J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Juddernaut

I think I have a new record for a cappuccino. Le Cristal at Verbier tried to charge me 8CHF (6.60EUR\5.60UKP) for a cappuccino! True story. I asked them if it came with a hamburger but they were not amused.

Ranchero_1979 wrote:

Not a patch on ski terrain offered by Chamonix but that is every other resort in world.

Is it just me or is Chamonix the most over-rated ski area on earth? Of the places I have skied I have Dolomites, Monterosa, Verbier, and Davos miles ahead of Chamonix.
Of my local ski areas I would rather go to the PDS, Gran Massif, Aravis or Evasion Mont-Blanc.

St Anton must have had the world's biggest traffic jam yesterday. Drove past on the way back from Dolomites and it took hours to travel a few kilometres near the Lech\St A turnoff. Carnage.

OK, just back from Corvara on what was our best ski week ever. Prices vary a bit but 2EU for a really good cappuccino and 3EU for superb hot chocolates seemed to going rate. Lots of on-piste huts had Lasagne\Spag Bol for 7EU and they weren't skimping on the size either. I bought a massive snitzel foccacia at Porta Vescova 2478 for 6EU which was very very reasonable.
About 4EU seemed to be the rate for a 400ml Forst lager with Bombardinos about the same. A shot of a very smooth grappa at the hut at the bottom of the Boe chair was 2EU.
One thing I noticed about the Dolomites since I was last there 5 years ago was how much prices have gone up and how many Eastern European mafia-types are there now. The prices for ski clothing and gear in Ortisei were astronomical but the girl working there said the Russians don't blink an eyelid.

Tony_H wrote:You can spend a week at ADH and not use a single drag lifts. Thye majority seem to be low down from Les Bergers going up to the DMC area where the bunny slopes are, and therefore any decent skier need not use them at all. Theres a couple at most up the mountain, again can be avoided, and a few over ay Auris.
I don't get what peoples issues with drag lifts is though. You often see boarders on them even though they seem to do most of the moaning about them.

I'd also suggest the comment about hideous queues could be used for any major resort in Europe at peak times. I've been to ADH, St Anton, Verbier, Mayrhofen, Serre Chevalier, and others I could mention and never seen a "hideous" queue in all my time skiing. However, I travel out of school holiday times and the only queues I have seen tend to be at weekends when the locals come out to play. Again, easily avoided if you get out of bed early enough and up on the first lift and keep away from the main lifts out of resort.

You possibly can spend a week at ADH and not use a drag lift, but say if you want to go to the top of Signal from ADH and the slowest quad chair in the world isn't running (happened to us for a whole week in the school holidays)?

Yes you should be able to use the DMC gondola to get up toward Lievre Blanc, but what happens when there is a 40 minute wait to get on gondola or a 20 minute wait for the Jeux T-bar? A lot of "decent skiers" were opting for the T-Bar instead of the 40 minutes of DMC shuffle misery.

The issues with drag lifts is that they suck for a multitude of obvious reason (e.g gondolas rarely have people falling of them and holding the whole show up). If they were great then god would not have invented chairs and gondolas and you wouldn't be saying you can avoid them for a whole week now would you?

Sure you have the good fortune not to have experienced a hideous queue, but we don't all have the luxury of being able to go outside of holiday periods. I have been in the Dolomites, Les Aravis, Perisher, Thredbo, Davos and Mount Hutt in school holidays and none of them came anywhere near to the mad lift queues of ADH.

Still had a great time and the skiing there is fantastic. Would avoid during holidays though as I thought I was in Swindon.

Ian Wickham wrote:

Juddernaut wrote:

Juddernaut wrote:Can't comment on L2A but I really rate ADH. ADH has something for everybody and is tops. Watch out for hideous crowds during peak times.
It also has a few too many drag lifts for my liking.

Meant to say really LOVE ADH. Not hate.

As I read it you really RATED ADH :shock:

You read it right and I didn't. Yes, love and rate is what I mean.

Juddernaut wrote:Can't comment on L2A but I really rate ADH. ADH has something for everybody and is tops. Watch out for hideous crowds during peak times.
It also has a few too many drag lifts for my liking.

Meant to say really LOVE ADH. Not hate.

Can't comment on L2A but I really rate ADH. ADH has something for everybody and is tops. Watch out for hideous crowds during peak times.
It also has a few too many drag lifts for my liking.