 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from Livigno, great holiday with lots of lovely fresh white stuff, great holiday except for the journey! 
Up at 1am
On the road 2am
Manchester 3.30am
No queue, check in, skis deposited sat down with a coffee by 4am
On the plane at 6am - all going to plan for a 6.10 take off
Simon, the co-driver comes on the tanoy, there's fog at Innsbruck, we'll sit here for a bit and see if the position improves.
2 hours later, still on the tarmac at Manchester, no improvement, lets have breakfast.
9am, breakfast done and dusted, still no improvement in Innsbruck. we'll go any way.
11am sitting over Innsbruck, Simon is driving us around in circles while we look at the fog in the valley.
Noon, Simon says the fog's not going to lift today, never mind Salzberg Airport's lovely.
12.45pm we're on the ground at Wolfgang Amadeus Motzart Airport (Salzberg)
Simon's back on the loudspeaker, the airport's a bit busy, what with all the diversions from Innsbruck, can we sit out on the tarmac for a while.
1pm, hurrah, we're off the plane.
Through immigration, pick up a 7 euro voucher, and out into baggage claim, as we approach the carosel, there's OH's bag closely follow by mine and my boot bag just behind that. Outside, there's my skis. It's 1.30pm.
Right, find the Neilson Rep, what's going on, not sure, the coaches are in Innsbruck. Spend your 7 euro and come back at 3pm.
3pm the coaches are on the way, hurrah.
4.30 all loaded and we're off, should take 5 and half hours.
Cross the border into Switzerland and it starts to snow, good news, but it adds half and hour to our journey.
10.30 pm we arrive at our Hotel, night porter says we're in room 7 no we're not it's occupied. 5 minutes and another room is found. Dump the bags and across the road to the Bellevista for a Beer/Wine.
From getting out of bed to sitting down with a beer 21 hours 40 minutes (Time difference accounted for). Both shattered.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 31-12-12 17:12; 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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At least the bar was open when you got there.
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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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At least the bar was open when you got there.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Ouchy 
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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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Chris Wood741, you were in the Bellevista annex? . . . one of my old haunts. Food should have been very good. You liked Livigno then?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Chris Wood741 wrote: |
| 21 hours 40 minutes.... |
That's about standard for us, West Cornwall to the Val Gardena valley via Gatwick. 
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I can confirm that Innsbruck was fogged in yesterday, though above the clouds it was a beautiful day. The airport problems were reported on Tyrol television in the evening (though you weren't mentioned specifically  ).
Enjoy your holiday!
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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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That's how long it will take me to get to cham, in the car.
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| Masque wrote: |
| Chris Wood741, you were in the Bellevista annex? . . . one of my old haunts. Food should have been very good. You liked Livigno then? |
We stayed in the Garni Francescato just across the road. Ate in the Bellavista/Bacchus Bar five nights out of six, food is excellent.
Livigno is great, but there is just about enough skiing to last a week at my level (intermediate level 7). Better skiers would get bored quite quickly.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Chris Wood741, I am fairly astounded you managed to find a Neilson rep on arrival. After all they only had an hour and a half from landing aborted at one airport to you popping out at another. And in our experience they are rather good at disappearing when things get a bit difficult, and their HQ doesn't give a toss when you pick it up with them. Then again on our Neilson holiday they had to land us in another country entirely to get us to resort.
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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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My record was home to Kitzbühel in just over 6 hours, it can be done, but you need weather and efficient staff on your side.
4.30am leave the house
5.00am check in at EMA
7.00am take off
8.50am becomes 9.50am land at SZG
10.20am on transfer bus
11.45am arrive in resort
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I see now that I was a week out in my comment. However, the report (in German) does say that they had the trouble the week before too. I suppose that's the problem when you have an airport in a river valley.
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You know it makes sense.
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Monium, I was going to express wonder at finding a rep at a time like that...in fact, aside from the fact that the journey took a long time, it sounds likw things could have gone worse. Chris Wood741, when did the coaches turn up at Salzburg? That sounds like the only bit where you might have been waiting unnecessarily (i.e. could Nielson, or their transfer service, have sorted the coaches out a bit sooner)...
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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queen bodecia, stop showing off! Being an old Long Eaton boy, the one (only?) good thing about living on the Notts/Derbys border is that it is close to EMA.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| ChrisWo wrote: |
| Monium, I was going to express wonder at finding a rep at a time like that...in fact, aside from the fact that the journey took a long time, it sounds likw things could have gone worse. Chris Wood741, when did the coaches turn up at Salzburg? That sounds like the only bit where you might have been waiting unnecessarily (i.e. could Nielson, or their transfer service, have sorted the coaches out a bit sooner)... |
Monium There was only one rep initially, others arrived with the coaches.
Coaches couldn't leave Innsbruck until they'd decided there was no chance of landing and we'd headed off for Salzberg.
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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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Tough ride Chris Wood741, but sounds to me like Neilson handled a pretty tricky situation well enough.
Makes a nice change from the "Tour op ate my baby.. and charged a supplement for it" stories.
I think you probably mean "10.30 pm we arrive at our Hotel" - actually, that was probably the riskiest moment for a flare up. To find your room already occupied, a minor incident on a normal day, could cause some folk to snap if they're tired and irate from a long and frustrating journey
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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At least you didn't have to turn back...
About ten years ago my 6am flight got within 30 miles of Lyon when the pilot announced he was turning the plane around and heading back to Luton. They had an air conditioning problem that could only be fixed in Luton or Nice, and the plane would be grounded if they landed elsewhere! We went back to Luton and sat in the terminal for six hours until the problem was fixed. Arrived Courchevel 10.30pm. 
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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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dobby, just thought the opposite scenario was worthy of a mention. And yes living 30 mins from EMA or 45 mins from DSA is a marvelous advantage except that there aren't many ski flights from either airport, I usually have to drive down to Brum.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Makes my 7 hour delay at Geneva yesterday look like childs play..
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Similar story to us last January trying to get to Mayrhofen from Edinburgh on a Saturday. Booked the Newcastle flight as it was a more civilised time (2pm) and much cheaper than the Edinburgh one (6am). Left home at 10am, drive to airport, park car, check in and about to board plane at 1.30pm. Plane broken, need new part from Manchester, wait in lounge. Given voucher at 4pm, have snack. Collect in lounge at 6.30pm to board mended plane, Innsbruck airport closed due to heavy snow, will fly to Salzburg. 10 mins before take off told that Salzburg will be closed for the night by the time we arrive so will spend night in Newcastle airport hotel and fly to Salzburg at 6am in the morning. Get up at 4 am, check in again, fly to Salzburg. get on transfer bus, lots of snow on road, transfer coach breaks down. Minibus sent to take us to hotel and arrive there about 5pm on Sunday having missed a whole day of skiing.
Just back from first trip of this season, driving to alps. Its 16 hours of driving over 2 days from Edinburgh but we have more control over when and how we travel. Go midweek to avoid the traffic - no problems and no snow chains needed this year.
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Sounds nasty
Just a little warning about those travelling through Geneva - I dropped my parents off at Geneva Airport at about 4pm on Saturday, which was more than two hours before their departure time. The queue for the Easyjet check-in was unbelievable, I would guess at least 300 metres long. As time moved on thankfully Easyjet called forward people on their flight to jump the queue, which EJ are pretty good at to be fair, and it meant they made their slightly-delayed flight. However I wouldn't leave it too late if you are travelling through GVA on a Saturday.
On Sunday we picked up my Wife's Aunt from the airport, and we were directed away from the parking as it was completely full.
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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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Stupido here
Why does fog stop flights ?
Couple of weeks back, flew into Heathrow in heavy fog, totally on instruments apparently, visibility was down at 100m
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My longest is transfer is ........
Leave taunton by coach on Friday at 3.30pm
Arrive Tignes Sunday at 12.30 am
It involved broken ferries, snow chains, lots of snow and half term traffic.
The TO said it was the longest (and most troublesome) transfer they had seen. One of our party celebrated his entire birthday on the coach.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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sev112, have you never flown into Innsbruck? - no way I'd want to come in there without visibility! 
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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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queen bodecia, fair play. The only airport close to me is Bris'l and TOs seem to want an arm and a leg to fly from there. This year going from Bournemouth.
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You know it makes sense.
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But Pedantica, in the sunshine it's lovely: it feels like U can just about pat skiers below on the back as you fly by 
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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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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I've actually had the pilot come onto the loudspeaker on the way into Innsbruck to warn passengers that although the wingtips may look quite close to the mountainside as we turned in the valley they weren't really...
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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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FWIW, Neilson may already have had reps at Salzburg - I know they were considering our old favourite resort for inclusion this year, which is closest to Salzburg, so it wouldn't surprise me if they had others in that area, and decided to keep a rep there when they saw the weather at Innsbruck was dodgy.
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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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jtr,
| Quote: |
the wind in the valley made things “interesting”
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We were told that the plane to Jomsom wouldn't take off from Kathmandu any later than noon, because the winds are always too dangerous after that time. It wasn't very encouraging when we then took off a bit after 1pm.
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Flying back from Tignes last year, landed at Stansted at about 7pm (after a 2 hour delay), got caught up in heavy snow and spent the night parked on the M25, road finally cleared at 6am. To be fair though, I was nice and toasty in my ski gear and very relieved that I had driven myself rather than having to spend the night with a taxi driver!
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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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Queenstown NZ is also quite interesting to fly to / from, as I remember 20 yrs ago it was, fly down a valley, hang a 90 right ( or was it left?) and there's the runway in front of you, there are two departure / arrival gates, each a wrought iron affair in a stone archway.
Any regular traveller will have had a journey from hell (or anyone that commutes into London), ours was 750 miles from Calais to Andorra, ~600 miles on sheet ice, ~50 miles with chains on with the car overheating and having to stop whenever possible to fill the engine bay with snow, the heater motor failed, the wipers froze into ice sticks, the doors froze open after stopping for fuel, we nearly got scooped off the road by a snowplough and some mice had stowed away in the bags of logs we had taken for the woodburner, they chewed through the seats while the car was parked up for the week. We laugh about it now as we did then, fab holiday.
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| sev112 wrote: |
Stupido here
Why does fog stop flights ?
Couple of weeks back, flew into Heathrow in heavy fog, totally on instruments apparently, visibility was down at 100m |
From a colleague used to work in air traffic control, I believe the airport, plane and pilot all need to be cleared for landing in fog. He said many of the smaller, provincial airports aren't cleared, whereas big airports like Heathrow are.
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