Ski Season 2019/2020

going to france on saturday, hoping for some fresh snow, been a while since any fell.

these storms all seem to be stopping before get to alps.

hoping for big dump friday and saturday, so long as transfer is ok.

Personally, I'd only get one day's international pass. I think you can top up for a day for a one off fee, maybe 25 euro or something?

I think in order to properly ski Zermatt from Cervinia you'd have to be fast and enthusiastic, and rise early. You can certainly ski down into Zermatt from the Cervinia side and there are a good few pistes in that area, some on a glacier. Then from recollection the lifts go up to two other areas in Zermatt. To ski those areas I think you have to travel through Zermatt a bit and make sure you get back in time to make the lift back to Cervinia. I've no doubt this is possible, and maybe easily possible, but it mightn't be the best craic and you'll stress about it. If you missed the lift a taxi is something like 300 euro as its a very long way by road (you'd be better off looking for a bed).

It is worth it for one day for sure, because you get to see the "Toblerone" view of the Matterhorn from just over the border, which is very beautiful and nicer than the Italian side. Its also worth ticking the box of the highest ski lift in Europe which is on the Swiss side above the Italian pistes. You really feel the altitude up there.

But thereafter you're confronted with the usual Swiss crap - 8 euro for nescafe quality coffee, 40 euro for a burger, 70 euro for a roaming bill for sending a few texts (I'm not making these numbers up!). I hate this and much prefer the Italian side where excellent coffee costs a euro on the mountain and you can eat delicious food for a tenner and drink superb wines for a couple of euro. The snow conditions are often better in Cervinia too as the wind may blow the fresh snow over to you.

Cervinia has loads of gentle pistes which are perfect to warm ski legs up. There is relatively little challenging there. Would be ideal for two days if not more. There is also a superb long run from the highest Italian lift down to Valtourneche, which with the exception of a small button lift up is said to be the longest piste descent in Europe. I think there's another famous long blue called the Ventina or something.

It is also worth noting that the links between Cervinia and Zermatt are regularly closed due to wind. I think if they do open at all during the day they will probably on principle keep the T-bar back over the border running to ensure everyone gets home even when the cable car over is closed. But again this will add to stress if you do go over.

There is one final, and incredibly frustrating aspect of the International Pass. Cervinia is high and can get windy, I mean ridiculously windy. I think it straddles the main alpine ridge. This means the links regularly close and the entire resort also closes, not infrequently. I did a four day trip there, did the maths and said I want to ski Zermatt so bought the International Pass for the full four days. However, all of the Cervinia lifts closed for two of the four days. We therefore had to drive to the next resort, Pila, an hour each way, on those two days. When I got there, I had to buy another lift pass because I bought the international pass. However, the lads with me had just got the local Cervinia pass, which cost a tenner less per day, but included two days in any other Aosta valley resort. So having spent more on my pass I had to buy two days more.

I suspect this can be blamed on the money grabbing Swiss who clearly want enough of the International pass price to not leave anything for the Aosta resorts. What's worse is that the lift office would not give us a refund for the two days but only a voucher to use again. In fairness, I did come back for some Powder and had one the best day's skiing of my life, but it was still monumentally frustrating and is another reason to be wary of the International pass.

Hopefully that won't happen to you, and it shouldn't turn you off as its a nice resort with lovely skiing.

One more tip - one of the nicest things I've ever done on skis is get the last lift up to the top of the Italian side. Grab a beer or glass of wine and wait for any other skiers to head down. After about twenty minutes you'll have the entire mountain to yourself. I skied down with the alpenglow on the mountains, earphones in, wide pistes and the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa turning pink above me, a good half hour run I think. Absolutely superb.

The skiing in Zermatt is much better than Cervinia, steeper slopes and more of a variety of runs and off piste opportunities but you get what you pay for I suppose.
As mentioned above though it’s ridiculously expensive and I’d only get a one day international ski pass for a day with good weather conditions and low wind to make sure you can get back to Cervinia.

They have been talking about a link from Valtournache below Cervinia to Champoluc for a while now. It’s only a few miles as the crow flies but an hours drive.
You can ski from Champoluc to Alagna and back in a day and it’s a great days skiing with some lovely and very long black and red slopes. The whole of the Monterossa is unusual as there are not that many pistes but most are long and as a result there is a great sense of traveling from one place to the next rather than just up and down.

Blue note, I'd talk to my granny for hours about skiing. In fact, I'd talk to your granny for hours about skiing too.

Some long overdue snow coming in. And my legs are just starting to feel fresh again...

a148pro wrote: »

Blue note, I'd talk to my granny for hours about skiing. In fact, I'd talk to your granny for hours about skiing too.

Some long overdue snow coming in. And my legs are just starting to feel fresh again...

My granny was 10 years dead in February. I suspect that wouldn't stop you.

Doing a DIY to Soll with the family from 14th March - 21st March. I have flights and accommodation booked but nothing else! Looking for a bit of advice on the rest!

I've got a few quotes for the transfer from Munich and €420 rtn is the best but from what I can see you can get a train to Kufstein rtn for €70, seems a no brainer to go this way and get a taxi to Soll which should be €40 max?

I presume we are ok to wait until we get there to buy the ski pass?

I am looking at lessons for 2 kids, first time skiing (6 & 8) and 1 adult, who are the best schools with good English speakers for the kids, getting confused while looking on-line as not sure what is included in the price for the kids lessons, lessons only or lessons and ski pass?

On the gear, is it best to pre-book on-line or just wait until you get there? I'd imagine it's cheaper on-line, looking at Slope Fox there seems to be a good price difference between the 2 stores they show in Soll - Skicenter Stoll and Sport Gatt, the first one being much cheaper. Has anyone had any good / bad experience with them?

All advice greatly appreciated!

Scarlet42 wrote: »

Just back from a week in Chamonix .. our third time there .. I always forget how stressful it can be going there with kids! having to lug your gear to the bus then from the bus to the slope.

While it was enjoyable, the skiing is just class, we had a few mishaps. On the first morning I went with my son (11) and the ski-school to La Tour on their bus .. when we got there he started to feel unwell, I took him to the nearest loo and left my skis not far from the bus stop, It took me about 30 mins to get him sorted and when I went back to get my skis they were gone! I had to return to Cham to report them stolen and pay 200 quid, got another pair and headed back to La Tour to meet him and my daughter.

On Friday my sister fell at Grand Montets and broke her leg, she is still in France at the moment in what seems to be the Fawlty Towers of a hospital .. a lady in the bed next to her was smoking during the night, when my sister called the nurses they didn't believe her and told her to be quiet .. also the food looks crazy!.. mashed peas and carrots with boiled eggs for dinner!!

On Friday morning a snowboarder crashed into my daughter (13) and knocked her flying during her lesson, thankfully she wasn't badly injured but it really knocked her confidence, she couldn't ski for the rest of the day and the following would only go onto a green slope, we then waited until about 4pm and the three of us had a nice blue to ourselves and she started to relax on the skis again.

I don't think we will be back to Chamonix, its so handy to be able fly to Geneva from Belfast .. and the flights cost us 90 euros for the 4 of us, just need to look at somewhere near to Geneva. Chamonix is also so expensive!

There is a great ski jump and Slalom course there which records a video of you and they then upload to your ski pass account, my son had a great time at these.

https://youtu.be/AM86ltzw4L8

anyone any good recommends for resorts near Geneva?

Sean

This sounds like the worse holiday ever

There's a resort called flaine which is supposed to be great with kids

I did a half day in la clusaz and liked it

Megeve also close and supposed to be nice

Each is about an hour from geneva

Was it an expensive place to stay ... eating out and stuff ... and what about ski passes and hire?

As always happen, I'm 2 weeks out from Ski2020 and looking at new gear. Anything good / bad / indifferent to say about wintersport.tv?

blue note wrote: »

Anyone affected by the french ski strikes? They're some nation for striking!

Blue note, what's the story about strikes? Are there any scheduled strike days ahead, does this mean lifts not operating?

I'm getting the inch for a skiing holiday, but definitely won't be able to go until April. I know I'll have to go high up, and ideally with a Glacier, VDI is a strong option for me. I've no real interest in skiing in crap conditions however, how much of a risk is it booking in the next few weeks, or would I really wanna wait till a week or 2 out?

The thinking on this season is that it's been fine higher up, but below 1500m or so it's been really poor, temperatures really high, lots of rain, no real natural snow that hasn't melted.

So you'll be grand as long as you go high. Personally i'd go for a glacier too. Went to solden last year think it was mid april and glacier parts of the resort were much better than the others, even at 3 o'clock on a very hot day.

If you're flexible with work and dates you could probably hang on to book too, a late easter isn't that popular for skiing with Europeans so you should get accommodation without too much hassle

blue note wrote: »

I'm excited about cervinia next week so stayed reading some trip advisor reviews to keep me going. Of course the negative comments stick out much more than positive! The runs seem to mainly be blue / red and I'm fine with that. A nice long red can be my ideal run. There also seems to be decent walks to the lifts which isn't ideal, but we'll live.

But there are loads of comments on the place being closed due to winds!!! Nothing I can do about that, but god I hope we get a calm four days next week! It'll be a disaster if that happens. We'd be stuck in our hotel room for the week of our honeymoon. I'd much rather be skiing!

Stayed there a few years back and really enjoyed it. Yes the chance of (some) lifts closing is there, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Not a huge ski area but we did okay for a week. Nice town with some decent restaurants and bars.

We skiid into Switzerland (Zermatt) while there, in some of the strongest winds I'd ever enountered (one ski nearly took flight while I was putting it on at the top of the lift). Worth doing - but make sure your ski pass covers you or you'll be getting the longest draglift in the world back up the mountain (my wife found that out by accident!).