 Poster: A snowHead
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Just curious. Different resort for different need. But I can name a few resorts that, although not bad, wasn't good enough to go back again:
- Keystone: a good many of the runs feel the same. It felt like I was skiing the same run over and over again even though I wasn't skiing the same run. Who wants to re-visit a resort that has only one run anyway? Never been back
- Park City: Not bad, just nothing special. In an area of almost 10 fantastic resorts, Park City doesn't stand out at all. Canyon didn't look at great either. But since I can get discount pass due to my friend having season pass there. It's good enough for the price. So I'll go back to Canyons but skip Park City.
- Aspen! Although I had a great time skiing there, it was so expensive I don't think I'll ever WANT to go back. Though I might re-consider if a killer deal can be found.
- Beaver Creek: Another not-so-bad place if nothing special. Again, price is against it and there're other options nearby...
[EDIT]
I should clarify this is a list of resort you would not volunteerily pay to go to again.
Of course, if there's a resort you wouldn't go even if you're paid to do so, by all means. But I doubt there's such a place. (OK, Afganastan would qualify)
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 21-09-09 16:02; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Borovets, Bulgaria. Went once 20 years ago, with a group of about 15 others, including some beginners. Snow was rubbish, it took best part of an hour to get to anything skiable, infrastructure non-existent, hotel reception was a mecca for prostitutes each evening, and the food the worst I've had anywhere. Never, ever again
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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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3 Valleys. Went once over a New Year. Horrendously packed, horrendously expensive. Swore I'd never go back. Justified the ESOB trip to Val Thorens this year by saying that we didn't actually make it into VT, we only did Meribel and Courchevel. Well, can't say I'm in any rush to get back to VT either, now.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I would go back to any resort anywhere, but I would go to some resorts in preference to others. If there is snow and a mountain then it is fine by me
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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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Beaver Creak, Aspen, Keystone - I would have thought those are high on the list for europeans heading to the other side of the pond
Does not say much for NA then ?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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La Rosiere at Easter, potentially a great place, but with the only lower tree lined run shut, nowhere to go in a proper whiteout.
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meribel
travelled all the way to the alps to find myself in Fulham
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I would say my worst ever ski holiday was La Plagne. I went there on a post-Uni trip in 1993. The accommodation was awful, essentially six people to a room with one tiny bathroom and two cooking rings. Yes it was cheap, but we all had massive student debt and couldn't afford to eat out, so we lived on bread and crisps from the supermarket. The snow wasn't very good that year so the only lift from the bit we were staying in (Plagne 1800) wasn't running. Which meant getting a bus everywhere carrying all your gear (didn't manage to find any rentable lockers). There was no nightlife whatsoever and the resort felt like a very disjointed 1970s monstrosity. The skiing was very difficult, may partly have been due to patchy snow but I also felt a lot of the runs were over-graded.
I swore I'd never go back to La Plagne, but maybe in a nice hotel in a nicer part of town with better snow, I might enjoy it. It's well out of my price range now though.
I've also stayed in dodgy accommodation in Tignes. Loved the skiing there, but the accommodation was again awful and the nightlife non-existent. This sort of thing can put me off a resort although I went to a nice chalet in Val D'Isère (at an extortionate cost) several years later. Espace Killy is another area where the runs seem very over-graded, even the red runs were too difficult and some of the blues a bit scary.
Haven't been back to France since then.
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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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Probably Obergurgl, very limited skiing when the conditions were poor which was alot, lifts often shut when we were there. The piste marking on the top is virtually non exsistant and I accidently ended up taking my two kids across an off piste section toward a black run thinking we were on a blue.....they were terrified an almost put off for life.
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As some replies have already shown, it's difficult to be objective. I didn't like Espace Killy (horrible buildings, moon landscape skiing) but accept that it's to many people's taste - as the 3 Valleys are to mine.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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St Wolfgang, mid season snowline above bottom lifts, getting higher every day. Two lifts open, to the beginners slope and a couple of patchy runs. Too warm for the snow cannons and it rained. Mounta1nGoat and I both went down with 'proper' flu so I got to find out how impressive the local hospital was! Town virtually shut down as no Austrians were there due to the lack of snow so no alternative places to eat other than a few hotels all producing the same level of indifferent fare. Like Hurtle another 3V fan.
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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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Courchevel 1850
Having mainly skiied in Austria, we found the prices unbelievable where I almost felt like I was being robbed at every corner (even compared to supposedly expensive resorts like Lech and Zermatt), the apres ski dull and we got food poisoning from a suposedly top noch resturant.
The slopes were good in Courchevel (although we found Meribel icy and dreadful) - but just could not make up for the overall experience.
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Courmayeur - but rather like a few comments it was probably a time and place thing - what felt like a limited ski areas for our then standard may now be fine - but for us the whole experience was poor - road through the resort, trying to find parking and then having to walk down a busy road, not being able to ski off the mountain. Only there a day, but that has blighted any thought of returning there - am I missing out now?
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You know it makes sense.
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Les Deux Alpes. It gets quite some praise on here from many others, but when we went (late March 2005) it was really hot, most lower runs were shut as the snow had all melted, higher runs were ok but hugely crowded, the lift out of resort in the morning had enormous queues so it took an hour to get from the back of the queue to the top of the mountain. Also, our chalet was very basic for the money paid, and our front door opened onto the spot where seemingly every single dog in resort came to have a morning dump. Which never got cleaned up at all for the whole week.
I am tempted to go back some time just to clarify that it's not as bad as the week we had, but those memories are too fresh and I can't bring myself to do it.
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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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Courchevel, Espace Killy, La Plagne, Courmayeur, Meribel, Val Thorens, La Rosiere, Obergurgl, Keystone, Park City, The Canyons.......All slated on here - but I've had a great ski at all of them.
In particular, I really don't understand how could anyone fail to enjoy the 3 Valleys? It's got the lot (off piste, massive mileage cruising, bumps, steeps, trees.....Have I missed anything??) If you can't enjoy skiing there, where do you like?
My philosophy is in total agreement with rayscoops:
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I would go back to any resort anywhere, but I would go to some resorts in preference to others. If there is snow and a mountain then it is fine by me
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God knows what  who don't like the 3 V's would make of the area in Poland that I skied once - one ancient, single person chair and a vertical drop of about 300m. Great snow = great day!!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| rayscoops wrote: |
| I would go back to any resort anywhere, but I would go to some resorts in preference to others. If there is snow and a mountain then it is fine by me |
seconded.
I used to go to the snowdome a few times in the summer and really enjoyed it but the last few times (last summer) I just got fed up with it after about 1hr, my feet hurt etc. etc. so the only place I have decided not to go back to where skiing is possible is Xscape! (although I might go for 1 day before my first holiday in December as I won't have skied for 7 months, the longest for a few years  )
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Dav, you can't write off a resort on the basis of what the weather was like on the week you happened to be there. It's like deciding to emigrate to the UK because you visited one day last year and it was sunny and warm.
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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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Lizzard, like I said, I'm not writing it off, just the bad memories are too fresh for me to want to go back yet. Plus every other time I've been away since I've gone somewhere new and I like to continue to go to places I've not been before, good or otherwise.
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Nope - can't say I've been anywhere I wouldn't go back to again. A mountain, bit of snow - I'm happy Of course, some places I'd go back to quicker than others...
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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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First ever ski holiday was Courcheval 1850 second was Bansko - what more can I say!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Bansko. 
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None that I would not go back to. Although I would not choose to go back to Val d'Isere again. It was the clientele rather than the resort that was the problem for me.
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Likewise, I am happy to go back to anywhere with snow. Less inclined towards 3V lately for similar reasons to those already listed.
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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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abc, I like most of the ones you mention - going to PC for a few days this winter so will have to see - but will mainly be at Alta and taking side trips to other resorts...
For me
Breckenridge - a really poor example of what US skiing is about - best used as a place to get to other resorts from.
Marble Mountain - Newfoundland - not bad for a local hill (which it was then for me) for anyone else don't bother.
Schladming and surrounding resorts - too low, too icy, too little to ski.
Tignes may have some great skiing - but is so ugly. When France gets an enema - Tignes is where the nozzle goes.
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stoatsbrother,
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When France gets an enema - Tignes is where the nozzle goes
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That is truly, truly superb. Thank you! (And I agree.)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Aviemore. Couldn't get the hang of using the wind to lift you over the rocks that divided up the sheets of ice.
Although I might have just had unusually bad weather that time. Still couldn't justify driving 10 hours north to that, when 10 hours in the opposite direction gets me to the Alps.
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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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| Quote: |
When France gets an enema - Tignes is where the nozzle goes.
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in an extraodinary coincidence (because I'd never heard the expression before) someone said to me last night, at a party, that P J O'Rourke had written much the same about Papua New Guinea. So it may be superb, but it's not original. 
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pam w,
No matter - it was new to me.
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You know it makes sense.
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Kuhtai, Austria.
Long flat bits between the steep bits. Only went for the day, but had enough by lunchtime.
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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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There is some incredible snobbery and reverse snobbery on here
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Poster: A snowHead
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I loved Kuhtai, steep (nah just a red) bits where you could blast the rollers and access the great between piste powder ;y
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I haven't been anywhere I wouldn't go back to though I'd not be in any great hurry to visit Alpbach again. And I would prefer not to back to St Oswald, because although it was a great place for our first family holiday when we were all beginners, the range of skiing would be too small now that we can go a bit further and faster. But I'd happily go back to either if someone else was paying.
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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'd quite happily return to Montgenevre and Serre Chevalier and I will be in Janaury.
Its now about striking a balance between discovering new resorts and visiting resorts I already know. I hope to go twice a year in the future, 1 week in Serre Chevalier and a week in somewhere that I haven't been that takes my fancy.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I agree that I'd rather be in any place I can ski, than not skiing at all. And that even includes Castleford etc! If someone offered me a free trip to a mountain, I'd be there.
Having said that, I would not pay to go to the following places again...
Val Thorens - Vile architechture, the pistes were dull and repetitive, scenery was nothing special, full of English people speaking English.
Val D'Isease - See Val Thorens, but multiply the number of English by 10.
Zurs - Boooooring town. Nothing to do. Lech was ok, but a bit of a trek for some decent apres skiing. I was working (teaching kids) so didn't see much of the decent skiing as I spent my days off in St. Anton, and the stuff for the kids wasn't great at all-overcrowded, badly pisted and a hassle going to Lech with kids on the ski bus.
For those thinking I am a miserable sod, who is never pleased, here are resorts I would go to again in a heartbeat...
Zermatt, Klosters, Davos, Flims/Laax, St. Anton, Jackson Hole...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Cervinia - dull as dishwater.
(I absolutely loved Keystone though and of all the places I went to this year it was my favourite.  )
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Wengen - dull skiing, back bottom old upper class snob brits, crud nightlife, sheeite lift system
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I wouldn't go back to La Rosiere - there's not enough there, nor would I go back to any 3V resort - too crowded.
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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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GrandValira (Pas/Grau/Sol/Tart/Can).
LaThuile/Ros.
John.
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FAQ
