 Poster: A snowHead
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We have a car now for a couple of months so drove instead of taking the train. I think it's about an hour or so from Lausanne on the train, so about 90 minutes from Geneva, and it's included in the SBB Snow and Rail deal. Took about an hour in the car, although we are in a Toyota Yaris...
We booked our ski pass online for the first time as we still have our cards from Leysin. I was a bit worried about it working, but there were no problems at all. The queues to buy passes were pretty long, so we managed to bypass all of that. Still have yet to buy any kit, so we went to Dätwyler Sports, which is literally under the cable car. It's a very good shop, probably the most professionally run we've ever seen. We only booked online on saturday night, but they had the skis and boots ready prepared for when we arrived, and it was good quality stuff too. We had a bit of an issue as we hadn't printed off our confirmation, but they let us email to them to print off in the shop so no problems there. Plenty of lockers too. Very highly recommended.
It is the start of the half term holiday season, so the place was pretty busy. Everyone here tells me that Villars is the busiest place in the area, and there were a few queues at some of the lifts, but generally it wasn't that bad. As you got further away from the main area where the gondola comes up to it is much quieter. There are more buttons and t-bars than I have been used to, and to be honest it does seem like you are often on a lift. The runs are fairly short in the main, and pretty much always end up at a lift rather than linking to something else. As such it felt like we spent a lot of times sitting down. I prefer Leysin in terms of the pistes, where you can just head off without really looking where you were headed and feel like you are getting some good long runs in. I don't head off piste, but there seemed to be an incredible amount of variety. I didn't see many people out there, which I think was either because the avalanche risk was pretty high, or because people got out there early. There were tracks everywhere you looked.
The scenery was INCREDIBLE. Wherever you looked the views stretched for miles, and it was incredibly open. At the top of one lift was a panoramic view of the whole area, which takes your breath away. Don't think I have seen so much snow at a resort before, either - tree branches weighed down, summer chalets buried and untouched. Spectacular stuff. Very cold though, but this was forecast.
A good place for a day or so definitely. There were plenty of runs we didn't get to, and you can head off over to Les Diablarets as well. Certainly have a look at Dätwyler Sports if you are renting.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Rhoobarb, Nice! When did you go? I was there on Friday and Saturday, but unfortunately didn't have time to ski, but it dumped about 20cm overnight
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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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On Sunday. Absolutely fantastic conditions. It's been snowing for 24 hours in Lausanne now, so I'd imagine the resorts are getting plenty at the moment!!
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