 Poster: A snowHead
|
Been thinking about heading there for a couple of years now. We're a group of 7 snowboarders, decent intermediates who like to rack up a few kms and have a few beers after.
Is it any good?
What's the night life like?
Any off piste?
Your thoughts please....
Ta
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
no idea on night life, but good skiing (albeit a little bit too many motorway wide pistes on the Cervinia side for my liking) and great off piste. Saw loads of potential when I was there for 2 days, and zero tracks! I was on my own and didn't venture far away but found plenty of nice spring snow and laid some tracks down under lifts!!
regards,
Greg
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
If you want more challenge than long-wide motorways you should probably be staying on the other side of the mountain.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
What's wrong staying in Cervinia when skiing in Zermatt?
The two links are liable to close when there is a strong wind and the ski pass is more expensive. Otherwise the two sides are just one big resort to me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Richie,
Underrated resort for those little drops of the side...and a few heli options if you fancy it. I'd say a good starter would be the Chateau Dammes run...
Not the longest but it depends what you can/want to do..
And the good thing is that the Italians don't track OP out first....they'll follow you though....
In good snow, it is a huge playground, in bad snow the pistes are ok
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Richie wrote: |
Been thinking about heading there for a couple of years now. We're a group of 7 snowboarders, decent intermediates who like to rack up a few kms and have a few beers after.
Is it any good?
What's the night life like?
Any off piste?
Your thoughts please....
Ta |
The nightlife is reasonable. The food is good. The crumpet is topnotch.
But -- The lifts are rubbish. The skiing is average. The Matterhorn looks gash.
Dig deep. Stay on the Swiss side. Cervinia is a poor man's Zermatt.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ignore whitegold he's just contrary
cervinia is great for what you're looking for. Did an easter there a couple of years ago and had a great time. Lots of nice pistes, some good offpiste on both sides of the mountain, great food and some ok night life..the white rabbit (IIRC) was a decent club.. you just need to be conscious (as a boarder) that if the weather turns and your on the zermatt side then the it's a couple of long windswept drags to get back to the top of the mountain...
not all the pistes are motoways, the black down from furg to furi on the matterhorn side (whilst looking like the 'main' run home) is actually a narrow, twisty bumpy little thight burner and all the better for it..plus with the new link from furi up to riffelberg that opens up all the gornergrat side of the moutain more readily for cervinia day trippers..
enjoy..
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
In terms of Zermatt v Cervinia - its a lot easier to ski the entire area staying on the Zermatt side, you'll struggle to get to Rothorn and back in a day unless thats literally all you do. There's still loads for a week if you stay in Cervina though. Zermatt is chocolate box in places whereas Cervinia is purpose built and while not Arc 1800 grim its not exactly pretty.
Off piste potential is good but it needs a seriously good covering up there, its not excactly grass under the snow. The pistes may be motorways but the ones from the top are long and good fun if not steep. Its a pain to get back up though - the lift system is ok but its a bit disjointed with plenty of gondolas and bubbles rather than just fast chairs. Its worth heading over to Zermatt for lunch and a bog with a seat rather than a hole in the floor though.
In short Zermatt is better but you'll never regret a trip to Cervinia, its also very easy to get there if you fly into Turin. If you're going for a week and can be bothered driving down the hill (I couldn't its 27 km) you've got Courmayeur, Pila, La Thuile/La Rosiere, Gressoney, etc nearby for a day trip as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you want to go to Cervinia Richie, go now while you are still intermediate. If you wait until you are advanced you will be bored s***less and will spend all your time commuting back & forth to Zermatt.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Cervinia's pistes has lots of flats so not particulary good for boarders. As mentioned above a poor mans Zermatt. Nightlife was good, food good, but will be back again in Zermatt before Cervinia, (maybe 2008 with luck).
Agree totally with levart,
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
I don't know why people shoot down the lifts in Cervinia. May be in a windy day it can be terrible at the top but I still prefer the excessively long X1 and X2 drag lifts on the Zermatt side.
Starting at the main Bueuil Cervinia station it is only 2 godolas and one cable car and you will be in Zermatt, without even putting the ski on! Hey I didn't find that rubbish at all.
Also starting at the top of Zermatt at 3899m one can ski one the longest and biggest vertical drops all the way to Valtournenche at 1524m. That is 2375m vertical drop!
Zermatt has it charm and is a very well kept resort. However snow is snow and the condition isn't all that different between the two sides.
I find it more practical to stay in Cervina than being ripped off in Zermatt myself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the feedback folks. How does it compare to 3 Valleys resort or Val D / Tignes?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Cheaper, but the advanced skiing does not compare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Its hard to say whether any one of the three is better because they're all so huge they've got everything you could ever want.
For me Espace Killy has the best slopes but is so busy its just painful - whenever you go (I never go during Christmas, Easter or school holidays) its also full of Brits so there's a fair percentage of the skiers who aren't as in control as you'd like them to be. Also I'm sure this will upset a few people, but there's no getting away from the fact that Tignes is one of the most appalling eyesores in the Alps.
3 Valleys is ok but I'd rate it worst of the three, this is just a personal view - I'm a big fan of putting the skis on in the morning and not taking them off other than for a quick sarnie at lunch. 3V is inundated with bubbles which means taking the skis off all the time.
I'd put Zermatt/Cervinia top of the three irrespective of which side you ski.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Richie and his crew are snowboarders levart, so the number of gondolas is probably not a drawback in their eyes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
the ice perv, good point, I ski regularly with boarders and they're always desperately trying to rest the loose end of their boards on my skis when we're on chairs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
Some friends are going there for new Year, and thay have a very half-baked idea that we will be joining them. At 700 quid a person for a club hotel (Crystal?) they've gotta be kidding.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Sorry, make that £800 each 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| Whitegold wrote: |
| Richie wrote: |
Been thinking about heading there for a couple of years now. We're a group of 7 snowboarders, decent intermediates who like to rack up a few kms and have a few beers after.
Is it any good?
What's the night life like?
Any off piste?
Your thoughts please....
Ta |
The nightlife is reasonable. The food is good. The crumpet is topnotch.
But -- The lifts are rubbish. The skiing is average. The Matterhorn looks gash.
Dig deep. Stay on the Swiss side. Cervinia is a poor man's Zermatt. |
Always a good reason 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
We stayed in St Vincent to ski Cervinia/Zermatt. It is a 19 miles to Cervinia but the road was empty. On average we met about 15 cars on the road each day and overtook about 10. Only 3 to 4 cars drove faster and overtook our diesel 4x4. We booked pretty late.
The twin bed hotel room was 75 Euro B&B per night.
We paid 95 Euro for hotel B&B for two in Sion to Ski Crans Montana/Verbier which are 10 and 5 miles away.
The cheapest has to be Briancon at 59 Euro B&B for skiing Milky Way and Serre Chevalier.
Thus we didn't find Cervinia/Zermatt expensive to ski, as to stay in B&B in any similar grade hotel B&B between Amsterdam and the Alps would be about 80 Euros per room for two of us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We stayed in St Vincent to ski Cervinia/Zermatt. It is a 19 miles to Cervinia but the road was empty. On average we met about 15 cars on the road each day and overtook about 10. Only 3 to 4 cars drove faster and overtook our diesel 4x4. We booked pretty late.
The twin bed hotel room was 75 Euro B&B per night.
We paid 95 Euro for hotel B&B for two in Sion to Ski Crans Montana/Verbier which are 10 and 5 miles away.
The cheapest has to be Briancon at 59 Euro B&B for skiing Milky Way and Serre Chevalier.
Thus we didn't find Cervinia/Zermatt expensive to ski, as to stay in B&B in any similar grade hotel B&B between Amsterdam and the Alps would be about 80 Euros per room for two of us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
saikee, maybe not, but as the whole point of going, apart from to ski, was to socialise with our friends, staying 19 miles away is not really an option. I think we'll be remaining in Serre Chevalier.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Helen Beaumont,
Unless you go back to Serre Chavalier year in and year out and never venture outside.
If you do you still have to drive theses distances
Montgenevre 11 miles
Cesana 19 miles
Sestriere 24 miles
La Grave 27 miles
Les Deux Alps 39 miles
L'Alpes D'Huez 44 miles.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
