Advice on trying to decide on a UCPA resort please Cham, Serre or Flaine.

A snowHead

Hi,

I'd like some advice on booking a UCPA resort and opinions on snow conditions and which weekend to go please.

Am looking at either the 30th March or 6th April.

Am looking at Chamonix, Serre or Flaine.

Are there any major pros or cons of one of these over the others and would you expect the snow to be poor in any of these resorts for those dates.

I'm a beginning/intermediate level skier.

Also do you expect these resorts to be very busy with the english easter holidays at that time?

Thanks

A snowHead

'Serre'? Could refer to any one of a number of places.

Food at Chamonix was good during a random week I spent there on a training course. UK Easter holidays shouldn't make a great deal of difference. Contrary to popular belief, the Brits are not in fact the biggest group of visitors to French resorts and their holidays don't have a noticeable impact on how crowded things are in most places. French holidays are a better predictor of crowded slopes and high speed cretins.

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

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Hi,

Thanks, I meant Serre Chevalier.

Which resort do you think would be the best for ski conditions in the first or second week of April?

I imagine it might be Chamonix but I thought the UCPA there might be more about partying than skiing and full of noisy drunks lol, I might be wrong though as I haven't stayed there.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

newskiguy, generally nothing wrong with Serre Chevalier's snow in April. If you're worried about it, consider 2Alpes - there's even less wrong with that in April.

You'll need to Register first of course.

The Flaine UCPA accomodation is sooo nice. And the food was great. I was a beginner/intermediate when I was there and I really enjoyed it but I was there in February last year. Not sure what its like later in the season or how busy it would be. I guess Easter Hols could be busy in any resort.
If you are booking with action outdoors I have a discount code you can use to get 10 pounds off. EL2012

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Hi

I am going to a UCPA on 6 April 2013 for a week. I am concerned about snow conditions so I have booked flights to Grenoble but may wait a couple of weeks to book the UCPA. I am thinking of UCPA Les Deux Alpes due to the short transfer and high altitude (glacier) which hopefully means decent snow.

I have been to UCPA Flaine (Les Lindars not the other one) twice and it really is great. Flaine usually gets more snow than other places but it is at a lower altitude so I didn't want to risk it in April.

As for Chamonix, I have seen the UCPA from the outside only. The pistes are a bus ride away and are quite spread out so while the town is worth a look and there are loads of non-skiing activities to do, it would not be my preference for a ski holiday where I want to spend most of my time skiing.

I have been looking at Serre Chevalier myself for the past year or so and really like the look of it but it is a longer, more expensive and more awkward transfer from Grenoble so maybe I will try it another year when I have a group to go with - also not sure about the snow at that time.

If you are willing to do long transfers, you could also look at Tignes or Val Thorens - haven't been though.

After all it is free

Why are you limited to only those resorts?

Val T UCPA would be great for beginner/intermediate skier as it is properly ski in ski out and loads of gentle runs near the centre. Val T was refurbed over summer 2012 too. Val T is also v high so should be great in March/April. I stayed at Val T UCPA last mid-March and loved it, great intro into UCPA and has a cool bar/common room on the top floor with a fire in the middle (the centre is hexagonal shaped). Only down side is the centre is at the bottom of resort so handy for an apres ski drink then ski home, but not so handy if you want to go out at night as it is a decent treck up hill. I was too tired to venture out in the evenings but plenty of people did. If you do go to UCPA Val T PM me your email address and I'll send you a little map thing of how to get from the bus stop to UCPA via various walkways and lifts rather than the long and winding road!

I stayed at Serre Che in Jan, the centre is nice and pretty big and right at the base of the lifts so you can ski back to the boot room. There is a pool and sun terrace which would be ace in March/April. I don’t know how snow sure Serre Che is so can’t comment on that. I am planning on returning to Serre Che next year Very Happy

Food great at both Val T and Serre Che but probably slightly better at Serre Che with more choice of salads.

I wouldn’t bother with Cham as an intermediate. Not worth the hassle of busses unless you are looking for gnarly terrain.

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies.

I did ski with UCPA once last year and I really enjoyed the setup. I know what you mean about Cham and having to get a bus but I don't mind doing that if its a short ride as I did it last year as well.

I've limited it to these resorts after reading the pros and cons of the others. Tignes I've heard is very snowsure but it was a really long transfer from geneva so I decided against it.

Val T only has booking availability for mid april and I didn't want to leave it so late in case there is even less chance of snow.

I think I might be trying to decide between Flaine and Serre then, Flaine has a quick transfer time but Serre seems kind of fun too.

Does anyone have any experience of how the snow is on them in late March or early april?

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Transfer from Turin to Serre Che was really easy - I got the 7.10 BA flight on the saturday and arrived in resort in time for lunch and could have skiied the afternoon if I'd wanted to buy an afternoon pass (have my own stuff so didn't need to wait for UCPA hire). Got the 18.something BA flight home so made use of the 3h lift pass on the final Saturday, came off the lsopes when that ended at 12, had lunch at UCPA, showered and checked out and got on transfer bus. Really sweet timings.

Don't let the transfer put you off Serre Che it isn't long compared to Val T / tignes / Val D!

snow reports

Thanks.

I just noticed something on the action outdoors site though, they only give Serre Chevalier a snowsure rating of 2, compared to flaine and chamonix which get 4. I can see that Serre is further south but is there such a difference in the snow.

That could be a bigger factor for me as I'm looking at going in early April.

Flaine is in a bowl near mont blanc so it has its own micro climate and gets lots of snow. In my experience it tends to have a higher snow depth than most other resorts. At the moment flaine has a summit depth of 355cm while serre che has 200cm (which is about the same as most other resorts but far off flaine). Try flaine (or les deux alpes) - the food was great, ski back for lunch everyday, lots of slopes, great accommodation. The architecture didn't bother me. Be sure to get a transfer though. We drove from geneva both times - the first was a nightmare as we had no chains and we had to drive 20km uphill in the snow in a fiat punto - very scary. The second time we had snow tyres. The nightlife is limited in flaine - there is one main bar at night however, as you know, you most likely will be happy to hang around the ucpa.

Les deux alpes does have full time instruction but it is for advanced only.

You know it makes sense.

Thanks Itrav,

I'm surprised that Serre gets such a low rating though as when I checked the weather today, it's had snow more recently than Flaine or Chamonix had, in fact it's getting snow now Smile

It's looking like a hard call between Serre and Flaine for me as Serre might have better snow conditions, actually does fresher snow equal better snow conditions or is that a wrong way to think. I can see you're saying Flaine has more snow depth so that also means, it's going to last longer?

Les deux alps sounds good but I'm still a newbie really so need some good green and blue slopes, maybe some easy reds by the end of the week Smile

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

Fresh snow is important but if the snow is more than a few days old then really what you need is low temperatures and snow cannons for snow making and plenty of snow base. Maybe just pick the place you are drawn to most because you just never know what way the weather will go. Just found a you tube video dated 19 April 2012 of serre chevalier which shows fresh snow.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Flaine is fantastic - I learnt to ski there. I've stayed at Tignes, Val d'Isere and Flaine UCPAs and recommend all of them, but especially Flaine as it's very comfortable accommodation and the best food of all the centres, although the town is small and nightlife is limited.

The last time I went to Les Deux Alpes, I was a beginner - I'd spent 2 weeks of skiing in full-time UCPA instruction. I'm clearly not an expert skiier but I found Les Deux Alpes to be less interesting if you are generally skiing red & blue runs as the pistes themselves aren't as extensive as other ski areas. Plus we had our hotel broken into by drunk thugs (the thugs threw bricks at the chef & hit him in the head when he got up to investigate) and some of our guys were threatened walking home late at night although I am sure that doesn't happen to everyone who goes there and we no doubt had a bit of bad luck.

Help!!

Advice on trying to decide on a UCPA resort please Cham, Serre or Flaine.

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