 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm looking for suggestions for an early trip with a group of friends. We are basically good intermediate piste skiers. Probably only 4 - 6 of us. I tend to prefer the Tirolean or Austrian type of resort rather than the larger French resorts. More of a 'real town or village' feel rather than a purpose built resort. I'm not averse to France though.
Après ski is usually a beer or two.
I'm looking for suggestions for skiing sometime between mid November and mid December. Probably self catering. Probably get flights to a nearby airport then hire a car.
At that time of year I have been to Zermatt but found it to be prohibitively expensive. Is Cervinia likely to be better?
Also done Kronplatz but I suspect that the main Dolomite area is likely to be open just a bit later. Also been to La Thuile.
I'm quite happy to try less mainstream places but would like a reasonable amount of kilometres of piste to go at.
Currently thinking about Jasna or elsewhere in the Tatras. Or Nassfeld or Turracher Höhe or elsewhere in Carinthia.
Is Obergurgl likely to be too expensive (I'm used to Dolomites prices)?
Is this too early for the Gastein area?
Any other suggestions of places I should be looking at?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Obergurgl is good, but it's not really 'real' in the sense that you mean it. Tough call early season to be honest.
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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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Tignes or Val Thorens...
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| JohnHSmith wrote: |
| I tend to prefer the Tirolean or Austrian type of resort rather than the larger French resorts. More of a 'real town or village' feel rather than a purpose built resort. |
| HoneyBunny wrote: |
Tignes or Val Thorens...
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A standard SH response, but perhaps not what the OP was after 
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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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Cervinia would definitely work for you, much cheaper than Zermatt
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Cervinia is about as ugly purpose-built as they come.
Personally I doubt I'd again pre-plan something mid-Nov to mid-Dec as the last two years have been rather green until late Dec.
The obvious mitigation to that is "go high" so the standard SH response is the best one. Tignes or Val Thorens.
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Ischgl.
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I did kaprun in November a couple of years ago. It's a nice town but you have to get bus and long gondola to get to kitzteinhorn glacier but the skiing was good.
I did zermatt last December. I stayed in hostel half board which kept the prices down. I skied over in cervinia most days as it was sunnier there but never went right down into town so can't comment.
Perhaps solden? I was looking at there before I booked zermatt.
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Early season snow is often highly variable across the Alps.
I would leave the decision as late as possible and see where the snow is
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In Karnten:
Nassfeld has most skiing over 1500m but may be a little early season.
Turracherhohe similar but smaller.
The Mauterndorf/Lungau region I mentioned in another thread recently and this is a nice area with access to 4 ski areas including Obertauern and Katschberg which would be as reliable as anything exl. glaciers in early season.
You then have my local ski area around Molltal glacier resort, Heiligenblut and Mallnitz. Glacier will definitely have skiing and is a short drive from Flattach. Mallnitz/Ankogel is probably not open unless good snow. Heiligenblut is behind Kaprun and next to largest mountains in Austria and the ski area goes quite high so should open early season. It's also a nice village. Access along the valley between all 3 is very easy with no passes to go over. The other side of the glacier is Sportgastein which will be first to open in that region.
None of the Karnten ski areas are so good for short access from airport. Lungau would be fine from Salzburg whilst the others could be easier from Trieste or Klagenfurt airports. Nassfeld will soon have a lift from Italy making this much easier from that side but this may not be from next winter.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Decide at the very last minute.
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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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@JohnHSmith, taking an average year you would still anticipate quite different conditions from mid November (when you need to look at glaciers and very few other resorts will be open) to mid December when quite a lot should be starting to open (although in some cases limited area).
The vast majority of resorts will in any case have fixed opening dates which are very unlikely to be brought forward even with good snow (the logistics makes it too complex) though can be delayed if snow is poor.
If you are looking at Austria...
... you should definitely have Ischgl on the short list. They open in the last week of November and pride themselves on getting a large area open (often 90% by early December).
... Obertauern also opens early (start December) and it's one of the higher base areas in Austria though it isn't especially charming.
... More often than not by early December you can also have snow down to village level in Schladming, but that may be a little riskier, but scores high in being pretty tree skiing and having a nice village at the base.
... If you are skiing in mid November then the glaciers at Kitzsteinhorn and Hintertux are both good bets.
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I'd wait until last minute to book but we've skied Are Sweden late November and had a great time, approx. 100km of slopes, about 80% open when we went but it depends on the snow as you know. Great little village along a lake. Lots of cheap deals to be had last minute, we usually fly Norwegian in to Trondheim(approx. £65 each way), get a Flygtaxi transfer bus (approx. £30 each way) accommodation deals often available last minute, we fly out tomorrow and have paid just under £100 for a self catering chalet sleeping upto 4 people next to the VM8 lift, we booked it this Tuesday via the skistar website.
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You know it makes sense.
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Huge thanks to all who have taken the trouble to reply. I will keep checking for updates even if I am not commenting here all the time.
Current thoughts are to book flights only to somewhere like Salzburg / Innsbruck / Verona / Munich and then make a final decision on resorts a week before we are due to go. I don't anticipate difficulties in finding accommodation at that time of year.
Haven't been to Ischgl or Obertauern. Always able to look at glacier if the season starts slowly with snowfall.
Also never been to Scandinavia. It seems to keep being overlooked so that might be a good reason to put it on the radar this time around
Thanks again for the suggestions and ideas.
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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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Hintertux.
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Poster: A snowHead
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For early season snow you should look at high altitude or latitude. Generally 'real town or village' resorts are lower as people live in them all year round and run livestock in the summer. Perhaps a resort with lift access to a glacier or Sweden or Norway as suggested above.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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: |
Current thoughts are to book flights only to somewhere like Salzburg / Innsbruck / Verona / Munich and then make a final decision on resorts a week before we are due to go. I don't anticipate difficulties in finding accommodation at that time of year.
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sound plan but you probably don't even need to commit to an airport at this stage. I understand your preference for Austria but if the early snow happens to hit the NW or SW Alps rather than the East then I'd go there.
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@JohnHSmith, Ischgl. Nearly all the skiing is above 2000m, and as soon as the resort opens they have nearly everything operating. Their operation is the best for piste preparation I have seen anywhere. A beer or two for Apres is no problem!
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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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| Quote: |
| Personally I doubt I'd again plan something mid-Nov to mid-Dec as the last two years have been rather green until late Dec |
No they haven't! In both winters, snow came by mid November but then December was very dry. Nevertheless we had three early season trips with plenty of snow and pretty decent conditions:
- Late Nov 2014 - Hintertux and Stubai.
- Mid Nov 2015 - Ditto above.
- Early Dec 2015 - Espace Killy.
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I wrote
"Personally I doubt I'd again pre-plan something mid-Nov to mid-Dec as the last two years have been rather green until late Dec."
and you quoted
"Personally I doubt I'd again plan something mid-Nov to mid-Dec as the last two years have been rather green until late Dec."
Pre-plan is precisely what I meant, as in deciding where to go in advance of knowing the conditions.
I'm glad you enjoyed early Dec 2015 in EK. I was following conditions for EK at that time and it didn't look worth the trip to me. I guess that evaluation is subjective.
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We normally go to Tignes in mid December, usually with Mountainsun who are cheap and cheerful but perfectly nice. Next December, however, my OH has a significant birthday, (ie officially OLD!) so we thought we'd push the boat out and go somewhere posh. So, after much research and deliberation, I've just booked and we're off to Obergurgl. And if there's not much snow, the 5* food, wine and spa will hopefully make it a holiday to remember  .
But I'm sure it will be fine!
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