Poster: A snowHead
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small group looking for new location ideas for this season. We are mainly intermediate to expert (but dont have transeiver etc) and tend to do high mileage. Looking for a challenge and decent snow prospects, but want to avoid Switz cos its waaaay too expensive these days. Been to Espace Killy (loads), St Anton and Portes du Soleil- any ideas for a new venue? Much appreciated, thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Finkenberg
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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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Ischgl, Monterosa, Whistler. Dolomites. les Arcs/ La Plagne, Chamonix, Vail, Aspen, 3 Valleys
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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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Whistler
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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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there are some great things been said about Slovakia at the moment.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Palais du Paulio?
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If you liked Espace Killy, but don't fancy returning why not try Paradiski or the 3 valleys? Both are close to Espace Killy and have loads of km of piste (Paradiski is slightly higher at 425km) but somewhere new at the same time.
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Dolomites
About 38km either clockwise or anticlockwise with Sella Ronda. White Ring of St Anton is just 21.6km. Sella Ronda passes through 4 resorts of Selva Gardena, Canazei, Arabba and Alta Badia. Domolomites has a total of 12 resorts.
World War one Tour - Linked by Arabba, Civetta, Cortina Ampezzo (Hidden Valley) and Alta Badia.
Ortisei-Alps Du Suisi-Santa-Cristina loop
You can't do more mileage anywhere than Dolomites.
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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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Pyrenees,, alot of choice in France and Spain
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Quote: |
Looking for a challenge and decent snow prospects
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Gotta be Scotland then.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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some great ideas! I quite fancied dolomites by one of my firends suspects its just lots of cruising and little chsllenge for the better skiers of the group, plus dodgy snow, but i ll work on the others. Thing i like about Espace K are the itinerary route or whatever they are called - avie controlled but unpisted - somewhere with loads of those would be cool.
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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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bitoffluff, Your friend have complete right about Dolomites, only alot of cruising, for me it seems like British skier think that the norm for a good skiresort is alot of lifts and alot of slopes km, but fact is there is complete different things that make a skiresort good, the first thing depends on you, what you want with your skiing, do you want cruising, or steep offpist, do you want heavy apres ski with alot of rock´n roll or quit resort with highclass resturants? To go with a group with different levels on the skiers make it a little more difficult to make the choice, but anyway I think 3V is a good choice for a mixed group. But to give you a advise on a little resort with BIG skiing, Boi Taûll in spanish pyrenees
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bitoffluff wrote: |
some great ideas! I quite fancied dolomites by one of my firends suspects its just lots of cruising and little chsllenge for the better skiers of the group, plus dodgy snow, but i ll work on the others. Thing i like about Espace K are the itinerary route or whatever they are called - avie controlled but unpisted - somewhere with loads of those would be cool. |
As far as I'm aware none of the itinerary routes in Espace K are avie controlled; I'm sure someone will come along and correct me; that type of itinerary seems to be more prevalent in Austria
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You know it makes sense.
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freeheelskier wrote: |
bitoffluff, Your friend have complete right about Dolomites, only alot of cruising, for me it seems like British skier think that the norm for a good skiresort is alot of lifts and alot of slopes km, but fact is there is complete different things that make a skiresort good, the first thing depends on you, what you want with your skiing, do you want cruising, or steep offpist, do you want heavy apres ski with alot of rock´n roll or quit resort with highclass resturants? To go with a group with different levels on the skiers make it a little more difficult to make the choice, but anyway I think 3V is a good choice for a mixed group. But to give you a advise on a little resort with BIG skiing, Boi Taûll in spanish pyrenees |
intriguing - never heard of it will check it out!
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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 European Alps have had their day.
Go further afield.
1. Niseko, Japan;
2. Jackson Hole, USA;
3. Aspen, USA.
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Poster: A snowHead
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bitoffluff, I would second the pyrenees if you fancy a change,hire a car and ski as many resorts as you want really all great places for a couple of days each Le tourmalet/La Mongie,Gavernie My favourite places some really good skiing.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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bitoffluff, someone I know is also a big fan of Portes du Soleil and similarly a fan of Serre Chevalier. Plenty of scope for challenge, excellent feeling of travel so you can really clock it up. The search function will throw up plenty of info.
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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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Quote: |
The European Alps have had their day.
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Whitegold, Now U are a bit stupid and want to be more than anyone else, I have ski this 3, Niseko and Jackson Hole is top 10 in the world, but after there is europen resorts,
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Serfaus-Fiss Ladis?
Ladis is probably too quiet, Fiss will be good and central to the 3 resorts, Serfaus you may have more chance of getting a tour operator there than any of the others. Very extensive skiing, prices not as bad as Ischgl (only just over the mountain to it though!), easy transfers from Innsbruck and friendly Austrians.
Don't tell too many people!
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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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bitoffluff wrote: |
some great ideas! I quite fancied dolomites by one of my firends suspects its just lots of cruising and little chsllenge for the better skiers of the group, plus dodgy snow, but i ll work on the others. Thing i like about Espace K are the itinerary route or whatever they are called - avie controlled but unpisted - somewhere with loads of those would be cool. |
Ischgl.
Also LOL at Whitegold
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Been in Bansko (Bulgaria) on February. Very nice pistes! It's all about skiing
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Slalom,
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Been in Bansko (Bulgaria) on February. Very nice pistes! It's all about skiing |
Espace Killy, Arlberg, Portes du Soleil and, err... Bansko.
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Hadn't you heard? It's the new Val d'Isere
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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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just checked online reviews of Ischgl - says there arent really challenging pistes ie more cruisey wide motorways. Yeah further afield - cant really afford it every year sadly and this is going to be a Europe year as last year wasnt. I ll check out Serre Chevalier - dont you need a car to get round there though? Tghanks for all the thoughts folks!
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bitoffluff,
If you want something deadly or really challenging stop at La Grave on your way to Serre Chevalier. Serre Chevalier is just a mega size domain with 250km piste relative to the 300km piste of Espace Killy formed by combining Val D with Tignes. The valley that has La Grave at the middle and Serre Chevalier at the end actually also has L2A and Apls DHeuz near the front. ADH is one of the more difficult French resorts with some challenging black runs including the Tunnel and the Alps longest black run.
I think people go to Ischgl because they are famous of holding a rock concert every year, its predominant 4 & 5 star hotels rival those in Lech/St Anton, modern double decker cable car plus it is the only Austrian resort fully linked with a Swiss resort (called Samnaun). It is more for the quality of the resort, snow condition, accommodation and nice evening meals.
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads on Wed 3-08-11 12:49; edited 3 times in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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bitoffluff, Nothing wrong with Ischgl, theres some proper skiing there.
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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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Spud9 wrote: |
Ischgl, Monterosa, Whistler. Dolomites. les Arcs/ La Plagne, Chamonix, Vail, Aspen, 3 Valleys |
This. Or Verbier, but that's Switzerland.
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You know it makes sense.
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primoz,
I agree there are bottlenecks at Colfosco and Arabba but I couldn't remember any obvious queue elsewhere but this of course depends on the time of the visit obviously.
The Selva Wolkenstein is possibly the worst point in the morning when a lot of skiers from Selva, Santa Cristina or even Ortisei converge onto its #31 chairlifts to start the Sella Ronda loop. However the next gondola lift #30 down or up the line would nearly deserted because a lot less skiers know about it so parking was free and I could walk straight through. For commercial reasons the Dolomites developers have made the Sella Ronda easy to attract more intermediate skiers so the loop is the main attraction being kept busy all the time but elsewhere off the main loop some places are quite deserted. Sella Ronda is also formed by only 4 out of the 12 skiing areas so in general Dolomites as a whole isn't crowded by the French standard.
I do agree the Austrian resorts generally does not have a crowd problem and are a lot easier to explore freely.
It also appears to me Austrian resorts are designed for skiers with cars so one resort can usually be accessed at several points. Thus if there are too many people at one car park one can always drive a bit further down to a quiet access point.
Take Mayrhofen for example it has a large free parking area for every of the 5 gondolas of Hoarberbahn, Penkenbahn, Finkenberger Almbahn, Rastkogenbahn and Eggalmbahn dotted along 10 miles distance of the valley floor but Mayrhofen is just one of the 7 unlinked areas within the Zillertal Valley. Any skier with a 4 days or more ski pass is entitled to ski all of them. Therefore it is quite difficult to see queues in Austria resorts.
I have left Solden as the last few Austrian resorts to ski as many TOs do it so it is one of the popular Austrian skiing places where I expect crowds. When I tried it out this year in March I was presently surprised to be able to park anywhere in this domain. The mountains also weren't crowded either as the three peaks do have a lot of space to absorb a large of visitors. Nevertheless it was rewarding to be able to ski all the way to the bottom car park/town centre on runs that had no sign of lack of snow. That I cannot say for the French resorts I visited one week after. The main area L2A has only one green run, dotted by ice, water and rock, coming down and the only other alternative was a black run.
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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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Another Austrian area you might consider is the Kitzbühel Alps, e.g. based in Westendorf or Brixen you can ski these areas and the whole of the Höhe Salve range. With a little travel you can get over from there to Kitzbühel itself. Or based further east, e.g. in Fieberbrunn, in about half an hour you can reach all the areas mentioned previously and also visit Saalbach/Hinterglemm via Leogang.
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Poster: A snowHead
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bitoffluff wrote: |
just checked online reviews of Ischgl - says there arent really challenging pistes ie more cruisey wide motorways. Yeah further afield - cant really afford it every year sadly and this is going to be a Europe year as last year wasnt. I ll check out Serre Chevalier - dont you need a car to get round there though? Tghanks for all the thoughts folks! |
Well, it's a piste, so it isn't going to be all that challenging is it? Still, Ischgl has lots of good reds and some decent reasonably steep blacks (the piste skiing in Ischgl is better, more challenging, and more varied than in St Anton, and generally steeper/more challenging than Saalbach-Hinterglemm, for instance). Plenty of good 'easy to access' offpiste too, including avi protected routes. It's a great resort, but can be a bit pricey, and at times 'Russian.'
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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cool, some great ideas, thanks
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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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Monterosa might work for a week.
Madonna di Compiglio?
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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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bitoffluff wrote: |
I ll check out Serre Chevalier - dont you need a car to get round there though? Thanks for all the thoughts folks! |
No car needed - the valley bus service is frequent, reliable and free with your ski pass. Besides, if you're reasonably good skiers, you can do one end of Serre Che and back in a (longish) day. Much of the accommodation in all the main villages is convenient to varying degrees from the lifts. For example I've stayed here before - a great catered chalet in the old part of Chantemerle - which meant a 5-6 minute walk to the lift. Nice way to warm up!
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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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bitoffluff, Kitzbuhel (all round great place), 4 Vallees (even though its Swiss, stay in Nendaz and its much cheaper than Verbier), Chamonix, Ischgl, Davos (Swiss again but can do it reasonably, self catering if you drive, take all your food with you! Great skiing), or how about go to Arlberg, stay in Stuben and you get a completely different perspective to St Anton/ Lech/Zurs, ie same runs but different aspect, going against the flow of people, we did it 2-3 times a few years ago and will again soon, bit limited re nightlife but with Albona completely empty early and late how good does it get?!! IMO Arlberg is best place in Europe for skiing and once you've been its hard to get that buzz anywhere else (4 Vallees a close second), best off-piste, apres, food, people etc. Cervinia good too.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Quote: |
bitoffluff wrote:
I ll check out Serre Chevalier - dont you need a car to get round there though? Thanks for all the thoughts folks!
No car needed - the valley bus service is frequent, reliable and free with your ski pass. Besides, if you're reasonably good skiers, you can do one end of Serre Che and back in a (longish) day. Much of the accommodation in all the main villages is convenient to varying degrees from the lifts. For example I've stayed here before - a great catered chalet in the old part of Chantemerle - which meant a 5-6 minute walk to the lift. Nice way to warm up!
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Skied the 250km piste of Serre Chevalier in two different seasons. It is fully linked from one end to another and a car is unnecessary but useful if you stay in an off-resort accommodation, say in wrong side of Briancon. It is one of the quiet France resorts, mega in size, modern in facilities and full of characters.
A 6 days or more ski pass purchased there will enable the holder to ski one day in each of Put St Vincent, Montgenevre, Italian Milky Way, Les Deux Alps and Alps d'Huez. To ski all of them you do need a car.
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bitoffluff wrote: |
some great ideas! I quite fancied dolomites by one of my firends suspects its just lots of cruising and little chsllenge for the better skiers of the group, plus dodgy snow, |
Dolomites pistes are generally not challenging (except one or two at Arabba) but there is loads of steep off-piste. However you would probably need a guide for that. see this TR http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/50606-TR-Dolomites-17-25-March?highlight=Dolomites
3 Valleys (Meribel or Val Thorens) or Paradiski (possibly based in Les Arcs rather than La Plagne) seem like good options.
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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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bitoffluff, give us a few more details, do you want something quiet, away from the madding crowds with zero apres ski, that UK tour operators don't go to, something like the mega resorts you have been to like St Anton, Tignes etc, or something else???
For my first example there are loads of hidden gems like Gressoney which spring to mind, for something similiar to those you have been La Plagne/Les Arcs or Trois Vallees are good shouts....
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Check out the Montafon in Austria, huge area night life a bit limited.
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