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How busy is your ski resort

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Christmas week is traditionally a bit less busy then New Year's but in France the resorts I've visited have been pretty quiet this year although maybe more cars on the road yesterday. Is this the effect of the rail strikes I wonder?
Anyone noticed anything similar?
I'm typically skiing 2nd and 3rd tier areas so maybe the big ski areas in the Tarentaise or Haute-Savoie are rammed?


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 29-12-19 13:30; edited 1 time in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Absolutely rammed here in CH.
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Christmas week was pretty quiet in arc1600. Then come Friday night crowds started arriving . Not sure if it is exceptional but people appear to have had lots of difficulty finding car park space.

Though the resort itself is heaving and the blue pistes packed (In both a snow and person sense) we have encountered few lift queues. We even walked straight onto the transarc this morning.

IMHO it's just a bit busier than usual new year week. I'm leaving on the second but I suspect it will quieter down a lot on new year's day itself
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Ischgl seemed quiet for the Christmas week, but I suspect the weather had a lot to do with that. The one good sunny day we had there was a significant queue for the first gondola up out of town but even that day there weren’t any real queues once up the mountain.
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Saalbach seemed quiet at Christmas but it was our first visit so can’t really compare.

Never queued for a lift but the slopes were well populated so guess the lifts running at almost perfect efficiency.

My theory is even when resorts are very busy , the numbers of people actually skiing remains the same (but you end up in long queues).

My wife’s instructor said the next two weeks would be hell (normal new year then Russian new year).

Our week at new year in selva last season was very very busy. 10 min queues at lifts not unusual and restaurants in town and on mountain were very busy.
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We were in Fügen the week of Christmas, hardly any cues, not crowded. The teachers all told us that the next week would be packed. Last day on the slopes was Saturday for the kids and there was nobody! Change over day!
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Grimentz-Zinal has been busy since before Christmas, but was very busy yesterday and today. The new Col de Pouce chair lift has eased congestion once you manage to get beyond Bendolla.
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Christmas week quiet in Ellmau, much busier today, think most are tourists as lots of cloggies.
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@davidof, Xmas week not too bad, but last Friday (I missed the dump) drove to my bros just on the edge of the Chartreuse, tough driving conditions over the Lautaret but my truck was fine and not too much traffic heading North, and those with chains etc I was able to overtake etc

Coming back Friday 17:00 Grenoble was rammed, and Vizille pretty bad and number plates suggested that a lot of people were travelling the Friday, took me over 3.5hrs normally can do 2hr 15 etc

Here in Serre Che yesterday was rammed, more cars than I think I ever since, and the 18:00 bouchon in front of us was tailing back well out of Villeneuve probably all the way to Briancon.

That said we had a very sweet ski tour yesterday avoiding the hordes but my OH and daughter reported back that it was crazy up on the hill.

So much so that I was able to get my daughter to be ready for first lifts, and that strategy works as you can work the resort and stay reasonably free of queues, though eventually that's nigh on impossible and we evacuate.

But had a good three hours and first 40mins we were skied untracked corduroy Laughing





Now planning for Spring snow ski tour tomorrow and leave my OH and daughter to deal with the hordes, hopefully, spring snow will be good enough for me to get my daughter ski touring with the dogs etc
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Montalbert very busy today with cars being parked in odd spaces suggesting car parks are fairly full, quite a few day trippers as well.
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I've not been here before, but the queue for the Klosters telepherique (dedicated to HRH Charlie) are huge, a good hour if you don't use your initiative
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Ski Amadé is busy this week. Not so many lift queues but pistes and huts are busy, roads and villages are busy and parking at lifts is a 'get there early or park miles away' situation. It's one of the weeks where local businesses make a good income, so those of us who live here suck it up and ski at the places we know will be the least busy, not Flachau and Wagrain which seem to attract the largest proportion of tourists.

It's also busy throughout February due to Austrian, German and Dutch semester holidays.
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No queues at all in Pejo 3000 today,
I'm sure Folgarida/Madonna will be a different story for the next couple of days tho!
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I think Risoul trumps everyone, they shut the access road yesterday as there were too many people in resort Shocked
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Ischgl in Christmas week didn't seem very busy initially only. Queues at Silvretta gondola start forming at 09:30, an hour after opening (while last year in Verbier, they were right from the start at Medran).
Pistes were quite busy and the 2 self service restaurants at Idalp were extremely crowded from 11. But nothing to spoil the fun
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Alpe d'Huez not so busy over Christmas apart from the usual queues to get up to the glacier and Sarenne, tunnel had not been open when I left Saturday evening. Started filling up more and more from Boxing day on, especially Friday night and Saturday. Because car parking space has been reduced by recent building work and the amount of snow piles lying about parking is difficult to say the least. If I was going for a day trip I would go via Villard Reculas. Piste conditions on Saturday were great I thought, bit of an ice wall down to OZ but hey, treat it as an opportunity to test your skill. Laughing
Christmas is not a peak week any more in my opinion.
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Very busy in ADH this weekend for the new year week. Probably all the snow we've had has helped with bookings.
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Kitzbuhel: Record 32,000 ski passes issued on Sunday. Very busy. Talking to a lift pass cashier in bar last night.
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The Jungfrau region has been jam packed this weekend. Someone I know in Central Sport Wengen said that the ski pass system crashed on Saturday due to the record numbers. Shocked
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sheffskibod wrote:
Saalbach seemed quiet at Christmas but it was our first visit so can’t really compare.

Never queued for a lift but the slopes were well populated so guess the lifts running at almost perfect efficiency.

My theory is even when resorts are very busy , the numbers of people actually skiing remains the same (but you end up in long queues).

My wife’s instructor said the next two weeks would be hell (normal new year then Russian new year).

Our week at new year in selva last season was very very busy. 10 min queues at lifts not unusual and restaurants in town and on mountain were very busy.


As Monty Python might say, "We used to dream of ten minute queues".
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Pretty much as normal here tbh. Christmas week busy but not overly so, this week rammed with every possible parking place in town taken.

Queues are dreadful but that is also down to the incompetence of the lift company who have failed to finish a new gondola in time for the busiest week of the season Evil or Very Mad
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How to do New Year week:

Get up early. Here's Flachau, the busiest spot in Ski Amadé before 9:



Arrive as the lifts open, park right at the lift. Ski for an hour or even two before the hordes arrive. Have a leisurely coffee, then have the rest of the day free to do something else.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
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queenie pretty please wrote:
How to do New Year week:

Ski for an hour or even two before the hordes arrive. Have a leisurely coffee, then have the rest of the day free to do something else.


Only really viable for you locals, I guess.
Us tourists have to eke out as much ski time as possible from our meagre time on the mountain.
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I will wander out of mine about 11.30 when the queues at the bottom lifts have cleared. Then ski until 2.30 perhaps whilst the french are having lunch.
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I dropped my OH and daughter off at 08:50 and it was more rammed than yesterday, feckin cars are parked everywhere!

I was going to ski tour up near the Col de Granon / Gardiole but think that the parking for that will be rammed, heard also that all up around the Lautaret was crazy busy with walkers (snow shoes) and ski tourers digging out places to park their cars!

I'll be touring up in a new area that I've had my eye on a number of years very close to my home up towards the Col-de-Buffère, just waiting for it to warm up a little, it's not a recognised ski tour area hence should be empty of people.

100 people rescued off a chair-lift yesterday over the course of the day!!!!
https://www.ledauphine.com/faits-divers-justice/2019/12/29/de-nombreux-secours-en-montagne-ce-dimanche
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Lazy start. Paying the price Shocked

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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@BobinCH, les arcs is busy in the town and on the slopes but the lifts remarkably queue free. Well they were for us.

The blue pistes were very busy and to be honest scary with lots of beginners, children, ski schools and of course the high speed heros. The red and black pistes felt much nicer, especially those designated natur.
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PdS was heaving yesterday as you can see from this pic I took of my nephew
driving a RouteMaster in Champéry yesterday.
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Pistes rammed here!

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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@BobinCH, What you doing in the shade?
There must be have been some sunny pistes around Medran yesterday Smile
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 Poster: A snowHead
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@BobinCH, surely you take the bus to Carrefour and then ski across to the Mayentzet lift to avoid the Medran queues? Very Happy
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@BobinCH, Serious question about the Medran Express.
When I have been up to Verbier from Le Chable sometimes the cable is switched so the cars carry on up so you do not need to alight and re-board in Verbier. But on other occasions the cars have been routed to go straight back down, so you get out and get in again (within 5 metres).
Given the picture seems to show a healthy queue in town, would people coming up from Le Chable need to get out, go down in the ascenseur, then join that big queue, can they just "stay on", or is there a secondary queue at the station for the people coming up from Le Chable?
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oui4ski wrote:
@BobinCH, surely you take the bus to Carrefour and then ski across to the Mayentzet lift to avoid the Medran queues? Very Happy
you win the prize Cool
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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 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.
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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. They have mostly skied in Les Saisies - often at Christmas - and said the pistes in La Plagne were far busier than Les Saisies at Christmas and the standard of piste etiquette abysmal in comparison. But they did have a great time, my son in law mostly off piste with the UCPA guide, and were very impressed with the UCPA set up (they'd used UCPAs before, but not with the kids - Christmas was sold as a family week) and are already talking about booking for next Christmas. They drove down with the 7 and 9 year old in a not-young VW camper, stayed in a F1 near Reims on the way down - just needed chains for the last half hour up the mountain and did the journey back in one hit, arriving home at 4am.
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@pam w, it was certainly a restricted opening week because of the weather and there is more than it's far share of eejits in La Plagne.
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@pam w, the other side of the Landry valley was very different. The pistes were generally deserted as the bad weather kept the crowds away. The closing of the ridge between 2000 and 1600 did it's bit as well.

We've been in les arcs now for 11 days and only felt the urge to go to la plagne once. I felt unwell so we came back promptly.

Arc 1600 is as full as I've ever seen it. As I assume are the rest of the villages, but with the exception of the blues the piste are ok and the lift queues less than other new year weeks. I wonder where everyone is.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
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Arc 1950 is reporting 100% booked in the leaseback accommodation for the next two weeks. Would expect the non leasback apartments to be pretty much full too. although of course there's no reliable data collation on that.

As per @johnE, last week's bad weather restrictions meant space. However when the sun shone, boy did the world and his wife all come out to play. Suspectin it's going to be a wee bit busy this week. Stay safe everyone.
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Les Houches, by noon all the parking was jammed and the roads leading away were filled with the illegally parked being double parked. At least our local police man has started to have some spine and is ticketing Gwaggons that are dangerously parked. In the past he would shy away from moving or ticketing very expensive vehicles. When arriving at the junction at the bottom of our lane I have been parked in numerous times. One particular time (this time of year but 4 years ago) a blacked out Merc was just siting there and wouldn't move when horn honked and lights flashed. I started beating on the passenger window (the driver was in the car). The local police man probably 20m just chose to ignore. A french woman came up down the lane behind me, she came to my aid, she dragged the policeman (almost literally by his ear) to the drivers window, to beat on that.
I've seen neighbors have to resort to broadsiding cars (push your font into the middle of the other car) to get out of our lane, even to get out of the lane (200+ parking spaces up our lane) onto the main road, such is the parking issue - and it's at that level today.....I walked to the lift and skied untouched snow most of the afternoon Wink
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@WindOfChange, that’s only during quiet periods. Most of the time you go straight up from Le Chable to Les Ruinettes without having to get off.
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