 Poster: A snowHead
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Trysil was quiet 22-mid 28th Dec The suddenly a lot more people sat after and Sunday morning, pretty much doubled.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It's been a busy week in Valmeinier and Valloire, the pistes have been very busy but the lift system has coped really well and there have been very few queues of more than a couple mins. There is zero parking in either village.
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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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Greetings from the Dolomites.Skied Alleghe this morning c.8-45 till 1pm. San Pellegrino from 2pm-4-30pm. Longest wait for a lift circa 2 minutes. Blissfully quiet for New Year week in comparison to many other areas.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Passo Tonale lovely today, really quiet all over. Couple of 5 minute queues late morning out of the town but that's all.
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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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Been in Gstaad since the 29th. Have yet to see a lift queue.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Joy Zipper, Lovely, maybe it is the best resort in the world after all!
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The car park was more than rammed at the 7 Laux today, wider vehicles couldn't get through the tiny gaps between the cars (Tesla owners stay at home). Luckily I had my secret parking spot and once on the pistes, no queues and relatively empty pistes although a lot of people struggling on the hard, icy snow on some slopes.
A lot of people seem to have taken NY day off skiing, which was our plan. I love it when plans come together.
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| PowderAdict wrote: |
| I saw an alert on Monday that all 2800 car parking spaces at Saas-Fee were full, and you could only enter the resort by bus. At least all the lifts were running and all pistes open. |
The car park was just a bit silly that day! Resort didn’t feel too bad if you know where people tend to go and go somewhere else, but the home run in the afternoon was something else though and we’ve been skiing there for nearly 10 years.
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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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Drove through Briançon heading west on Saturday and there was solid traffic the entire way from the A51 heading to the mountains.
That’s got to be 80kms of road! Busy some where...
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| admin wrote: |
| skitow wrote: |
| Christmas is not a peak week any more in my opinion. |
I don't think it ever really has been.
OK, it's busy compared to previous weeks but it's never been busy on the scale of NY or Feb.
People would normally 'go away for Christmas' and [spoiler=hope to ski while there]although snowmaking has made this a far more reliable prospect, rather than pick Christmas week for their main ski holiday. And while a great many people do indeed like to go away for Christmas, by far the overwhelming majority go to stay with family rather than go 'on a holiday'.
Hence, Christmas prices tend to be quite high when booking in advance, for the 'benefit' of families making plans, but there are always cheap last minute deals as everywhere is well below capacity. |
When we first got our place in Alpe d'Huez 16 years ago Christmas was definitely not far behind New Year in terms of numbers and demand for private accomodation, admittedly not as "peak" as New Year and Feb. Now New Year seems to have stayed the same at close to 100% and Christmas is back about 60/70% at a guess. A lot of people seem to be doing the arrive on 26th. -28th. and leave after New Year thing though, but then our area of the town is all private accomodation, no tour operators so perhaps I get a distorted view. I don't think I got a single enquiry for Christmas this year bur New Year went early on.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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This thread terrifies me. I can only ski during uk school holidays and we've been doing various aosta valley resorts for the past 8 years. Apart from a couple of bottlenecks at pila, and one memorable 30 minute queue at the Klein matterhorn gondola on the way back to cervinia, 2 or 3 minutes is the longest I've ever queued for a lift. We're looking at trying something new next christmas, maybe sauze d'olx, but if the above thread is typical of the crowds at other resorts, we might just stick with what we know!
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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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Saas fee from the 27th to the 31st was busy but not to any extent that would really negatively impact on the holiday. Came back home and skiied up the Jura on the 1st of Jan, very empty pistes, no chair lift queues at all and the snow in surprisingly good condition considering how warm it had been and how long since the last snow. Super!
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Pinzolo was quietish today, a few 5 mins queues here or there but most lifts ski on.
Biggest queue of the day was in the self service buffet at the top, and loads of pedestrians up admiring the view in all the places we've visited this week.
None of the resorts in the Val De Sole have been rammed this week, Madonna area, Passo Tonale or Pejo, compared to Paradiski last year an unbelievable difference in numbers.
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You know it makes sense.
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Busyish.
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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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Busier in Grand Massif than we would like - lifts ok, but blue pistes full of boy racers, feels dangerous and seen lots of blood wagons. Prefer Feb half term.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just wondering in France at least, and where we are in Serre Che, because we had such good snow in the valley and it's still white all over with good coverage at 1,350m whether people booked Christmas / New Year for their week rather than February Half Term, only time will tell to see if that theory could be correct?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Weathercam, I think for most people if you are going to commit to skiing at Christmas or Feb Half Term you do so a fair while in advance and in ignorance of the snow conditions, which can only really be known late on.
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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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Our apartments are in Guillestre; just outside Vars/Risoul. So close to the regions bigger resorts and the smaller stations of the Queyras. They've been booked over Christmas, this week and February half-term. This year, no British over the last couple of weeks; but lots of European enquires.
Huge difference between the large resorts and the smaller stations. Over the last two weeks we've skied Vars/Risoul pre-Christmas and then mainly in the Quyeras and La Grave. Good snow and no crowds. Had one day in Serre Che where we stayed off the pistes after the first hour. Another when we turned back after we couldn't see a parking space from the start of Montgenevre to the end of Claviere; and there's big queues on the Risoul webcam
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You wonder how any station that isn't busy this week could stay in business.
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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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Queue for the First gondola in Grindelwald yesterday morning. Crazy.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Layne, speaking to various people running businesses last night general feeling is that a fair % do book depending on snow, as was the case last year when we had more snow than other resorts so people booked last minute here, and remember we started to have good snow levels here mid-November and it just continued.
Of course, the majority do book more in advance, but I think that what makes the difference between being busy and being rammed if you see what I mean 
I'm not too sure that I buy into the idea that more people drove because of the rail strikes, but there again Briancon is popular with rain travellers and many take the TGV to Oulx so maybe that explains why so many cars?
Anyway hopefully by Monday it will be a lot calmer.
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About right for the time of year in Chamonix.
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Reidobi
Just back from a weekish in the Queyras. We think we saw at least twice as many cars as ever before at New Year (a certain amount of chaos ensued in picturesque villages). Locals said that accommodation was v busy. Queues out the door at the butchers and bakery.
However, I don't know what everyone was actually doing. Tbf we hardly skied DH slopes but they didn't look any busier. We were in the XC tracks/ backcountry which I guess are big enough to swallow everyone. Locals said that tourists over New Year tend to stay in the resort rather than the BC so perhaps that was it. Refuges doing good trade.
I assumed the lovely powder and glorious weather was the explanation, rather than the Queyras suddenly becoming fashionable. Have to admit, we rather like it being under the radar...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| pam w wrote: |
| My daughter and family were in UCPA Plagne Centre for Christmas week. They had a terrific holiday but reported some very crowded pistes and lifts - partly because a lot was closed, early in the week. They also suffered from some poor skiing from others. The 9 year old was knocked flying by an overweight, under-controlled, adolescent. She was standing in a lift queue at the time and was knocked clean off her feet, landing on her back. My daughter was also knocked over twice by knobs - one who simply overtook her far too close, clipped her ski and sent her flying. No apology. Hit and run. . |
I've always found La Plagne to be pretty bad for out of control over fast (mainly british) skiers. I much prefer Les Arcs where the snow always seems better too.
Christmas and new year in 3V was generally pretty good. The grim weather at the start of christmas week meant that little was open of course. New year week seemed very busy in the car parks but not so bad on piste, St Martin 2 was sometimes a bit of a bottle neck. After the 31st things quietened down noticeably.
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Just skied Andermatt from 2nd - 5th Jan. 35 min wait to get up Gondola on the first morning and a 40 min queue for the link lift on the way back so thought the worst. After that however the queues disappeared and the pistes were quiet for the rest of the week. Fabulous snow and weather conditions!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Just back from 4 days in Madonna pre Christmaas, deserted (and very wet) and a week over New Year in Canazei which was, alomng with all of the Sella Ronda, absolutely rammed. I've skied in the Dolomites a few times over NY, never seen it like that before. Hope that Saalbach in a fortnight is quieter.
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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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Was in Les Arcs for New Year week, with a day over in La Plagne. Couple of pinch points in Les Arcs 2000 bowl and in Plagne Bellcote where the queues were horrendous.
However picking runs carefully had some very quiet pistes - found the trick is to stay low as everyone seems to head up to "do" Aguille Rouge. Runs around 1600 and Vallandry were empty.
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Les Contamines was busier at NY than I've ever seen it at NY. That said, NY conditions (snow and weather) were also better than I've seen since we bought our place. Think a lot of the volume was daily drive-in locals.
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You know it makes sense.
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Les Crosets in the PdS was pretty busy last week but especially on 2nd January, which was a Swiss public holiday combined with good snow and blue skies so lots of day trippers
That said I had one 10 minute queue but the others were manageable
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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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| Joy Zipper wrote: |
| Been in Gstaad since the 29th. Have yet to see a lift queue. |
True, but did you see any snow.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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3 Valleys fairly quiet over Xmas (despite it being British Uni week!), busy new year...
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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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| nixmap wrote: |
| Joy Zipper wrote: |
| Been in Gstaad since the 29th. Have yet to see a lift queue. |
True, but did you see any snow. |
No fresh snow but over 90% of the pistes were open and the snow quality was very good.
Snow all the way down to valley level with the exception of Zweisimmen. Runs down to Rougemont, Gstaad, Schönried & Saanenmöser all open.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@ster, we have a winner.
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There are even penguins, to add a touch of authenticity.
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Maybe for those skiing Antarctica, for the rest of us, not so much...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We are in Saalbach right now and there are very few queues. We have always skied in school holidays and this is such a fantastic change. It is perfect. Love the empty slopes and limited queues.
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