Planning on bouncing around Europe for a few days Where should I ride

I am going to be in Europe from Dec 5th to the 20 and I have plans layed out through the 13. I have a unlimited train pass and am thinking about riding the train at night and riding during the days.

My general thoughts are
14 DEC Chamonix to Zermatt
15 DEC Zermatt to Innsbruck
16 DEC Innsbruck to Garmisch_Partenkirchen
17 DEC Garmisch to Amsterdam
18 DEC Amsterdam To Geneva

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I never dreamed I would be able to ride in Europe.
Plus I say trains at night because I am poor/cheap, I don't think that will ever change!

there are effectively no night trains on those routes with the exception of the rather long trek from germany to amsterdam, then back to Geneva

You'll be going back, plenty. Don't try and cram it all in at once. Pick just a couple of places.

Have a blast buddy!

just pick one or 2 they are massive mountains. Gonna be tough with the train sched.

14&15 chamonix -16 travelday - 17&18 st. anton

I will be in Chamonix from the 11th to the 14th!

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Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

there are effectively no night trains on those routes with the exception of the rather long trek from germany to amsterdam, then back to Geneva

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I was just going to say this.

Cham has cheap hostels and Zermatt. I would make sure to hit verbier and cham if its my first trip and not sure on the next one will be, the agui is a milestone and the BC is endless, and verbier's lift served skiing is also endless and is tough to find a comparison IMO for non glacial terrain. Cham and Verbier are easy train or cab rides from each other also. Dont want to be chasing a train schedule with limited time.

Then you finish the trip with awesome hookers and stinky weed in my favorite city in northern europe. Enjoy it and have fun!

Zermatt is largely flat, but does have a few interesting tours including rounding around to Champoluc, then Gressoney, then Alagna. Unfortunately it kind of tricky to get out of Alagna without a car. You can hit up Martin Volken for more info and an Alagna guide I know of is Sergio Gabbio. For around $30 someone will give you a ride from Alagna back down to Varallo Sesia where you can pick up a train that will get you back to Switzerland for $50 or so. Monte Rosa ski (Champolouc/Gressony/Alagna) is mindblowing huge but a little off the radar compared to Cham. If you've got $150 for the heli from the top of Alagna up to the Lyskamm, the trip down the Gorner glacier is all time.

Verbier is easy access and big reputation, pretty developed. Others can give better details.

En route from Zermatt, there's Andermatt accessed via Goschenen. 3 areas linked by train are Andermatt, Sedrun and Disentis. A multi day pass there include the train. Tons of tours there.

St Anton/Lech/Zurs is another amazing area with tons of options.

The wisdom is to get there and find out which areas have the most snow. Rather than lurching around, I'd try to pick one area and mine that.

And while it's not on your list and harder to get to, if there's an opportunity to get to La Grave, do not hesitate.

You do realise most of the Alps has had fuck all natural snowfall to date? Don't want to ruin the buzz but if you can defer the trip I would.

I would focus on glaciers that early in the year. An off the charts spot that is pretty damn good glacier skiing is Hintertux. I doubt there will be any skiing in Innsbruck but Hintertux isn't far from there. Main town at the bottom of the Tuxer valley is Mayrhofen. It's a small gauge railway from the Inn valley to Mayrhofen

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Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

there are effectively no night trains on those routes with the exception of the rather long trek from germany to amsterdam, then back to Geneva

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To expand on this, http://www.sbb.ch/, will give you the rail schedules for all of those dates. There aren't night trains on those routes anymore; the railway stations close at night and you will likely be evicted from the station by the police. There's a night room (or was) at Zurich which required a connecting ticket. It was hard benches and miserable. Swiss police have nothing better to do than make sure nobody sleeps on park benchs.

Find something here:
http://www.sac-cas.ch/Hut-informatio...te.0.html?&L=3
and stay in the winter room for a nominal fee and enjoy what snow you can find.

I wish you better luck than I had. Went to Geneva a couple of years ago on business in early January hoping to get some skiing in at the tail end of trip. No snow. Did nothing but eat, drink and sleep. On second thought, that was a nice vacation...

I did hear a few weeks ago that they had little snow. Hopefully things have changed.

Sounds like you are on the right track. You had better post tons of pics man. I've always wanted to ski Chaminixxx and Zermit the Frog. They seem like visiting Machu Pichu or something, you know, one of those life goals (or bucket list items if you prefer).

I was in both Chamonix and Zermatt last spring, as part of skiing the Haute Route. Chamonix costs around half as much as Zermatt for food and lodging (Le Chamoniard hostel is 16 Euros in Cham), plus has much better skiing if the snow is thin, because of all the glaciers.
Zermatt is beautiful, but pretty foo-foo, I would definitely schedule more time in Chamonix, I feel much more at home with the Chamonix international cast of dirt-bags versus the fur coats and little dogs in Zermatt.

that itinerary is ridiculous. don't do that. the season so far has been very, very low on snow. as in there is very, very litte base. we are all hoping for some snow next week but don't count on the situtation turning around completely. i suggest you read the snow for the euros thread for snow updates and then go wherever seems promising when the time comes. get in touch if you want crash space in innsbruck.

(edit: i am assuming you want to tour, in which case imo hintertux is less suited than the other austrian glaciers, particulrly if it keeps not snowing.)

Seriously, hear what Klar says. You'd be best to see how the snow situation plays out over the next couple of weeks then choose one place to ride. If the snow is ok and you're starting from geneva it's hard to look past chamonix for a first timer esp an adventurous chap like yourself

In Chamonix, only Grands Montets plans to open on 10th December (snow permitting). The rest of lifts on 17th December. Bear that in mind.

i'd say just do chamonix and verbier. screw all that other travel time.

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Originally Posted by Kyle Miller

17 DEC Garmisch to Amsterdam
18 DEC Amsterdam To Geneva

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hmmmm, curious way to get to geneva.... :smoking:

As mentioned by others, the skiing in mid december at Cham will be extremely limited, especially considering that the Aiguille du Midi will be closed. That leaves you with the grands montets, while not bad, won't give you all that cham has to offer.

It's definitely a good idea to stay somewhere for a couple days. The swiss train system, though on time, is far from quick. You will spend a whole day traversing and making connections no matter if its a 2h hour train ride.

Look me up on facebook if you want to go ski something. I'll be around cham unless its as shitty as it has been, in which case I will be touring at Grand Saint Bernard, where there is a base.

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Originally Posted by Kyle Miller

I am going to be in Europe from Dec 5th to the 20 and I have plans layed out through the 13. I have a unlimited train pass and am thinking about riding the train at night and riding during the days. My general thoughts are 14 DEC Chamonix to Zermatt 15 DEC Zermatt to Innsbruck 16 DEC Innsbruck to Garmisch_Partenkirchen 17 DEC Garmisch to Amsterdam 18 DEC Amsterdam To Geneva Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as I never dreamed I would be able to ride in Europe. Plus I say trains at night because I am poor/cheap, I don't think that will ever change!

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Werent you the one who was too "poor" to get a tooth fixed?

As most have told you already, there isn't a lot of snow right now. In fact, it's the dryest winter since 1800 or something. All the resort you mention are simply not worth going to at the moment.
Some southern resorts recieved a bit more snow earlier this season. Isola2000 is probably the only safe bet right now. And Roldal Norway is good right now.

Keep an eye on wepowder.com/weather for the latest updates.

OOOORRRRRRRRRR

Get your Ass over to Any big Euro city, piss away half/most of your cash on some skank hookers and french fries, jump on the first train you find to the alps, get up at 2pm, go out and do 1 run without buying a lift ticket and if and when you get pulled up just act dumb and shout "WHAT....WHAT" till they get bored, head to the bar and jump on the first Scandinavian chick you find while constantly updating your Facebook status.

Boom, your trip is now all set and no need to thank me.

Be sure to leave a one word review of France on trip advisor, I always go with "hairy".

Your welcome.

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Originally Posted by haydukelives

Werent you the one who was too "poor" to get a tooth fixed?

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Why yes I am!

I couldn't mention it until the official announcement so I am going to France to Premiere my teams documentary Freerider at the Freeride film festival in Saint Lary France and that is the main reason I am going. I thought it would be a shame to only head over there for 3 days so I extended the trip to 2 weeks. Luckily most of the expense are covered! Sounds like I will be spending most my time in Cham with another side trip to Austria (if it works out). So stoked on this opportunity!

http://www.festival-freeride.com/home-en.php

In that case, if you pass by Annecy, try to stop in for a walk in the old town by the lake.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...x-Annecy-1.jpg

(maybe it will snow now...)

If that's the main purpose, don't buy a rail pass. You'll be better served paying cash.