Skiing in April!!!???

Hi, new to the forum. My girlfriend and I are attempting to go first time skiing this year but the soonest we can both book leave from work is 06/04/07 so we'd be spending about a week off somewhere.
My question is where would still have snow at that time of year? Somewhere near the French border might be easier to get to as flights to Lyon are cheap...ish.
I'm unsure so all suggestions and advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
H

Hello Hedski,

we are going 4-10th april, and last year we went 9-16th april. There will be snow, guarenteed! you just have to make sure you choose a high resort, on this site you can see how much snow each resort has and what the forecast is for the next week.
for example:
http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/France/index.html
so most resorts have several metres of snow and also forecast for more next week! we are going to laax in switzerland which dosnt have quite as much snow but is still great, and is up to 3000m. i suggest you book your flights somewhere, you wont regret it!
David

Go to Cervinia in Italy - it is very high and you can fly to Milan or Turin or even Genoa very cheaply. There is always snow there and even a glacier so you can't go wrong.

hedski wrote:

Hi, new to the forum. My girlfriend and I are attempting to go first time skiing this year but the soonest we can both book leave from work is 06/04/07 so we'd be spending about a week off somewhere.
My question is where would still have snow at that time of year? Somewhere near the French border might be easier to get to as flights to Lyon are cheap...ish.
I'm unsure so all suggestions and advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
H
 

Les Deux Alpes is quite high and has a glacier so you can ski all year round. There are 3 levels of the ski area 1650m (30cm snow), 2600m (160cm) and the glacier 3200m (280cm). There is snow forecast for next week too. Obvisouly this is all according to the Les 2 Alpes website, www.2alpes.com , but I'm going tomorrow so I'll let you know what the actual story is when I get back!

First Choice are doing some good deals there too and sort out all your boots/skis, lift passes and lessons if you want online when you book. Simple!

piers bracher wrote:

Go to Cervinia in Italy - it is very high and you can fly to Milan or Turin or even Genoa very cheaply. There is always snow there and even a glacier so you can't go wrong. 

No please dont go to Cervina, its a ok place but just over the boarder is Zermatt. Which is 10000000x better! Easy to get to from Geneva!

Visit www.zermatt.ch or www.gozermatt.com

Gebstar

hedski wrote:

Hi, new to the forum. My girlfriend and I are attempting to go first time skiing this year but the soonest we can both book leave from work is 06/04/07 so we'd be spending about a week off somewhere.
My question is where would still have snow at that time of year? Somewhere near the French border might be easier to get to as flights to Lyon are cheap...ish.
I'm unsure so all suggestions and advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
H
 

Hedski you may want to consider Geneva as a destination airport as well as Lyon. There are lots of charter flights, plus budget airlines as well as scheduled carriers using Geneva, so competition for your booking will be keen. It will still give you plenty of French high altitude resorts, and will add in Swiss and some Italian ones to choose from as well. Don't forget to pack some decent suncream

BTW I was skiing in mid April this year in Switzerland and France, down to 1300m. This was supposedly a "bad" winter with "poor" snow cover in the Northern Alps.

Fantastic! I logged onto the site for the first time today to ask exactly the same question! We are wanting to go to Crans Montana at the beginnig of April (about the 6th) and are wanting to take our children for the first time. Anyone been there at late Easter?

I was across the valley in the Anniviers after Easter this year. Had very good spring conditions. Easter is earlier next year though. There should be good skiing in Crans Montana as it has some high altitude glacier slopes even though the resort is south facing, and gets lots of sunshine.

IIRC the high slopes at Crans are mostly XC skiing. Sierre below the station is the sunniest place in Switzerland and Crans is south facing, it was awful conditions for the whole season last year, strips of cannon snow in grass.

I'd actually be surprised if Crans expect to be open after April 6th really, Easter is back on 23rd March and I'd have expected them to be shut by April 6th. You might want to check with the tourist office.

Here's a photo from January 2006 showing one of the glacier slopes and a drag lift. The snow was good
http://picasaweb.google.com/bandit2106/SkiSwitzerland200602/photo#5129638788522816226

It can get very chilly up there, one day the lift company posted a notice in English advising temps of -30C.
Yes, I did go up....and it was cold

ise is making sensible points, as usual! You should check with the resort on their timings.

bandit wrote:

Here's a photo from January 2006 showing one of the glacier slopes and a drag lift. The snow was good
 

It was a great snow year though 2006 everywhere.

http://snowslider.net/gallery/images/2007_-_ski/2007_01_28_-_saint_luc___chandolin/a95_2942.jpg



That's Jan 28th from St Luc, in fact you were there, and the snow line over at Crans is really high.

It's all moot anyway, I'm practically certain that Crans is closed April 6th.

ise wrote:

That's Jan 28th from St Luc, in fact you were there, and the snow line over at Crans is really high
 

I remember that day, excellent skiing in great company

It's all moot anyway, I'm practically certain that Crans is closed April 6th
 

alex odonnell I'm coming round to the idea that either Zermatt or Saas Fee may be better destinations for a post Easter ski in Valais.

http://bergbahnen.zermatt.ch/e/skigebiet/
http://www.saas-fee.ch/en/welcome.cfm