J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by johnski96

I wish I was going next week!

We were there from Boxing Day for a week and its 'proper' skiing in my opinion. Here are a few thoughts:
- if you go to Schilthorn (Murren), go early! Its train down, over the road, up a cable car, another train, walk through Murren (beautiful), 'nother cable car, then another!!
- coming back from Murren, take the cable car down to Stechelberg, the drop off the edge of the valley is spectacular. Then get the bus back to Lauterbrunnen.
- do the red (21?) from Kleine Scheidegg down to Grindelwald in the morning before its too busy. Long, long run through the forest - keep your speed at the bottom to get through the flat caravan park
- be surprised by people who go skiing in a caravan!
- ski the Lauberhorn.
- keep a train timetable in your pocket, it can be a nice alternative to a lift, but you need to avoid a 20 minute wait before an already slow train.
- have a traditional Swiss fondue.

Enjoy it!

We went to Alpbach for several years, its a really charming, unspoilt little village. The ski area is quite small, although there is a reasonable range of pistes, but not what I would call cruising. Its also quite low, so not so good if the snow is poor - 2007's bad winter finally sent us elsewhere.

We had a couple of great holidays in the Zillertal area, most recently staying at Hochkrimml. This is a tiny ski in/out hamlet at the top end of the Zillertal arena with its 'own' local mountain with half a dozen lovely blue and red cruisers. It also links to the rest of the zilly arena so plenty of miles available.

Both are within easy access of Innsbruck.

Johnski

My curiosity has been sparked by debates about big ski areas and super lift systems etc. Also, looking at videos of our New Year trip to Wengen, friends who had been in 3 valleys kept noting how empty the pistes were in Wengen.

I once (and never again) skied in Avoriaz, seduced by the 'size' of the ski area, efficient lift system and all that. Yes it was big, but I was staggered by the numbers of people, both getting on and off lifts but more importantly, on the pistes. And I didn't like it much.

This got me thinking (not rocket science), that an important consideration, certainly to meet my priorities when I ski, is a combination of kms of piste combined with the number of tourist beds.

So the 3 Valleys, whilst promoting itself as the worlds biggest ski area (650km?) has also managed to squeeze in 100,000 tourist beds. So that's 100,000 people in coaches and cars, getting on lifts etc. Plus 100,000 / 650 = 154 skiiers per km of piste - a JohnSkidensity of 154.

Comparing this to Monta Rosa, which I think has about 10,000 beds across Champoluc, Gressonay and Alagna - and about (reports vary) 180km of piste. JohnSkidensity = 56

So, have I gone potty, or could this help some choose where they ski!

JohnSki

Other JohnSkidensities!!
Ischgl 9,000/215 = 42
Alpbach 2,500/52 = 48

bla bla bla

...has anyone been there?

It looks like a gem, Austrian / Italian culture (?), reasonable sized ski area, sunny and not too English - making it feel like a holiday and also hopefully avoiding UK school holiday crowds.

But its quite low, so is it a risk from a snow perspective?

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's been and could offer some thoughts on the place and maybe recommend a hotel?

Thanks

Johnski

Flippin' 'eck, obviously ruffled a few feathers there!!

I was giving an opinion, based on my experience visiting Megeve in March 2003 - so granted its out of date, exchange rates have changed and I didn't eat everywhere! I found it expensive!

[On the London thing, yes it has a fantastically varied restaurant scene, no question - But that subject is not one for a ski board!]

And I agree, Pablo's "7 nights only" post is a classic!

Johnski

My Wife's parents used to have (now sold!!!!) an appartment in Cordon, not far from Megeve. I have mixed views.

Unlike French 'station de ski' its a proper village with a very pretty central square.
Nice ski area with some tree line skiing, we really enjoyed the skiing
I HATED the fur coat, tons of makeup, small dog (also with coat), dog poo in the snow brigade
Food. Again, typical in France, fantastic restaurants if you have 00's of Euros and a couple of hours for lunch OR a rubbish cafeteria. Not much in between. (bit like London actually). I like to sit down, be served good food at an OK price, then get back on my skis - I don't think France does this anywhere near as well as Austria or Switzerland.

Johnski

Kindek,

We've been to Zilly twice and really enjoyed it. We stayed right at 'the other end' (Koenigsleiten), you can get all the way there via Zell am Ziller, its quite a big linked area.

If you get as far as the link between Zell and Gerlos, there is a good challenging (but not too scary) black down through the trees which also has a lovely little restaurant near the bottom - well worth a look!

Have fun - hope you get snow and sun!

JohnSki

I'm a bit confused? We've just come back from Wengen and the Lauberhorn course was very closed, or at least it was on Friday (1/1/10) when we went up there. I asked at the lift office and was told it wouldn't open until after the race. You could ski the bottom end (below the railway bridge) but certainly not the top. Was it open earlier in the week? I thought it would be a novel way to clear my hangover!

Overall, although Wengen is wonderful, the skiing last week was probably the worst I've ever experienced! There is a fair bit of snow but the temperature variations have left the pistes knackered with a mix of ice, bare patches and slush. We also had two days of heavy rain below 2000m. It snowed quite heavily on Friday night and the temperature dropped 10 degrees - we went home on Saturday morning. Bummer.

Just looking into how to get away again in the not too distant future!