Assuming that resorts (Les Deux Alpes and Sölden) open this December and assuming that we will be able to travel; we want to do 3-4 days of snowboarding in either Les Deux Alpes or Sölden in mid-December.
Wife loves long-wide blue-to-redish runs with no (or almost no) flat parts, I love lift assisted knee deep powder and we both love riding longest possible routes in single run.
What is your advice on Les Deux Alpes vs. Sölden?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I was in L2A last December, the run from Jandri 5 all the way to Jandri 1 is quite fun. Not really challenging, they are 5 blue pistes that connect each other, many wide parts, check it: http://youtube.com/v/NaINJ-ZiTaY
You can always link some red runs between some blues.
In Solden I really enjoyed the top with the tunnel, crazy wide, but a bit of flat parts.
@AndreSilva thank you for the info. Do you have a ""top to bottom" video in Sölden?
btw, how did you do the "dashboard" on second video?
Unfortunately not, when I went there I was still learning and wouldn't dare much, my first red slope was there
Check this video, this was one of my favorite tracks, it is a crazy wide blue, perfect for training but maybe too boring for your level. Please, don't mind my horrible stance, that was the 5th day of skiing in my life and was just learning to do parallel turns
When you record with a GoPro, it also records the metrics such as altitude, speed and g-force, then I used the GoPro Quick app to add it.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I've ridden both places. LDA is kind of flat on top with the more interesting stuff down to the village, which was not open early season when I was there then.
For both places, I would try to find historically which pistes were actually open early-season, so you know what to expect. I'd be happy to return to either; if
I had the choice I'd pick the one with the best snow, which makes more difference than anything else.
Sölden...
...those videos are from the two glaciers at the top. It's hard to gauge steepness from video.
The slowest place on the whole mountain is that tunnel, although if you drop off the cat road as soon as you can there's a bump slope which can be taken at speed.
You don't need to pole/ paddle through the tunnel, it's not that flat.
The race course is down the Rettenbach and is steep and fast, quite how sporting it is depends on the conditions. the World Cup season opener is there in October.
I visit most seasons for the close in early May, at which time you can occasionally ride down to the mid station at Giggijoch,
but usually I drive (or catch the bus) up to the glacier base and then ride the Rettenbach / Tiefenbach glaciers. The bus and road access are included in the lift pass.
By May Sölden is one of the few resorts which is still actually open, but you've never been able to ski back to the village at that time in my experience.
The video below is from 2014 and mostly shows "the fridge" (that may be a German translation) skiers' right on Rettenbach (3,050 down to 2,670).
Its aspect makes it cold, hence the snow is often in excellent condition when other places are too warm.
Both glaciers have very wide pistes with consistent gradients and a mix of groomed/ not groomed.
I hate stopping mid-run, but I think most people will want to stop multiple times even just on the glacier runs.
3-4 days on those glaciers alone is ok, but more would likely be tedious. Sometimes more of the
mountain is open, and sometimes there's fresh snow for variety. I've ridden
30cm or so fresh there, but it's on a skier-pisted base.
After all it is free
After all it is free
You might want to consider Ischgl as an alternative to Sölden. I dislike the "village" but the ski (board!) area is both large and good. It is arguably the best place to go in the alps for early and late season snow despite there being no glacier skiing, the resort is open from late November until first of May. There are some very long runs back to the villages but they are more subject to snow conditions than the higher runs.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Yeah, been to Ischgl in May also, nice and quiet at the end of season and you could actually ride all the way back to the village with the right wax. If they have the snow then they have some impressive "big valley" runs which are excellent for those with the legs. I'd wait and see where the best snow is.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I booked a hotel for November 26th in Solden, that will be 1 week after the official start date, should be enough to see if the conditions are good.
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