Another DIY trip - but probably not everybody’s cup of tea.

A snowHead

I submit this post just to show one of many alternatives of skiing. Been doing this kind of trips since 1999. This is my 24th trip. I started skiing after turning 50 so my goal has always been to sample as many resorts as possible. Now the choices of resorts are running out after visiting about 130 facilities. Age wise I don’t feel as enthusiastic as before so that may be telling me it is time to pack it in soon.

This year in mid January I have booked 4 days in Zweismann, 3 days in Gressoney, 4 days in Voltourmenche and 3 days in Saas Fee with the intention to try out the following resorts

Gstaad (220 km)
Lenk/Abdelboden (210 km)
MonteRosa/Champuloc (180km)
Breuil Cervinia/Zermatt (350km)
Pila (70km)
Saas Fee (100km)

It is typical two-week trip driving around with a AWD Subaru on winter tyres plus in the boot a set of snow chains which I haven’t had a need to use in previous two seasons. Driving to ski in the Alps is only worthwhile if the trip lasts two weeks or more but that pretty much rules out others to come along. So it has been done always by the wife and I as a couple.

All resorts are new to us except Breuil Cervinia/Zermatt which I thought worthy of a re-visit.

The trip will start at Amsterdam after an overnight ferry from Newcastle. The 575m travelling in the first day should be “relaxing” by my previous standard as last year I went to Stubai of Austria for the first stop. That 645 miles journey was about the limit I would prepare to put up for a day’s travelling as the wife refuses to drive in the continent. The fun would disappear if I were to drive longer distances.

The type of DIY trips we do is always expensive as we rarely stay for a week and have to choose a strategic location to cover as many skiing resorts as possible. Needless to say we seldom stay in any resort for a full week and so seldom get discount on the ski passes. We just use the Internet to do all the bookings and so are paying the market rate for everything. A few years back it was possible to average £750/person/week but the cost has steadily gone up. Skiing Switzerland is always expensive and our trip estimate is currently £1050/person/week. This includes everything but needs own equipment and own car.

We wouldn’t choose Gstaad if there are other larger Swiss resorts that we haven’t tried before as it is low in altitude and spreads around into 3 to 4 unlinked small areas. It does have glacier at 3000m at Col de Pillon which would come in handy in a season lacking snow. We selected Zweismann because it is at the junction between one road leading to Gstaad and another to Lenk, with both resorts within a 10 mile radius. Lenk is linked with Abdelboden.

Logically due to proximity we should have booked Saas Fee after finishing with Gstaad/Lenk but we want a short journey when we return home so we selected Gressoney as the second stop which is 153 miles from Zweismann. That should be a relax drive after we finishing a day’s skiing in either Gstaad or Lenk.

We chose Gressoney because it is linked to Champoluc in the next valley. Monterosa has 3 valleys and Gressoney La Trinite is at the middle of this modest size domain so 3 days there should be enough.

We added Breuil Cervina as the 3rd stop because it is on our way to Saas Fee and it is also the next side valley from Champoluc within the Aosta Valley. This is our way of skiing all the major Italian valleys bordering with Switzerland in Aosta supposed to have snow similar to Zermatt. These dead end valleys all have high altitudes and should guarantee us some good snow. Breuil Cervina is of course linked with Zermatt and is a cheaper alternative to ski it from the Italian side as the accommodation should be about half. Our half board hotel charge in Voltourmenche is £105/couple/day.

We have an option of on the day of leaving Cervinia to drive 40 mile out of the valley to ski Pila, which we have not been to, instead of spending the skiing day in Cervinia/Zermatt which we would have skied twice.

Our last stop Saas Fee is a small Swiss resort which many skiers like but we have so far stay away because it has too many drag lifts. It is about time we include it to compliment our skiing experience of the Valais Region.

A 2-week trip has proved relaxing for us as we could ski at our own pace and switch to rest day in a city if we don’t like the bad weather.

We usually take two days to drive back as we consider the civilised way of a skiing holiday is to wake up 8am, have breakfast at 9 before starting a day’s activities. Returning in one day would have required us to wake up 2am in the morning. Over the year we have stayed overnight at many German cities along the River Rhine. This year we selected Wuppertal because the overnight hotel room at 39 Euro was hard to ignore.

A snowHead

saikee, I'm intrigued. With so many different resorts to visit and leisurely starts to the day, how do you manage to fully experience each one? Or is the ability to tick them off as 'been there, done that' more important to you?

You're right, it's not my cup of tea but each to their own.

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

I usually go from one end to anther and seldom doing the same run repeatedly. There have been resorts I have visited many times. Like Courchevel for example I have skied about 6 times before I discovered Austria, Switzerland and Italy.

Before I move around I ran a static caravan (called mobile home) in Chamonix for 8 years and kept skiing the the same resorts around Geneva. I find moving around better because I could see more, ski more variety of terrains and sample more resorts. I did the same when going to USA and Canada.

It is a different type of skiing as I often get a piste map and plan my move for each day. Every run or chairlift is new to me and I rarely go back. It is a kind of freedom. For the same resort I would visit a different part each day. This way I could sample any expensive resort at the normal price because I don't need to bother with the on-resort expensive accommodations.

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It sounds a stimulating way to travel but too much like hard work for me. I like skiing familiar runs (they're rarely the same twice running even on the same day) as well as trying out new areas and most of all I enjoy being able to be in the shower within 10 minutes of clicking out of my skis with a whole evening of relaxation ahead of me, with my own store cupboard (and booze cupboard) to ensure I have a good meal and my own books, DVDs, etc. I also like having friends and neighbours around (who come and go, naturally, none is here as long as we are) with whom to socialise from time to time. I enjoy looking out at an area covered in 1.5 metres of snow where we sat drinking champagne in the sun with two lots of French neighbours after they beat us at rugby.

Going "home" to a different hotel every couple of nights packing everything up and moving on, wouldn't appeal at all - especially at that price. A couple of weeks of that will pay for our entire season. wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

saikee, I love hearing about your expeditions and hope you and Mrs saikee have a great time. Seems so long we all met up for that great curry in Newcastle. Let me know what you think of Pila as we are based in Aosta for a few days in March.

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I suppose it's like the skiers equivalent to backpacking, only with more expense and a few more frills. I can see the attraction in doing this, but then I love the idea of being able to take a few months off work to do a road trip.

After all it is free

saikee, is your wife as keen on skiing as you are?

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Frosty the Snowman,

It is my intention to trade a day of Cervinia/Zermatt for a day in Pila. I feel not knowing Aosta Valley enough after skiing Cervinia, Courmayeur and La Thulie. Thus this year I target Monterosa and Pila.

If you like small Italian resort Livigno is a nice one. It is close to St Moritz and so has the same snow condition. Think there are 2.5 roads to this resort. One (from the Swiss side) is closed in winter. The 0.5 road is one-car wide tunnel from the only Swiss side and the remaining acces is from a Italian mountain pass. It will form a nice day trip if you ski St Moritz.

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Hells Bells,

Let me know if you got something organised. Had been a busy year doing a few overseas trips for work, attending wedding in Hong Kong and took the wife to see Australia.

Saikee, which resort did you enjoy the most, and why ?

You know it makes sense.

Blewyn,

The answer to your question can be quite personal in nature.

I prefer to ski in a civilised environment where the fellow piste users are courteous and respect each other, plenty of snow, no crowd, decent or modern facilities, reasonable size, nice view and surrounding, serviced restaurants in the mountains (in additional to the cafeteria), clean and substantial town supporting the resort with loads of shops and good restaurants to take the wife to.

My favourite : St Moritz

Other places like Zermatt, Davos, Lech, Ischgl and Aspen are places I wouldn't mind going back.

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

Just a short note after finishing the trip.

Managed to spend a day on each of

Lenk, Adelboden, Zweisimmen (largest of 7 to 8 unlinked areas of Gstaad), Gstaad, Gressoney La Trinite, Champoluc/Alagna, Pila, Valtournenche, Zermatt and Saas Fee(2 days)

I think the majority of the above resorts will not be suitable for UK skiers seeking the usual apres activities as these resorts are too quiet and formal.

The Swiss resorts Lenk, Adelboden, Zwseimmen and Gstaad are dominated by the Swiss and liberal drinking is not popular. Saas Fee and Zermatt may be on the expensive side for the night life. Monte Rosa (the 3 valleys of Alagna, Gressoney and Champloluc) is the quietest of the above list but a small group may be able to spend a long evening in a local pub undisturbed. However just like the deserted piste the 25 miles long dead end valleys are not populated at all so finding a place to eat or drink will require a car. Pila is much more promising as it is well self contained with a large accommodation base. Pila is under active development with it massive accommodation complex being extended.

In term of skiing, which was out main interest, there is nothing wrong with any of them.e

However we did find many of the Swiss blue runs in Bernese Oberland could be steeper than the Italian red runs in the Aosta Valley. We found Gstaad a very upmarket resort with loads of expensive jewellery and designers shops. This is probably influenced by its floodlight-lit Palace Hotel located at the hill overlooking Gstaad in a grand manner. That hotel charges 900CHF to stay overnight. Madonna apparently went to Gstaad to learn skiing before we arrived.

Cervinia was very windy to the point on one day the entire resort, including everything in Valtournenche, was shut down. That I think could be more to do with the sudden heavy snow falling a few days earlier creating a high avalanche alert. The wind did stir up the loose fresh snow to the point to kill off all visibility thus halting both skiing and driving. The weather was so bad that a road-clearing truck, with a bulldozer attached, drove into a ditch stopping all traffic at one point.

When it comes to wind shielding Pila stands out being well protected as the majority of the resort is formed by clearing tracks in the forest making a wind shield haven comparing with Cervinia which has its top at the ridges of the mountain (Top of Plan Masion and Plateau Rosa for crossing into Switzerland). Monte Rosa resort is also well protected from wind because the resort top at 3000m is shielded by the 4000m+ surrounding Monte Rosa mountain range.

Pila is very well laid out and has a terrific range of terrain. The only draw back is its easy accessibility with a 18-minute gondola located at the heart of the Aosta town or city. Therefore it is well attended by skiers living nearby because anybody can drive and park his/her car for free, buy a day ticket, hop into the gondola and be skiing in 18 minutes later. Without the gondola, arranged identically as in Bourg St Marice to ski Les Arc, the visitors would have to drive a torturous 18km mountain pass to reach Pila. The easily visited Pila thus has the only snow problem of the resorts in the list and that is some isolated patches of the regular runs were bare to grass because too many piste users.

Saas Fee (one of the 3 unlinked areas of the Saastal valley) deserves a mention here as the domain is half the size of Zermatt (which is fully linked up) and is in a place I would not have selected a place for a skiing resort. The area is too steep, tight and narrow that almost no snow can accumulated at the steep gradients. If the gradient isn't steep then it immediately becomes a glacier. The summer photo of Saas Fee apparently is substantially white due to the presence of the dominating glaciers. No piste was able to form in the section directly above Saas Fee and so whatever left to make the few runs will be rather narrow and steep. This is not a bad characteristic because some runs are therefore quite challenging and entertaining. Saas Fee has altitude because one cable car can take the visitors to 3000m level and another funicula would land the visitors at 3500m level where the world's highest revolving restaurant situates. The restaurant is quite reasonable charging 10CHF for a soup and 19CHF for a bug & chips. Like Zermatt Saas Fee is a car fee zone so it is a bit different of traveling on small ski buses powered only electrically. All in all Saas Fee is sufficiently different to the others, even its next door neighbour Zermatt, making a visit to this resort memorable.

Mote Rosa and Saas Fee are in nearly identically opposite as Cervinia with Zermatt except the latter pair is linked. Snow wise I would say the 4 locations are essentially the same.

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Another DIY trip - but probably not everybody’s cup of tea.

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