first lift sometimes 30 mins or so after.
Ski with kids (all good skiers now) and guides for about an hour before splitting into groups based on ability or what people want to do (some like the park some don't)
Ski to cafe for espresso and a little schnapps around 1030 for the adults.
Ski hard until about 1PM then meet kids for a proper sit down lunch with wine.
Ski less hard to last lifts then an hour or so of apres.
Dinner out a couple of nights, otherwise simple family meals with a few glasses of wine.
Bed by around 11 most nights.

Lunch on the mountain is critical for me, we compensate by earlier start and skiing hard in the morning. The guides we ski with reckon we cover more than most over the course of a day.

I normally have one day during the week where I go off on a mission (my daughter now often joins), sometimes a touring day more often side-country couloirs.

Spring:
Always have everyone on first lift or very close to it.
Ski hard to about 2pm
Lunch that often gets extended into drinking session and then dinner!
Early bed as drunk.
Unless lots of fresh snow in which case hardcore off-piste days for me and daughter, and regular routine for the others.

A snowHead

A snowHead

30 years ago
Get up, collectt breakfast of choc au pain, croissants etc on way to lift, eat breakfast on lift that gets up the mountain just in time for 10am ski lesson. Start ski lesson with a few cups of cava to "relax"
Ski hard all day
Get a few beers on way back to apt then sleep till 8pm then shower & out for meal & drink till 3am
Repeat

Now
Get up & try to find a breakfast at the hotel that will last me till lunchtime then get ready for first lift.
10am try to find something to eat as breakfast has already worn off
Ski all day, try and find any offpiste or moguls to ski, lunch ideally a big plate of goulash.
Back to hotel room via one beer in the bar & crash till dinner time.
Maybe a beer after dinner before bed at 11ish, no point in early night as I would just wake up at 4am.
Priority has shifted from social to skiing, mainly because ability to do both has gone! Laughing

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Tea in bed, then get up, warm the breakfast baguette in the oven and then guzzle more than I should. Daily debate as to whether I should finish on a jam note or a marmite note.
Get down to first lift or as close to that as possible.
Discuss lunch destinations on the first lift. Usually get side tracked if we see a nicely groomed piste or powder that takes us in different direction.
Usually stop for a coffee/chocolate mid morning.
Have a nice lunch, and then head homewards to finish from 3.30 onwards.
Possibly an end of day beer in the village or just above.
Home, soak in the tub, possibly a snooze and then cook dinner. In bed by 10.

This winter (Covid permitting), things might take a slightly different format as we have to fit in how to manage our new family member-a Jack Russell- who will be 12 months old in Feb. We can't leave him home alone all day, so may take it in turns to head back from the slopes early/leave late, take him out for a spin in a doggy backpack or employ dog sitters.

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Check the weather, the day may pivot on this alone. Clear snow around the chalet, if any has fallen.
If it's a piste day catch train at 0837 and log up a few runs. If there is any powder check out the regular zones and assess quality.
If it's a touring day prep the kit evening before, perhaps put skis on car ready. Quite often collect buddy at Zweilutschinen station and proceed to start point. Skin, picnic, ski return to car (train or post bus) head home, usually tired. Do all this as often as possible!
One very serious lesson from the epidemic, SKI days are PRECIOUS and definitely not infinite.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Bfast at 8, kit faff at 9, coffee in place near lift.

Ski for 90 mins hot chocolate and cake.
Ski
Lunch at 1
Ski
Head back for beer at 4

Shower and get ready for dinner.
Beer so the initial dinner scrum is over.

Head to "naughty table" Happy

Bar until 10.30-11.

Bed and repeat.

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Ski, have fun, have a few drinks, play it by ear.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

My holidays have changed thru the various eras of life - sober, fun holidays, staying with a French family, in my teens; lads holidays and ski seasons in my 20s and 30s; family holidays, with young, then teenage kids, in my 40s and 50s; and Covid in my 60s..! Each has had different daily schedules, with more or less alcohol and ski-ing involved, depending on age and marital status..!

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My Ski Holidays have become less frenetic as I get older.

I get up a little later. Have longer lunches and more coffee stops. Really appreciate the mountains and the Friends/Family that I ski with....and the wind down drink with them at the end of the day.

I no longer want late nights, with lots of Apres Ski....a nightcap and earlyish to bed is heaven and gives me time to recover. I still get fit before going and like to push on.

Priorates have changed over the years.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Reading these replies, desperately need to get to the Alps this winter, not sure the old mental health can take much more of being deprived of something I love to do so much.

These days we go with the flow depending on the kids requirements, ski lessons etc but I always find time for a beer usually on my own but that's fine love to just stop take it in as it's not long and I'm a slave to the laptop again. Used to do lads trips will do again but lads in 40s are different to 20s.

snow reports

I have to say how I spend a ski holiday depends on both where I am and who I'm with.

Austria/'boys' trip
Up at 8am and first 10min of lifts for skiing all day with a few coffee stops (usually on the back of toilet triggered stops) and a 30-45min lunch. Stop skiing 3:30/4ish and head back to show/change then apres hard to 7pm, nice meal in a restaurant, then in bed by 10/10:30pm. Repeat. Wouldn't swap it for anything.

France or Italy/solo group trip
I'm up at 8am and ready to go by 9 and then waiting till at least an 'advanced party' group is ready to go. Ski/coffee based on group consensus, as is lunch length and end time. In or out for food/drinks in the evening again based on group consensus - but even if it's "Out, then nightclub till 2am" I'll 'be able to find everyone' on the way to the toilets at some point and be in my bed by midnight. Repeat. Wouldn't swap it for anything.

France/friends and famiily trip
Well the last one was the first trip for most of my friends/their children so I wasn't hitting the slopes till everyone had been shood out the chalet to ski school, then back again for lunch and some time being the most over-equipped person on the magic carpet skiing with the little ones in the afternoon Smile

Think we only had 1 apres drink out and 2 evening meals - but only because we felt we should, the rest spent in the chalet. Wouldn't swap it for anything.

You know it makes sense.

I'm really impressed that most people are out for the first lift. Strange that there are few queues for it. Other points that seem to be different from my typical day: I’m usually out by 9:30 or even 10

How much time people spend over lunch. 30 minute is the max for me

That people drink alcohol at lunch. Some occasions I’ll have a small beer, but usually it’s tap water.

People finish skiing early in the afternoon. Some seem to finish at 3:30. I usually finish on a latish lift – say 16:40 and finish for the day about 17:00.

I might have a vin chaud on the way home, or nothing.

People have a sleep before dinner. I usually read, but hen I have to cook.

I may or may not go out later in the evening, but rarely after midnight.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I definitely have mixed feeelings about first chair. Sure on a powder day I'll try to be there and enjoy all the madness, but on other days not so much unless it's about beating crowds up the mountain. EOSB it is usually to be violently avoided while the overnight refreeze warms up into something more friendly.

Plus in spring the advantage of first chair dodging is you can go out on something fatter and keep going well into the sloppier end of the afternoon.

Basically no such thing as a typical ski day - they vary by conditions plus degree of hurtyfootness.

A snowHead

My typical day evolves as my my strength and fitness do through the season. However I like all sorts of different paced days, with different priorities, often dependent upon the company with whom I'm skiing.

eg.
PSB in Dec, is a bit utilitarian for me: it's purely about doing whatever I can manage, to build up from my (typically very low) base fitness level.
I usually can't manage all day at the start of the week and when we get a dump of fresh (which is quite often), I can get a bit over-excited and wear myself out in an hour or two. It's France so the coffee isn't great and the lunches, well, again mostly a utilitarian matter.

By The Birthday Bash in Feb, I'm a lot fitter and being out all day every day is not just possible but essential as the area is so vast and the 'must-dos' so numerous that any time missed results in regrets at the end of the week about places we'll not be able to visit till next year. That said, being Italy, the hospitality is on another level so many of the must-dos are in fact much-loved lunch or coffee stops so while it's all go, it's not exactly frenetic. I may not always be on the first lift, but I won't be too far off it - 30-45 mins maybe - but I'm always rushing for the last lift home Laughing

Come March, The Off Piste Bash is a different story. As we're all in guided groups, the peer pressure is there to be up and out before the lifts open. Coffees are snatched in passing if an opportunity is presented to do so without holding the group up. Lunch is an essential recovery phase, the length of which is determined by how hard the morning has been - versus how good the conditions are.

By the EoSB in April, the 'essential' skiing of the season has generally been done so skiing becomes a function of the social flow rather than the other way around. That said, when the fresh snow comes down... well there's no friends on a powder day (unless they can keep up Cool

)

A snowHead

Ski holidays are sooo “last year” daaahhhling…. Toofy Grin

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

It's been decades since I've been on a ski "holiday" because I now live in a ski town year round. And when I used to go I had a small kid so that heavily impacted activity choices. I've got that same kid (now 34) coming with me on the first trip I've ever taken to Europe in order to ski. (We normally do the planning and traveling ourselves, no packaged trips.) So, I have no clue what this trip will be like -- hopefully not too much fighting. From being an 80 day a season skier, I've degenerated to only 50 days, but skiing is sort of a winter "occupation". Business-like breakfast, most equipment is in a locker up at the ski area, so minimal lugging. Goal is to park close enough to the lodge to not need a shuttle bus. You hope the locker room isn't too full so you can spread out a bit. Head to the lift, hoping you've timed the line right. Head up the next series of lifts depending on the wait times. Eat lunch on the lift or stop at 11:30 to beat the crowds. (I generally ski alone so this snacking is easy to do.) Head out as they come in. (I haven't stopped for lunch in 5 years.) Head home when I'm tired or the crazies ratio is too high. Eat something as I arrive home to make up for only the chair lift snack. Normal dinner, bed. Alarm set for next day.

Back when I was a "vert head" I used to worry about first chair but after slamming into a tree hard, my goals are to avoid injury and crowds and just enjoy the turns and the views. (I finished #25 that year even with a season-ending set of injuries, and that was enough.)

Suddenly going to an unknown area with a daughter who hasn't skied at my speed since she was 8 and who spends most of her ski time avoiding crowds by skiing the Montana backcountry with other athletic types is going to be like a visit to another planet. Just being at a HUGE area that I don't know like the back at my hand and where I could accidentally end up needing to get a bus home if I make the wrong turn is pretty scary. Combining that with typical mother-daughter drama? No wonder my husband thinks I'm nuts.

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I typically only get a week in every year (budget and holiday limits), so I do like to spend a lot of it skiing. Typical day looks something like this.

Up early-ish, maybe 7:30. Go to the bakery, buy croissants for breakfast while the rest of the flat slowly wakes up (if brother is with me, we'll go together). Head to the slopes nice and early. Not necessarily first lift, but close enough, and avoid morning ski school rush. Ski until midday or just afterwards, pick up any of our group who's in lessons, and head for lunch. Lunch is fairly leisurely. I'm part-French, and we take these things seriously, and it's also our only proper break of the day, so we take the opportunity to recharge a bit. Not a three-course meal or anything, but a nice main course with maybe a small beer followed by coffee (espresso). Maybe about an hour break or a bit more if busy. Then back out onto the slopes until late afternoon; not always last life, but usually pretty close to it.

Back to the apartment for shower and wind-down. Relax by playing cards/watching daft TV shows/reading a book. If needed head out to local SPAR or whatever to buy food. Then about 7pm, open a bottle of wine and have a first glass with cheese/saucisson apero. Lounge about while brother does cooking Toofy Grin

and then rest of wine with meal. No excessive drinking (typically one bottle shared between 4 of us or so), as I don't really like getting drunk anymore. Early to bed, usually around 10, certainly before 11.

Hits the balance between getting enough skiing in to satisfy me, while also having a nice relaxing time. We'll usually go out to dinner on the first and last evenings, but otherwise tend to not go out much. Prefer winding down in our apartment.

Then again, I now have a small toddler, so I expect my next skiing holiday (hopefully this year) will look a bit different...

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Having a season pass is a game changer!

Prior to that, I ski as long as the lifts are turning. Sometimes even when I didn't feel up to the condition (sometimes conditions were just awful). But now, I may go out for 1 run and go back to where I was staying. Nope, I don't live in a ski resort. Still, no point in risking injury or minimally overly tired legs on unfavorable conditions, especially the forecast predicting better days coming.

With a season pass, skiing becomes a perpetual holiday throughout the winter, one trip followed by another. Interrupted by occasional weeks back in the office. Laughing

So there's no rush, unless the condition is stellar (powder).

Since I'm on holiday, I do as I please to strike a balance. Ski a few hours, stop for an hour for a relaxing lunch, a couple more hours skiing. If the people I'm with are having a drink before the last ski down, I join them too. But if they're having several drinks, I go without them. Just because they're my mates doesn't mean they can't slam into me when they're tipsy! I don't need that risk.

Shower, hot tub, dinner (which may include pre-dinner or post dinner 1 drink)! I'm not the going out to the pub kind. So it's back to my room either reading or straight to bed.

Age has nothing to do with it. I can still ski as long, perhaps even harder than my middle-age days, thanks to better technique and more spare time to stay fitter. With age comes experience. I'm no longer rushing to ski every piste within the resort. I can very easily figure out which piste skis like after a few runs. So will stick with the ones in best condition.

I now even wait for my mates Toofy Grin

Help!!

How do you spend your ski holiday?

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