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Author Topic: The Skiing Thread (Redux)  (Read 60612 times)

Offline UK Redsox

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #15 on: December 30, 2010, 05:26:51 PM »
Greetings from La Plagne.

Excellent weather and snow conditions so far.

I'm only skiing three or four hours each day due to ongoing back pain. However, I'm still having a good time.

Chalet staff are a good bunch and weve found a handy bar

Offline gerags

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #16 on: December 31, 2010, 12:16:11 AM »
Greetings from La Plagne.

Excellent weather and snow conditions so far.

I'm only skiing three or four hours each day due to ongoing back pain. However, I'm still having a good time.

Chalet staff are a good bunch and weve found a handy bar

Nice one, have a great New Year out there !
How extensive are the runs in La Plagne ?

Offline UK Redsox

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2011, 11:53:32 AM »

Nice one, have a great New Year out there !
How extensive are the runs in La Plagne ?

You could spend weeks over there and not repeat yourself much.

The "La Plagne" area is linked to the "Les Arcs" area by means of an express cable car. Overall this is called the "Paradiski" region.

http://www.perso-laplagne.fr/PisteMap.htm

http://en.paradiski.com/flash.php#/ski-area

I'm still sticking to Blue Runs but even some of them were challenging at times (surprisingly, some of the steepest Blue sections are those leading into the main villages). The rest of my group found loads of Reds and Blacks to their liking.

Last year in Lauterbrunnen, we had to walk thro' the village and then take a train ride to the pistes. This year in La Plagne all I had to do was walk 50 yards and I was on the slopes.

We stayed in the "Silverski" apartment attached to the company owners' winter residence.

Some of the H&V Speedway fans might have heard of Len Silver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Silver), former manager of the England team.

At 78, Len is still skiing every day and is a great character.

Offline Andy Poole

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #18 on: January 07, 2011, 10:27:11 PM »
Just booked for a week tomorrow in Obergurgl, Austria. Flying from Bournemouth which is a real bonus!

Anyone been here? Any tips?

Offline Guy M

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2011, 10:31:19 PM »
My sister's a skier and I'm a (relatively) novice snowboarder. We're looking to go away for a week from next Sunday 30th on a late deal with Club Med. She's been with them before and prefers the idea of paying upfront and then knowing pretty much exactly what you'll have to spend.

These are their offers. Anyone got any comments on any of those locations, please?

Offline usav

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #20 on: January 22, 2011, 12:14:44 AM »
Guy - I've been to three on that list, they are all good in their own way, so I will give you a short summary of each based on my memory:

Alpe d'Huez - very high altitude resort, has a 16km (yes, really) black run all the way from the top down to below the resort into the bottom of the valley.   If you are a novice skier, avoid this run like the plague, their are no exits.   There is plenty of other skiing for all levels.   The resort is good, night life not bad, from what I remember.   Worth going alone for the 21 hair pin bend ascent to the resort that the crazy bastards in the Tour de France have to negotiate.

Avoriaz - I actually stayed in Morzine, which is part of the Portes du Soeil circuit which includes Avoriaz.   Avoriaz is a ski-in ski-out resort, there are no cars allowed at all, so every hotel or chalet is guaranteed ski to the door.   If you are looking for a place where you never have to ski the same run twice in the week, this would be your place.   Avoriaz has a famous black run called 'The wall' - and it literally is like skiing down a wall - with 5ft high moguls.   The only run I've ever seen where they let you take the chair lift down, if you bottle it at the top.  I've heard the nightlife in Avoriaz isn't so great, but down in the valley in Morzine, it's rocking - Morzine is more like a town than a village.

Les Deux Alpes - this sits right across the valley from Alpe d'Huez, so you could probably do a day trip to the other resort if you choose one of them.   This was probably my favourite resort on reflection.   We had a ski-in ski-out chalet, although that is not common in this resort.   Any resort that has black runs leading back down to the village is alright in my books.   Don't worry, there is a green run as well, if you don't fancy the blacks.   Nightlife was excellent.

« Last Edit: January 22, 2011, 01:20:08 AM by usav »

Offline gerags

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #21 on: January 22, 2011, 10:44:14 PM »
To follow up on what USAV says:

Les Deux Alpes is a great ski area. We stayed in the town and was a couple of hundred metres from the lifts. Not  major problem to be honest. My lasting memory of this place was us losing to Fulham in the cup on the day we were due to leave - and, during the obligatory organised pub crawl, having a snowball fight/running battle with a group of Germans. Quite a few bars but nobody really in them when we were there. Or I don't remember it ;)

As for Avoriaz, I was fortunate enough to spend a week there and what an amazing resort it is. Perched on the top of a cliff it's a stunning place to stay.
You can ski between France and Switzerland and the "World Cup Run" leading down to Morzine is a fantastic start & end to the day.

Again, being a French resort, the nightlife isn't great. We found only 2 or 3 bars in the resort worth drinking in - the one doing Tex Mex style food and the other showing all the football.

My choice would be Avoriaz every time - a spectacular place.

Offline Andy Poole

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #22 on: January 23, 2011, 07:06:00 PM »
Just back from a week in Obergurgl. Austria's highest ski area.

Not a cheap resort, very much families and older people. I'd say less than 5 % boarders because there is nothing for them here.
Small village with only one supermarket and one Tobacco/souvenier shop. Oddly has quite a few apres ski bars that are listed in the Times and Telegraph top 10's.

Nothing less than 4 star hotels although there are quite a few appartments and pensions to choose from.

The slopes were beautifully groomed and we had fresh powder for 3 days in a row. They were also very empty, which was fantastic.

More an intermediates resort than one for hardened skiers and very much a place to relax in the spas before hitting the cellar bars.

Not sure if this link will work due to my privacy settings but here are some photos i've posted on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=272787&id=680288842&l=614ad1c54c


If you can't see them and would like to, then just add me.

I'm also very proud of my Daughter for getting a Bronze in the Ski School race! Just 800th of a second off getting Silver!

Offline UK Redsox

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #23 on: January 23, 2011, 07:08:28 PM »
Why is someone trying to hike a chainsaw NFL style ?

Offline Andy Poole

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #24 on: January 23, 2011, 07:14:15 PM »
They were cutting steps into the snow! Not as crazy as hacking away at your roof with a pick axe though.

Offline Guy M

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #25 on: January 26, 2011, 10:50:18 PM »
usav and gerags: cheers for the information and apologies for the delay in replying, been offline for a few days. Annoyingly, during that time, my sister, thinking I couldn't get away this weekend, decided to go ice-skating at Somerset House, fell, hurt herself and now she can't go. Might go next week but that would mean me being away for the missus' birthday. Still, watch this space...

Andy Poole: interesting to hear that about Ötztal are involved in the sponsorship of the Snowcentre in Hemel Hempstead and that's one of the sites they advertise there. Going tomorrow so must remember to have a look at the literature and see whether it says about it being a primarily skiiing resort.

Offline Andy Poole

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #26 on: January 27, 2011, 08:15:32 PM »
Guy, Otztal is a region i think and Obergurgl/Hochgurgl are right at the end of the valley with nowhere to go!

Solden, the main resort is primarily German. It's not a ski area generally offered by British tour operators.

When we drove through Solden on our way to Obergurgl the lower slopes were mainly white stripes on a green hillside! People in our hotel had a day there and did say the higher slopes were very very good. As wide as runways and very well pisted. However, it is a resort full of Kamikazi skiers and boarders!

The town itself gave clues as to what kind of resort it was, with many apres ski bars and two lapdancing/strip clubs all on the main road.

I have no idea what is on offer to skiers and boarders in Solden but my impression from passing through was that  it was Blackpool with mountains and snow!

Offline Guy M

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #27 on: February 03, 2011, 12:52:05 PM »
Looks like my trip with my sister is back on, departing this weekend. Need to leave on Saturday so I'm back on the 12th (it's the missus' birthday and being away for the morning with this little notice is acceptable, but the whole day might take the p*ss somewhat. Although I'm up for it!)

Just surfing Neilson, Crystal, igluski, Last Minute and any and every site I can find for best option. My sister will be probably be skiing the bkue runs, I'll be starting boarding on the green and moving onto blue I should think.

We were considering an all-inclusive late deal for Club Med Serre Chevalier until we saw this recent review. Checked out the French reviews and there's a lady there saying the same.

I'd prefer to go to Austria, but as my sis doesn't speak German, think she'd prefer France. Might need to go and buy myself a helmet and some boots, unless I can switch them every day at the hire places and try some different stuff out.

Offline Andy Poole

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #28 on: February 03, 2011, 07:09:34 PM »
Guy...Go to Austria.....They really do all speak English! So!

Try www.fasttrackski.co.uk.....they had flights others didn't when we booked. Part of Virgin, you are just handed over to Inghams/ main operator in resort anyway.

As you sister likes blues and you'll be on blues too......ain't no green in Austria.....Obergurgl would be perfect. For a Boarding beginner, you'll be ok. All hotels are 4 star plus and nearly all on half board.....enjoy the mountain for lunch.


Be prepared for no tap water on tables and a bill for about 20 Euros for 4 beers.

Offline Guy M

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Re: The Skiing Thread (Redux)
« Reply #29 on: February 03, 2011, 07:51:24 PM »
I'm not worried about the language thing (I'm a Cunning Trilinguist) and would rather go to Austria (well, I'd rather go to Germany but seeing as they don't have any resorts, that would be a bit stupid) but had come round to the idea of going to France and settled on Hotel Le Totem in Flaine at just under £400 for a week full-board.

But I'm now worried because the snow outlook isn't great, although I think I might be reading way too much into how much snow there is at 'lower levels'.

Had a quick look on fasttrackski but will go and dig a bit deeper now. Cheers!

 


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