Dates to avoid skiing

bovril

I remember last year our ski instructor in Austria told us of a week(s) where most of Europe head to the slopes and it gets mega busy and there are long queues for lifts.

Does anyone know what dates these are and weeks in general to avoid going because they might be overly busy?

Fattes

They are called Mid term weeks!

You can look up on the interweb a list of school holidays in France,Germany,Austria,Holland and the UK and that is when the slopes will be jammers or as a rough guide

Christmas- Well obviously

2-4TH week in Feb School half terms

1st Week of Jan (Russian Christmas) Chaos and Anarchy rule loads of lads in spyder gear and race skis with their hired lovers

Easter- Again schools across europe all off at the same time

Mid January early March and April in a high resort and you will have the place to yourself depending on Easter

Rhymenocerous

Dec, Jan (excluding christmas & new years) and April are the quietest times in resorts.

February gets busy due to French/English school holidays and around Easter in march is very busy too.

robinph

Fattes wrote: »

1st Week of Jan (Russian Christmas) Chaos and Anarchy rule loads of lads in spyder gear and race skis with their hired lovers

I have encountered that week as well, but they did seem to mostly keep of the slopes where I was a lot of the time. Maybe one run down each day in their designer ski gear, and then they disappeared to go shopping or something instead.

EileenG

School holidays generally, though France tries to stagger the holidays so that the entire country doesn't take to the slopes at once.

Looking at hotel prices is often a clue, they go up when they expect it to be busy.

However, if you are stuck with a busy date, don't despair, the trick is to look for lifts on the edge of the system, they are never as busy as the ones in the center. Also, horrible though they are, the pulls are always less crowded than the cable cars. In my experience, chairs are often faster than telecabines when you factor in queuing and putting on ski times.

olaola

You'll see on direct ski etc... the most expensive weeks are the weeks to avoid.