 Poster: A snowHead
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greetings all. i am planning my first ski trip to the alps in march to zermatt, verbier and chamonix. i've been to the jungfrau region of the alps before in the summertime so its not completely new to me. but i have a few questions that i am hoping someone could so kindly answer for me:
i will be flying into geneva and taking the train to zermatt then to verbier then to chamonix and then back to geneva spending a couple days at each resort. i am planning on buying a swiss flexipass that allows me to travel any 4 days in a month for $212. will i save money and hassle by not purchasing individual fare for each trip?
also, i'm not really positive on all the extras the flexipass offers but from what i understand you get discounts on lift tickets and the private trains that go up the mountain in zermatt like the klein matterhorn?
i am not bringing my skis or poles but i want to bring my boots because i hate rental boots. i would like to demo some skis while i am there since i need some new ones next year. do the resort shops rent out "top of the line" skis for demo like they do here in the states? or would it be easier and cheaper if i rent skis in geneva and just haul them around with me?
i'm not booking hotels because i want to be flexible in where i go when, especially if the weather is bad or the snow all melted by then. is it easy to find hotels when arriving in these towns. it will be during the week of march 11th through 17th, so mostly weeknights.
any other information anybody can give me is much appreciated. i live in lake tahoe so if anyone has any questions about ski areas here please feel free to ask me.
i've been skiing for more than 30 years and going to the alps to ski has always been a dream of mine. i can't wait to finally fulfill it!
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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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Skied in Verbier and Chamonix. Would agree that Vallee Blanche is a must if your doing the area but do take a guide. Grand Montets is another great day out. Lots of hotels in Cham but they do get busy. The Mercure by the railway station looks ok but never stayed there.
In Verbier too there is great skiing from the top of Mont Fort and following the ski trails over to Nendaz. A lively place at night but expensive I found.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I used Hardcore in Verbier for ski hire, opposite the post office. Better selection of fat skis (mainly Volkl/K2) than the other shops I looked at but not the cheapest. Slightly off topic, they also co-habit with Adrenaline, who offer guiding. Again, not cheap but they were very good.
Farenheit is fun in the evenings.
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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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duffy, Welcome to snowheads! You've chosen some great places to realise your dream.
Flexipass is certainly cheaper than regular tickets. GVA to Verbier alone is about $100.
I can recommend the hotel Gonegratt in Zermatt. Right by the railway station, simple and inexpensive. While in Zermatt, don't forget to zip over to Cervinia in Italy. Stunning restaurants and a damn sight cheaper than eating in Zermatt.
For ski hire in Verbier IMO No1 is best, just by the Medran lift. Also if you only have a short time and want to get the most from Verbier I know an excellent guide. PM me for number and email.
Have a great trip, snow's looking good for March!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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thanks everyone for the info, it helps a lot. 
steve sparks: i can't seem to figure out the pm thing. when i click on your username it just puts Steve Sparks, into this message box. anyway, i am interested in the verbier guide referral. could you perhaps pm me the contact info for the guide? also i have heard that with a guide you are able to skip lift lines (queue to you brits). is that true? i will be skiing there on a saturday most likely so that might be a good day for a guide. but i am thinking i probably need one my first day as well to familiarize myself with the good off-piste areas. how much does he usually cost per day including any tips?
snowman: i think that you are correct in saying that i might be spreading myself a little thin here so i am extending my trip. now i will have 9 days total to ski if my legs can handle that. probably just 2 days in zermatt and then 3-4 days in verbier then i need to go to amsterdam for 3 days and then back to chamonix for 3 days before heading home. hopefully that should be enough time for me to explore all the areas. do you know any good guides in chamonix? (although i might stay in argentiere instead)
thanks again!
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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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snowman, having been to all 3 during the past 4 weeks - from an ambience, praticality and environment perspective I would order them Zermatt, Verbier, Chamonix (probably wont go back)
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I wouldn't pay much attention to the doomsayers who say you can't travel easily between resorts. The European tradition is generally to go to one resort and stay there for a week but that's no reason you have to. The swiss rail system is probably as efficient as any in the world so I'd have thought transfers after at least half a day's skiing are more than possible. If you rent a car instead (all swiss rental cars come with winter tires and chains) you can definitely do a full day then travel (although obviously you may miss out on some of the views travelling)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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obelix67, I agree with you - on ambiance and and quality of the mountain restaurants Zermatt is top dog. As I said, for (harcore guided) off piste skiing I prefer the ranking the other way around.
fatbob, duffy specified travel by train....you say half day of skiing might be possible on day of travel....I say why not ski all day when there is plenty of skiing available in one place for a whole week....you choose. These places are not like most US resorts, they are much larger with huge vertical drops (eg Chamonix/Argentiere offer 2 big mountains with 2000m vertical) and unlimited off piste (out of bounds).
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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'm well aware what European resorts are like and in particular Chamonix. Your advice is fine but often North American visitors to Europe like to tour around and check out a few places - remember they're not going to the alps 2 or 3 times (or more) a season. The Swiss themselves would think nothing of doing a full day skiing then halfway across the country home so why not?
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fatbob, apologies if I came across as patronising. You have a fair point. I did the same when I went skiing to the States and visited 3 ski areas (but I also had 17 days to do it).
In any case Duffy seems now set to spend more time in the Alps with 2 skiing trips. Have a great time!
btw if you like great on the mountain food with loads of ambience check out Chez Vroni and Zum See in Zermatt.
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You know it makes sense.
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Check out train timetables from Z. to V. It might be possible to travel late p.m. as far as Le Chable, or at least Martigny. Stay there and get up to V. the next morning.....more skiing time  .
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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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you will be able to try out top line skis. Perhaps worth trying ski brands harder to stock in the US e.g stockli in switzerland, dynastar in chamonix (dynastar factory is there) -people on her regard dynastar legend 8000 as a freeride ski. suggestions for chamonix -le grand montet, brevant/flaerge and if the conditons are right the vallee lance ( mountain guide essential)
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Poster: A snowHead
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okay, it looks like there will still be snow for my trip in march so to be safe i am going ahead with booking some hotels so i don't get left out in the cold or have to deal with looking for something when i get there. i want to go budget the first week and then really splurge in chamonix to finish the trip. so i have booked hotel mischabel in zermatt for my first 2 nights. then hotel les touristes in verbier for 4 nights after that. both cheap hotels which look nice enough for me. then for chamonix i was thinking of booking hotel les grand montets in argentiere. this looks really nice and i was thinking that i probably want to ski at grand montets for 2 days then either brevent or if the weather and conditions are really nice get a guide and go for the vallee blanche. i realize that argentiere isn't as lively as chamonix but after 4 nights in verbier then 3 nights in amsterdam i figure i need something a little more relaxing to finish my vacation.
so please let me know if there is anything terribly wrong with these hotels and if any of you have more tips i'd love to hear them!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hotel Mont Blanc in centre of Chamonix is very nice if you change your mind and decide to stay in the centre. Try and get a double room with balcony, 'Mont Blanc view' as this gets the late afternoon sun. In the centre, handy for ski busses / station / restaurants / bars. Not cheap!!
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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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duffy,
Argentierre is not a bad place to be as you will spend most of your time on the GM anyway...its a great hill but can get a bit crowded. The apre starts at the Ofiice - follow everyone else. Chamonix is about 10k away but you should be ale to make VB preparations from Argentierre.
We need a full report when you get back
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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duffy,
You may find Hotel les touristes works out a little more expensive than planned as there is no half board option and eating out in Verbier is expensive. The rooms are very small but comfortable enough, there are no en suite facilities. The walls are also very thin, try to avoid it if there are groups of drunken Norwegians on tour  , in spite of that I liked it.
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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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eating out in Verbier is expensive
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I don't agree. It certainly can be expensive, but I can still have a night out in Verbier for about the same as I would spend in Brighton. It's just a matter of choosing the right places. If you stick to the furry shovel, relais des neiges, pub mont fort, al capone etc all serve good food at reasonable prices.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Steve Sparks, I obviously ate at the wrong places. I should have asked here in advance  I don't know what Brighton is like but I dont find eating out in GB either cheap or particularly good in general.
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greetings all. just wanted to drop a quick note to say my trip was a total success. i have some pictures up on my website here:
http://rob.duffy.net/zermatt
http://rob.duffy.net/verbier
http://rob.duffy.net/chamonix
i loved zermatt. i ended up staying at the hotel testa grigia which i thought was very nice for the cheap price. i loved the skiing as you can see in my pictures and i got really lucky with some fantastic weather. i liked hotel post for the brown cow and also there was a great band in the pink room...but watch out, i ordered a jack and coke and was very surprised when the waitress brought the drink and told me it cost 20 francs. ouch! everything else i thought was reasonably priced in zermatt. i really liked this club called vernissage. it is a theatre and also art gallery and dance club...really nice chilled out atmosphere.
verbier has really great ski terrain. i especially liked doing laps from the top of mont fort down through the col de gentaines and then back up the 2 trams again. just fantastic! the apres ski was a blast as well. i was there during the xtreme's which was amusing as well. i can't really recommend my hotel, les touristes. it was certainly cheap but just too far off the hill and the free bus stops running after 5pm so i would have to walk down the hill in my ski boots. breakfast was kind of lacking as well and my room was tiny....but i wasn't there much except to sleep. i didn't really sample the night life because i was just too tired from skiing all day and apres afterwards.
in chamonix i only skied one day since the weather turned nasty and my body was broken by that point. i went to les grand montets and got about a foot of powder in the morning which quickly turned to mash potatoes in the afternoon, but a great day none the less. lots of really great terrain there especially over to the west side of bochard down to the combe de la pendant. i only did one ride up to the top since the line was always at the 45 minute mark and it cost extra money. when i did go up a huge cloud engulfed the top and you could hardly see a thing. kind of scary so i took it slow....unfortunately when i reached the bottom it had cleared up. oh well, maybe next time. i stayed at the hotel les grand montets for 2 nights which was very nice. great rooms and the breakfast was awesome. the jacuzzi and pool were luke warm which is my only complaint...not really sure why this was because i didn't ask. very convenient to the lifts as well. the town of argentiere is very small so not a lot going on but after 3 nights in amsterdam i was ready to just relax and sleep. i went down to chamonix on my second day there and the first hotel i checked out of the train station, gustavia, had a nice room for me. it was right over my favorite pub chambre neuf which was kind of loud but i was up that night drinking so i didn't care. this great cover band named the balboas i think played that night. i don't think i've ever seen so many people in such a small place. fun times indeed. if you stay there and want to get to bed before 2am then make sure your room is further upstairs or around the back. i really loved chamonix, it was my favorite town of all 3 places i went. hopefully i will be back soon so i can do more skiing there.
enjoy the photos and captions, they tell the story better than i can here.
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duffy, glad you had such a great time. Chambre Neuf is a great place for apres
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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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duffy, Glad you had a great trip. I was in Nendaz last week in very wet and warm conditions. Passed on skiing Plan-du-Fou, because there had been an avalanche close to the bottom cable car, and we were uncomfortable about the stability of the snowpack, but I can confirm that the Spanish themed restaurant at the top is still belting out the music 
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Very nice photos capturing the spirit of the 3 great skiing places.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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duffy,
Still trawling through your pics ..looks like you had a great time...
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duffy, from the photos of Chamonix the weather doesn't look that bad!! blue sky- try a trip to Britain.
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You know it makes sense.
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Yep, all that rain would have been snow higher up, bearing in mind that Chamonix is around 1000m and most skiing beyond 2000m.... I love the GM when it is raining in the village
duffy,
Great set of pics and you must have a few routes ticked off to do when you come back. I'm sure you could russle up some to show you around when you come back
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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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Rob, great pics and glad you had such a great time. I always love those runs down the side of the Greppon Blanc and not many people bother with the traverse. Did you try the extreme left side of the Col de Gentianes? that's definitely my preferred way down. Now, I'm only saying this so you don't get someone else correcting you, I'm not trying to be a smart @rse, but it's not actually Mt Blanc that you've identified in those two pics- it's the Grand Combin which is a pretty special mountain in it's own right and is the highest point in the Val de Bagnes. For Mt Blanc you would need to track a bit further left from your first photo in the extreme series (that hill is called the Bec des Rosses).
BTW it's really great for someone to give feedback on their trip and if you ever come back to Verbier give me a shout and I'll show you some of the stuff off the sides.
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Poster: A snowHead
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duffy, Thanks for posting those photos. You made the best of your few days' skiing in the Alps! Brought back memories of great days spent in all three areas.
You had a photo of the little memorial to Ulrich Inderbinen in Zermatt. He was a truly wonderful man, who I stumbled upon in a bookshop behind the Bahnhostrasse in early 2001: he was signing copies of the Festschrift that had been written for his 100th birthday. He was a tiny, wiry man and was being shepherded around by his (not very young!) daughter. He had been a mountain guide from about 1917 through to his nineties (yes, I find that hard to believe too) in the early 1990s. His clients included many of the minor royalty of Europe in the mid C20th, but he was clearly a really modest man who had rarely travelled far from the Mattertal. I wish I could remember the number of ascents of the Matterhorn he had made! He died a year or so later - and was honoured with an obituary in the Economist magazine (which only has one each week).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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thanks for the props people and glad you like the photos.
snowbunny: i skied down the plan-du-fou just one time while i was there. it was really hard packed to icy with rocks strewn about and a fall would have resulted in a very long slide to the bottom...which was kind of weird because on the rest of the mountain the snow was really quite good. i can see why it would slide with new snow on top of that icey stuff. i'm sure its great to ski when the conditions are good.
edsilva: having lived in tahoe for a long time where its sunny 300 days a year and snows the rest of the time i'm not very fond of wet foggy conditions..and my body was aching too much to justify going up another day. i'll be back someday and hit up brevent/flegere and the vallee blanche on a sunny day with any luck!
Steve: thanks for letting me know my mistake. i couldn't figure out that picture map they have up on top of mont fort and since the grand combin was so huge i thought for sure it was mont blanc. i fixed it on the webpages so no one gets confused. and yes i did hit the left side of col de gentaines under mont gele but not too far over, i never hiked or traversed through the rocks much. they actually opened mont gele one of the days i was there for the first time in a few years i guess but they were only letting groups with guides up. it looked just fantastic up off that backside of gele down gentaines and tortin. another to do list entry!
nlinesw4: thanks for letting me know who ulrich was. sounds like a very interesting and hardy man. plenty of those guys and gals in the alps i think.
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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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duffy, great pictorial. I enjoyed it very much.
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