April ski holiday

Those are the Easter weeks and the Brits are booking up the 1st week pretty fast. Pick your flights and resorts carefully or you might get a shock.

Lethoso has two slopes that are classed as blue. It has no red slopes. Hence it behoves us to be careful when offering advice to a person classifying themselves as a novice. There are many high Euro resorts where the drop off to the gondola is minimally red. It is not enough just to give a list of high resorts. Also, given the localised variation in Euro slope colour definitions, a nominated blue, could be a fairly challenging red. Hence my respectful query on Les 2A. I am happy to comment on places that I have skied, but not on those that I have not skied.

Dave Mac wrote:Andy, at Les2A, can a novice safely negotiate off the easy slopes down to the valley? If so, that may well be the good suggestion.

Yes there's a blue all the way down. I've not skied there, so my recommendation is based on what I've been told. A good friend has skied there on several occasions so I've got a good source of information.

The reason I haven't been there is the same reason I'm recommending it, a high proportion of the high altitude skiing is on blues.

it's a green to the bottom at Les2A, but it's narrow and v busy at peak times i.e. home time. L2A are supposed to be linking the green with the Diablo/Diable gondola with a blue run.

cheers

dobby

dobby wrote:it's a green to the bottom at Les2A, but it's narrow and v busy at peak times i.e. home time. L2A are supposed to be linking the green with the Diablo/Diable gondola with a blue run.
dobby

That is good quality info, dobby, in two ways. The key info though is that a novice ought to be able to get safely off the mountain in L2A. There is nothing better than first hand experience.

Dave Mac wrote:

dobby wrote:it's a green to the bottom at Les2A, but it's narrow and v busy at peak times i.e. home time. L2A are supposed to be linking the green with the Diablo/Diable gondola with a blue run.
dobby

That is good quality info, dobby, in two ways. The key info though is that a novice ought to be able to get safely off the mountain in L2A. There is nothing better than first hand experience.

I have skied the green "road" back to L2A, it's so crowded that beginners should download, or risk being put off the sport. I skied the Black thereafter, it was fairly full of beginners also...I wonder why? :mrgreen:

Les Deux Alpes looks like an excellent option. As said, the Beginner's / Early Inters area is up high above the town on a very sunny (probably, at that time of year) plateau. The runs on and from the glacier are easy to reach from there and long and wide, so will be quite a contrast from Lesotho!

There is no need to "risk" the runs down to the town - just hop on the gondola (Jandri Express? is that the one?) at the end of the day. Plenty of people do and your legs will thank you for it if you've had a long day on the slopes.

[ETA - having checked the piste map (see link to the left), there are three different gondolas serving the Cretes area. I think you might even be able to download on one of the chairs too IIRC but don't bank on that]

End of march and early april doesn't necessarily discount the lower resorts either - ok if the low slopes are south facing then possibly it does, but in any sort of average snow year most French ski resorts will aim to be 100% open at that time of year still.

Also, remember early April is easter holidays so that will make a lot of resorts busier. If you can get there a week earlier you will have quieter slopes and arguably better snow chances wherever you choose.

Of the high ones, from what I remember Les Arcs is quite novice/intermediate friendly (including access too and from). Tignes also is quite navigable if happy on blues.

cheers