 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Left St Martin shortly after 2pm and once got on the N90 absolutely flew down the road. Due to a calculation error stopped in Dijon but should have carried on for another hour or so. Judging by the traffic on the way down I think people left early. Safe travels all.
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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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| patrick! wrote: |
| … dashcam footage … |
 Wow. Very sobering. Amazing that just one person sustained minor injuries.
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In the end we left GVA at 6.30am yesterday morning and were in VT by 10 including potty breaks so not too bad.
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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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Travelling up this afternoon —massively grateful for the municipal workers who have made that possible! 
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| CourchGal wrote: |
| Travelling up this afternoon —massively grateful for the municipal workers who have made that possible! |
Just shows what can be done ,a couple of miles away from here in n yorks a transit went through the crash barrier on a bend took a fortnight to make good and traffic lights for 10 days absolute chaos .
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The travel companies were obviously freaking out yesterday as we were given a 4 am start from Les Arcs for an 11 am flight from Geneva. Needless to say, we sailed through in 3 hours and arrived at Geneva 4 hours before the flight. Better safe than sorry I suppose.
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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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The Easyjet queue at GVA yesterday looked huge, going outside the terminal, but from arriving in the terminal to clearing security it was 'only' an hour which wasn't too bad and the queue did constantly move forward.
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| MissP2025 wrote: |
| The travel companies were obviously freaking out yesterday as we were given a 4 am start from Les Arcs for an 11 am flight from Geneva. Needless to say, we sailed through in 3 hours and arrived at Geneva 4 hours before the flight. Better safe than sorry I suppose. |
could Yorks match 35,000 cars at circa£6K per car of accomodation, ski passes hd food/drink that were at risk of loss?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| JDL65 wrote: |
| The Easyjet queue at GVA yesterday looked huge, going outside the terminal, but from arriving in the terminal to clearing security it was 'only' an hour which wasn't too bad and the queue did constantly move forward. |
The Easyjet queue moves a lot faster now they have automated bag drop. What used to sometimes take nearly 2 hours now only takes around 30 mins, even when the queue is huge. I did notice last weekend though that the 'Easyjet Plus' customers had to queue in the same massive queue as everyone else, and only got split off into their own queue just before the Plus bag drop. At the same point that standard customers got directed towards the bag-tag machines. From that point it probably took around the same time for both to drop off bags. I would have felt pretty cheated if I'd paid extra for the Plus - something I used to get via the extra cabin baggage option before they made the price for this extortionate last year.
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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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We landed at Chambery last Saturday (day of the landslide) at 12:30pm- our transfer was stuck on the resort side of the landslide so had no idea when they would get to us. We decided to get a taxi to the train station, then a train to Aime (were going to La Plagne) and then a taxi from Aime to La Plagne. Chambery train station was surprisingly quiet, I thought it would be chaos! Managed to get on a train, which was rammed, but we got on! 8 of us and 2 children. Stood all the way, balancing bags and suitcases etc - pretty uncomfortable but we were on the train!! Had booked a taxi from Aime but it was 1hr late. In the end, got to La Plagne at 5:30, instead of 3pm as planned so we were really grateful to have made the decision. I know other people who spent 19hrs on a coach!! Info on the road in the week was mixed so decided to get the train back as well - a lot were fully booked so had to book a 5.57am one - got to chambery at 7:30am for a 13:20pm flight but we were there!!!
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You know it makes sense.
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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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EU bureaucracy? French surely?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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That article is from 2012 and the Gorges d’Arly…
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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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The Gorge d'Arly road has constant rockfalls - I believe it's one of the costliest stretches of road to maintain. It's often closed!
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TBF, some of the TV reports did use the Gorges d'Arly as an example of the kind of construction work that might be needed longer term to protect the RN90.
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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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With the Winter Olympic events coming to La Plagne in 2030 and rumours of all sorts of road improvements, prior to the rockfall I guess planning will be swift as realistically there are 4 years to plan and construct. Of course, the Tour de France passes through this summer as well so any work on the RN90 will have to take that into account as well.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@boredsurfin, The local greens are up in arms about the proposal to build another tunnel. Their plans seem to revolve round the train or discouraging skiing (and being generally miserable).
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@rjs, well I don't think anyone could claim that they've solved the Gorge d'Arly problem. But it's an interesting road to drive!
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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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| ukoldschool wrote: |
We left La Plagne at 9.30 on Saturday to transfer back to Geneva...... the mountain road down took 2 hours to get to the main road, then another hour to get to the coach station at Aime LePlagne...
With help from the excellent team ta Heidi.com we switched our party onto the last flight from Geneva to Luton, and then tried to catch a train from Aime to Geneva. As you can imagine that train was delayed so we missed our connection at Chamberry, but managed to get a train from there to Annecy, and just made it in time for a coach to Geneva in time to check in at 6pm and home by 10.30pm
I consider us fortunate looking at the pictures of people on camp beds! |
You're welcome 
(And yes, the team was flat-out that weekend!)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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That'll be... -checks watch- Ah yes, May 
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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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Anyone got any recent experience of how long it is taking to get through on a Sunday? I‘m heading to Méribel this Sunday from Basel. Although traveling on a Sunday and outside the school holidays I‘m nevertheless keen to avoid spending hours stuck on a crawling/stationary N90 (been there, done that!  ). Is it ok traveling in the middle of the day on a Sunday or still mental? Recent experiences/crystal balls welcome!
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@Gämsbock, I think you should be fine. I'm not speaking from recent direct experience of a Sunday transfer, but the traffic is definitely much much quieter on a Sunday and you are travelling the day after the end of the 4 week half term peak. Unusually I'm heading back to the mountains from the UK on Friday with an overnight stop en route just after Troyes, so (rocks and motorway crashes permitting) will be doing the last leg up to St Martin at around lunchtime on Saturday. Fingers crossed!
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You know it makes sense.
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I’ve never had a bad journey inbound on a Sunday, during or outside of school holidays. The traffic can slow a little on busy weekends, but for me never to a crawl or a standstill.
Had one slow outbound journey, but that was caused by an accident rather than just weight of traffic.
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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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The difference between Saturday and Sunday traffic on all those roads is so great as to make one wonder afresh why there are not more Sunday changeovers!
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Gämsbock, Even after the super snowmageddon on the New Year transfer day in 2014 ish when. I bailed into a hotel at Montmelian at 1330 the Sunday was a breeze (apart from the idiots still using snow chains on a clear dry motorway cos the overhead signs hadn’t been switched off!).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Origen wrote: |
| The difference between Saturday and Sunday traffic on all those roads is so great as to make one wonder afresh why there are not more Sunday changeovers! |
I would imagine the main governing factor would be airport slots 
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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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Generally speaking, for me Sat to Sat is most preferable because, I can leave (driving overnight) Friday evening and be in resort for skiing on Saturday. And leave resort Saturday evening having had a full day on the slopes be home on Sunday in order to be able be fresh for work on Monday. 5 days leave, 7.5/8 days skiing. Sunday to Sunday means lots more time to pack and drive to resort but the second weekend we would either have to forego skiing on the Sunday or be starting work groggy on Monday or take Monday off.
However, I don't see how it wouldn't work well for lots of other people.
I don't know whether it's a factor that I think a lot of Europe still view Sunday as a down day - more so than the UK.
Another factor maybe ski schools.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Perty, @rob@rar, @chocksaway, thanks a lot, appreciate the reassurance
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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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Esprit always used to operate Sunday to Sunday without problems, but then they used their own accommodation and had their own ski school groups.
For the resorts accessed by air through Turin (western Italy and southern French Alps) Crystal used Sunday flights, and may still do.
But @Layne has made the case why Saturday to Saturday works best for people driving, which means the majority of continental Europeans. Which is no doubt why self-catering places in particular tend to stick to that cycle.
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@Gämsbock, if you can get over to Lac de Lou you can give us a shrubbery rating on the exit. Forewarned is forearmed even 5-6 weeks out.
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| Quote: |
But @Layne has made the case why Saturday to Saturday works best for people driving
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Yes for driving from the UK. But probably more people fly - and those Saturday flights are vastly expensive. But for most French people, who are the majority driving up into the resorts (though not the majority parked outside the overnight hotels on the drive down) the drive to the Alps can easily be done in a day. And it would be a shorter day - by several hours - on Sunday. It's part of the French addiction to all going on holiday at the same time, which also causes chaos in the summer when Paris empties itself down to the Midi. It perhaps is because of the "Sunday is sacred" approach. Certainly doing anything on a Sunday can be problematical. After having a puncture I found it completely impossible to buy a new tyre on a Sunday (asked at the Swiss border too, and the response was a shocked "No"). We were able to get on our way only because we had a spare tyre. And French supermarkets, other than those very near resorts, are shut on Sundays.
Vive la différance, I suppose!
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@Dave of the Marmottes, I will endeavour to scope it out 
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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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| Gämsbock wrote: |
| Anyone got any recent experience of how long it is taking to get through on a Sunday? I‘m heading to Méribel this Sunday from Basel. Although traveling on a Sunday and outside the school holidays I‘m nevertheless keen to avoid spending hours stuck on a crawling/stationary N90 (been there, done that! ). Is it ok traveling in the middle of the day on a Sunday or still mental? Recent experiences/crystal balls welcome! |
We drove back on sunday at the end of half term week having stayed in resort and extra day to avoid a repeat of static traffic on the n90 that caused us a 4 hour delayed journey on the saturday at the start of half term.
Sunday was a breeze and traffic was free flowing in both directions. We've done sunday to sunday loads of times and the traffic has always been easy.
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| Quote: |
I would imagine the main governing factor would be airport slots
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Why would airport slots matter?
The main problem with congestion is people driving to and from the resorts and let’s face it judging by the registration plates I see most of those going to the French resorts are French.
Though Saturday to Saturday changeovers still predominate massively the use of more flexible booking systems on the internet means that other holiday breaks are possible (just)
Ps I’ve given up travelling to ski on Saturdays and go midweek to midweek simply booking the apartment for 2 weeks and leaving some empty days. Ah! the pleasure of being retired.
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