 Poster: A snowHead
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So thanks to the amazing snow head response to my last information request, I have 4 weeks booked early season in tignes for next year.
I was hoping for the same again.
I’m currently stuck on where to base myself for 4 weeks mid jan-mid feb. Could you sell me the pros of each for someone (hopefully) starting to head of piste, but with good mountain knowledge. Happy to be lift server or require touring/climbing access.
So. Which is your favourite and why?
Les 2 alps- geographically ideal
Alp d’huez - looks good, but where to stay
Serre Cher- will mean a longer drive to any ice, but the opinion on here seems like the skiing is best. Oddly not that fussed on tree skiing. Is most of the off piste in the trees, or above the tree line?
Thanks in advance for your advice! 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I live in 2 Alpes so...... 
Seriously they're all great and also different.
Alpe d'huez is a very widespread resort with a real sense of travelling between villages.
Les 2 Alpes is high very snow sure, mostly North facing.
Serre Chevalier is strung along a valley with again a great sense of travel. Fair bit of tree skiing.
All have good offpiste and there are reciprocal arrangements for passes. AdH to L2A about 45 minutes. L2A to Serre Chevalier an hour. La Grave in the middle.
Cost wise AdH is probably the most expensive followed by L2A then SC. All are probably cheaper than Tignes. Possibility also of staying in the valley, Bourg d'oisans perhaps with good access to AdH or L2A.
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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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Do you mind me asking how hard/ expensive parking is in L2A and ADH respectively?
Also any further comments or opinions on how the skiing itself compares between resorts (I accept its subjective)?
The “sense of travelling” isn’t so important to me, but the sense of adventure off piste, or quality of skiing on piste is.
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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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@Ascensionist, Free parking at that time of year is fine in both. On piste is again great in both at that time of year. AdH suffers later with the sun. Some challenging runs at both. Probably more offpiste easily accessible at AdH given it's a wider spread area. Good here too with some very challenging runs such as down to St Christophe en Oisans. Hopefully we'll be linked across to La Grave again next winter.
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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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The title of this thread gave me a minor stroke
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The idea was to attention grab? So I guess it worked?
Any opinions or favouring on the garbled resorts in question?
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Been to L2A in January 2019 and to SC the previous january. Only for a week each time.
I am skiing on piste so I can only relate to that particular aspect.
Enjoyed both of them but they felt different.
Serre Che: We found a cheap apartment in Briancon through Booking just in front of the gondola, it allowed us to travel peak to peak and ski valley to valley every day, all the way to Monetier Les Bains. So it was challenging and fun, never boring.
Each day we concentrated on a different area, if you'll miss the last lift you can ski down and take the bus (not a free one).
Very poor apres at the end of the day, extremely few places to go out in the evening. Risoul and the nearby domain is not far away if you want to try another area.
L2A: I enjoy reading Claude's posts, he is a guru. The area felt more condensed, we were all using the same lifts to go up to the higher areas. I wouldn't want to be there during the school holidays, too many queues on our way up and too many people on the same routes down.
Definitely more challenging and interesting pistes than in Serre Che.
We found an affordable apartment on the northern outskirts, close to Mont de Lans. It was easy to get to the opposite peak and to enjoy a lovely red down to Mont de Lans but we were quite far from the fun part, day and night. In order to go up we had to ski some greens, in order to return we had a difficult (but amazing when unbashed) black piste (Valentin) or some awful long green.
Next time I'll choose the other part, closer to Diables.
Perfect Apres Ski at Pano Bar but then everybody descends on the same blue piste all the way to the town. Be sure to leave first or last. Many fun places to eat in the evening.
They definitely have a big off piste sector, we were at the Pano Bar when an off piste group were caught in an avalanche with their local guide, at least 2 victims in spite of the chopper landing with team after team including K9 unit.
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