J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by LOTA

daved wrote:Plagne 2000 is ski in ski out...there is a bus there from aime we found a reasonable deal in jan last year with a private owner....it is very concrete

Perhaps the ugliest edifice in any ski resort, anywhere!

I don't wish to decry anyone's enthusiasm for the place, but it's the French resort I'd least like to revisit.

The problem is, I can't quite put my finger on why I don't like it much. I've had two very decent holidays there, plenty of skiing, good snow record, links with Les Arcs etc etc. But it definitely lacks any village focus and there's not much atmosphere. Skiing among concrete tower blocks is dispiriting and the so-called Plagne 1800 must be the most inconvenient location in a mainstream resort. Few facilities either!

Others obviously love it - and good luck to them - but if I were to spend my loot in France, it wouldn't be in La Plagne.

Some pictures at:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151526404029873.1073741825.610069872&type=3

Just forgot one interestng thing: how quickly it has become strange and unusual to see people smoking in bars. Never really a problem for me, but might cause some distress to others.

Of course I watched to the end! Another fine example that you don't have to go to the French mega-resorts to enjoy some fun skiing!

Good video - terrible misuse of the apostrophe in the title! :)

I very much enjoyed spotting the grossly-overpriced Spyder ski wear in Austria last week; the brand of choice for overweight Germans, I think.

My ski trousers (never pants nor salopettes!) are Rossignol - lightweight goretex and all for £30 in the end-of-season sales three years ago!

Just back from a most enjoyable week in the Alpbachtal/Ski Juwel area and thought I'd share some random thoughts (although this report is unlikely to match the epic length and forensic detail of Tony H's magnum opus on Champoluc!).

Travelled from Gatwick to Innsbruck on Wednesday morning without incident or delay; this was an enormous relief after last year's diversion to Munich and subsequent travel adventures to Austria.

For those of you who have endured the Sunday scrum at Turin or the weekend chaos at Lyon or Geneva, let me tell you of the pure pleasure of Innsbruck airport in midweek. Off the aircraft pretty quickly and the bags and skis were already on the carousel as we cleared immigration. The shuttle bus to the main railway station was waiting 25 yards from the carousel and we were on a train to Brixleg within 30 minutes of landing!

At Brixlegg we waited for a further 10 minutes before the free ski bus took us to Reith im Alpbachtal - a 10 minute bus ride down the valley from Alpbach itself.

We found the guest house with ease as it was 100 metres from the bus stop and town centre. We had a choice of well-equipped, sizeable and immaculately clean rooms, and opted for the room with a balcony and lovely mountain view. The breakfast was standard mountain fare: choice of bread, eggs, cheese, ham, jam, honey etc. All for 396 Euro in total.

The weather was mild and mainly fine throughout the week and this was having a damaging effect on snow. At the start of the week, runs to the valley were ok, better in the morning, but heavy later. But as the week wore on, they became more and more like soggy porridge - not much fun. Anything south facing was soon stripped of snow and there were an increasing number of bare patches low down - despite the valiant efforts of the pisteurs. Apparently, due to environmental restrictions, they can't make snow beyond the end of February (not that it was cold enough last week, anyway).

I was really pleased we opted for Reith, despite having to rely on the ski bus to get to the main areas (no hardship). Alpbach itself is quaint but there's no lift access, apart from one small, isolated drag lift. Inner Alpbach has few facilities. Reith, on the other hand, had a splendid choice of bars, hotels and restaurants which must rank among the very best value in the alps.

Pizza and pasta dishes ranged from 6 to 8 Euros, veal and pork were around the 10 Euros mark and excellent steaks were 12 to 16 Euros on average.

Drinks, in the valley and up the mountain, were cheap too. In one posh bar, half a litre of beer and a good white wine cost the princely sum of 5.50 Euros! I told the barmaid I was likely to take up residence imminently!

Ski hire was of equal good value: boots and skis for six days form my partner came to £55. The lift pass for the entire Ski Juwel area came to 197 Euros.

The first day was spent mainly in the Gmahkopf and Hornbahn 2000 areas of the Wiedersberger area. Mainly flattering reds but an interesting black or two off the Hornbahn chair and down to the mid-station of the extremely efficient Wiedersberger gondola. The remote and scenic Baumgarten itinerary(route 66)was testing due, in no small part, to marginal snow quality.

The best skiing of each day was from 9 to 10 each morning when the snow was at its very best - and then from 3pm when the slopes just cleared. It was almost like having a private mountain - no-one about - lovely!

I'm not sure I would have bothered with Alpbach but for the new link to Auffach and the new gondola added a huge amount to Alpbach's attractions. The wide bowl under the Schatzberg is tremendous fun with reds of varying difficulty spreading out in all directions. Again the main valley run would have been superb in better snow. The Gipfu Hit (not hut) at the top of the Schatzberg was a magnificent (and again good value) spot for lunch or a drinks break.

The run back to the mid-station of the linking gondola (13) was tougher and more interesting than most of the runs down into Auffach - and there are plans to extend it to Alpbach through the trees and away from the damaging effects of the sun.

On two mornings, we had the pure pleasure of skiing on new snow on a firm base after overnight snow (falling as rain in the valley) and these were the best conditions of the week.

The worst conditions were probably on the Saturday when low cloud meant poor visibility higher up. We opted for Reith's low-lying ski area - five minutes from our front door - which consists of a modern gondola, two pomas, a gnarly old, steep, t-bar and one of those plastic handle lifts.

The area was deserted and we had an awful lot of fun skiing our own, exclusive slope, the Nissel, and Hochlift. There was club racing lower down but they could have been water skiing by the end.

The Reitherkogel Abfahrt is a classic red and the Nord Abfahrt is a steep little bugger that would be graded black in most resorts. I would have like to have skied both in better conditions.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the experience. Although Alpbach is very much a British favourite, UK visitors are a novelty in Reith. Everywhere the service was friendly, welcoming and extremely polite. Would I go back? Definitely, particularly when the snow is better.

(Didn't bother to trek out to Niederau, which is on the lift pass - too much on and off buses to risk it really, as its slopes are at even lower altitude than Auffach and Alpbach!)

Admin wrote:

LOTA wrote:Friday and Saturday looks to be mild and wet

Take lots of layers. Wear one layer on Saturday... you'll be needing all of them by Monday/Tuesday!

Looking like -10C ish at resort level from Tuesday on, for much of The Alps.

Well, take it from me, that didn't happen!