Easter skiing

A snowHead

Hi guys,

Just got back from a great trip to Chamonix with wife and kids and was thinking of trying to squeeze in a week away at Easter but Crystal have no holidays in Europe for that week and Inghams not showing anything for me either (it does show some holidays up in a search but doesnt allow you to actually click through and book them)

Are any of you planning on skiing this Easter or is it a bit late this year?

Any tips for resorts with decent snow - traditionally speaking as I know we dont have crystal balls to predict!

Cheers

A snowHead

Assume by Easter and mentioning kids, you're talking the school holidays and not just Easter weekend itself.

If you are not adverse to doing a DIY booking, there's the Family Bash on 9th April https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=155376 or indeed the End of Season Bash the week afterwards. Those two weeks alone probably covers 300

so definitely skiing at Easter is an option! the SFaB is possibly not the cheapest option for that week (the accomm is very good though) so you could look at Sunweb and then book your travel separately.

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

Thanks for the reply - we have a wedding to attend on the 14th April so looking at departing on the 16th. Im on Sunweb now and looking at a trip to Val Thorens but as you say, then have to book travel seperately.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@NewSkiingDad, You are correct Crystal and a few other TOs are stopping BEFORE the Easter holidays this year. The airlines also appear to be reducing their flights to Geneva or they are very expensive.

However the resorts are open, you just need to sort it out yourself. Choose a suitable resort. I suggest one of the high Tarrentaise resorts Tignes, Les Arcs, La Plagne or the 3 valleys. Visit their web site, choose a good apartment. They will not be expensive. Book a channel crossing and set off by car, possibly on good friday and stop on the way. There is a lot of advice on this forum about it.

If the weather is too hot then go rafting down the Isere instead, or rent mountain bikes. but from my 20+ years experience of skiing at Easter you will have snow and a great time.

But do remember the factor 50.

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Once you've skied in April you won't look back. We always go Tignes 1st 2 weeks of April. I was of the "must go high" crowd in April but north facing is just as important.
Next season we're going to go to the Zillertal Valley. From what I've been told Mayrhofen/kaltenbach/fugen all hold snow well and there's also the hintertux glacier all within a bus ride of each other

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

@NewSkiingDad, travelling independently is not actually a lot of hassle - depending where you are.

We've driven to Val Thorens with the kids and it was fine, clear roads and not anywhere like as busy as half term - we live south London so set off lunchtime for a early afternoon crossing, few hours to somewhere for dinner and an overnight stop then 5/6 hours up to the resort the next day. Equally we've flown to Geneva for the EOSB and then used the lardy bus transfer put on by the lovely @admin. Transfers to some resorts by other operators will also be running that week too eg Bensbus to Val d'Isere. The only issue I find with the Tarentaise area and Geneva is the long bus transfer time (3+hrs) plus the hanging around at airports so by the time you factor that in, if you can get an extra half day off work then it works. Significantly greener too for 4 of you to drive than 4 flights - 4 return flights LHR to GVA 0.91 tonnes CO2, 1400 mile round trip in our car 0.38 tonnes, according to this https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

After all it is free

I concur with the above post, travel independently.

Then the ‘world’s your oyster’ on overseas airports, flight days and times. There are always hotels available in suitable ski resorts on booking.com for example.

Sass Fee in Switzerland is a great option, not least as it is very easy to organise yourself. The train goes straight from Geneva airport and connects with a bus at Visp. Conditions are always good at that time of the year, even in freak years the glacier will have good snow. And the village is very family friendly.

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Thanks guys - Iv narrowed it down to either Val Thorens (Résidence Les Balcons de Val Thorens) or Les Arcs (Résidence P&V Premium Arc 1950 Le Village) ....just yet to pull the trigger and book it!

snow reports

I've done 3 years (pre covid) at Les Arcs 1950 1st week of April and loved it, and we're booked back for this year. Not been to VT same time so couldn't compare but yeah I'm a fan of 1950 and snow for me has, historically, been good on the first week.

@NewSkiingDad, either will be just fine.

You know it makes sense.

Personally, I would never go again at the Easter week, unless you enjoy ridiculous lift queues. Crying or Very sad

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

@king key, I have been on lots of Easter weeks and never had problems with queue. Where on earth did you go??

A snowHead

I am going on the 3rd April with 2 teenagers and have spent weeks going through all the searches using Crystal - same problem you have found.

Then Sunweb........however and its a big one! Whilst the ticket prices looks good (hotel & Pass) its the transfers that is either a hassle of a killer on hire car prices

I chose SkiZoom for the simple fact that they offer private transfers included, so gets round the above with Sunweb. Lets face it a ski pass price is around the same price through an agent or online

A snowHead

Yeah, I have been at Easter for many years, it's not busy.

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I went to Saas-Fee on Easter Sunday 2019. There were massive queues - of cars going down the mountain as the holidaymakers headed for home en masse. The lifts and slopes were very quiet.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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

After all it is free

My own experience of Easter is that it is generally quieter than Feb holidays but can occasionally be busy particularly over the weekend.
My memory of EOSB three years ago was that there was a lot of lifts shut due to bad weather and many of the lower areas were closed which inevitably caused a lot of people to be confined to a few lifts which caused a lot of queues, far more than I would normally expect at that time of year but not dissimilar to what I have experienced at virtually any time when the skiing is severely restricted by weather.

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I wonder if @king key, was on same SFaB as me? I found VT very busy. It has put me off that area for easter. My assumption being that because it has the reputation for late season skiing it gets a lot more visitors. Another one i felt was rather busy for Easter was L2A. Suffered with quite a few queues there.

I found Champoluc at half term much less busy than both

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snow reports

And to add I have skied in Easter school holidays in Courcheval, Val d'Isere, Gressoney St Anton, Belle Plagne was week after school holidays which had apparently suffered week before with queues, L2A and Mayrhofen.

Mayrhofen is where we are going back to this April

I think I have skied every Easter school holidays for around 20 years until Covid struck. Skied in various places, until about 5 years ago the Easter holidays locally coincided with Easter and then moved to a regular spot in the first two weeks of April.
As stated above I think Easter can be a bit busy particularly at the weekend itself but it isn't always I have often found when skiing for two weeks the week after Easter Sunday a lot quieter than the week before.
Untill the EOSB three years ago I hadn't stayed in VT before at this time of year though I had skied it form the Maurienne valley when I'd found it busier than the Maurienne but not unpleasantly crowded. I do think that it was unlucky at the EOSB as it was a very poor year for snow low down so virtually everyone who was skiing was going very high and then high winds and bad weather closed a lot of the lifts. This is the kind of combination of problems that can cause queues virtually anywhere at any time of year. For what it's worth my best memory of that holiday was a bluebird powder day on the last day when things opened again and there was very little queueing and fabulous skiing.

You know it makes sense.

There are 2 zones on school holidays over Easter this year and I think that is pretty common when Easter is late. Most school holidays are end of April early May so don't have a major effect on the crowds in the resort. However, I still find Les Arcs very quiet even during the spring school holidays (I'm sorry but I don't know about Val Thorens). The queues are such that they abandon the priority queues as they are no longer needed

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

We have skied twice at Easter - the first I think when there was no French school holidays and we took the kids out of school for the 4 days before good Friday, the second when Paris was off. The first holiday was good - hardly any queues - busy as we went high to Val thorens but not massively busy. Second was really busy - queues around Val thoren starting lifts were really big first thing in the morning and after lunch. My advice would be to pick a week when there is limited French holidays - and aim for skiing at 9am to get up the mountain or 10am when the queues have died down.

A snowHead

Ummm or don't ski in France when there are French school holidays? Other skiing nations are available.@Elsie80,

Help!!

Easter skiing

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