Snow Pass: European Multi-Resort Season Pass

A snowHead

Morning all

Couldn't find the thread where we were discussing it, so started a new one.

Admin please feel free to add this to the existing thread if it needs context.

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Had the email this morning

A snowHead

Quite a few options for the Krauts and some decent 'names" elsewhere - Isola 2000, Galtur. I was sceptical but could be decent product taking traffic to some respectable little hills.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Isola2000 is like 165eur for a 6 days in high season, cheap. It's like 15 days at least to break even. Who travels a lot or is local might be interested. However, 395 is early bird price with 50% discount. Don't see anyone jumping on this with regular price.

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At €395 good value indeed, higher price probably better options out there, I didn't expect any of the bigger areas to be involved.
Champex Lac can be epic with fresh snow. Good way to get off the beaten track and explore some places I wouldn't normally consider going to.
I'm 50/50 as to whether I'm going to buy, another one or two solid additions might sway me.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I've had the email too and have been quickly looking through the Swiss resorts to get a feel. Most are very small unheard of villages but they seem to be in tight geographic clusters; for instance there are three up the road to the Grand St Bernard Pass one of which is mentioned in the previous post. Another two in the valley north of Adelboden.

Back under the motorhome now cleaning all the salt encrusted rust off from the last trip!

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Is it just me or was the 10 day limit at any one resort / group of resorts not that obvious? And indeed which of the listed are grouped together?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

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@Mike Pow, also worth mentioning that all the resorts on the Italian and Slovenian sides of the "triangle" list you mention are covered by a regional, multi day pass, so might be worth doing some sums to see if buying that plus some other single day passes would be cheaper - particularly if you're visiting low season (138 euros for 7 days for the regional pass, for example).

Link to the pass prices here.

As above, just an observation - not a judgement on whether the Snow Pass is worthwhile or not.

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You know it makes sense.

Nice idea but not sure it is going to go very far. From a perspective in southern Germany, it would be much better to buy one of the various multi resort cards already available eg Super Ski card or the various Tirol ones. I believe there is a Vorarlberg one too. As has been pointed out above there are already multi resort passes available further south too. The magic pass in Switzerland seems to work but that has a sharper geographical focus. I can see a few people would find it interesting to buy and then try to visit all the various resorts but realistically how many people will be attracted to that? I suspect it costs little to run the operation and for the resorts there is little or no risk but doubt it will be a long term success.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@Mike Pow, The areas offered by the Dolomiti Superski Pass and the Snowpass Card are hardly comparable though. The Dolomiti Superski Pass offers ski areas that are major destinations in their own right, the Snowpass Card offers a large number of low altitude resorts whose main appeal is to people who live nearby and are after a cheap slide at the weekend if the conditions are favourable (Galtur and Isola 2000 excepted, but neither of these are places that I would really want to spend a whole week and it is hardly convenient to get from one to the other).

For people who want a cheap season pass that covers multiple areas then the Magic Pass is a hugely better option, it offers many very good ski areas, many of which are close enough together that you don’t need to keep changing accommodation to visit them, and its about £100 cheaper than the discount price for Snowpass. I can’t see Snowpass selling more than a tiny number of full price tickets, I just don’t know who they would appeal to, even the discount price doesn’t look very enticing. Maybe if you live within easy driving distance of several you would save yourself money over the number of day passes that you would typically buy.

A snowHead

@Mike Pow, it depends on what you want. A 10 day random use Super ski card was €466 if bought before the beginning of December and that covers a large number of resorts big to small. The Tirol card was more expensive as it is only full season ie €797 but that covers pretty much every resort in the Tirol (except the Arlberg) including glacier skiing . A 6 day pass in one of the big areas will be in the region of €300 so you dont have to go very often for one of the existing passes to make sense (probably makes sense if you ski more than 18 days a season).

I can see that there would be a small market for folk who might fancy a trip to Isola and also to Galtür (for example) in the same season but not sure that there would really be the numbers to make this financially worthwhile for the folk running it.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@munich_irish, @rambotion, I agree with you both but I will be trying it for next season because I tour for 2 months in a motorhome and this pass gives me a great deal of flexibility. The start of the last two seasons have been notable by the big difference in conditions at either end of the Alps so I can choose where to head for to hit the best snow. It's better to be low and in the right place than high and in the wrong place. I rarely spend longer than 5-7 days in any particular resort before moving on, I actually prefer small 30-60km resorts to big resorts (even for a week) and I'd rather be carving up a blue at speed than doing steeper technical stuff.

I've checked enough resorts to satisfy myself that there are a good number of motorhome friendly places and there are. I'll probably pass east/west or west/east through the northern Italian resorts and may even get to the Pyrenees for the first time. This pass is made for me.

The only problem I face is whether to take my French, Italian or German/Austrian gas bottles!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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So many of us, myself included, think that the-only-place-to-ski is at a large, well known, mega resort.
We have probably never even been to a small or very small ski area and assume they are no good.

I have explored some of those types of places (mostly in Japan), but only a very few, and have always enjoyed myself. For example look on page 7 of the Verbier snow report thread for my day-trip to Champex Lac...perhaps the best day of my 60+ day season (as an aside: why am I such a medium quality skier with all that skiing?!).

If we were not tied to Verbier and its immediate locale I would certainly go for this pass, or Magic Pass, for a season or two.

Hopping from place to place, not being dependent on booking up ages in advance...I can really see the appeal.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I have no doubt that some awesome days and new experiences would be had by making best use of this pass, but other than a long tour or living nearby several of the included areas I think the attraction for anyone else will be limited.
If I was organising three trips over the course of a year I probably wouldn't structure it round day trips to resorts on this pass and I certainly think I would struggle to sell it as an idea to the friends I usually travel with.
But best of luck to anyone it will suit!

After all it is free

One of the more unusual ski areas would seem to be Tarvisio in Italy right up against the Slovenian and Austrian borders where, at the top of the mountain, you will find this:

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Yep.

Good enough for TGR, good enough for me

Was hoping to get there in March '18 but Nerys couldn't get the time off Sad

http://youtube.com/v/5Q0YwzoVxNs

http://youtube.com/v/XVZIh2J2rME

http://youtube.com/v/yn7W_RZDXnM

http://youtube.com/v/5HbfY6xFgM8

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The main market for any of these passes is folk who live nearby most of whom ski weekends or half term week plus weekends, itinerant brits will be a (very) small minority. Thus if you live in Salzburg the Super Ski pass is a good option, if you live in Lausanne then the Magic pass is ideal and the Tirol or Olympic cards perfect if you live in Innsbruck. The small resorts rely on people who live nearby who want a morning or afternoon's skiing when conditions are good. The smaller resorts are often empty during the week even in perfect conditions, ideal for those with no time restraints. I am sure there are some great resorts covered by this pass but still cant see how the pass itself makes sense unless you have very specific holiday plans.

You know it makes sense.

https://www.fis-ski.com/en/international-ski-federation/news-multimedia/news/snowpass-card-the-first-european-wide-season-ski-pass

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

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Substitute 'value for money' for 'smaller' maybe.

Most skiers/snowboarders paying a premium for lift passes at the 'great resorts' are only able to ski/ride a fraction of the available terrain on any given day, often with hordes of others.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

“Smaller” resorts typically cost less than the mega link resorts.

For those who don’t mind moving on after a few days, the non-linked smaller mountains offer just as much variety as the linked mega resorts. If minus the convenience of putting on ski from the same lodge/hotel/ condo every morning.

So, same “value” for less cost. Yep, “value for money”.

And the added benefit of typically less crowded mountains.

Either way, it’s really for people who skis more than one week a year.

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At 395 it looks like it could we worth a punt, not planning on being the Europe 19/20 so unless that changes I'm out. Do like the smaller resorts though, need to collect those fridge magnets and rucksack patches!

Annoyingly there is no detailed map with all the resorts to check the feasibility of a tour/weekend trips.

What are the length of seasons at these places? Seems like without the big names this pass becomes redundant due to lack of snow quite quickly (e.g. Easter weekend).

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

Not necessarily. There are many reasons for choosing a larger ski area.
For a faster skier comfortable on all pistes, it offers a more interesting day enabling him to ski from place to place instead on repeating the same pistes and waiting for the same lifts. Going from peak to peak, valley to valley. Different views and conditions. You can go up if the visibility is good or hide between the trees, all in the same big area.
Start early if the conditions allow and you will probably won't suffer so much from the queues. Or use a morning bus to get to the other end and do your tracks against the main crowds (I learned that after one very long queue on my way from St. Anton to Lech)
Choosing smaller ski areas (40 kms for example) with limited variety, number and length of pistes will force to go up and down the same tracks, if you only go on piste. It may be fun to work on your technique and to improve, but it soon becomes boring.
I've been to Risoul once, took us about one hour to get there from Briançon area. After 4 to 5 hours you flee back to the car or stop for a long lunch before returning. While in a big resort you can ski all day long with minimal coffee stops.
30 to 60 min drive in each direction on winter mountain roads is not my idea of winter ski vacation fun (to each his own, i know). In the summer it is perfect, allowing one to acknowledge different areas, restaurants etc. as you mentioned.
It will be interesting to see how well it will be adopted. Hope more resorts will join in the future years.

@drporat, not necessarily what? Which part are you disagreeing with?

Also, I'm surprised you got bored after 4 hours in a (fairly large) ski area like Risoul / Vars. Even many of the big ski areas are only about twice the size. So does that mean you get bored in Val d'Isere after 8 hours (1 day), and if so, what do you do for the rest of the week?

Perhaps it was actually the type of pistes, snow conditions or terrain in Risoul that you got bored of. But that's not what we're discussing here.

Yes, in a big area you (might) have a variety of terrain types / trees etc., but that's just as much the case if you ski multiple small areas. The comparison isn't between a small area and a big area (obviously, in this case, big areas usually have more variety) - what I was actually be comparing is *several* small areas and one big area. Which is probably what the Snowpass, Magic Pass etc. will mostly be used for.

I do appreciate that not everyone is a fan of driving each day. Though with planning, the amount of time spent on "winter mountain roads" can be very small - many resorts have valley access lifts, or public transport. For example, why did you drive all the way up numerous hairpins to Risoul, when you could have parked at Vars (in the same ski area) instead with easier access roads?

Also, perhaps you've already tried a ski holiday touring multiple resorts (in which case, disregard this paragraph), but if not, don't knock it before you've tried it. Having done it both ways multiple times, I certainly think a carefully planned touring trip holds its own against a week in a big area. And it's usually cheaper.

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@denfinella, one of the BIGGEST reason to ski in smaller mountain is the lack of crowds. So stop trying to recruit others to the idea! Toofy Grin

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Snow Pass: European Multi-Resort Season Pass

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