Poster: A snowHead
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Well we've just got back from Orelle after attempting our last ski day of the season. We've been hemmed in by bad weather since the 10th April. Anyway finally this Thursday was forecast to be good and it is the May bank holiday weekend. Arriving at Orelle the car park was pretty much full, not a good sign, with fed up skiers rejoining their cars. We went up to see what was happening, 2 hours to buy a lift pass then 1 hour to queue to get on the gondola. Not great. Prospect of similar queues later in the day to re-descend it didn't seem worthwhile given the cost of the lift pass.
We should have maybe driven straight to Val Thorens or Tignes but they are a long way. Pity really as there is enough snow to open a couple of lifts locally on the back bowls of Allevard, for example.
There does seem to be a big problem with overcrowding this season. Lack of snow early on has left late demand for skiing, at least in the big ski areas.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Val T and Orelle were noticeably busier on the midweek bluebird pow day on the EOSB (tues?). I put it down to the valley locals getting their last opportunistic (sick?) day of the the season in. Looks like you hit a similar effect. No doubt VT are delighted selling so many day passes last week of the season.
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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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Bright spot is that I didn't book online - the queue for the ticket machine to recover lift passes was even longer than for the ticket office.
I'm not sure what Orelle can do, but if that is what it is like on busy winter weekends it must be a real PITA.
As you say, good for Val Tho if they are making some cash.
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@davidof, If you already had a card you could recharge it online and just join the queue for the gondola.
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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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Yes that would have been a good plan, I couldn't find my old passes. I know you can use cards from other ski areas sometimes too but they have to be from the same system.
Orelle seems like a good plan, until it isn't. It rather reminded me of skiing on the Zugspitze back in the day.
Lesson learned, drive directly to Val Tho next time!
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It was extremely quiet here last week, the last week of the season, with great conditions
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Glencoe was also surprisingly well attended last Saturday on their closing weekend, given that we almost had the place to ourselves when we visited 2 weeks previously
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