I have been stupid I forgot to mention
http://www.snow-forecast.com/
this year it has been simply OK in reporting snow and in forecast, at least for the western alps where I spent most of the time ;)
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I have been stupid I forgot to mention
http://www.snow-forecast.com/
this year it has been simply OK in reporting snow and in forecast, at least for the western alps where I spent most of the time ;)
Since no one mentioned it: Stanton has got an own train station and really gnarly bc runs - you just need to know how to get into them. On that point I do not agree to Tele's comparison to Engelberg.
But one good point is right for sure: when spending a whole season you should try to move around and not stick just to one single spot.
I think Engleberg has more vertical and some glaciated terrain which St. A. does not have. There is plenty of off-piste in St. A. but its not the huge scary long steep coulouirs or faces that exist in other places such as Engleberg, La Grave etc. Steep yes, long by US standards, yes, but not by Euro standards.
Telepath is right to a certain extent that long vert is one of things that is so awesome about the alps. Another piece is just the scale of it. Hard to imagine skiing 80+ lifts interconnected from the US. Plus add in taxi rides from neighboring towns after some epic long off-piste decent and it adds to something we don't get too often in the US.
There is also a cultural component which ben has hit on as well that makes skiing in the alps really cool for us Yanks.
Must do homework and stop procrastinating. Yet again this board has sucked me in!?!?
Ben, when are you going?
I'm planning on going 2 or 3 years from now, yeah it seems a long way off, but I want to work hard now and save up as much dough as I can so I have to do little if any work once there. Glaciated terrain is great, and I will visit Cham, La grave and verbier along with plenty of others while I'm there. However, I would feel safer skiing no glacier stuff most of the time, since there are fewer crevasses and other potential pitfalls that are associatted with glacier skiing. St. Anton looks kool to me just because the Arlberg is so damn wide, yeah it may not have the biggest vert or craziest couloirs, but a ski area that is 25 miles wide has a certain appeal to someone who usually skis in NY state and VT. Thanks for the input. if you're over there while we are, we have to hook up for some turns.
-Ben
Some others (my apologies to le viellards here)
The Milky Way (Via Lattea) - Consists of Montgenevre, Claviere, Sansicario, Saulz d'Oulx, Sestriere all interskiable on one ticket. Driving from one end to the other is about 40 miles. It's easy to get to from Briancon, the base of Serre Chevalier.
The Maurienne Valley - The valley itself is not too pretty but it's cheap and accesses an amazing array: Les Trois Vallees (Val Thorens), Val Frejus and Mont Cenis. Up at the end of the valley is Bonneval-sur-Arc which is the backside of Val d'Isere. St. Michel du Maurienne is a decent little town.
I'm flummoxed as to why you've excluded France, but as I've mentioned too many times before, Briancon is freeeking mind blowing for the terrain that is accessible within an hour. Both of the above as well as Bardonnecia, La Grave, Vars- Risoul, the Queyras (4 dinky 3k vert touring areas), Serre Chevalier, Puy St. Vincent and a bunch of other smaller places.
I do not mean to totally rule out France; however, I would prefer to choose other places over it, it is still an option in my book.
Do you dislike French people?
I hope you aren't ruling out France for the silly political reasons that many Americans have toward France over the last year or so...
OK, but consider Briancon. Hit La Grave when it's good, if it's too windy, go up to the top of Montgenevre, traverse over into Italy, traverse over to your left and choose from about a mile of unskied, NE facing pow lines down into the larch forests. Bored? Go ski the couloirs off the top of Val Frejus, or try to ski all variants of the Trifide, the Banane and Couloir du Lac at La Grave. Note that not all of La Grave is glaciers or dangerous. Go speed skiing at Vars....Quote:
Originally posted by glademaster
I do not mean to totally rule out France; however, I would prefer to choose other places over it, it is still an option in my book.
Yeah, the French might have some strange habits (eg eating major quantities of cheese) but they are genarally pretty nice. I was welcomed much more by the locals in LG than in Verbier (where I said hello every single morning to the same old local guy for 3 months and he never responded) although it might be as much becasue it is a much smaller place.Quote:
Originally posted by comish
I hope you aren't ruling out France for the silly political reasons that many Americans have toward France over the last year or so...
A Frenchman came up with this which I think is very cool:
http://www.skipass.com/shop/gvd.gif
edit: basically means "Thou shalt ski"
Buster speaks truth and wisdom. I would bear in mind the places he has suggested.
Yep. Enough that I'd wish he's shut up soon ;)Quote:
Originally posted by Mulletizer
Buster speaks truth and wisdom. I would bear in mind the places he has suggested.
Yeah, me too actually. :DQuote:
Originally posted by Telepath
Yep. Enough that I'd wish he's shut up soon ;)
mullet > maybe he was actually deaf...Quote:
where I said hello every single morning to the same old local guy for 3 months and he never responded
Briançon's a nice central spot...
After doing more research, I am retracting my statement about ruling out French resorts. What about the Serre Chevalier area? Looking at a piste map it seems like it has a good mix of tree skiing and above treeline terrain. What is the snowfall usually like there? The more time I spend trying to narrow it down, the more resorts I find that look great. I guess there are worse choices to have to make:D .
-Ben
Don't go there. Instead go to Seefeld. Or Alpbach. Maybe Heiligenblut or somewhere the gemutlichkeit is gemutlich. Alternatively there's Pamporovo, Soldeu or Valberg.
Serre Chevalier has hands down the best tree skiing anywhere. Especially when the snow is good of course ;) The only things missing in Serre is glaciated terrain and really long descents (above 1500m vert) but with La Grave half an hour away that's hardly a problem. Plenty of shorter (500-1000m vert) steep & stupid stuff everywhere.
Nice atmosphere, decent chance of getting laid (ask hop...), cheap as heck (maybe the cheapest larger resort outside Italy), plenty easy to get by without speakign french.
Snow totals are often lower than further north in the Alps with the odd extremely good years (2001, 2003 among others) where the place is puked on from late October. Often a draught in late January to early February but then picks up mid-February and snows pretty often until mid-May. Best sun-statistic of anywhere in the Alps; i.e. great visibility pretty much always; dry and warm rockclimbing from January (often shorts and no shirt in February..).
Shitloads of small resorts with loads of good stuff around (reread Busters posts) adn you'll get a total of 15 or 16 days or more of free days at these other resorts (incl. Les2Alpes and Alpe d'Huez) with your Serre season pass (which is like 450usd if you buy or order by fax/phone before 1st December). Decent price for a 72-lift resort imo.
There's prolly more to it, but these are some of the reasons why I have lived there for 6.5 full season during the last 7 years....
Correct!Quote:
Originally posted by glademaster
I guess there are worse choices to have to make:D .
-Ben
Telepath is really the person to tell you about Serre but here goes anyway. Serre has some of the best tree skiing in the Alps. Above the treeline it has some really cool technical lines and lots of big open fields. Some very big descents (from what I understand US standards to be) but not as big as La Grave or Chamonix. The ski area is BIG. Loads of variety. I was over there lots last season because it has the different aspects that LG lacks (ie E,S and W).
Because it doesn't go that high the season is marginally shorter than the really high resorts (eg Cham, LG). They usually close sometime in April; usually you can ski almost al the awy down then anyway. Also has quite a lot of snowmaking which is useful if the snow comes late.
The lifts offer great access high into the Ecrins National Park where there is some really special touring to be done. Likewise, you can drive upto the Col de Lautaret which also feeds you into the Park (though not quite so high)
The villages are cool and the people are laid back and fun. No real attitude among people there. Nice vibe. Plenty of good skiers to hook up with, not too many that you will ever have trouble getting first tracks. Briancon is an ugly, big place (by Alps standards) apart from the walled old town which is special but not a great place to ive as a bum (too far to lifts). The villages higher up the valley (esp. Les Monetiers les Bains and Villeneuve) are nicer IMO and offer better access to the lifts and to the better skiing.
As Buster said, it's a great location for visiting other resorts too. Near LG, Puy St Vincent, and the Milky Way. Not far to Alpe d'Huez, Les Deuz Alpes and so on.
edit: damn, he beat me to it. :)
Heh.Quote:
Originally posted by bad_roo
Don't go there. Instead go to Seefeld. Or Alpbach. Maybe Heiligenblut or somewhere the gemutlichkeit is gemutlich. Alternatively there's Pamporovo, Soldeu or Valberg.
If you want to ski Serre Chevalier you've got to be a badass. Like me.
http://gallery.consumerreview.com/we.../IMG_5303x.jpg
Before you come at me with the 'best tree skiing anywhere' angle, I've gotta ask - have you skied the trees around Montchavin and Les Coches? Sheer quality and completely and utterly untracked due to La Plagne's family reputation.
Don't know if that's what it's called, but I was skiing some sweet trees there a few years back (2000 methinks) with some scandi locals; but imo not with as good a combination between gradient, tree spacing and vert. There could be stuff I've missed; but considering the comments I've heard from pretty much everyone I've shown around in Serre no matter where they used to ski I believe the statement is not too far off. Plenty of good tree skiing in the alps though; lately I have some to like the La Grave trees more and more too - but while they are certainly good they ain't AS good. I'm a sucker for an open tree line of 900m vert going straight falline. Sorry ;)Quote:
Originally posted by bad_roo
have you skied the trees around Montchavin and Les Coches? Sheer quality and completely and utterly untracked due to La Plagne's family reputation.
I actually agree with you. Just playing devil's advocaat in the hope you'd tell me where the best tree line were to be had. ;) Cos I didn't find them in January. Did find this sweet litle section under the Casse de Bouef chair though. Lots of fun hucking potential and terrified people on the chair frantically waving. There's a cable you need to watch out for though.
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...eefcurtain.jpg
Yup, the via ferreta wire leads to a lot of fun when watching someone new go down and snag it. Hucking straight off the top of that one hurts (it's FLAT); a funnier option is the pillows lookers right (5-6 pillows) and then launching off the last one onto the flat at the bottom. Or a double off the small rock the the lifttower is mounted on onto the snowfield in the middle and then ollie on over the rest (also FLAT). Lots of stuff like this in the trees far lookers left; kinda off the chair and cut back like 150-200 metres skiers right of the chair and then just play your way down the trees. Btw. 2 years ago I was sitting in this lift with like 10 skiteachers in the chairs in front of us on a snowy day when this kid in the local racers uniform (he could hardly have been more than 10 or so) was poling his way towards this huck from above. All the teachers went "Don't go, there's a rock!!" etc. and we (who realized that the kid knew exactly where he was, he's even taken his skis of to climb the security net above) cheered him on all we could; telling him that the landing looked sweet (it did) etc. The kid looked up at the skiteachers once a dn poled on to lauch off the entire thing without stopping to check. Next lap his tracks showed a next-to-perfect doubledrop touchdown and a landing far out on the FLAT part with a straight set of stracks leading from there on down among the trees. Little fukkr must have the biggest balls in his generation.
Anyways, the best tree stuff is off the Cibuit ridge inti the Montagnol in Monetier. Especially as there a good few points of now return or some very (again, ask hop...) technical parts im some of the lines; so they tend to only get skied by a very limited number of people.
The Monetier sector was isolated due to windhold when we vsisted so we drove down to Villeneuve.
I would have loved to have seen somebody straightline that line!
quote
:eek: please accept swiss apologies :DQuote:
originally posted by mulletizer:
I was welcomed much more by the locals in LG than in Verbier (where I said hello every single morning to the same old local guy for 3 months and he never responded) although it might be as much becasue it is a much smaller place
I would generally say that french-speaking swiss are scruffy and friendly as French....., while if you cross the roesti-border (for instance from Sierre to Visp), you find Germans.
Italian-speaking swiss are too few to be mentioned :rolleyes:
Hehe. The rest of you Swiss don't need to apologise for the Bagnards. They are just... Different.Quote:
Originally posted by verbier61
quote
:eek: please accept swiss apologies :D
BTW I doubt this dude was deaf (at least he shouldn't have been) as he was a ski instructor. I guess he was just stubborn; he chose to ignore me the first time so carried on for the rest of the winter.