Messages posted by : bedrock barney
|
Interesting. I was eyeing up Ischgl for our 2nd trip this coming season. Probably early Feb.
Anyone been?? |
|
|
I'm not sure if Dogtag Insurance are worth checking out? http://www.dogtag.co.uk/home.aspx
We used them for our Tignes trip in the summer but I think they also cater for longer periods of insurance. |
|
|
Andyhull's reporting layout is spot on so I'll happily follow that (in date order). I've got into skiing relatively late in life but trying to catch up fast! First skied April 2010 as a complete beginner and have managed to get in 7 trips so far (if you can also count Tignes July 2013!!) 8th trip booked for this coming Christmas. Therefore in 3 years I've gone from a snow ploughing total beginner in the Castleford fridge to confidently (ish!) skiing down La Face in Val d'Isere with a big grin on my face. What an epic pastime this is.
Hemsedal, Norway (an unusual resort to start with) 3 visits (Christmas x 1, Easter x 2) Pros Great for beginners with decent nursery slopes and some nice wide pistes Relatively quiet slopes Very little queuing for lifts Long season due to latitude Interesting mix of nationalities not seen elsewhere Few Brits (possibly seen as a good thing!) Excellent standard of accommodation Generally ski in ski out (unless cheaper accommodation taken in town) Everyone very friendly and English spoken by all Bus transfer from Oslo airport very straight forward Cons Only 40km of pistes so quite limiting once you have moved on from beginner status Food and drink costs quite high (although quite similar to big French resorts) Alcohol sales heavily restricted (no wine or spirits on sale in the resort supermarkets) Only 2 mountain restaurants (although very decent food) Can be very cold! It was between -12 and -25 for the whole of our Christmas trip. (With wind chill, it was barely doable on the coldest days) Patchy snow conditions. Our 1st trip at Easter was fine. Our 2nd December trip was not so good as snowfall had been scarce and not all slopes were open (which is a problem when only 40km on offer) 8/10 as a beginner Now 5/10 as an intermediate skier (and having skied larger resorts since) Les Arcs/La Plagne (stayed in Les Arcs 1950 with 75% of skiing on Les Arcs side) 1 visit (early March) Pros Decent extent of slopes particularly when including the whole of Paradiski Nice mixture of piste classifications Piste down from top of Aiguille Rouge is a super long run Good regular mountain restaurants 1950 accommodation very good with ski in ski out Very quick transfer from Bourg if using the Eurostar Cons Horrible lift queues experienced over in La Plagne, Queuing in Les Arcs better but much busier than Espace Killy (maybe time of year didn't help?) Seemed to be quite a few flat sections Pistes were pretty congested. Ski back into Arcs 1950 at end of day a bit shambolic Nightlife and overall ambiance in 1950 and 2000 pretty dead The lower pistes (below about 1600m) were degrading quite significantly due to number of skiers and warm weather. (May have been due to weather in March 2011?) Link between Les Arcs and La Plagne surprisingly inconvenient (even more so in hindsight once we'd been to Espace Killy) 7/10 – not planning to go back anytime soon but may give it another go in the future (probably Jan or Feb rather than March) Val d'Isere/Tignes (skied 60:40 between two areas) 2 visits (staying in Val d'Isere both times, New Year week and mid Jan) Pros Fantastic number of varied pistes in both resorts with link between virtually seamless Mountain restaurants in great positions with decent menus Lift system excellent – hardly any queues other than perhaps 5 minutes at base at the start of the day Proper ski in ski out available (if you want to pay for it) Val d'Isere town has decent vibe with lots going on after hours, plenty of bars, eateries, shops Cons Not cheap! Piste classifications very random and may be alarming for beginners (VDI only, Tignes ok) 9.5/10 – other than the fact it's an expensive place to ski, I am struggling to think of any other cons. I'm keen to ski Italy, Austria and Switzerland in due course and this may help place Espace Killy in better context. So many places to go and not enough time and money to cater for it!!! Can think of worse 'problems' to have though! :mrgreen: |
|
|
IMO we're simply sharing information and opinions. There is some merit.
Personally I find it interesting to see how people rate a resort based upon the criteria that is important to them. If read carefully, and in context, this will inform me when I'm making decisions in the future to visit a new resort. I'll post up my thoughts shortly...... |
|
|
Pointless!!
|
|
|
Spot on Ally.
Context is very important (like most things in life to be honest). I thought Hemsedal in Norway was great until I skied Les Arcs which I thought was much better....until I skied Val d'Isere which I thought was even better again etc etc |
|
|
I've decided to sit back and see what happens.
8) |
|
No offence icy, but in the words of Comic Book Guy 'without a doubt, worst review ever!' |
|