Poster: A snowHead
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Hi Snowheads, I have been given some great advice from this forum already, but would like to pick the brains of you lot once more. We are a group of 6, staying in central Chamonix @ Ecrins de Soulane which is on avenue Ravanel on Rouge from thurday 5th april for a week. 2 adults and 4 kids 18,16,14 & 9. Us adults have limited experience, the kids are in skischool weekly @ Goslings in welwyn. The kids should be ok for greens & blues by the time we go. We are aware that the skiing may not be the best as we are going late, however due to our inexperience we are not overly worried as we should still be ok for a blast. I have looked quite a bit at the differing areas within the valley & lift passes and i'm just wondering what are opinions on Les Houches. I have looked at Day prices & it seems we can get a family ticket for the 6 of us for about 90 euros which seems very reasonable. I have spoken to BASS & they would suggest basing ourselves @ Le Tour which would mean getting the Cham Le Pass whcih is fine as we would just get them on a Daily Basis. I am just wondering, due to our requirements Les Houches seems like a good option as there seems plenty of moderate runs & may be a bit more Family Friendly. Where we are staying is close to the Brevent lift & Les Plannards, although LP may not have enough snow due to the timings, but do you think LH would be a good place for us. Regarding the transport to the Various Lifts, our apartment provides us with a courtesy minibus which will take us to any of the lifts as and when, so we wont have to worry about jumping on buses which is very convenient as i reckon i will be laden down with all the ski's knowing my luck.How long would the journey take?. Something i am a little paranoid about , is the girls will be used to drag lifts, but they may freak a bit if faced with a Chairlift, and it seems most of the lifts at LH are Cabin or bubbles. I have little knowledge as you can tell, ive only been once to Bulgaria about 7 years ago, so have nothing to compare to. Thoughts please and all advice greatly welcomed. cheers James
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Layne, i didnt do enough research prior to booking frankly, but will take it on the chin happily. it was a spontaneous decision to go skiing & just liked the look of things in Cham..
after joining here i do appreciate i could have chosen better but as you say,''You are where you are''. Catering for 4 kids whom all want different things & who may end up killing each other, we just chose what looked like a lovely place, easy transfer times, nice apartment & a central loction... Dont worry, if we do decide to go again, fingers crossed, then i shall post & ask advice on when,where & how...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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grandunion, Les Houches is a good ski area, but the snow suffers when it gets warm. La Tour is much better in that respect. However, we're having a good season and Les Houches may be fine.
Having done a fair amount of getting children onto / off their first chairlifts and helping parents get the kids onto / off chairs I'd say that the biggest problem with first chairlft rides are the parents, not the kids
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Are they having lessons with BASS? In which case, you need have no fears about the chairlifts.
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I've very little experience of Les Houches - but the snow was absolutely terrible - in January. Le Tour, at the same time, was absolutely fine.
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grandunion, What BASS said is right. For your group both Le tour and les houches are good, the issue is what will the snow be like so late in the season. It's not possible to say right now but Le tour is way more likely to be in good condition. Les houches is a cheaper ticket. The family option is a good deal for the price of two adults and one child you can take up to four children.
That said there is a lot of snow down right now, and les houches has more snow making than Le tour.
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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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Wait to buy your ski passes. We did Les Houches for the last 3 years in early April Easter holidays. Last year of course was disasterous and there was only Les Grands Montets (Argentiere) partially open in the whole valley. But the years before Les Houches reduced their already great deal on ski passes for families around the April time, so wait until you arrive to buy the passes, if you end up choosing Les Houches. Currently 2 adults and up to 5 children (5-1 can ski for €474.10 for 6 days (I checked with the lift company as it is not actually listed on their website how many children, it is 5 yippee for large families).
In future, you might want to consider "les Hauts de Chavants" apartments if you want to ski in Les Houches. It is right next to the Prarion télécabine and you can ski the 50m down to the start in the morning from many of the apartments. The place has a swimming pool and its door has never been locked, so if you are very naughty, you could put your skis in the lockers and walk up to the Les hauts de Chavants swimming pool and go for a swim for free! It's the building behind reception there.
Balmat Sports on the other side of the road from the Prarion télécabine is the cheapest place in Les Houches for rental (every year we have been, contacted every shop and every time was cheapest). As we are a family of 6, the owner has given us a rather good deal every year in April, as we have been one of his last customers of the season, he has done 4 adult size skis and 2 child size ski packs for around €350 for 6 days.
LH has a télécabine, téléphérique, then a mixture of chairlifts and drag lifts. The beginner area near the top of Prarion is an child friendly chairlift and there's a magic carpet at that point too, the only one in LH. Yes little kids find the drag lifts much more difficult.
Finally, we are French speakers so language is not an issue at ski school in France, but in fact many of the ESF instructors in LH speak English. Their lessons are the cheapest in the resort, group or small group private. If you book 60 days in advance, the prices are 15% off. Last year we booked in advance, LH ESF ski school bussed the children over to Les Grands Montets (plus one day at Le Brévent which was really crap). They couldn't have done more to make the most of the terrible conditions. We're very loyal customers now.
Having skied in Le Tour/Vallorcine and LH and everywhere else in the Chamonix valley, I'd say Le Tour and LH are the best for families. Fingers crossed the snow will stay.
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Just back from les houches...hopefully this will help.
Central Cham is only 15 mins away on ski bus. Be warned thought as the bus in Cham gets very busy at peak times. les Houches is certainly easier skiing than the rest of Cham so would be good for your ability levels. Only hesitation is that there is not enough of it. Kept us busy for 3 day weekend but would have got boring after that. Suggest getting daily lift pass and split your time between les tour and les houches.
Sow conditions were excellent in les houches last weekend with nearly a metre at the bottom!!! Can't imagine that it will have changed that much by April.
Hope this helps!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I am WWWWWAAAOOOW at the price of the Ecrins de Soulane starting at 2900 euro for a week!! Is that a self-catering price? You could get a high spec catered chalet in Chamonix for a family of 6 for less than that with all food included, hot tub, shuttle bus to wherever you wanted to ski in the valley. Or you could get a 6 person apartment in the valley for 500 euro for the week, a bit more if you want ski in/out.
Do wait to buy your lift passes - LH will almost certainly go down in price in April, not so sure about Le Chamonix or MBU passes though.
BASS group lessons are around 2* price of LH ESF group lessons, we've always been happy with ESF, kids speak French. But about half the kids in their ESF LH groups last Easter spoke English and their instructors spoke French and English so our kids got the instructions 2 times! The week OP is going to Chamonix is a holiday week for only 1/3 of French schools so I'd expect a reasonably quiet week on the slopes (except for the Easter Sunday and Monday) and ESF to be half full again with English speakers. Can't comment on ESF Argentiere and Vallorcine who do lessons at Le Tour, but when I was in Le Tour last year, there was certainly plenty of Brits there that I'd expect ESF to be full of English speakers there too.
PS Hampton, thanks for the Les Houches update.
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