 Poster: A snowHead
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If you could pick any destination in the alps and your number one criteria was the consistant snowpack where would go?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Including Summer months?
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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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no, feburary 07 going big and spending 5 weeks chasing snow.
I was just wondering if there was any regions that were known for consistant snow in winter.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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La Rosiere. 
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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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On top of the mountain
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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to be honest, I really don't think one place in the alps has consistantly good snow, the best I could say is go high, to one of the "bigger" resorts (maybe with a glacier), ie Tignes, Les 2 Alpes, Verbier, St Anton, Trois Vallees etc
Maybe some other questions will help...
Have you skied Europe before? What kind of skiing do you want to do? Do you want ski in/out? Do you care about what the resort looks like?
cheers,
Greg
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| bridgerpow wrote: |
| If you could pick any destination in the alps and your number one criteria was the consistant snowpack where would go? |
All Alpine stations should have good snow in Feb. It is the peak of Winter. Mar is when it starts to melt.
The region with the highest average snowfall is the Arlberg in West Austria (e.g. Lech). It consistently gets more snow than the rest of the Alps.
Val d'Isere also gets above-average snowfall. It has a consistently long season. The ski area has the added bonus of being higher than the Arlberg.
Based on your criteria, on balance, I would choose Val d'Isere.
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whitegold, where do you get those stats from?
Cheers,
Greg
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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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"This modern resort sits at an elevated position at the end of the long Tarentaise valley which runs roughly SW-NE. Both the village and the ski area are open to the storms from the West and South West that are funnelled into the Tarentaise valley.
La Rosiere receives the full energy of these storms and gets more snow than, for example, nearby Val d'Isere at the same altitude".
Quote from the 'Where to ski and snowboard guide' 2006, when we were in La Rosiere we were told that they hold the record for the highest snowfall in France.
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Is that you Dave?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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bridgerpow,
I think you need to re-define the question maybe. As I read it, you are over here for 5 weeks and want to maximise everything. If you haven't been here before, then the list of resorts to visit might be huge.
If you want Swiss chocolate box, go Wengen and Zermatt, if you want hard-core, go Chamonix, St Anton and Le Grave, etc etc. It would be very hard to say where will have the best snow at any one time and the regions tend to go in cycles in this regard. If you wanted to visit the top 4 or 5 resorts in the alpes - and therefore the world, then you would need a car and at least a day to travel from St Anton to Zermatt, say.
If you could say what sort of skiing you are after and a few other bits of detail we might be able to get the list down to about 10..!! and you would not have time to do them justice in 5 weeks what with all the travel in between
The other thing that might help is, what airport you will fly in and out of..?
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Thanks for the info!
Flying into Amsterdam then making our way towards Garmisch to visit a friend and make use of a place to stay then off to Austria.
Definitly want to ski Austria sounds like St. Anton would be the place?
From Austria we were thinking about making our through switzerland via engelberg then towards La Grave or mayber Chamonix.
What do you think about methods of travel across those regions are rails even suitable. I was wondering how one would connect all those spots. What about being flexible and moving w/ snow???
Back home my favorite places to ski are Jackson Hole and Snowbird/Alta as well as the endless montana backcountry. We love steeps and scenery so are naturally exited about this trip.
Anyway thanks again
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You know it makes sense.
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According to my beloved Ski "Bible" (Der Grosse Falk Skiatlas 2006) "Die Schneesichersten Skigebiete" are
1 Les Trois Vallees F
2 Val / Tignes F
3 Obergugl/Hochgurgl A
4 Obertauern A
5 Passo Tonale I
6 Livigno I
7 St Anton A
8 Silvretta/Ischgl A
9 Zermatt CH
10 Verbier CH
F = France, A = Austria, I = Italy, CH = Switzerland
They worked it out by seeing how many days the resort was open, and how many days it was possible to ski the whole area, gave them weightings then factored in things like % pistes over 1800m and % slopes with snowmaking. It's a bit odd that Zermatt isn't a bit higher up the list, and a few srping to mind that I'd have thought would have been in with a shout but I can't argue with science.
I'd agree with JT, most resorts (certainly those mentioned on this thread) aren't going to be too short of snow in feb so other criteria will dictate where you go. St Anton is on the train line which goes from Innsbruck to Switzerland so you may well pass it on your way out of Germany to Switzerland. It'd be well worth paying it a visit, esp. if you're into skiing backcountry and scenery.
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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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| alecl wrote: |
They worked it out by seeing how many days the resort was open, and how many days it was possible to ski the whole area, gave them weightings then factored in things like % pistes over 1800m and % slopes with snowmaking. |
This seems to favour resorts where the lowest runs are still high up ie resorts which don't have huge vertical drop like Zermatt
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
feburary 07 going big and spending 5 weeks chasing snow.
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Some considerations other than snow cover.....it might be worth thinking about which resorts will be comparatively less crowded, during these peak weeks. I would suggest making Chamonix/Le Grave/Sainte Foy etc (or anywhere France) the first destination then heading east to Switzerland/Austria which seem to suffer a bit less from the crowds during the French school holidays, which are from Feb 10 - March 10. Staying flexible would be good, generally, but you will find it difficult to find last minute accommodation in key resorts in France during that period and next to impossible to book anything for less than a week. French holiday accommodation is much less flexible than US equivalents. French holidays run Saturday - Saturday so, apart from the accommodation problem, the roads can be very congested, especially if the weather is bad (as one naturally hopes it will be, with heaps of snow everywhere!). Most people take one week holidays. The best day on the French slopes, because so many people are on the road, is Saturday. The ultimate chase-the-snow set up is a winterized motor caravan but that might not be your idea of a good time, and they're expensive to hire. European ones, like European apartments, don't generally come close to the specifications of the US versions!
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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 train is a good way to travel in Europe but it will not hit a lot of the spots you may want.
Assuming..again, that you leave Garmish to go skiing then St Anton should be quite achievable from there by train. I don't know how Garmish is connected but you can't be far from the Munich-Innsbruck line which is exactly what you want
to get to St A which is on the main line from Innsbruck to Zurich. The train wil go right to the resort. After 4-5 days there - you might not leave,  - you can then get the train to Zurich and on to Engelberg easily enough, its a 2 hr ride but you may have to change to a mountain railway. This is not a problem as the Swiss dove-tail their timetables for this type of thing. From Engleberg I would head for Zermatt...again a day of messing around on trains. From Zermatt, head to Chamonix via Martigny and over the Col del la Forclaz pass and the Swiss-Franco border into the Chamonix valley. So far this trip would be relatively easy by the train, you will have to swap over a few times but you are covering an awful lot of ground and a car would be worse IMV. From Chamonix, you need to make a hard decision about your next stop as Le Grave/L2A/ADH are worth adding but the transfer from Chamonix is not good and here a car would be an adavanatge. It's still a 3 hour drive in winter but there isn't an easy train connection and you will have to bus the last stages.
You may want to swap L2A/LG etc for Val 'd isere or the 3 valleys and they would be marginally closer and therefore easier to get to.
The interary I have outlined would be a whistle top- tour of some of the most desirable - subjective- and radical/gnarly resorts a US visitor could tick off. To make the best of these places, you would need guides as Le Grave, for example, isn't a place for introductions and finding your way. And, of course, neither are the others but at least they have piste alternatives. And I have also kept the resorts down to 5 as you will probably get fed-up losing a day to travel between the majority of these places. At least the route I have outlined means you travel all the same way and do not have to double back. If you ended up in France and needed to get back to Amsterdam you could get the train from
Chamonix/St Gervais, or Le Grave/L2A/ADH and Lyon, back to Paris and on to Amsterdam.
Try not to rock up in resort on a friday night and this could serverely limit you chances of accomodation.
I would offer an opinion that the above is a pretty good wish-list intinerary for someone wanting to chase Europe's steeps and deeps. You will need to be pretty good...
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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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I always thought the winner in the snow competition was Tignes - by a country mile.
It is lovely to hear La Rosiere news again though and I will have to go there one day.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've heard that the snow is pretty much guaranteed in the little no resort of Xscape Milton Keynes, despite being very low lying.
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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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What about northern Italy? I haven't heard much talk about skiing the dolomites here but was kind of curious about the idea of sticking to the above itenerary but veering south towards Italy instead of taking on France. Does the dolomiti superski pass offer worthy skiing?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
Val d'Isere also gets above-average snowfall. It has a consistently long season. The ski area has the added bonus of being higher than the Arlberg.
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hang on you've been talking about how it gets 20% below average snowfall now you are saying it gets above average snowfall? You can't have it both ways.
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bridgerpow,
The Dolomites...? Again, depends on what you want... I haven't been back there for years so would have a totally different perspective now. It would be better to access them from the Brenner pass which is the main route south into Italy from Munich. As for the skiiing in a once in a life-time trip at the expense of Chamonix/France..? Not for me. Thats not to say they aren't worthwhile in their own right. Arraba/Marmolada might be good, and the Dolomites, altho' very pictureque, might have the poorer snow record in recent years... but someone here might be more up todate on that.
It seems to me that you should make a decision on 7-8 resorts/areas you would like to explore and then post here for a route-planning exercise to cut it down to, say 5. You will covering a lot of ground and potentially 5 countries. Granted, some may equate to small states like Mass and Conn, but..!!
If you go down to the Dolomites...which would almost certainly need a car, you may be able to cross into the Swiss Engadine if the passes are open or drive past Milan and up into Aosta/Mont Blanc and into France that way.
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We've just booked a 6 week trip in Jan and I found that most apartments insist on a min 7-day stay from either Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun, especially in France. Most of the apartments I checked out were already full right through Feb as this is the busiet time in the Alps...We are taking a car, it gives an option for exploring other resorts near our base...
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