 Poster: A snowHead
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Booked a week off work next week for a "proposed" ski trip, probably with UCPA. I thought the school holidays would be over by then but just looked at the calendar and there are still 2 zones in France on holiday then! Will prob end up some where like Val D, Val T, Serre Chevalier, Les Arc......how bad are the queues during that week? I'm guessing they will be pretty dire? Will it better to push out by a week? Dam school holidays - they ruin all of Feb!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You guess right..... for us the four weeks of half term are for randonee, racquettes and xc.
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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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Wait till w/b 10 March. Different world.
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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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Passed through Arc 2000 yesterday and one of the lifts (lanchettes) must have had over 150 people queueing for it. So pleased we were lunching, not skiing.
To be fair, after a day and a half of rain I think everyone was desperate to get out, and some of the other lifts weren't open.
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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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Depends where you choose and which regions in particular are off.
I stayed at the Serre Chevalier UCPA a couple of years ago during the half term but it wasn't a Paris or UK and it was fine. It was mostly an off-piste week but still using the lifts, we never had to queue for more than a minute.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Busy. Two French regions including Paris plus some Dutch. At least most of the Brits won't be there!
As @pam w, says w/c 10 March will be good but w/c 3 March also not a disaster. Our lads' trips have often coincided with the final week of French holidays and so long as Paris is back at school it is bearable, in the PDS at least.
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My first half term experience was in Courhcevel/3v last week and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It's true I never arrived to an empty lift, but even on the glorious sunny days the longest we waited was around 5 minutes, and most the time only a couple of minutes. Even when we went across the 3v I was expecting Meribel and VT to be lift queue disaster zones, and they really weren't too horrific. I did feel the pistes felt like heavy traffic though. Oh and we learnt the hard way if you arrive at a decent mountain restaraunt without a reservation and after about 12.15 you won't get a table or you'll be witing !
So it's not all doom, but if you can push back to March it'll be an all round more relaxed experience!
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if you arrive at a decent mountain restaraunt without a reservation and after about 12.15 you won't get a table or you'll be witing !
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At half term, that's the time to be skiing, after a late-morning pause.
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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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Absolutely right. Either first lift (or for the late risers 15 minutes after skischool starts) followed by skiing. Then a coffee stop at 11.30 followed by skiing. Then a late lunch at 14.30 followed by skiing.
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@BMG, last time I looked, February only had 28 days.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Agree with @DJL, about the w/c 3 March, it can be better than the 10th March as only one region of France is off that week. Nearly everybody without kids turns up the week after the school holidays hoping to miss the crowds and it can almost be as busy as the school holidays.
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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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Feb 30th will be guaranteed empty pistes, without a shadow of a doubt!
As it's been pointed out, the first week of march only has one of the French zones on holidays, although this includes the entire Provence Alpes côte d'Azur région, so the southern Alps can get slightly busier than usual.
This week is the busiest because the predominantly parisian zone crosses over with the last week of Lyon's.
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You know it makes sense.
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Went to Les Arcs on 25th Feb last year. There were some long-ish queues that week, but I don't think we queued more than 15 minutes for anything except the Aiguille Rouge cable car. There were quite a few 5-15 minute waits though.
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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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Thanks for the info everyone....I think I will push it out a week. Last thing I want is to be stuck in lift queues and fighting with crowds if I don't need to.
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last time I looked, February only had 28 days.
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Huh, so it has...I completely missed that 
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