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Planning for 2016/2017 — the best skipass deals for 2+ weeks?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I'm back from 2 weeks of skiing and can't wait to get back to slopes the next winter. Smile

Would like to ski at least as much next year (2, 3 weeks or even a month). There are ways to find cheap lodging, but skipasses turn into major and very inflexible expense after a week or two… Any suggestions how to reduce the cost? I looked at season passes but they still seem very expensive (e.g. 1200 EUR for Espace Killy).

Are there any early bird or last minute specials, 2-for-1 deals, flash sales, groupon or livingsocial offers? When do they become available, is it too early to look now? I'm willing to go to any reasonably sized resort (> 150 km of pistes) if there is a great skipass deal available.

What are your suggestions if you have looked into this before? I haven't so don't have experience when and where to look…

(Sorry if there are similar threads already, I couldn't find any.)


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Fri 15-04-16 22:28; edited 1 time in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Salzburg Superski or Ski Amade.

I think if you get the Ski Amade pass at the early season rate for it's paid for itself in about 2.5 weeks.
http://www.skiamade.com/en/winter/ski-pass/ski-pass-prices/ski-amade-season-tickets
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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?
Thanks! Found that Grand Massif was 480 EUR for this season. http://winter.lescarroz.com/our-ski-area/ski-passes-prices/season-lift-passes.html
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Yup...@sniegagalva, the GM is great value as long as you book the season pass before a certain date in December. Lovely ski area. We rented a place for a couple of seasons in Les Carroz which is a lovely little resort, though not big on nightlife. IMHO it's the best resort to base yourself in in the GM as they is good skiing into the village, (unlike Samoens and the bottom at Morillon) it's a "real" place (unlike Morillon Les Esserts and Flaine) and it's quite attractive (unlike Flaine). Best to have a car for a long stay, which also enables you to look for accommodation a bit further from the lifts and ski bus, and also means you can pick up friends from Geneva airport (only an hour away) should they wish to join you for a sneaky weekend!
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@sniegagalva, the season pass also includes a few 'awaydays'. From memory, I think there were a total of 5 this year, so gives the opportunity to try a few different places, perhaps as an add-on on the way to or from the GM.

The cost of the GM pass led us to buy a season pass and then come as much as we could 3 years ago........and now we have our own place in Les Carroz. Toofy Grin
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
The GM early purchase season pass is about the best value of all, I think. The Evasion Mont Blanc is also good value, for a much bigger area. The Espace Diamant pass is good too, though it's a smaller area than the GM (192 kms) for round about the same price.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I expect loads of other regions also have cheap season passes if booked in advance. From a Pyrenean perspective how about Grandvalira (Andorra) which is €590 there or thereabouts if booked before December, with its 200km of pistes (real km, not the wildly overstated km reported by the big French Alpine resorts[*]), or Grand Tourmalet (France) which has a very good value "couple" pass and has over 100km.

[*] See here and here; I read that some or other umbrella organization for the Austrian ski resorts insisted that their resorts start using the real km; the French ones, at least, refused to.


Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Sat 16-04-16 9:27; edited 1 time in total
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Ski Amadé season pass is €540 I think for 760km of pistes
Salzburg Super pass is €610 for over 2,000km of pistes

That's pretty hard to beat.
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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.
Yeah, Austria seems pretty much impossible to beat on value! One day, one day...
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
queen bodecia wrote:
Ski Amadé season pass is €540 I think for 760km of pistes
Salzburg Super pass is €610 for over 2,000km of pistes

That's pretty hard to beat.


No season pass for us, but in 15 days skiing this season in Ski Amade we managed to ski 6 different unconnected areas all within a 30 min drive. We love it! If we had a car for our first trip we'd probably have done a couple more.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
It makes a big difference, choosing a ski area, whether you have a car and can drive to lifts. It's a nice way to do it, in my view, providing there is easy free parking right by a lift. But a lot of British skiers, having grown up with tour operator holidays, like to be right near the pistes, in a linked area. I do drive to ski sometimes - in fact this last season the only time I had to put snow chains on my winter tyres was driving to a lower, tree-lined, area which I could have skied to, were it not for the impenetrable cloud and blizzard I'd have encountered at the top, en route. The car simply refused to go up a hill it goes up quite happily normally, even in the snow. It was the wrong kind of snow, I guess.
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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.
Salzburg Superskicard covers over 2,500 km of pistes in 22 resorts - last season the pre-season price was €610 (or only €520 for adults under 25).

Ski Alpin Card covers Saalbach-hinterglemm-Leogang-Fieberbrunn (270 km) plus Zell am See and Kaprun/Kitzsteinhorn for €510 (U25 - €445).

Kitzbühler Alpen All-star Card covers over 1,000 km including Kitzbühel, Ski Circus Saalbach etc, Skiwelt and Alpbach-Wildschönau for €615.

Compared with buying day/weekly passes, these passes pay for themselves in about 14 days, after which you are skiing for free.

These passes go on sale online at the beginning of October - last season they were valid from 7th November until 1st May.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Austrian ski passes (Ski Amade etc) look like an excellent value if you are willing to drive between areas but I'd really prefer to use a shared transfer from an airport and settle in one place, preferably ski-in & out, or at least in a walking distance from the slopes, at worst by ski shuttle bus (I immensely enjoy stopping at home for some snacks and drinks at midday). That's why I'm mostly looking at French megaresorts at the moment.

(By the way 2 weeks in Isola 2000 did cost 150 EUR this year if you had quick fingers and bought 7 day skipasses for 75 EUR in their weekly 50% off flash sales. Will be hard to beat for the next year.)
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@sniegagalva, The Austrian ski passes cover huge areas over multiple resorts, but few people ski all of the resorts on a particular pass. There are plenty of resorts that are linked into larger areas so you could choose one of these areas for your 2-3 weeks without needing a car or driving between areas. These passes still work out as the most cost-effective even if you only ski in 4 or 5 out of the 20+ resorts that they cover.

Ski Circus (Saalbach-Hinterglemm-Leogang-Fieberbrunn) has 270 km of linked pistes. If that is not enough, Zell am See is a 20 minute bus ride away.

Ski Welt is covered by the All-star Card and offers 7 linked resorts (Brixen, Söll, Itter etc) and over 250 km. Kirchberg is a short bus ride away, which then opens up Kitzbühel and another 170 km of pistes.

Even smaller areas such as Hochkönig (Maria Alm etc) offer 120 km linked across 3 or 4 resorts, with Leogang only 20 mins away by bus if you want to visit the Ski Circus. Both areas are on the Salzburgerland Super Ski pass.

From Salzburg airport there is a well organised system of shared transfer taxis to all resorts, and almost everywhere is within a 90 minute journey. For resorts further west in Tirol, a similar service operates from Innsbruck.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
quinton, thanks! I didn't know much about Austrian resorts so this info is quite helpful. The only concern left is that the ones I looked at seem at rather low altitude with slopes between 1000-1800 m, rarely any lift going to 2000 m.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
And yet Austria has a thriving ski industry wink

Altitude is only relevant within a given regional climate. It's meaningless to compare the skiable altitudes of Austria with those of the western Alps.

For example in the Pyrenees our highest lift exit is 2750m, the the norm is 2500m.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
There's an early season discount of 30% for the EK, which makes a season pass €850ish. Given that the EK opens in the last days of November and shuts in May that's pretty good value for more than a 5 month season (IMHO) and there are numerous lifts which exit above 2800m - the top one being 3456m.
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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?
On the other hand, when I was at Lake Louise / Sunshine, they were doing end of season passes from early March for about $360 which apparently paid for themselves in 4 days. That seems too good to be true (I was there for two weeks with family at that time, I shudder to think how much I could have saved), but a chap had flown over from Hong Kong and was quite happy with it. Can anyone comment?

I now look at their site and see they do early bird pass sales until June 15; as there is a Family pass available, this looks particularly interesting. Though they gave me 30% off passes, rental and lessons for booking before end of November - would that make passes just as cheap? Time for the complicated spreadsheet.... Sad

My "local" is Grandvalira, but it's 12hrs to drive there or something equally complicated to fly, and those passes would "force" me to be there for about 14 days to pay for it - if I'd only normally be there for 6 in a season, it seems too much of a gamble for me.
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@sniegagalva, we've skied between 700-2000m for the last few years and never had a problem. Most of it being around 1000-1500m.

The infrastructure in most Austrian ski areas is amazing. The majority of areas will have artificial coverage if needed and the lifts are mostly new, fast and increasingly heated!
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Pyremaniac wrote:
And yet Austria has a thriving ski industry wink

Altitude is only relevant within a given regional climate. It's meaningless to compare the skiable altitudes of Austria with those of the western Alps.


Pyremaniac, I wasn't trying to diss Austria. Just concerned about snow since I prefer spring skiing (March + beginning of April) and have had experience mostly with French resorts.

hammerite, thanks for sharing that! On which months did you go?


Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Sun 17-04-16 21:56; edited 1 time in total
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@sniegagalva, we're bound to school hols so end up going at Christmas and Easter (wherever Easter ends up falling). Neither are height of the season or likely to have the best conditions, but have always been fine for piste skiing.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
sniegagalva wrote:
Pyremaniac wrote:
And yet Austria has a thriving ski industry wink

Altitude is only relevant within a given regional climate. It's meaningless to compare the skiable altitudes of Austria with those of the western Alps.


Pyremaniac, I wasn't trying to diss Austria. Just concerned about snow since I prefer spring skiing (March + beginning of April) and have had experience mostly with French resorts.

hammerite, thanks for sharing that! On which months did you go?


this season we bought the Kitz All Star Card for about €600.
We spent about about a month in Austria in total, and had a car for all trips, but if you pick the right area you wont need car access. As Someone stated above, places like Saalbach / Hinterglem / Leogang are all linked (200km + area), Kitz itself is large, Zell Am See / Kaprun, Wildschonnau, Ski Welt...loads of areas with loads of linked skiing, so no need to drive anywhere.

As Pam stated though, is lovely to be able to look at a map the night before and pick somewhere different for the following day - we absolutely loved doing this this winter. Most Austrian resorts are in the valleys, so easy and quick to get to, and we didn't find a single resort with poor parking etc, it was so easy.

As for the lack of height. We went early and late season this year.
Over Christmas and New Year there was a lack of snow, but everywhere we went had excellent man made pistes, and we didn't have a single poor day. Obviously there was a lack of off piste but that didn't bother us.

Over Easter there was still masses of snow in the Ski Circus, and as long as we got up and out early we had lovely morning's.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
If you want a large connected area Paradiski (Les Arcs AND LaPlagne) discounts it's season pass before December 1st, usually pays for itself after day 15 or 16. Plus It gives day passes for several other Olympic resorts in the area. Cheap accom can be found on the 'edges' or down in the valley.
Www.edenski.com opens for sales around October.
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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.
You didn't say it had to be Europe ? Some of the multi resort season passes in USA are great value.

Look at http://www.snow.com/epic-pass/passes.aspx Epic Value pass covers loads. 609 dollars, roughly 430 quid.

In fact I'd go as far as to say the USA season pass prices are possibly unbeatable value if you can get out there for enough days. You'd want a car of course.

One year I had an early purchase (ie. the previous spring) season pass for A-Basin just for a 1 week holiday in March (which at the time included a couple of days each at brekendridge and Keystone), as it was cheaper than buying 3 x 2 days tickets at each resort.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
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Quote:

Over Christmas and New Year there was a lack of snow,

As there was generally, including France.
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Grand Massif is 485 € this year, just 5 EUR more than before, seems a very reasonable increase. http://winter.grand-massif.com/season-ski-pass

sniegagalva wrote:
Thanks! Found that Grand Massif was 480 EUR for this season. http://winter.lescarroz.com/our-ski-area/ski-passes-prices/season-lift-passes.html
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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.
sniegagalva wrote:
quinton, thanks! I didn't know much about Austrian resorts so this info is quite helpful. The only concern left is that the ones I looked at seem at rather low altitude with slopes between 1000-1800 m, rarely any lift going to 2000 m.


Take a look at the Tirol Snow Card. ~€700 for 91 resorts (4000km pistes), including 5 glaciers, October to May: http://www.snowcard.tirol.at

FWIW the last 5 years or so I've always been able to continue skitouring until well after the resorts actually close - usually at least mid May (and then longer on the glacier). Spring is great here!

On that pass you have several large areas where you could base yourself while taking day trips to others. Ischgl and Zillertal (Mayrhofen) being too, both with high skiing (Zillertal has the Hintertux glacier) and both amongst the most reliable for snow in Europe at either extreme of the season.
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