 Poster: A snowHead
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Queues were pretty grim until well into lunchtime, but (with the exception of Bollin) almost non existent later. Other lifts opened as the day progressed. Excellent on piste, big soft bumps in some runs. Off piste looked very heavy. Only saw two people making a decent fist of it - one had skinned up the Borsat. Lots of people decked and struggling to get up.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We found Merles was queue free from about 11am so looped around there, then dropped down to grattalu / palet thinking of doing one or the other but baulked at the queues there around 11:45. Bollin was about a five minute queue then and Fresse opened up whilst we were on bollin so we headed over to VD for a glorious afternoon. Several trips down to La Daille, lunch on the go so no stopping and a fair few trips up Tommeuses made for a fantastic final day.
Kudos to the pisteurs who made this possible for us.
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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.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Having ventured not especially far off the side of the piste it was thick, heavy, sticky and like riding through cement. Anything other than quite steep section quickly led to getting bogged down, even when carrying speed. On piste snow has been nice but very busy, finding a middle line between nervous beginners and the lunatic fringe has been challenging. Tomorrow will hopefully be quieter.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Sorry to be back on re. Indigo hire car parking...
I'd previously sussed out that a rental car registration number is needed to make a booking, which appeared to be a catch 22 situation, as this wouldn't be known until vehicle pick up.
I've now found the information below on the Indigo website. Does anyone have experience of changing vehicle details on their account prior to arrival, as seems possible? What I'm really wanting to know is, whether it worked OK - ie to avoid paying twice.
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@mountainaddict, others have posted that's how it works
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Great @holidayloverxx - thanks for that. Apologies that I'd missed that on the thread... 
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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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Anyone going to the property owners’ free lunch tomorrow?
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No such thing... 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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An interesting weeks skiing which started out with proper spring conditions, a soggy day with snow, snowmagedon and a lost day then a sunny finish with a limited openning. All the runs were complete to Les Brévières following the storm which is probably unusual for April as the green run was tarmac the day before.
We decided to treat ourselves and ate at Ursus in Val Claret, expensive but a memorable experience up until we realised it was going to be tricky to get back to Les Brévières at that time of night.
10 year break and I'm glad I can still ski and a real built knee held up!
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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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Shame there is just two weeks of the season to go until the last lifts 
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On the plus side, summer glacier skiing should be good
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You know it makes sense.
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Just arrived home jealous of anyone doing weekend skiing in Tignes. Obvs disappointed to have had to miss a day of our 6 but thankful for all arriving home safely as ever and the Friday was a great day of skiing to make up for missing Thursday.
If we hadn't planned the drive from Tignes to Calais in advance perhaps a half day on Saturday would have been fun but driving back to the NW of England is not a short trip!
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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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Started off clear this morning before clouds rolled in and winter returned for a while before gradually clearing around lunch time. New snow helped to freshen the pistes. Didn’t clip into my skis properly and one came off at speed while coming down Dahu. Despite all the new snow pistes are quite hard as I unfortunately found out. Think I prefer spring snow. Commiserations to everyone who had their trip curtailed last week.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Surprisingly quiet for a holiday Sunday afternoon, perhaps the earlier changeable weather put folk off. Didn’t bump up as much in consequence.
Run down to Brev still tenable if sticky.
The top of the Sache had been pisted (bottom closed) and in the best condition we had seen it all season.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Ski lots wrote: |
Surprisingly quiet for a holiday Sunday afternoon, perhaps the earlier changeable weather put folk off. Didn’t bump up as much in consequence.
Run down to Brev still tenable if sticky.
The top of the Sache had been pisted (bottom closed) and in the best condition we had seen it all season. |
I enjoyed my run down Sache less so the walk out with the bottom closed. Not another soul on it.
I think the resorts that could open during the day of the dump would have had some really good skiing, that's to say the day after it was very heavy and sticky, you had to be confident to charge pretty hard to get through it.
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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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@Grizwald, the authorities have put a big snow and netting barrier in place now to discourage folk from attempting the lower half of the run rather than using the cut out, which is interesting but not particularly awkward.
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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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Lift Pass Refund- thankyou @ chocksaway. It doesnt appear to matter if you have Carte Neige. Just need to submit the claim but they say it can take 4 months. Wednesday was one of the wettest days ive skied and when they closed Tommuses we ended up Borsat in a gale ! That wasnt nice. Thursday closed, Friday am was painful in those long queues on Tichot and Tuffs but by 11am we had found that La D was pretty empty and others started opening up so it turned out great. Saturday was v nice.
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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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Tignes - now been 3 years on the trot in April due to school holidays. April appears to be getting warmer, wetter and slushier than years ago. Def less bluebird days than Jan feb and march. Im starting to think i may have to go New Year or even Feb half term. Can anyone out there that goes over NY or Feb half term advise me on what lift queues/ pistes are like. Is it as busy as ive heard ? Many thanks
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Tignes - now been 3 years on the trot in April due to school holidays. April appears to be getting warmer, wetter and slushier than years ago. Def less bluebird days than Jan feb and march. Im starting to think i may have to go New Year or even Feb half term. Can anyone out there that goes over NY or Feb half term advise me on what lift queues/ pistes are like. Is it as busy as ive heard ? Many thanks
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@Charlie333, Hopefully, you will be surprised on the refund - friends have had the money quite quickly.
As for Feb or the Festive period - it's very, very busy.
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@Charlie333, You never can predict the weather. I'm starting to contemplate our first ski trip for the kids and would have thought Easter be it late March or April would have been ideal owing to longer and warmer days but last week was not the sort of conditions you'd ideally want to learn in but kids are a hell of a lot more adaptable than adults and there were plenty of ski school snakes having a whale of a time.
Snowmagedon aside it's the most variable conditions I've ever had in 20 odd years of skiing and have skiied several times in April, there was no freeze/thaw over night even above 2000m so things were softening up at an accelerated pace. It was also much busier than I was expecting for the time of year, maybe after me taking an almost decade break things have changed with more people hedging their bets and going higher. I also thought the French were starting to think of warmer/beach holidays by that time of year.
Previous trips to Tignes, were late Jan early Feb before I had kids. Might consider a Scandinavian resorts with the kids, a trend of looking more to Scandinavian areas seems to be on the horizon for skiing in general.
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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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| Grizwald wrote: |
| Might consider a Scandinavian resorts with the kids, a trend of looking more to Scandinavian areas seems to be on the horizon for skiing in general. |
Trysil is excellent - our little man is still only 16 months and so is coming along to the French resorts with us at the moment. Once he starts at age 3 we'll start him in Trysil or elsewhere in Norway. The standard of nursery slopes is magnitudes better than the simple magic carpet and nursery slope you get in France. It is also a lot less crowded. The only downside is the temperature in Norway - which can be absolutely brutal at times!
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Well there was some very nice spring snow around this morning. A very few snow flakes around this afternoon. Most things softened up but not as much due to the cloud cover. Very quiet late on. We did go down to Brev, just to see if it was doable and it was just. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the runs closed tomorrow.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| NoMapNoCompass wrote: |
| Grizwald wrote: |
| Might consider a Scandinavian resorts with the kids, a trend of looking more to Scandinavian areas seems to be on the horizon for skiing in general. |
Trysil is excellent - our little man is still only 16 months and so is coming along to the French resorts with us at the moment. Once he starts at age 3 we'll start him in Trysil or elsewhere in Norway. The standard of nursery slopes is magnitudes better than the simple magic carpet and nursery slope you get in France. It is also a lot less crowded. The only downside is the temperature in Norway - which can be absolutely brutal at times! |
Cheers. We went to Levi in December. There was a 30 degree temperature swing in the space of 4 days, from -34 to -4. -34 was surprisingly tolerable when you were moving, kids sledging without issues.
We went on the hunt for somewhere to eat, and my wife not liking the look of some of the menus had to pull my phone out to look for alternatives  fingers quickly got painfully cold.
I liked Levi, it's tiny compared to the big French resorts and dark but I expect it's a good family destination in the Spring when the days are much longer. Problem is getting flights from the UK as they tend to stop direct flights in Feb.
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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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| chocksaway wrote: |
| @Charlie333, Hopefully, you will be surprised on the refund - friends have had the money quite quickly. |
Have people got partial refunds on season passes?
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| Grinning wrote: |
| chocksaway wrote: |
| @Charlie333, Hopefully, you will be surprised on the refund - friends have had the money quite quickly. |
Have people got partial refunds on season passes? |
From past experience I'd say no. When I've had season passes the small print excluded refunds for non lift opening days.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Charlie333,
Easter is the 'movable feast' (and this year very close to as late as it can be) and the snow and weather conditions correspond.
Despite it being the last UK school holiday of the ski season, in my experience it is the quietest of the 3 in the French resorts as the French schools don't take Easter (a religious holiday) off.
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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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@Grinning, in our case it would only be about £5 for the day anyway.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Kenzie, per this thread they do? Seems to be spread out over the full month.
Its germane to me as I want to visit some lesser known French resorts over Easter, possibly next year, and am wondering what crowds will be like but it sounds like skiing isn't really a thing for them?
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=167136
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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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Has anyone other than @chocksaway experienced Tignes in Feb half term ? Will it be really bad with long lift queues and busy slopes. That really puts me off going during that one week in Feb. I did notice that last week was busy which was suprising for April but I heard there were 2 weeks of British Uni trips staying in Val Claret (the same thing happened last year) April used to be quiet but ive noticed Tignes is getting busier
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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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Late in the season now, but worth pointing out for future years, and I posted on Steve's Val thread. We used Whiterides https://whiterides.co.uk/ for our GVA to Val D'Isere return transfers last week, and I was really impressed, excellent comms, great drivers and nothing too much trouble, happy to do a loo/coffee stop etc. We had to wait 1hr 40 for skis to come out at GVA, which was no problem, and then we added a stop at BSM station for my daughter at short notice on the way the way back, again absolutely no problem with it, even though we already had 6 in the van. Would recommend.
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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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@Charlie333, We tacked an extra week onto our usual January stint so 4 weeks in total. This meant that our last week overlapped with the first week of the European holidays. The perception is that it's very busy, the reality is that it's busy in certain places, and at certain times. If you look at the 'Lac webcam at around 9am, the snow-front is heaving as people are herding themselves and their kids to the ski school meeting points. Our cohort usually meets at 9-30 and the queues have already started to thin out. Same on the hill.
There are pinch points at certain times. Tommuesses, (link back to Tignes) can be busy from mid afternoon to close of play. But unless there are mechanical issues I don't think we've ever queued for more than 5 minutes. And ski through the "normal" lunch hours for quieter pistes.
Family were there at half-term, and back for the first school hols Easter week. They reported similar findings. But costs ramp up too. Family drive through the night to get there and back.
Ps. There are no really quiet weeks in the main season. We have skiied in January for almost 25 years now. The weeks after Xmas/ New Year used to be much less busy than they are now. It was often like transfer day skiing. Not any more
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@mountainaddict, quieter today than yesterday and very quiet in the afternoon.
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@Grizwald, Finnair from London transfer at Helsinki for Levi works remarkably well. Short transfer but in my experience they will hold the flight or put you on the next plane. Helsinki airport will expedite clearing immigration if time is tight and bags checked through to final destination. March in Levi really pleasant with all lifts open and temperatures more comfortable. Managed to see a marmot close up today can’t believe how big they are!!!!
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@8611,
From personal experience of doing seasons in Meribel and Tignes, Easter was the quietest of the English school holidays.
Quick google shows Easter Sunday 2026 as 5th April; 3 French school zone Spring holidays 4/4/26 - 19/4: 11/4 - 26/4: 18/4 - 3/5, so only one third of schools on holiday over Easter weekend, and many families seem to head to the beach over the Spring holiday.
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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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| Charlie333 wrote: |
| Has anyone other than @chocksaway experienced Tignes in Feb half term ? Will it be really bad with long lift queues and busy slopes. That really puts me off going during that one week in Feb. I did notice that last week was busy which was suprising for April but I heard there were 2 weeks of British Uni trips staying in Val Claret (the same thing happened last year) April used to be quiet but ive noticed Tignes is getting busier |
People are migrating up the mountain as they still want to ski in April but lower resorts are becoming too warm and/or rainy for people to confidently part with their cash and still be guaranteed a decent amount of skiing for it.
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FAQ
I'd assumed Thu and Fri would be busy on the slopes due to Easter? But maybe not 
