Ski Season 2019/2020

Cervinia is two an a half hours plus from an airport so you'll pay for the transfer. Maybe the 3 valleys as I think there's a bus from geneva, or at least there used to be, at 100 euro a head. It's high and there is endless skiing. If by moon you mean it's a honey moon there are some fancy restaurants there over the connected resorts.

I wouldn't be too worried about that time of year, though it's never a bad idea to go high or at least have access to a high part of the resort.

Yep, or chamonix and do a guided trip down valley blanche, nice town to Potter around and quite a few nice restaurants too, lots of transfers from geneva airport quite cheap. Skiing more Bitty though.

Heading to Kirchberg for a couple of days at the start of Feb.

Haven't skied for 4/5 of years - would have been able to handle pretty much any red and some simpler black slopes at my best - would be grateful for any info on whether there's good areas to aim for to get the legs back and anything in particular to look out for (either ski or apres ski).

Its certainly a bus to Kaprun. I'm not sure how convenient the lift / run down to Saalbach is. I was in Saalbach this week and you could see the slopes in Zell well enough. But it looked a bit of a schlep to get to it from where I was. I have mates there now I'll ask. The buses in Saalbach and Fieberbrunn were surprisingly infrequent.

maddness wrote: »

I've just booked flights to Munich for Friday 17th early flight and back late flight Sunday with a couple of friends. Will wait till a day or two before to decide on a resort.
Be good to hear how you get on. Enjoy

Trip was great - a fair bit of fresh snow meant in effect the only powder in Europe. Got guide and hooked up with British guy via UK forum. Think he may be even more mad for the skiing than I am, which is quite an achievement.

Fieberbrunn was a bit quirky. Not sure I'd recommend it as a base. Some nice little side piste bits but guide took us off back of Saalbach predominantly which was excellent.

Lots of north facing slopes mean snow hold better and it is significantly shorter commute to Munich (about 40 mins less) than Saalbach. Mostly german speaking clientele. However, very little life in the place beyond a few apres ski bars at bottom of the lifts. Good wellness in town. Suspect most skiers would be better suited to staying in Saalbach or Hinterglemm and skiing over if need be. Having said that I'd still like to try Fieberbrunn specific off piste as I have a feeling over the other side it could be big.

Rew wrote: »

Looking at Zell am See in early March. How linked are the areas bit lifts and pistes versus busses?

There's a ski bus that links Schmittenhohe, Kaprun and the Kitzsteinhorn glacier.

Schmittenhohe was good for about a week's skiing but felt we'd seen pretty much the whole thing after 5 days, only had a day at Kitzsteinhorn though. Kaprun is tiny. The three areas aren't linked by pistes.

There is a link to Saalbach which is supposed to be open this season. I think you can ski down to Viehofen which is on the road to Saalbach. You can get a ski lift back up to Schmittenhohe from here I think or link into the Saalbach ski bus from here. There's a piste back down to Viehofen from Saalbach then.

Rew wrote: »

Looking at Zell am See in early March. How linked are the areas bit lifts and pistes versus busses?

Per this thread not doing great at the moment - run down appears to be closed

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=147786&start=480

a148pro wrote: »

There is a very good "base" in the Western and Southern Alps, as in a lot of snow fell in the early season, probably enough to last them the whole season. Northern and Eastern Alps (primarily the lower resorts in Austria) haven't got a lot of snow

As you say hasn't been fresh snow for a while but talk of snow or weather breaking in about a week, remains to be seen, will be clearer in about 3 or 4 days time

I skied superb fresh powder last weekend IN Austria and am skiing there now but with kids and have barely been on the slopes proper, rope tow with the seven year old today, I gather conditions are quite nice and Spring like, i.e., the snow softens up in the sun but doesn't get crazy soft like in true Spring

But no doubting its been unseasonably warm

If you have a particular area in mind go to the snow reports section of english forum snowheads. You will find a bunch of ex pats talking about their grand kids coming out to see them and occasional references to snow conditions.

Snowheads can be painful alright.

Rew wrote: »

Every time ive been to Soll the snow has been great, going back this year again with the family. Its a very nice place and the people are very friendly.

That’s the kind of thing I hear from everybody I ask, it’s just a short trip and tbh I know we will have a great time. I’m lucky enough to get on three short trips this year and have had powder skiing a month ago and will be in Austria again in March so who knows what it will be like then.
It does seem in the last few season that the early season has been excellent with loads of snow and January has been dry and warm.

Rew wrote: »

We have booked into Hinterglemm instead

Excellent choice! We're going back this year, after having a ball last year. And we also went there in the summertime with the kids.

It's the first time the group have rebooked the same hotel and resort (after 20 years) so it definitely ticks all the boxes for us.

Having a great time in Serra Chevalier-even though it hasn't snowed in a while the pistes are in super condition, and lovely blue skies.Lovely place too. I'll see if I can upload a pic or two during week

olaola wrote: »

And we also went there in the summertime with the kids.

same hotel and resort (after 20 years) so it definitely ticks all the boxes for us.

What's it like in Summer? Is weather hit and miss? What kind of stuff do you do with the kids? Just back from Kinderhotel there and the hotel was so nice I am a small bit tempted by a Summer jaunt

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...