J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by darrylhuk

Hey All,

OK - so every year for the last 5 years we have put together a group of about 30 ski'ers (and a handful of boarders).

I am the mug that is the "Group Leader" or so they say. I think I am the only one mad enough to do it. :lol:

But now I DO need help - this year for the first time ever we have decided on expanding our annual trip and going to the US (we have done almost every resort in Europe): please can you experienced US ski'ers give me some guidance - with the following parameters:

1) Group size 24-30 (maybe 34-36 this year)

2) Accommodation type: prefer a Fully Catered Chalet or something similar. Thing is there are 10 kids in the group - so the folks like to have exclusive use if we can of a Chalet - as this allows the kids to pretty much "disappear" and do what they want. We tried a hotel setup one year - but the continual worry of leaving 10 kids aged between 6 and 14 in the rooms a couple of floors up - is not ideal.

3) Lots of snow. As you know many resorts have been hit and miss in Europe over the last couple of years - so something with sure snow and high up?

4) Transfer times - as short as possible. Any advice appreciated here - I am not overly familiar with all the resorts in the US - so want one that has a pretty decent transfer time considering that we would have already been on a flight for 6-9 hours!

5) Good variety of runs. Some of the resorts I have looked at - like Breckenridge - look "boring" but that could just be my interpretation of the piste map? The range of ski'ers are from novice to off-piste. Not saying I need the perfect resort but something that at least has a run or two for each skill level.

6) Travel agent suggestions welcome - if you have used one on the past - let me have their name - I will get in touch. Sorry to the Moderators if this is not allowed - but certainly would love a steer - there is nothing that beats a GREAT agent or operator that you have experienced before - word of mouth is key in these cases!

7) Ski-in and Ski-out - this is pretty key - we all hate carrying our ski's.

8.) Even if the resort is "commercial" we don't mind busy pistes.

9) We are planning on doing 10 - 14 days (as this is our furtherest commute - want to do more than just 7 days) - question is - do the resorts do this? In Europe its pretty much only Sat to Sat or Sun to Sun - so you are doing 7 or 14 and nothing in between? Any thoughts on this? Can we do two resorts - ie one week and then a second week? With a short transfer between the two? Any suggestions if we follow a two resort approach?

10) then just a general list of resorts - I know the biggies: Breck, Whistler, Aspen etc etc - but are there any hidden gems out there?

Thats all for now.

Any guidance - will be appreciated!

Also - going to take a look at the Ski Show in London next week - any chance I will find a good bargain there - or at least can I expect to see a whole range of Boots? Never been before so will be my first trip to the Ski Show?

Will I be disappointed with the BOOT selection? And will they be same ol expensive - shop price?

OK - so give me your ideas.

Have had my boots for 5 years now....... so why change? Well - cause I want to :mrgreen: but apart from that - I also think my current boots (Fischers) - make me go too fast ! THey have a default stance that takes me out of carve when I stand naturally - so end up having to work really hard to flick my tails to keep the pace down!

But tell me - seen a lotta ranges now - some with a "new" single buckle over foot. Some with Air you pump up! Some you can put on and they will make you ski better :-) NOT!!

Any out there with a SINGLE Wrap around inner (ie no seperate tongue - we put a set of these into my wife's boots last year - and she absolutely loves them!

Any one got some input for me? What should I go for. Budget <500 if possible - but let me know whats hot and whats not?

Hey All,

And so the ski season is upon us - already sorted for December but need a nother trip in March to end off the season.

Question: I want to "end" in Rauris - as I have ski'd there before and meeting a couple of friends there for Easter.

So decided to come in early on the 23rd and spend a week somewhere between Munich and Rauris. Looked at a couple of options and have already done the Ski Amade region.

We will have a car - so will be self-driving.

Question is - can someone give us details on a ski-in ski out on the road (even with up to an hour drive - off the direct route) between Munich and Rauris?

Quite fancy Bad Hofgastein - can somebody clarify - is this part of the Ski Amade region? (only because I see reports saying this is linked to the BIGGEST ski region in Europe - so assume thats Ski Amade right?) - my geography and map reading aint so good ;-).

Thanks in advance.

Let the countdown (3 weeks now) - to December begin!

Hi All,

As usual would love to hear your advice on this one.

Planning my end of year trip already.

The idea is - to spend one week in La Rosiere (France/Italy Border) - and then travel for the second week to the next resort in Italy (north)

So any suggestions? Something that is within a Hired Taxi distance for a transfer from La Rosiere.

Remember as part of the ski through we will have already ski'ed La Thuile - so not there please.

Plan is to fly into Chambery and then fly back out of Turin for example.

Any recommendations welcome.

Hello Everyone, :mrgreen:

I decided to provide some valuable feedback about the three aspects of my recent ski holiday as mentioned in the subject line.

Date of holiday: early February 2012
Ski Conditions: Sunny and good powder this year
Carrier: Flybe (charter)
Period: Sunday to Sunday
Tour Operator: booked through ChaletLine UK - and operated onsite by Ski Total
Chalet: Chalet La Breche - fully catered.
Trasnfer 2 hours from Chambery

Ahead of my trip I was not able to find much about the Chalet - in fact even the tour company could not provide me with directions to the Chalet (a street address or anything) - why - well don;t panic - its because its NEW - really NEW. Only launched in 2010 (October) - and in fact I could not find many reports about the Chalet itself ....seriously - I could not find a report anywhere!

I am sure there will be more to follow - as the chalet gets older - but here goes for those of you going out there anytime soon:

Ski Total: we learned that Ski-Total run around 8 Chalets in Alpe D'Huez - (cant verify that). But suffice to say - they are your regular ON LOCATION Ski representative company. Really friendly group - all between 20-30 year olds - including the resort manager - and all very friendly and eager to help.

We happened to have two of the best chalet hosts and this made the experience of staying at the chalet a really fantastic one. As is typical of any tour operator - there were good points and bad points - and those will vary from one trip to the next.So rather than try and get into the specifics of the things we liked and things we disliked - because it changes with every trip (sometimes the rep you get is good - sometimes the organised trips are poor etc etc) - let me say in summary - they are a good company as a whole and taking everything into account - go with them.

The bigger representation and more prevalent company in the resort seemed to be a company called Esprit ?? I have not heard of them - but they certainly had more reps, had advertisements everywhere in the resort - and seemed to have a bigger footprint. ALL th eother companies were much smaller (Inghams etc). Please note this is our perception versus what may be factually correct - before I see reps from those companies blasting this post ;-)

The menu for the week was well thought out - the food was great on the whole and I have no complaints about the hosts who put on a really good show.

Chalet La Breche: It sleeps 16 - 8 x twin rooms with en-suite facilities. like I said - ok its new - and its NOT on any street - which makes locating it on a map terrible. In fact not even the OFFICIAL WEBSITE for Alpe D'Huez has it on yet. You cannot find it anywhere when you do a Google search - you cannot find it on any forum (at the time of writing this). So - simple question..... is it any good? The answer is simple - YES! It is fantastic.

The location is ideal - on the map its pretty much a stone throw away from the TeleCentre Lift Base station. Is it ski-in ski-out? When I looked on the map I could not understand how it could be advertised as ski in and ski out - when it was in the middle of the village? Well, the secret is - one of the runs is missing from most maps - there is a "green" run - that runs from the main ski school area through a tunnel (under the road) and pretty much straight through the middle of the village past a number of chalets - following the line of the Telecentre lift. So YES it IS SKI IN SKI OUT.

The location in terms of convenience shops is also great - it is literally a flight of stairs down from a local shop (Casino) - for those of you not familiar with Casino - it is literally like a small Co-Operative (for those of you in the UK, or a local Spar for those of you in Europe). Has pretty much everything you need. Next door to the shop is a Autobank/Cash Machine and about 30 meters from a Pharmacy - so everything you need on holiday is right there.

Also it is located slap bang in the middle of ALL of the bars, nightclubs and Apres Ski facilities... but DONT worry because its NOT on a road - it means you do not hear ANYTHING at night - its far enough away from the noise and patrons of the Apres Ski facilities.

The Chalet itself is modern (yet still traditional wood clad style) chalet. What makes it interesting is the floors and ceilings are wood but are "plastered" over - so therefore is a LOT more Sound proof than your average Ski Chalet. So you generally DO NOT HEAR people walking around above you. (note its not TOTALLY sound proof - but its is good). It has a hot tub which is outside and really great after a ski day, and an indoor Infra-red Sauna (I don;t and I am sure many other people don;t like the infra red bit - it just takes too long ;-).

One NEGATIVE point - the rooms have en-suite facilities GREAT - the en-suite facilities involve a Seperate Toile and Seperate Bathroom - GREAT..... the only problem is they contain BATHS! Yes - check the pictures on the agent websites - it looks really cute and chalet typish - but they are Baths! NO SHOWERS, NOW STAND IN BATH SHOWERS, ...its a bath! So take note - for some this will nto be a problem - and for us... we made do and did some sort of a handheld in-bath hose down, but its not ideal. It takes forever to fill the bath and forever to empty the bath - so if you are two singles living in the room (each room has two single beds) - then forget about getting through a full proper bath routine in the morning. Most of the girls in our group went downstairs into the basement (where the Sauna is) to SHOWER. There is a full proper shower in the basement which is supposed to be used for getting in and out of the Sauna/Hot tub - well this became a bathing shower for a number of people in the Chalet.

HOWEVER- the bath/shower thing aside - this is a GREAT chalet and all things considered - we would definitely stay there again.

Alpe D'Huez: Hmmmm, going to try and be objective here. Yes it is a good resort. From a ski'ing perspective - there are enough runs to keep us busy for a week. But certainly no longer. It is a Beginner to

Intermediate resort NOTHING more. There are only a Handful of Black runs - and the so called Longest Black Run in Europe - apparently 16KM. Is certainly NOT a Black Run. The first 50 meters may be with a couple of moguls. but from there on its a gentle Blue - with two sections (drops of about 20 meters) being classified as bordering on Red. One added attraction is a run called Tunnel (apparently the 6th or 9th or something - Harderst Run in Europe - not my comment) - which is a proper Black run with man-sized moguls - again for about 50 meters and then eases out into a Red. So if you are an advanced ski-er looking for challenging runs - and off-psite - in my humble opinion this is not the resort for you. If you are starting off ski'ing or just want to work on your technique - then fine.

Also, the runs are SHORT - there are a handful of runs that are fun and keep you going for a bit longer - but they are situated on the far side of the resort (runs like Poutan - if you are looking at a ski-map). So what this means is - we ended up sitting on lifts (or buttons) - for more time than you ended up ski'ing. Sorry guys thats a fact. The biggest factor contributing to this was the resort itself.

As many resorts do - in off-peak times they SLOW down the lifts (to save electrcitiy blah blah etc). So the Lifts were SLOW - I mean REALLY SLOW. Now the one thing we thought was ..... perhaps its the infrastructure..... its old - the lifts are old - and therefore OPEN (exposed, no bubbles). From memory I can remember 2 yes - thinking of it now only 2 BUBBLE Chair lifts. (the main Gondola's/cable car excluded).

And the Charilifts are LONG - so you get cold - be prepared NO bubble, big wind, long sit. From memory sitting here typing - I think the 2 were: Marmottes 1, and one on Auris side of the mountain (can't remember the name).

However, that being said - sometimes you will appreciate the break on the lift. So not the end of the world but just be prepared. Perhaps they are better in peak times.


So all in all - a GOOD resort - and one you WILL enjoy if you are a beginner to early intermediate ski'er - some lovely LONG green runs for those learning to ski). But its not an experienced intermediate to Black runner resort.

Would we go back.......... here's the thing - before I say NO definitely not - lets face it - if you are looking for a nice solid resort to ski at - if you are like us that try something new on every ski-trip - then YES - do it. But its not worth more than a week in my opinion. If you like the security of knowing what you are getting before you go somewhere - and enjoy going to the same place then - yes its fine.

The people on the whole were very friendly in the resort - and do value you as a customer realising most of their revenue as in any small ski-village comes from the ski trade. So no complaints there. Some really cute restaurants and food on the whole being a French resort was good!

Family friendly and child friendly from a ski-perspective with 2 or 3 ski-schools offering services. And a good bus network to get around.

Also, one recommendation is to take advantage of the Ski Shuttle (that runs once a week about 11 Euros including return) - to Les2Alpes - for a days ski'ing - this provides a good break away from the slopes at Alpe D'Huez - just a change of scenery for one day helps - and restores enthusiasm to return for your last day or two back to Alpe D'Huez.

So in summary:
Ski Total: tick
Chalet La Breche: big tick
Alpe D'Huez: semi-tick

Hope this helps :-)

Any questions - feel free to PM me!

**edited - a couple of spelling mistakes corrected :-)

To anyone reading this,

Get in touch if you are interested - I have some interesting payment options for you! Not expecting all payment up front. Right now its more about filling the slots.

Look forward to hearing from you :-)

@Ian: where you buying them from ? I might do the same?