Headed to Europe, need help

[robpatterson5]

Looks like I may be headed there for 2 weeks in mid-febuary and I want to SKI! Basicly I'm looking for recomendations for places to go, think I'll stay in one region so what are the recomendations? Slight prefrence goes to areas in or near Switzerland for a bunch of resons. Me and my bro are advanced/experts from the east (read ski like 3 weeks a year, ), so were not looking for anything deadley, just challenging. Interlacken looks nice from the web but any other thoughts?

[splat]

Go north of Interlaken (but stop by the Animal Farm while you're there) and you'll hit Engelberg. Your prayers will be answered with the killer-Euro-village and resort-of-your-dreams times. Just don't go diving off the backside without some local knowledge though. And take all the appropriate gear.

[TeleAl]

Interlaaken is in a valley, on a lake, hence its name, in between lakes. Murren is above, and supposed to be excellent. Never been there, only heard. There is a youth hostel there, listed in Rick Steve's guide, run by a woman named Petra. Supposed to be excellent. I doubt you would regret that.

E-berg notes above are an echo of what I hear too.

Places to stay:
http://www.youthhostel.ch/e/home.cfm

These are the official youth hostels in Suisse. There are many others, private ones. The official ones are usually really nice (funded by the Swiss govt) while the private ones will prove to be nice too. Bring a sleeping bag and towel.

Me, I am in the Vaudoise, on the border of Vallais. Not sure where I would recommend. Zermatt comes to mind. Excellent village, and excellent skiing.

On avi gear, bring it, wear it. It is kind of an unwritten norm here, where off piste skiing is part of life. No cops will stop you from ducking a rope, unless you are endangering others (i.e. possible trigger that takes out a lift). There is also plenty of in-bounds skiing, where the snow is controlled. Just know that both are available, and the difference is sometimes a fine line.

And, if you are anywhere near a glacier, beware of crevaces/cracks. E-berg has one, as does Zermatt. I recall getting some excellent fresh lines in Saas Fee, wondering why no one was skiing them, and then looking into a huge crevace, while making a turn. I stayed in the turn until the crevace was out of site. MF scary. If it slid, I was gone. Daaaahh comes to mind, but what did I know? I never saw a glacier before.

If you come towards Vaudoise or Vallais, let me know and I will give you more info on the area around here. Verbier is here, but I would stay in another town, maybe Thyon for example. And there are many others places too.

Get out early, and ski through lunch. Europe gets up at about 10, and then does a lunch stop at noon. Better for the powder pig in you.

Think Snow.

[verbier61]

Rob,
tons of euro info and discussions here:
http://tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17125

and remember you'll be my host in verb if you pass by. Take care, though, because mid febraury means carnival holidays and T H O U S A N D S of kids on the slopes (including my three )

[robpatterson5]

Cool, thanks for your help guys, Verb I'll rember it! Ya I'm terrified of running into cravases/avi terrain since we dont have any of that here. With Interlacken (sp) is it better to stay in the Valley or up higher?
Cheers: Rob

[bad_roo]

Rob - The area you're looking at staying (Bernese Oberland) has a few options. Interlaken will offer the most affordable accommodation but the worst access to skiing. Next up is Grindelwald, then Wengen. If you really want the Rolls Royce ski experience of the Bernese Oberland, stay at Murren. It's got the best skiing and is by far the prettiest, looking across at the North Faces of the Eiger, the Monch and the Jungfrau. If you do plan to ski this area, I don't think you'll have too many worries regarding glaciers.

Having said all that, if you're coming all this way and want to ski Switzerland, then go to Engelberg, Andermatt, Verbier or Zermatt. Seriously. Even if you just stick to the pistes you won't regret your visit.

[robpatterson5]

Thanks Bad_roo, ya were really looking for great terain (steaps, good snow, long runs, bumps, you name it) so the whole of the countery is an option. How would you rate those spots? And yes, we'll probaly stick to the psits.
Cheers

[TeleAl]

Just to be clear about Verbier, and my comment about staying elsewhere:
Verbier rocks, no dis.

But, a place to stay is the challenge.
That aside, check it out.

Rating those resorts, on my scale they all rate very high.
Those are "can't go wrong" resorts.

Murren has a hostel.
Interlakken is not a ski resort town, though it is kind of cool.

[SkiersLeft]

Skied Murren-Shilthorn this past Feb and made the mistake of staying in Interlaken and not closer to the mtn. The commute from town to any of the three resorts takes forever (1 hour plus) and you'll have to pay for the bus and train. Not the cheapest place to ski and is often overrun by American JONG's traveling abroad looking for a place to party. Depending on where you fly into, you should follow the snow and let that guide where you ski. If you can, go ski La Grave, then you will understand.

[verbier61]

Rob, follow the snow is certainly a cool advice. I'd add also something like "avoid the crowd" which in mid-february might be cuz of school holiday. La Grave is the shit (the only negative issue being the very slow lifts), and is usually much less crowded than other places during school holidays. Sorry I have never been in bernese alps so know nothing about them

[robpatterson5]

Thanks, guys I sorta want to try grab cheaper tickets so... we'll see about flowoing the snow. defidently up for avoiding he crowds though! %$$%#@ liftlines... I've been hearing alot of good stuff about St. Aston (sp) in Austria, any thoughts?

[Echo_Beach]

st. anton, lech, zürs, stuben and st. christoph are very nice resorts but in the school holidays it will be very overrun and you won`t find any powder after a minutes and its expensive

[verbier61]

St Anton is as cool (and, in turn, $$$$$) as verb cham etc, but they speak german St A usually has more snow, though

[warthog]

I'll give my vote for Murren. I was there in the early spring, with a tour group from school. I was super pissed to see how much snow they had. I just about ditched the group and went skiing. We were not staying there though.

The terrain looked fun, The town is super fun. No cars, and you gotta catch a tram to get there. Bring some $$$$$$$$$.



Rip the shit outta that place, and take some pictures.

[SkiersLeft]

Cham has been mytholoziged as being super expensive, my experience this past Feb and March speak otherwise. Cham had the cheapest hostel at 11 Euro's a night, i have yet to find a cheaper place to stay, anywhere in the world. Let me follow that up by saying that by mentioning that the kitchen was virtually non-existant and that there was enough dust to ski on beneath the bunk beds. Met some super cool people there and had a blast. Regardless, i spent less sking Cham than i did anywhere else in Europe this past year. Now if only i could remember the name of that place. It is however located litterally just left of the Brevent Gondola, a stone's through away. As per lift lines, i've been lucky, everywhere, hopefully you will be too.

[SkiersLeft]

Murren is pretty cool, most of their terrain is open bowls and faces, luckily they had just gotten 20cm of fresh the night i got there. Then it warmed up, became windy, and turned what snow was there into boilerplate once it froze again. the conditions went from sweet to shitty in 24 hours. the alps are getting fucked by global warming big time. anyways, Interlaken was just way too touristy for me, not that Cham isn't, but the village and setting are prettier imho. Map out reasonable distances, time, and money that are willing to spend on your trip. Then wait and pray for snow.