 Poster: A snowHead
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Inspired by the suggestion on the other thread a thread to vent all your best 1 star trip advisor reviews about ski resorts you've been to. Good if its original but fair quoting from TA loons also acceptable.
No positivity or balance please.
Remember Snowbird successfully turned this sort of thing into a marketing campaign.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Niederau but apparently there is a place even worse just a bit further up the valley.
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Sheffield ski village circa 1993
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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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Ischgl. Or as I like to call it: the valley of horny Dutch stoners A.K.A a Spanish package holiday in the snow
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Beckton Alps, gets my vote.
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Ah! comon, Becton Alps is great, Fantastic views from the summit.
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| DrLawn wrote: |
| Ah! comon, Becton Alps is great, Fantastic views from the summit. |
+1 for the views.
But all references to it should be in the past tense please. My local resort is ancient history 
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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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Miami. Absolutely miles from the slopes.
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Alpe d'huez. Try not to look at it.
Swindon town centre on a mountain.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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In the spirit of the OP's checklist...Easily the worst resort I've ever been to has to go to St Anton. Rubbish pistes, drunks on the pavements and sliding around uncontrollably on the simplest of slopes, pretentious tools with more money than sense from all corners of the continent, 5 days ski rental that's pricier than a new pair of Stockli SL SX GTis, boy racers in formation tucks on narrow cat-tracks, ridiculously overpriced accommodation, meals that cost a second mortgage served by sour lemons with a frown.....and once in a blue moon there's some powder high up somewhere...apparently.
But "you can do the ring of something tour" they all say, "you can go to Lech, great pistes over there".....yes, well, then go to Lech you muppet. Avoid.
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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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| Bodeswell wrote: |
In the spirit of the OP's checklist...Easily the worst resort I've ever been to has to go to St Anton. Rubbish pistes, drunks on the pavements and sliding around uncontrollably on the simplest of slopes, pretentious tools with more money than sense from all corners of the continent, 5 days ski rental that's pricier than a new pair of Stockli SL SX GTis, boy racers in formation tucks on narrow cat-tracks, ridiculously overpriced accommodation, meals that cost a second mortgage served by sour lemons with a frown.....and once in a blue moon there's some powder high up somewhere...apparently.
But "you can do the ring of something tour" they all say, "you can go to Lech, great pistes over there".....yes, well, then go to Lech you muppet. Avoid. |
Never been to St Anton and this is exactly how I imagined it just by the type of people who are fanboys and the way they talk about it
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Yeah, St Anton is truly awful. Best not go there.
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You know it makes sense.
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Pas de la Casa.
La Plagne.
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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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Tamworth snow dome, it‘s a jungle out there.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Plagne Bellecote. Cumbernauld +2,000 metres.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Cortina for me, like much of the 'clientele' it resembles a has been/past-it black and white movie star who thinks they're still someone, the town itself is nothing special (the pedestrian centre is perfectly ok but a considerable part of the rest of it is bordering on dilapidated) and the infrastructure (both in terms of the lift system and not adopting modern procedures like paying for parking with a card) is extremely dated.
The Dolomites are beautiful, but that alone isn't enough, and there's so many better Italian resorts.
Shame that it gets the WC next year and the Olympics in 2026 just because of it's name.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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It's not like they never get snow in Harlow!!
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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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I always think Avoriaz is like the infamous Byker Wall onetime home of ratboy.
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@luigi, if you spend the whole time skiing in the centre, then fair enough, but in my time skiing La Plagne probably less than 5% of my time has been spent near the built up parts. The mountain setting is one of my favourites.
I haven't had a bad ski trip, but I suspect that I'm less fussy than many. as long as I'm on skis then I'm happy.
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Oi No positivity
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Tignes le lac is a name without a place, just a hundred yards of concrete.
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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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| DrLawn wrote: |
| Niederau but apparently there is a place even worse just a bit further up the valley. |
Niederau is where I went on my first boarding trip, a ridiculously good half-board late deal in January With my sister where it only cost us about an extra £30 to have our own rooms.
I suspect I'd be bored of the ski area within a day now, but for beginners or families, it definitely has its place and I'm pretty sure the links to the other neighbouring resorts are better now than when I went too.
Apologies for the positivity.
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Is it about the town or the ski area? Niederau has a small ski area, which might not suit mileage-hungry skiers, but the town is charming and does not belong in this thread.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Cervinia. Intermittent closures for high winds. Icy pistes. Luke warm food on cold plates. Miserable hoteliers. The worst new year's 'party' ever. Total disappointment (apart from bombardino's........ Damn!).
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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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Queenstown. Full of remortgaged Auckland Jerrys in flash ski gear with contrasting zips, pretending to be legends but who struggle to get skis on without falling over, in a ski town modelled on aspen and completely made crap through the usual short sighted kiwi half arsed disorganised cheap approach to anything. Beautiful scenery completely ruined by property developers.
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Whistler. It snows all the ****ing time. And they don't bash it flat! So there's all this fresh snow there, littering the pistes which otherwise would be ok and making it hard to ski. On the plus side, if you ignore most of the terrain and pick just one or two key runs, you can manage to avoid the fresh snow, although it's always crowded there. There's a lot of terrain off the piste which they don't bash at all, and down which they could easily put pistes, but they are too lazy to do that. They mark the boundary of the resort with stupid signs telling you not to cross it - outrageous authoritarianism. They also have speed cops, taking all the fun out of my 200km/h straight line snowploughing runs.
There are no pistes at all below the resort, so everyone has to get up in the mornings, which is just stupid. They even manage the queues, so you can't push in like you can in the Alps! Worse, you're not allowed to smoke anywhere! I can't imagine what they're thinking.
They have also designed the resort all wrong, with the freezing level not always below it. Quite often there's rain or very wet snow on the lower slopes leading back to the village. Downloading is for morons, so you just have to learn to ride wet snow and buy hyper-expensive GoreTex clothing. It's a scam arranged between the resort and the shops, which they own.
Rentals are terrible - instead of just having a few levels of old gear to choose from, they have current-season gear from which you can make your choice - bewildering. And you can change it every day - crazy. The ski school is a joke, with teachers who could not hope to win an FIS race and who actually try to teach people. The kids love it, but they're kids. Those free resort guide people are the worst thing - they're clearly not UIAGM qualified and their FIS points are likely zero; how they can have the legal right to guide people round beats me.
The resort itself is horrible - it's hard to drive around and they don't let you park where you want, like on the pavements or generally where you'd obstruct others. Nanny state. Food-wise, there's just too much choice. The McDonalds isn't the same quality as at home, although I'll be sure to review it shortly. The saunas are cold and the hot tubs full of thin people. They don't even let you talk in some of them.
Now Mr Trump has made America Great Again he needs to sort out his ski resorts.
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You know it makes sense.
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| queenie pretty please wrote: |
| Pas de la Casa. |
I've skiied down to the lifts at Pas base and turned around and went straight back up again. It's like a little section of early 1980s Harrow town centre. Or Slough or something.
Sierra Nevada. One lone huge mountain like a massive zit on the face of Mediterranean Spain. Either it's too warm and there's not enough snow, or it's too windy so the snow gets blown off and the rest turns to ice. Rains EVEN MORE THAN WHISTLER. The best thing that can be said about it is that it's near Spanish towns with great architecture and food, i.e. that there's something else more interesting nearby.
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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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Baqueira for architecture and lack of atmosphere. Very disappointed with Innsbruck, last year. A few nice hotels and restaurants but lots of grotty takeaways. Rather a student town I think which would have been great 40 years ago
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Dave of the Marmottes, I was being negative about someone's response 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Le Corbier in the Les Sybelles area. I skied down there from St Sorlin D'Arves where I was staying in 2006. It was a WTF moment (i hadn't been to Tignes at the time). To make things worse the only way out was on a horrific tow for which there was an enormous queue.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Wed 5-02-20 9:57; edited 1 time in total
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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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Sorry, can I add Baqueira and Pas together and come up with Andorra La Vella. The most bizarre brutalist concrete monstrosity of "throw it up quick" buildings with undercurrents of dodgy money swimming around, and a thousand tyre sales centres. You'd think going to one of the richest little areas in Europe the shopping would be good, but the best place available that I was recommended was an overpriced Debenhams. Meanwhile anywhere you drive you'll be cut up by some psycho in a new, hot 4x4 with an Andorran numberplate who is pissed off that these damn cheap Europeans are keeping him from his next appointment with a credit card and a mirror. Snow? The place is full of it.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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There is a charming little village above Cluses which I believe has one restaurant and 3 ski tows. Here is the piste map.
I know I am not one to harp on about "mileage" but I think even I might get bored there... that said though, nice looking bumps!
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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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Flaine Foret, Flaine Forum, Flaine Front De Neige.
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Valle Nevado - bland, corporate hotels surrounding a massive car park. Lots of burley security staff keeping the riff-raff out. Half the hotel staff trying to be overly helpful (insisting on taking you bags) the other half trying to scam you. Website pretending the conditions are far better than they are: lifts with no snow to or from them running for no apparent reason other than they can be seen from the access road and give the impression pistes are open; open drag lift tracks that are incomplete, which they wouldn’t open even here in Scotland.
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@luigi, were those pics of La Plagne or Harlow?
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@pavel38, I actually like Cortina a lot, but in the summer. I would not dream of of going there to ski. And I'm a great fan of faded graduer. I like Biaritz and Happo One in Japan for just this reason.
As to my least favourite ski town. Soelden in Austria and Soldeau in Andora. Both straddle busy main roads, both have big lift queues, both are pretty ugly, both seem to specialise in boozing, smoking and in Soelden's case strip clubs rather than skiing, but would I go back there again - of course I would. It is the skiing that is important not the town.
IMHO this is very much a discussion of what colour of skis do you hate the most.
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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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| WindOfChange wrote: |
| Flaine Foret, Flaine Forum, Flaine Front De Neige. |
+1 -- Brutalism....
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| albob wrote: |
| WindOfChange wrote: |
| Flaine Foret, Flaine Forum, Flaine Front De Neige. |
+1 -- Brutalism.... |
I agree, horrid.
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