 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all,
I'm looking at a chalet for 8 people in January in Val Thorens
Most of the group are total newbies. Is Val Thornes an ok resort for them? I'd hate to book for them only to find out the runs are too lightly graded
Thanks!
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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 may hasten to add VT is high, January can be windy and cold, throw a white out in as well. If I were taking learners I'd want the environment to be as welcoming as possible. Unable to see far ahead, howling winds and low temps can put a dampner on the learning experience. May not be that way though
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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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Ahhh, see you’ve possibly given up on Austria?
Val T would probably be perfect for your group mix but quite possibly on the chilly side in Jan, given beginners may stand around for a bit. Wrap up/layer up.
Plenty of piste side bars/restaurants for getting out of the cold.
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@JTizzle, too high for beginners in order to properly enjoy in bad weather.
Relevant only if it's a young wild crowd expecting to (properly) party.
Nothing availablable in Les Arcs/La Plagne at lower altitudes?
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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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| Mother hucker wrote: |
| I may hasten to add VT is high, January can be windy and cold, throw a white out in as well. If I were taking learners I'd want the environment to be as welcoming as possible. Unable to see far ahead, howling winds and low temps can put a dampner on the learning experience. May not be that way though |
I love VT but I'd never go in Jan for this reason/risk, especially as it doesn't take much weather for the lifts to be shut due to their exposure to the elements. I'd recommend staying on the Courcheval side instead where there's more protection but still plenty of slopes for beginners.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Total newbies. If it is skiing then go to Alta Badia in Italy. If you are party animals then somewhere else.
The snow making in Italy is superb so even if it is not snowing the pistes will be perfect.
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@GlasgowCyclops, surely you're not suggesting that the food in Alta Badia is preferable to the flip-flops at the Knife and Fork? 
Have to agree - Dolomites would be a much better choice for all sorts of reasons.
(But note that it can also be 'kin cold there in Jan as well - -20 ish a few years ago iirc. I had to buy another pair of gloves)
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*Personal experience only, for what it's worth*
I took a total noob to learn in VT, two weeks in January.
We must've been lucky with the weather, mostly perfect. As others mentioned though, when it isn't perfect, there's nowhere to hide and it got rather unpleasant.
The small conveyor belt lifts in the centre are free, and have little cordoned off beginner zones which were perfect for learning the basics. Now that I think about it, aside from a couple rather scary trips up smaller lifts to try easy pistes (not particularly enjoyable for the noob) our first few days lift pass was more or less a waste of money.
Accommodation was cheap. Mountain food/coffee was mostly extortionate.
Once the noob got their feet a bit, it wasn't a bad place to learn, as far as piste options go. There are a couple choke points which will get either severely mogulated or turn into boilerplate, definitely worth avoiding after lunch for a noob.
If I were doing it again - I'd probably choose somewhere lower and less of an industrial ski factory on the moon, but at the time it was perfectly enjoyable.
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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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@Yoda, oh it is a tough call. The grumpy guy who struggles a smile at the K+F giving you a coffee (who also wonders why we go to the lovely noodle bar downstairs) or the overpriced takeaway style food. Or the happy people on the Sella Ronda with superb food everywhere at 1/2 the price of VT. 
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Having worked VT as a holiday rep early season (ok it was 18 years ago, but I don't hink it's changed). As a place for begginers, I'd say "Anywhere but VT". Might include Chamonix and Verbier on that list...but at least in those 2 they would have something to do once they had quit skiing for the rest of the week.
VT is an unforgiving moonscape of a ski area and the resort is a 1970's mining accomadation camp (Ok probably a bit harsh)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'd agree with most of the comments - after a couple of days of getting their feet, the options really start to open up. The Gentiane piste as the names suggests is a really easy blue - which opens up a nice easy circuit. From there you can progress to runs like Moraine, Tete Ronde, Plein Sud and Pluviometre, which will really make the noobs feel like they are skiing. I think Tete Ronde is a great run once you start to get a little confidence on your skis - the bubble takes you to the top of the mountain so you can some immense views, plus it's a nice long run, and it has some great rollers which I think are great beginners as you know you can let your skis run at times knowing that the uphill roller will kill any speed.
The big question is about January. I've been many times, but always after March - even then it can be bleak when the weather comes in, so I'm guessing Jan can be really bleak!
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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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I've been to VT a couple of times, including with beginners and I'd say that somewhere else would suit better for a group of debutantes. In many ways, the choice is very broad, because beginners aren't going to need a lot of Kms of pistes to be happy. I'd say look for a resort with lots of greens and blues. After that, with reasonable altitude but not necessarily high, but sheltered and with some snowmaking. We were persuaded to join friends going to VT for my wife's first trip and I'd say it took her 2-3 seasons to get over the experience and get her confidence back. Albeit this was partly down to our group leader being impossibly optimistic about how well novices could handle the terrain. At the time, I was a new skier myself and lacked the experience to challenge his leading - we should just have split from the group and done our own thing.
I learned to ski in Morillion and the children learned in La Thuile.
La Thuile was good for learners because the resort had a series of 'graded' runs of increasing difficulty that were separate from the main routes. So learners could easily practice away from the main crowds and graduate to the next more difficult run until they were ready to use the main runs. But if your group has already done the basics, then La Thuile isn't a particularly special resort. It's high, so snow sure, but a very long transfer (4h). It's more of an indication of the sort of place you might look for i.e. somewhere where the runs that the debutantes will be using are naturally separated from those the more experienced will be skiing on.
The comment about not trying to ski as a group is apposite. There's bound to be a variation in skills and it's important that everyone feels they can get the best out of the trip. As I said, we should have split from our group and let the others do their thing. So it's important to have a protocol so people can say they want to take it easy, without feeling they're being pressured into something they don't want to do. Conversely, better skiers need to be able to say, in effect, that someone is holding them back, and split to do something more challenging without feeling guilty.
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Echo most of the comments above. On the plus side, the slopes in VT are good for beginners, but it can be pretty unforgiving if the weather blows in. However, if you are still thinking of the 3V area, I’d recommend Courchevel 1650 (aka Moriond). It’s not such a party town, but you have some trees to shelter in if the weather is bad and there are (still, despite Brexit) likely to be some good native English speaking instructors. The slopes above the village are very confidence building.
Also you might want to consider La Tania, though the slope options for beginners aren’t as good as C1650.
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You know it makes sense.
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Agree with comments above. Not a place for beginners in January; unless you want to put them off, of course... There should be plenty of snow lower down by January - say Morillion (as somebody suggested above, where I have taken beginners previously), which is also only one hour - not three hours - from Geneva. Indeed, I'm not sure VT is a place for anybody in January... (on the wrong days, anyway).
Just for the record, I love VT. I just think it is totally unsuited at that time for your purposes.
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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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Another vote against the VT moonscape, especially in January. And a vote for the Dolomites; even if it's very cold, which it certainly can be in January, there are umpteen congenial places on/near the pistes in which to warm up. I'm a francophlie, but for me it's absolutely no contest, especially if you're looking for easy, wide, well groomed pistes to suit less experienced skiers.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@JTizzle, I've visited VT every year in the past 6 years (excluding COVID year) — always the first two weeks of January. This is because I have the same group of friends who fly all the way over from Australia, and want to be pretty much guaranteed snow. And as VT is the highest ski resort in the Alps, we have always had great snow.
Indeed, in two years as I recall, we would drive up the valley, and the lower resorts such as Les Menuires were bereft of snow to a great extent, whilst VT was lovely and solid white. And in those years, the same was the case in Meribel and Courchevel — snow was sparse.
But VT is as others say here, mostly a "moonscape". "Magnificent Desolation" is the best description! But that's one of the reasons I like it so much, and of course the beautiful tree-covered Meribel is just a lift-away for a (literal) change of scenery.
I don't think that VT would be a disaster for a group of beginners; but as others have pointed-out, there are much better and more gentle resorts, that would be far more suitable.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The other thing, apart from the weather, is cost. VT, and the rest of the 3V, has some of the best skiing in the world. There's little point in paying for that, if you can only ski 5% of the slopes by the end of the week.
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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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@telford_mike, +1
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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^^^what they all said. I did my second ever week skiing in Val Thorens in mid-late January. Slopes are absolutely fine but the weather came in and it was miserable at times and ultimately we spent about a day and a half inside watching French TV instead. Also if the wind picks up then you're stuck to VT valley too, so can't even travel to find some trees to ski in.
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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 guess it depends if it's the beginning of January or the end. Beginning of January is still early season and you need to balance the chance of cold whiteout vs absence of snow and rain.
Yes, VT can be brutal this time of year. But on the other hand it also offers a reliable snow cover, when in resorts lower down you will be skiing on ice and get drenched in heavy rain. Arguably that's even worse for a beginner than a whiteout but with soft snow under their feet.
We go to VT pretty much every year for Xmax/NY and so far haven't found an alternative to it.
There are plenty of good schools and gentle slopes for beginners and they are open pretty much no matter what. By the end of week a confident beginner will be able to venture to Meribel.
So don't let a chance of cold weather put you off. Bring layers, neck warmers and quality goggles!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Go somewhere with plenty of trees, blue runs, green runs, a big choice of ski school, access to high skiing if there's no low snow, and a town with things to see and do, so if anyone needs a day off, then they wont get suicidal in the rabbit hutch.
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| JTizzle wrote: |
Hi all,
I'm looking at a chalet for 8 people in January in Val Thorens
Most of the group are total newbies. Is Val Thornes an ok resort for them? I'd hate to book for them only to find out the runs are too lightly graded
Thanks! |
I personally would not do VT with beginners. There are so many nicer places to learn. If you get a white out or really cold day they may jump straight into a bar and never emerge again. It is an inhospitable place in snow.
If you want to go to the 3V then go to Meribel or La Tania as newbies.
Better still go to Alpe D'Huez - they have a Folie Douce but the best green network in the Alps or a resort where the beginners are really catered for well like La Rosiere or Valmorel
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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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haha i'm not Dr Evil, mate!
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I've taken onboard all the comments so thanks to all for your kind feedback. We will avoid VT in January.
Because of the extreme cold in January, I'll check somewhere else like Soelden in March now. There seems to be a 2 week gap in mid March when most European schools are in so that looks like a good time.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I agree that ValTho can be rather inhospitable in Jan but the later you get in the season, the more the weather tends to ease so if it's March you're looking at, it isn't generally so bad. (and April even better  )
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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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| admin wrote: |
| I agree that ValTho can be rather inhospitable in Jan but the later you get in the season, the more the weather tends to ease so if it's March you're looking at, it isn't generally so bad. and April even better ) |
@JTizzle, just to echo admin's point, if you're now looking at March then VT is a fantastic place to go. We've been many times in March/April, and love the place. Most posts are generally saying they like VT, just maybe not in Jan.
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You know it makes sense.
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I went to VT in Christmas week once as we knew it would be as snowsure as you can get - but f me it was cold on a couple of days. Minus 24 with your spit freezing is an experience
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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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Yes, it can be desolate even on the pisted side of the slopes. This was the glacier de Chaviere last week. OK it's not in the ski area (though there were once lifts on the bit near col de Thorens) but it's right next door. I think desolate is one adjective that could be applied.
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Poster: A snowHead
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It's definitely a resort of extremes, and can be bleak in the wrong weather - but it can also be glorious in the right weather. One of my favourite places to be is sitting outside La Face West having a cold beer under the April sun, looking out at wall to wall white mountains.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Ed_sec wrote: |
| …I think desolate is one adjective that could be applied. |
“Magnificent desolation“ — Buzz Aldrin, on the moon’s surface, Apollo 11, July 21st 1969.
That’s my favourite description of Val Thorens!
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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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| Poogle wrote: |
| Ed_sec wrote: |
| …I think desolate is one adjective that could be applied. |
“Magnificent desolation“ — Buzz Aldrin, on the moon’s surface, Apollo 11, July 21st 1969.
That’s my favourite description of Val Thorens! |
Yes, the trouble with melting glaciers is that what surfaces in their place is pretty grim looking for the first several years.
Never mind, once the snow comes we can pretend the whole thing is a glacier like it used to be.
At least I'll know if I want to cross this 'glacier' I can do it where there actually isn't one any more 
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VT would be very low on my list of suitable resorts for newbies. Whiteouts and high winds tend not to go down well (and I've experienced both). Somewhere like Alpe d'Huez would make it much more likely that they would enjoy and gain from the week. Other suitable resorts are on offer, and no doubt will be along soon.
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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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@welshskier, your alternative of Alpe d'Huez is also high, treeless and exposed...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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High means good snow cover and the beginner slopes are not so exposed, although treeless.
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what about Avoriaz? Ski in/out and all very easy set up for beginners? plenty of easier runs below the tree line too.
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Not a bad idea at all.
Newbies will build confidence and work up to Le Lac and love it.
If you stay around the beginner stuff there is plenty of bars and cafe's to weather the storm.
The only downside is you'll only be skiing about 2% of the area.
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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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After a few days skiing in Norway (Norwegian mum) and Aviemore, many moons ago my parents booked their first Alps ski holiday in Austria, Soll I think. It rained. When they got home they got hold of a ski holiday brochure and found that the highest resort in the Alps was Val Thorens so they booked it for Xmas. Had a great time and never went anywhere else…
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FAQ
....although you came good by sorting out a bluebird powder day on the Friday 
