Resort recommendation for Easter

A snowHead

Hi all

I'm off to LDA on Jan 5 which I'm very excited about (my second visit there) with a couple of mates for a 'three 30something blokes unfettered by girlfriends for a week' kind of trip Cool

The reason we're allowed to do this is that the females are coming with us on March 15 for a week which was going to be Morzine where my mate's boss has a chalet, but this is no longer the destination.

So I'm looking for some suggestions for resorts. I've skiied: Crans Montana, Les Arcs, LDA, Serre Chev, Portes de Soleil and Trois Vallees.

The group will consist of me (highish intermediate) and two experienced Swedish skiers who have come back after a decade off and love the new carvers, 3 middleweight powderhungry boarders, and three tentative but plucky beginners, of which one is fresh off the boat (we're taking him to Xscape MK in a fortnight for a 3hr fasttracker).

I want somewhere high to keep up the snow chances. Plus the Swedes are more used to their lower stuff in Åre etc, so I'm hoping for something with spectacular views to astound them, not too polar, some tree runs would be nice too. As you can see I've generally stayed in French speaking Alps but would be flexible if Austria or Italy prove enticing. I think we'll probably rule out USA/Canada for one week's trip though - or is that a mistake?

I don't mind going back somewhere I've been already, but like the sound of Tignes or Val d'Isere as a new place.

Your thoughts please?

A snowHead

Since when is March 15 Easter?

Tignes/Val is superb, but so should anywhere else be at that time of year (except last year).

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

Ghost Dog, since around 2000 years ago wink

w/c 15th March would bring you home on Easter Sat or Sun, as Easter Sunder in 2008 is March 23rd....meaning that you would "encroach" into the Easter weekend.

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But Easter hols are from the 22nd for some schools and 29th for others. (Scotland, anyway). So surely he's going the week before Easter? More 2 the point, I duoubt there should be too many worries about snow unless 20007/08 suddenly mimics last season. Be a great week to ski the Dolomites. (I say this mainly becaus I have fond memories of an enormous plate of mountain ham, cheese bread and pickle that one of the mountain restaiurants in Selva served me a couple of seasons ago) Smile

Or indeed anywhere else with mountains and snow.

This might be the season to ski the Milky Way if snow is as good as it seems it might be.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We're avoiding the 'Easter holidays' quite well - but the week does finish the day before Easter Sunday I believe. Looks like the timing is perfect.

Anyway I'll look into Tignes, Val, the Dolomites (hope they're not too low for snow but should be alright it's no longer 2007!) and the Milky Way. Sounds good so far, cheers!

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Ghost Dog, I agree about school holidays.....but the OP didn't actually mention "Easter Holidays"....just Easter....which technically the week encroaches on.

Anyway, enough of the pedantry from both of us......I'm sure it's not what a new poster wants to see!

If you want spectacular views, then Zermatt & Wengen are probably (IMHO) the two most spectacular in Europe. I like Zell am See in Austria....the lift pass covers the Kitzsteinhorn glacier and they have excellent snowmaking.

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

Val d'Isere or Tignes will be sensational, both offer fantastic on and off piste skiing at all levels and the the area is exceptionally well linked so meeting up if you want split up to do different things is a doddle.

Being so high a lot of the skiing is above the tree line but there are still great tree runs in Val d'Isere in all sectors.

Val is more expensive than Tignes but if you can afford it it is probably worth it for the atmosphere and the apres.

I was at Val April 21st-28th this year and we were still able to ski down to resort.

We will be in Val the same week you are away so I hope my prediction is correct!

After all it is free

Head high.

Val d'Isere.
Tignes.
Lech / St Anton.
Zermatt.
Verbier.

brian

tommy10pages, espace killy is a great ski area but not particularly awe inspiring in the moutain scenery dept. For spectacular with high altitude skiing, Zermatt or Chamonix.

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Zermatt would be a good choice, it's beautiful, lots of Swissness. I love Tignes but it is a bit stark, I agree that it would be nice to have some charm. Val d'Isere is better for this, though more expensive. Somewhat predictably, I'd add Chamonix to the list, as I've found it to be a surprisingly good place for mixed groups, though the perception is often that it's not. And again, lots of character, awesome scenery...plus the Vallee Blanche/Grands Montets off piste for the more experienced.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I'm liking the Zermatt idea, I'll look into it.

A lot of chalet prices in March all over the Alps seem to be full whack £600+ per person. The same chalet in several instances I've seen for half that in December.

So I'm guessing it will pay to wait till Feb to book this one in...

snow reports

tommy10pages, Obertauern would suit your group and be snow-sure at that time of year. It has everything you are looking for.

You know it makes sense.

Money is a bit of an object, as we've got these beginners who are shelling out for kit and school etc too. We don't want to scare them off with too high a price.

Wengen sounds good but still a gamble with the snow even in a good year?

Will have a look though...

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

tommy10pages, I wouldn't have thought mid March was really a gamble. It's still main season. I've been in Wengen at Easter time when it's been late April and still had good snow.

A snowHead

I think Val d'Isere's reputation as tough for beginners is undeserved. Two very timid beginner friends loved it. The FREE nursery slopes are great and there are plenty of gentle slopes on Solaise and Bellevarde to progress to, the long green Madeleine is particular is a sweetheart. It is true that there are no easy descents to the village but there are very easy gondolas down from each area! I think the ski to resort thing is a bit of a red herring as after all there is no ski access at all from the main Penken ski area to Mayrhofen nor down to Courmayeur from its slopes and this doesn't stop many thousands of people taking holidays there.

I personally think that the quality of tuition is probably the single most important factor in whether beginners enjoy their first ski experience and Val d'Isere has many of the most respected ski schools in the Alps with very healthy competition between them. I have heard that even the ESF here gets good feedback.

Where I can agree in part with pam w, in her querying its suitability for beginners is that one or two of the runs are undergraded. Like many before me I wish they would re-grade the Verte down to La Daille from green to blue, this run could seriously frighten a timid beginner fresh from the nursery slopes. However anomolies like this are well known and therefore easily avoided.

Zermatt wins hands down on the scenery stakes but the links between the areas are less good and it really is poor for beginners so it would be trickier for different abilities to meet up.

brian

Hullite, with the opening last year of the Furi-Riffelberg gondola and this year of the Sunegga-Findeln-Breitboden express quad, the links between the Zermatt areas aren't too bad now.

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

I've got quite a mixed group for this trip, as mentioned. The only real 'fresh off the boat' beginner is my middle brother - he's getting 3hrs at Xscape before which will make his first day easier. He's probably going to do what I and littlest brother did, and develop quite quickly from nothing to snowplough to almost parallel in week one (not that we'll be pressuring him mind you).

So maybe Val sounds good for him as well as the rest of us. We all vary from two weeks to 8 weeks to 'born skiers' like my Swedish friends.

I do like the sound of Zermatt or Wengen for scenery though. After a week at LDA this Jan coming, with all its high splendour and amazing views off the Mont de Lans glacier, I'd quite fancy some forestry for a change and I'm sure the other two will agree. Maybe this rules Tignes out.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

tommy10pages, I haven't been myself but I have read that La Plagne has some good tree lined skiing and the snow there should be fine. Linked to Les Arcs to form the Paradiski there is extensive on and off-piste skiing for all abilities. I don't think the resorts have the buzz of a Val d'Isere or Zermatt but they will be cheaper and sound like they tick most of your boxes. The Oxygene ski school at La Plagne gets rave reviews ( they have a sister school in Val d'Isere they we are entrusting with our girls in March).

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Yes, there's some good tree skiing around La Plagne, when the snow permits, but the resort as a whole is rather dull, with some of the least inspiring architecture in the French Alps - and that's saying something. It's not that scenic either - there are loads of more scenic resorts. Few places in the world can compare to the Jungfrau or Zermatt. Yes, scenery in Chamonix is great, but it's so busy, and the areas are a bit scattered for a mixed ability group. Val D'Isere can't be put in the same category for "buzz" as Zermatt, either. Zermatt, like Chamonix, is redolent of real mountains, and real mountaineers, and oozing history. Val D'Isere is just ski-land for people with mostly plenty of money, bringing their private nannies, not too bothered about history and ambiance or scenery, just keen to be seen in the right places. Yes, there's a big and very well lift served ski area, but that's not all it's about. But then I confess to a prejudice against the place so maybe my view is jaundiced. To ski the Espace Killy I'd much rather stay in Tignes. I've only been to Zermatt and the Jungfrau area in summer but it's hard to imagine better scenery. But Zermatt is not for beginners, so amongst the "giants" that leaves the Jungfrau.

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

tommy10pages, if you need any more convincing about snow conditions in Wengen, then do a search for MSB. There were around 35 snowHeads in Wengen from 17th-24th March last year and we had the most amazing snow conditions We're going a week earlier this year for the sole reason of avoiding Easter.

After all it is free

tommy10pages, you want Val d'Isere. Great skiing. Wild west town.
Zermat is too posh
Tignes is a council estate with lifts.

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pam w, I think you might be right about being a bit jaundiced about Val d'Isere and must have had an unusually bad experience. I was prejudiced before I went because I was sick to death of mates of ours comparing every ski resort we went to unfavourably with Val. Also the Val de Sloane Square thing was off-putting (I'm a northener). When we went I found the skiing incredible in its extent quality and variety with long glacier runs and even longer tree lined runs back to resort. While the scenery is not as stunning as Zermatt or Chamonix it is still pretty fabulous - the view from the top of the Grand Motte or Pisaillas glaciers is breathtaking. The snow conditions rank as among the best in Europe and the town is attractive and buzzing with the full spectrum of nightlife from cosy quality bars and salon du the, to crowded sweaty clubs. We found the atmosphere friendly and the fact that it is a SKIERS resort gives it a democratic feel despite the costs, - we are all there because we love to ski rather than to parade in our fox furs.

I would heartily second the description given in the excellent Where to Ski Guide which basically says that while it is not the best for scenery although still beautiful, it comes either top or near top in every category of significance for holidaymakers with the exception of quick transfer time. You could argue that St Anton has better apres; that Verbier has better off piste; that Zermatt has better mountain restaurants but Val d'Isere is up there contending each claim. Everything works there: the lifts are efficient and the buses run like clockwork absorbing the crowds effortlessly.

The only downsides for me are expense and 2.5 to 3,5 hour transfer times (depending on airport). They are definitely worth it!

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Some very wise snowHead

mentioned the Dolomites for your mixed bag group - do it!! It has the lot for you all and great atmosphere, nice small 'local' linked resorts, world cup runs, a glacier, days out skiing miles and miles for most level skiers, apart from the very new, and the most fabulous scenery - except maybe for the Valley Blanche ( no... it's better than that ).

brian

Elizabeth B, but don't do a search for the week or 2 before the MSB wink

Admittedly an extremely bad year and I agree that finding poor snow in any of the major alpine resorts in March is most unlikely, but for braces+belt security I would go for somewhere with the majority of skiing above 2000m.

Hullite, spoken like a true convert (or apartment owner wink

). I've been to Val twice and the EK is a great area, and the town is not bad and pretty lively (too many Brits for my taste but that's true of a lot of the alps). However, the scenery is several notches down from the genuinely breathtaking stuff of Chamonix or the Eiger.

brian, many of the high resorts have a rock base. This requies a larger dump to get the pistes open. Even the week before we were in Wengen you could still ski okay, because the base is pasture.

brian

Elizabeth B, true, but the likelihood of the rocky base not being covered by March is pretty small. Once the base builds above 2000m it tends to stick. Otoh, lower down grassy pastures take a lot less to be skiable but the snow can come and go.

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

Whatever the base you are more likely to get mush rather than crunch as a suface at lower altitudes if the weather is warm although aspect is almost as important IMO

A snowHead

brian, It is true that I am both a convert and (though I can hardly believe it) an apartment owner although as it is leaseback I have no vested interest in luring anybody else there.

I really had been put off Val d'Isere previously by the zeal with which its admirers boast of its merits and I realize I am now in danger of doing the same. But equally I wouldn't want other people to miss out through having the same misconceptions. There ARE things against Val d'Isere and I have tried to point them out to be fair to tommy10pages.

I am a 37 year old intermediate & not very brave skier standing 5 foot tall in very thick socks who has a passion for rugby league and european literature. As you have probably inferred by now, I have all the street cred of Anne Widdecombe so not your stereotypical Val customer. I don't see why we should allow the inhabitants of Kensington to keep all the fun to themselves. In reality there are a range of people in the resort including very large numbers of French plus impoverished snow junkies happy to live 6 to a rabbit hutch in return for skiing some of the finest slopes in the world. Just to undermine everything I have just said here I must confess to having met the official POSHEST MAN IN THE WORLD there on our April visit. An astonishing bloke called Timothy who was very nice indeed but just jaw droppingly, improbably posh. It is impossible to describe him to friends without them thinking we are hamming it up for comic effect

Many Austrian resorts have more charm, Kensington probably has cheaper beer but it is still an all time great and I would have thought a reliable choice for a mixed ability group of mates.

A snowHead

Wow looks like I've got a lot of research to do now, plenty of ideas, thanks everyone!

Especially liked the mention of the Eiger, I'm reading Heinrich Harrer's The White Spider at the moment (about the 1938 first ascent of the north face). It's stirring stuff. Would love to go and see it. So I'm going to look for some resorts nearby during my research.

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

I guess Val d'Isere is one of those places that because it's popular and a lot of people have skied it with different aspirations divdes opinions.

My own feelings are a bit mixed. I have skied there on quite a few occasions though mainly from Tignes, the last time I actually holidayed there was over ten years ago and for me it's downsides began to outweigh it's many merits.

I go skiing most often with my family, for a family holiday trying to source any kind of reasonable sized accommodation at a price affordable by me is difficult.

It is heavily promoted as a good resort for off-piste skiing. As a punterish kind of off-piste skier it is far from ideal. The kind of moderate non extreme slopes that I'm attracted to get very heavily skied, the feeling is more of being on piste with well skied slopes and not the away from it all feeling that I enjoy.

Its reputation is for good snow,it may be better than average objective information is difficult to find. But the numbers that it attracts often result in much greater wearing of the piste than in other less popular resorts. It is certainly not immune form poor snow, the worse conditions that I have ever had on holiday were whilst staying in Tignes. (I don't think there were better conditions elsewhere however.

Maybe it's snobbery but I do prefer a slightly less anglophonic environment, I have nothing against my fellow Brits but I do like to feel I'm abroad when on holiday and not in another county.

I also find it is not the best place when bad weather strikes, there is some skiing beneath the trees but it is limited and gets very crowded in poor weather.

Having said all that it does have a great variety of skiing for all standards and I would agree that this includes beginners, it is a pretty vibrant place where eating if not drinking out in the evening can be done suprisingly reasonably given the overall cost of the place. It is far from the ugliest French resort (Lots of competition for this one).
Whats worse for all my grumping there are friends going next year (2008) who have persuaded me to join them so I will be revisiting it's dubious delights. Embarassed

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Hi all, I've done some research for this trip 15-22 March, I've definitely got a mixed group of 11 people. To recap, we're looking for a chalet somewhere for around £450 max per person in a resort that's picturesque, but with plenty of differing conditions for a mixture of skiers and boarders in varying levels from English beginners to Swedish skiing legends.

My concern now is that initially I was going to wait until Feb to book somewhere, hoping prices would fall so we can get a <£350 bargain.

But I'm not sure if they will fall now as the snow is good this season so far, and it might be difficult to find a chalet with 11 spaces so late notice?

Does anyone have any views on this?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Prices are down to £200 a head for departures this weekend, just depends how long your nerve holds.

I mentioned the Dolomites in an earlier post, I would think that Selva would meet your requirements perfectly, my only concern would be that they have had less snow than the Alps this season, although it looks like it's making up for it now. See http://www.valgardena.it/eng/page207.html

Problem in waiting to long is the size of your group.

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tommy10pages, Cervinia? All the Beauty of the Matterhorn etc, massive ski area (inc the Zermatt side) ultra-snow-sure, italian food & wine, short transfer from turin... what's not to like... snowHead

Help!!

Resort recommendation for Easter

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