Hope to book next holiday without tour operator, how easy?

Big gamble for Xmas I would say. You really want to be going somewhere where you KNOW you will ski - Alpe d'Huez, Val Thorens, Kaprun, Mayrhofen, ie where there is high altitude and/or a glacier.
Andorra can have great snow, but it is very hit and miss.
I wouldnt gamble personally.

The big issue is the number of people. Tony talked about good prices, and mentioned a couple of websites. However, if you are 18 folk, you need certainty, and that is different from a 2/4 folk doing a last minute deal.

Equally, Tony is right about Andorra. That is one place that I would only go to on a last minute deal, for conditions, not for price reasons.

What puzzles me is that if you have been to Ellmau that often, can your regular place make you an offer?

Hi Dave Mac

You mention about staying at our regular place.

We have never had a regular place in Ellmau, due to different numbers in party, cost and what others require, we have been quite varied with our choice of accomodation ie halfboard hotel/guesthouse, B&B and catered chalet.

Have you tried looking on Chalets Direct, lots of independently owned chalets on there which may be more flexible. Not sure whether your choice of resort is on there or not though. www.chaletsdirect.com
Post in the Solutions Room with your requirements.YOu will probably get back some replies from Morzine/Les Gets owners too, but some of them may be useful.

if you are not to fussy on where to go, terravision web site has coaches from
bergamo, verona and venice airport to various italian resorts val gardena, alta badia etc that run fri, sat sun and are very reasonable, I think they also have coaches from vienna? not to clued up on austria,but have used the terravision and it is superb and reliable.

Challenging but possible I think is the answer to your query.

One of the biggest challenges you may find is getting people to definitely commit and to do so quickly when you have only indicative prices, flights, etc. There is little point finding cheap flights and then taking a week to establish if this is acceptable to everybody in the group (by which time they will probably have gone)! I would suggest that you would need to be quite dictatorial with the group in this respect but be careful - you do not want to lose friends, especially skiing friends. Also, be aware that things like free places for groups, free or heavily discounted places for kids can mean that tour operators prices are very competitive and may be hard to beat on price.

On accommodation, you will probably have to do a lot of chasing - the ski welt area has loads but not a lot of big apartment blocks ala Pierre et Vacance in the French resorts where you could simply book 3/4/5 apartments in one block. On the other hand a guaranteed booking for 18 (without agents commission!) should be attractive. If I were you, I would not confine myself to Ellmau, Soll has probably a bigger selection of accommodation - I stayed in the Bergland Hotel in January, very nice hotel, nice food and very close to gondola (though price reflects all this).

I know some friends who organised a large group (c. 35) to Soll independently a year or two ago. They went during half term and main advantage was that they did not get stung for the premium charged by tour operators for that period.

Good luck.