 Poster: A snowHead
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I have lived a sheltered life of only ever going to the 3 Valleeys... But now in my 20's I can go wherever the hell I want! 
My question however, where to head next, loads of people recommend Espace Killy and also Obergurgl. Had one person tell me America is a whole lot better.
When I look at the piste maps, nowhere seems to have the endless possibilities of the 3 Valleeys, so close to the slopes, going between valleys and villages etc. and when
I look at America there seems to be very few lifts/run in comparison.
I love the feeling of exploring that large area that the 3 Valleeys has to offer and have been every year for the last 5 and don't feel like I've seen it all so am heading to VT this friday and Meribel late feb!
Any suggestions/information/experiences would be greatly appreciated!
LK
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@lgkersh, If you love exploring then it's got to be the Dolomites - there are more exploratory outings to be had there than in the 3V or perhaps anywhere.
I've skied in the States a dozen times and it has its appeal, but big areas and scope aren't really part of that - I'd see more of Europe first.
In France, Paradiski is a vast area that you'd like and that would feel familiar.
In Austria the Ski Welt area (in good conditions) is huge and varied and great fun to whizz around visiting the different villages.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Mon 5-01-15 21:29; edited 2 times in total
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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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Define interesting? I've had some of my best ski days on a single hill using just a few lifts. If you are just looking for piste miles then 3V seems like your kind of place, but maybe expand your horizons in terms of the type of skiing you enjoy. Also many ski areas offer a very different experience to 3V. Just try and a different country for starters.
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These are just the large linked areas I've been to:
Espace Killy
4 Valleys
Zillertal
Arlberg
Via Lattea
Portes du Soleil
Also Chamonix valley but less linked than the others.
All have lots of varity and miles of pistes and off-piste. Great villages, towns and nightlife
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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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+1 for the Dolomites. Beautiful scenery, different valleys to visit each day, better (and cheaper) food than France. Stay in Arabba if you want the hardest skiing. Might also be worth looking at Les Portes du Soleil if you like France.
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thanks already for so much info! Also should mention I love getting the night train! But isnt a must I guess... I do love 8 full days of skiing though! 
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| waynos wrote: |
| Define interesting? I've had some of my best ski days on a single hill using just a few lifts. If you are just looking for piste miles then 3V seems like your kind of place, but maybe expand your horizons in terms of the type of skiing you enjoy. Also many ski areas offer a very different experience to 3V. Just try and a different country for starters. |
+1
tell us a bit more about yourself. Experience, wants from a ski holiday, type of skiing you like and nightlife required. Budget?
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| waynos wrote: |
| Define interesting? I've had some of my best ski days on a single hill using just a few lifts. If you are just looking for piste miles then 3V seems like your kind of place, but maybe expand your horizons in terms of the type of skiing you enjoy. Also many ski areas offer a very different experience to 3V. Just try and a different country for starters. |
I guess interesting to me is varying runs, mixture of easier and difficult as I do enjoy a black run but I like to be able to include my mates or family on my trips! Also I just love when staying in VT when its bright sunshine flying around the Belleville valley - heading to La Masse, and diving over to Meribel when the weathers not as good to hide in the trees!
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| ed123 wrote: |
+1
tell us a bit more about yourself. Experience, wants from a ski holiday, type of skiing you like and nightlife required. Budget? |
Nightlife not too bothered, nice to have a few descent bars around and a good apres ski bar. Budget - again I <3 Skiing so will happily spend all my money on nothing else! but generally the others I ski with would rather not spend over £800 for a week, I could probs push them to £1000 though! 
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1. Chamonix- stay in Chamonix- it's still France but totally different to 3V. Take a lesson or two and try the Valle Blanche. Great Apres, great scenery, the skiing will either blow your mind (if you have a think about th eoff piste) or not. Very easy to get to from Geneva.
2. Italy- Dolomites- pretty, great food and good value.
3. Austria- beer, sausages and Rock & Roll. Mayerhofen.
4. You may well like Espace Killy (Tignes / Val D'Isere or les Arcs / la Plagne or les gRands Masssif (Flaine) but all a bit samey if you have tried 3V a lot.
5. Andorra?
6. Spain?
7. Zermatt (pricey but good).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Well I'd recommend Ski Amade in Austria - where I base myself. Is a huge area though spread over a big distance so not all inter-linked. It's made up of several seperte linked lift areas. If you are happy driving then that really opens up the area and generally very easy valley roads to get around. Skiing is between approx 750 - 2000m though the Dachstein glacier is 2700m. Lower than 3V, means more treeline skiing, really decent snow record so don't let the lower altitude put you off. Typically Austrian with loads of lovely mountain huts, picture postcards villages and towns, plenty of apres (flachau for most lively). Stacks of rodel (sledging, cross country, night skiing, ski touring etc) Really great area to explore and very different to 3V or EK (done lots in both, not knocking, just different). And only an hour or less from Salzburg, 2.5 hours Munich. The most important thing is better beer then 3Vs.
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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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I can echo waynos' comments on Ski Amadé, and I also enjoy the concept of new pistes, new scenery, new huts, new experiences to explore. One of the best things about Ski Amadé is the ability to ski a different 'resort' each day.
However, I do have a further point to add. Last season along with several other snowheads, I did a charity skiing challenge that involved skiing the same run 18 times. I'm sure many piste-km-hungry types would imagine this to be rather boring. However, it certainly was anything but boring. Each time I thought about trying something different, whether it was a different line, shorter radius turns, longer sweeping turns, once I even went down it head down, hardly any turns at all, full speed, imagining I was a downhill racer (I'm sure I looked anything but that!). The point is there's a lot more variety to skiing than simply covering a lot of different piste kilometreage (is that even a word?).
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I'd have to say Zakopane in Poland.It is a world class Ski resort that is largely ignored because of how expensive it is.It has slightly less runs than the 3 valleys but the runs are much more challenging.Check out the Nosal ski resort which has an endless amount of terrain for even the most advanced skier.
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You know it makes sense.
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@FullyTucked, are you related to stanton?
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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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Another vote for the Dolomites! We love skiing Italy, we have been to Los of places, Canada, France, Andorra, Austria, USA, and for us, Italy has it all, not to say none of those places were a bad experience but we love Italy, the people, the cheap good food and wine, can't beat it for us!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| red 27 wrote: |
In France, Paradiski is a vast area that you'd like and that would feel familiar.
In Austria the Ski Welt area (in good conditions) is huge and varied and great fun to whizz around visiting the different villages. |
I found La Plagne on it's own to be good for a beginner to get some piste miles racked up, imagine that adding in the Les Arcs area would really open it up.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| waynos wrote: |
| Define interesting? I've had some of my best ski days on a single hill using just a few lifts. If you are just looking for piste miles then 3V seems like your kind of place, but maybe expand your horizons in terms of the type of skiing you enjoy. Also many ski areas offer a very different experience to 3V. Just try and a different country for starters. |
+2
Exploring mile after mile of piste motorway has its appeal, but so does doing laps of the tiny, slow Sublette chair in Jackson Hole - every time you can find a different line through the trees, explore a different chute or cut some fresh tracks in the bowl.
Chilling out in a small place like Ste Foye also has its appeal - deserted slopes where you can really let rip, quiet restaurants for a lazy, sophisticated lunch and, with a guide, off-piste that never seems to get tracked out the way it does in the bigger places.
Small villages in Austria and Switzerland are also great: picture-postcard beauty and a laid-back atmosphere that's as far from the madding crowds of the 3V as a remote Greek island is from Blackpool.
There's no such thing as a bad skiing holiday, but there is such a thing as an unappreciative punter who doesn't understand the place they're visiting. Broaden your mind and learn to love something new.
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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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Ski for the sake of skiing. Each region is on its own. I don't compare, I take each autonomously. Case in point............. My most memorable skiing has taken place in Europe, I guess it always will. By the way, do Scotland and Greece count? Yes and each were wonderful. Poland, too. Maybe some day I'll experience Wales - looks fascinating.
There have been many days in North America; both Obamastan, to a lesser degree Canada that are permanently etched in my psyche and heart, like right now - today was again another great 45k+ day. No one ever seems to talk about Oregon. I will. In a word........, incredible. How many of you have skied in Oregon?
The times spent in Chile and Argentina have always been unique, great and twice in New Zealand, once in Korea and Japan opened my perspective that much further.
There's even skiing in Hawaii. Never been, skiing that is, in Hawaii. How wonderfully wacky - skiing in Hawaii. Are there kama sutra positions for skiing in India? Just askin'
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Tue 6-01-15 5:18; edited 3 times in total
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Love the 3v too....but have you thought about Japan? Utterly different.
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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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Why dont you try les arcs, if you get the Full Paradiski Ski pass there are loads of diferent towns you can drop into and as much variety as you can want.
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Perty +1... and Asia too... and the Middle East as well... and of course, the Maurienne valley
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Another vote for the Dolomites; Sella Ronda (both ways), Marmolada, Hidden Valley, Cinque Torri and loads more. Although the Dolomiti Superski area is huge there is an entirely different feel to skiing there compared to the French mega resorts. And if you think the Tarentaise is beautiful in winter...
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and another for the dolomites if you've never been then Austria ischgl kitzbuhel skiwelt and best of all saalbach for the total ski holiday
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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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Looks to me like Dolomites 2016 will be happening! Although also very interested in Austria, have a couple of places I would like to visit en route so would most likely drive there! Thank you all for your most interesting insights!
Ps. Japan sounds intriguing, the only place that really still hasn't interested me is America (despite how fun 'ass-pen' looked in that South Park episode )
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Kirkwood - two of my very best ski days ever!
Nothing wrong with the 3 Vallees, but there's so much more to the sport than just the French 'ski factories'!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@equinoxranch, you're showing off now. Stop it.
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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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| Quote: |
there's so much more to the sport than just the French 'ski factories'!
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indeed, if your idea of "interesting" is to swap one French mega-resort for another, then fine. But there are lots of other ways in which a ski area can be "interesting".
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I adore the Dolomites and it's my favourite place to ski. I'm in my forties now and I'm not sure if it would have been my favourite in my twenties when I just wanted to stack up the kilometres. You spend a long time on the lifts in the dolomites -many are old and slow, which adds to the charm for me.
Whistler is the perfect resort really if you're in your twenties - European vertical drop with North American efficiency and lift infrastructure.
Espace Killy is a skiers paradise. Probably better than the three valleys which is essentially two great ski resorts linked by an OK one.
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You know it makes sense.
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| pam w wrote: |
| Quote: |
there's so much more to the sport than just the French 'ski factories'!
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indeed, if your idea of "interesting" is to swap one French mega-resort for another, then fine. But there are lots of other ways in which a ski area can be "interesting". |
Hence why i started this thread - To expand my mind and widen my experiences of the snow in this world!
I'm not the average Twenty-something year old, and will not be in bed any later than 11 as I do like to hit the first lifts each morning
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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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@lgkersh, but your OP did suggest that your key criterion was having "endless possibilities" of pistes to explore. So if you are not just interested in endless mileage, we need to know what else you find interesting....  If that big mileage is critical for you, better just swap one French mega-resort for another.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Will people PLEASE stop telling everyone to go to the Dolomites? Pretty soon it'll be as crowded as everywhere else and just as expensive!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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No, jma, it's Italy. When the Lire returns, as it inevitably will, it will be cheaper still.
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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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If you like the 3Vs, you will LOVE the Espace Killy. Val d'Isere remains my favourite resort of all (not that I've visited everywhere, but quite a lot of France and Austria). In my opinion the EK has everything - lots of vertical, huge area, great variety of runs - some very long - and brilliant apres. It's quite tough in terms of run grading, but there's wonderful cruising to be had as well. There's even tree-lined skiing in La Daille, Fornet and down to Les Brevieres.
However I really would love to visit the Dolomites as I've heard nothing but good things about the place.
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The Three Valleys are great but better still are the Four Valleys in my humble opinion. How about being able to ski not only between lots of villages, but between villages in different countries, and with enough piste and off-piste to find new runs all vacation? You can ski both Italy and Switzerland at Zermatt/Cervinia, France and Switzerland in the Portes du Soleil and Austria and Switzerland from Ischgl. I also vaguely remember walking across the border into Italy from Austria for lunch at Nassfeld.
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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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Can you get from Verbier to Thyon and back in a day? I have a lot of places to visit!!!
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@lgkersh, Another great area in Austris is Ski Dimension (Serfaus Fiss Ladis)
Not on the UK radar but a cracking area and very high quality resorts
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@red_27 I like the look of that area instantly!
As I am a snowhead, I have spent every spare minute of my time this week looking into every suggestion that has been made in this thread.. I definitely have a lot of ideas for next years skiing holiday!
Thank you all for you input!
Going to what @pam_w said - although I do like a lot of piste to ski down, and a good efficient lift system, I am open and interested in other possibilities
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| lgkersh wrote: |
| Can you get from Verbier to Thyon and back in a day? I have a lot of places to visit!!! |
You can quite easily, but if one of your criteria of enjoyment is efficient lift systems you will find some of the lifts on the way a little antiquated. The lifts around Verbier are excellent but there are some elderly ones past Greppon, though there is some good terrain to be accessed from them.
There are so many fabulous skiing areas beyond 3V I don't know where to start. Best option is wait and see where the snow is good and go there and discover it.
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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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| HoneyBunny wrote: |
| If you like the 3Vs, you will LOVE the Espace Killy. Val d'Isere remains my favourite resort of all (not that I've visited everywhere, but quite a lot of France and Austria). In my opinion the EK has everything - lots of vertical, huge area, great variety of runs - some very long - and brilliant apres. It's quite tough in terms of run grading, but there's wonderful cruising to be had as well. There's even tree-lined skiing in La Daille, Fornet and down to Les Brevieres. . |
+1 If you are looking for a change from the 3 Valleys but enjoy large areas and the feeling of moving around and going different places, then definitely get yourself to Val d'Isere or Tignes and try out the Espace Killy.
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lgkersh, well worth checking out Serre Chevalier - a large area, excellent sense of travel, good lift system these days and interesting villages along with the highest city in Europe, Briancon.
Saalbach is also great and extremely good fun with some terrific skiing.
The Dolomites have been mentioned, but also worth a look at the Brenta Dolomites - Folgarida-Marilleva-Madonna di Campiglio. Again, great sense of travel and superb food on the more affordable side. Stay in Folgarida.
How is Syph City these days? Still the largest village in England?
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FAQ
