J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Lynn_D

Nothing to do with accommodation but take care with skiing into Arabba if you class your children as 'early' intermediates i.e. are they happy on reds? The home run from Corvara is red and steepish in places (right hand option is easier, left hand one really is a challenge for a red but one of my favourite runs). We got down it with 3 weeks experience but it can get mogulled and busy at the end of the day which could easily frighten a timid intermediate.

Depending on the exact location of the hotel they may pick you up (and drop you off for that matter) on the Campolongo (spelling?) pass which is a junction of about four lifts about half way to Corvara and would cut out the need for this run to get home.

Can't comment on Moena as not familiar with the area.

Wherever you stay, the skiing in the Dolomites is fantastic and I'm sure you'll have a great time :D

Hi Twofish,

We stayed at the Hotel Viking in March this year. It is not somewhere I would return to but it very much depends on what you look for from a holiday.

Location
The location is right on the piste side so access to the slopes is great. I would imagine this to be a plus if you have young children. Even if you don't the location takes some beating. However, as you are up a mountain getting luggage up and down takes time. Unless you are at the front of the queue expect at least a 30 minute wait for the cable car each way. You also need to get your luggage up a set of rickety steps and through a turnstile at the bottom.

Hotel
The hotel itself is OK. Rooms are small but adequate. Bathrooms again are adequate but could have done with a more thorough clean. Communal areas are nice, particularly the upstairs lounge. Didn't use the pool as it wasn't warm enough to tempt us. It did seem popular with others however. Didn't go into Morzine on an evening but the cable car does run until 2 am some evenings. The town is very nice with a good selection of shops, bars and restaurants. Many reviews have mentioned lift noise but we had a chairlift outsidethe window and didn't hear a thing when it was running. Hotel was very popular with families but the children seemed well behaved so wasn't a problem for couples looking for peace and quiet. I guess this very much depends on the guests on any given week however. Holiday was booked through Crystal and was excellent value for money (I think £1600 pounds all in for two of us). Didn't have a great deal to do with the reps.

Food
The food was inconsistent and not up the standard I expected. Evening meal was buffet style with a salad bar, a couple of hot starters, soup (often quite tasty but cold), hot options, dessert selection and ice cream bar (the best part of the meal in my opinion!). Many of the hot options were tasty but some bordered on inedible (and I'm not a fussy eater by any means!) Generally each evening had a theme, so Italian, French, American etc. I did have a stomach upset whilst on holiday. Not sure if this was due to a bug or the food. Husband was fine so probably a bug.
Breakfast was generally pretty good with the usual selection. Pastries were excellent and changed day to day (croissant and either pain au raisin or pain au chocolate). Also bacon and scrambled eggs available every day which were very nice.
Lunch was also included in our deal with the option of packed lunch or hot meal on the terrace. Hot option was pasta with various sauces and was barely edible (only did this once but checked another day and the menu hadn't changed!) Packed lunch option was very generous (16 euros per person, per day) which we struggled to use. Selection of drinks, sandwiches, pates, salads, crisps, biscuits, cereal bars etc. We took drinks to keep in the room to make up part of our allowance but didn't use all of it very often.

Drinks
Our package included a drinks voucher which just about covered our drinks with the meal for the week (generally a carafe of wine and a pint each evening.) Drinks weren't cheap but not extortionate given the horror stories I've heard about many French resorts.

Skiing
Skiing around Morzine is pleasant but not as good (IMO) as the other resorts I've visited (Dolomites, Sauze, Mayrhofen). We skied the Morzine/Les Gets area in a couple of days. Would ideally suit intermediates (which we are) looking for nice reds and blues. Personally I got a bit bored as the reds did not present much of a challenge and the blacks were all mogul fields (some steep, others much less so). I prefer steeper pisted runs so the resort didn't really suit the type of skiing I enjoy. However it would be ideal for a lot of people. Did try to ski the other areas but lost a couple of days to illness and then the weather. When we did ski to Avoriaz it was horrendously busy (dangerously so) so did a couple of hours and came back. May have been a different story another day or week? Lifts around Morzine could do with updating; those on the Avoriaz side were more modern. The Crystal ski guiding was OK but in my opinion the group was far too big (about 25 of us I think). Did book an away day however it was cancelled due to the weather. Snow was generally very good though did deteriorate later in the day, to the point of slush on many occasions. I could imagine this resort being a nightmare in a poor year for snow or later in the season (we went 1st week of March.) We did have one powder day and for the first time ever I enjoyed skiing powder, which is a real breakthrough.

Think that covers most things but any other questions feel free to ask. Hope its' been some help.

Lynn

I'm hoping that my first post didn't come across as 'whinging' as that's not at all how it was intended, I was simply curious. Obviously black runs in France are not pisted deliberately (unless Snowbandit is heading for them with a friend ) as the majority prefer this, which is fair enough. As others have pointed out, they're black for a reason and in France this appears to include moguls as well as steepness, which I now know for future reference. It's useful information to have, especially for those who have skied elsewhere and think they can safely get down a black only to find that this isn't the case in a new resort.

I was obviously just unlucky with the mogulled red in question and there was probably a good reason why it was left as such.

As an aside, I didn't actually tackle any of the black runs as I could see the condition from the chair lift and given my current ability, knew I'd be pushing my luck. However from what I could see, only a handful of skiers on the runs were actually 'skiing' them. The rest, including a lady with a very small child, were clearly out of their depth and struggling down one slow turn at a time with a lot of falls. In general the runs were carnage and probably ruined for those with the skills to really enjoy them.

Deliberately leaving runs unpisted on powder days is an entirely different matter and one which I'm sure most skiers, myself included, would approve of :D

Sound advice that I usually follow and usually works. I expect moguls (or the makings of) when there is fresh snow or slush or hordes of people. However in this instance that was not the case, the runs just hadn't been touched by a piste basher, at all, for several days.

It may be normal for black runs in France (or at least the PDS area) to be deliberately kept in this condition to make them more of a challenge, having never skied there before just wondered??

Have recently returned from a week in Morzine (report to follow when I get time) and the one thing that struck me about the skiing was that none of the black runs were pisted at all in the time we were there. Is this normal for French resorts? Wherever I've skied previously (all over the Dolomites, Sauze and Mayrhofen) all marked runs have been pisted pretty much daily and those that aren't were marked accordingly.

I appreciate that conditions will change throughout the day and moguls from lunchtime are to be expected but I was surprised at the condition of many runs in a morning. Also, one of the reds we tackled in the Avoriaz area was a mogul field at 10 am having not been pisted overnight and another heading towards Les Gets had large ruts and gouges which could cause a nasty accident if hit at speed. :(

I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on run grooming in different resorts as this is something that could rule out destinations for me in the future. Although I can get down mogulled runs in one piece (just about) I don't particularly have the inclination to. :evil: Instead I'm looking for groomed reds and blacks with maybe some powder to play in at the sides if I'm feeling adventurous. :D

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Ski bag packed and 5 sleeps to go :D

You've made a great choice, both in resort and in going with Colletts. We stayed in Arabba in January and had an amazing time. The apartments are spacious and in excellent locations.

Firstly you really should do the ski hosting as you will definitely see the best of the area this way. The staff are all lovely and great to ski with, though make sure you are confident on reds and the occasional (easier) black if you are going to do this. Tell the Colletts guys that Lynn and Mark say Hi )

Must do runs and tours - there are really so many, however here are my personal favourites:

The Marmolada glacier, the views are amazing, though pick a nice day as it's very exposed and no fun in a white out (been there!)

Red 13 down into La Villa. Top section is often tricky due to moguls but fabulous long red. Gran Risa world cup run lies parallel to this but I'm told it's often icy so not to be taken on lightly (I haven't, yet.)

Reds and blacks under the Porto Vescovo gondola back into Arabba, ideally early morning before they get busy.

Red from the top of Plan Boe gondola (silver one in Corvara) but gets busy and mogulled quite quickly as main link on Orange Sella Ronda.

Red 1 into Corvara

Sella Ronda (either way)

Sasslong men's downhill in Selva - black is better and actually easier then the red (red gets busier and icy in places). Dantercepies run on the way to Selva is also lovely.

Ortesi - there's a great 12km? red over here with an amazing stop for lunch (see below).

Kronplatz is well worth a visit but you will need to do this as part of a trip as not accessible from Arabba. It's about an hour's drive. There's a great long black (run 5?) and the home run is also a challenge at the end of the day. It's black but there is the option to take the gondola down if legs are tired or unhappy on steeper runs.

Civetta is also worth the trip if it's offered (about 45 mins drive).

Other suggestions which I haven't done but come recommended are those to Alba and Pedraces.

If you're up for a VERY long day (i.e. 1st to last lift with few stops) the 1st world war tour may be worth a look. It's about 100 km but some of this is on busses between resorts. I tried to do this 3 times during our trip but we kept getting thwarted by the weather and lift closures due to high winds. Next year!!

All the mountain restaurants are nice (it's Italy so to be expected) but the most novel is a little 'love hut' over in Ortesi, part way down the 12 km red. There's a fire pit in the middle of the hut and the food is delicious. There are also really nice places at the mid station of the Porta Vescovo gondola, the bottom of the Marmolada run, the plateau above San Cassiano and at the top of the black in Colfosco (sorry, can't remember names.)

In Arabba itself we liked Pordoi in the main square. They are very reasonably priced (6-10 euros for a pasta dish, 10-15 for meat and fish dishes, carafe of wine 4.5 euros) and also do a great take away pizza if you're self catering and fancy flopping. Micky's has a good reputation and has been excellent in the past but we didn't eat there this year. It's more expensive than other places in resort, main dishes closer to 20 euros plus and 20 euros upwards for a bottle of wine. If your food is included you will be eating at El Table. We only ate there one night as were self catered but the food was good and reasonably priced (15 euros pp for a set 3 course dinner including wine, booked through Collets).

There are two smallish supermarkets, a butchers, greengrocers and bakers (who do amazing chocolate brioche). Prices are on the whole quite reasonable (for a ski resort.) The apartments are well equipped should you want to eat in.

Not sure what the conditions are like at the moment as the area hasn't has much snow compared to the rest of Europe. The runs were quite hard packed when I was there (not a problem for me as I like it like this!) but everything was open and they have fantastic snow making facilities. Off piste was non existent, which wasn't a problem for me but lamented by the Colletts staff on their days off. :cry:

Anyway, hope this helps and that you have a great time. I'd love to see some photos when you get back. :D

Lynn

I met with a lovely 84 year old ski instructor in the Penken Gondola in Mayrhofen last year. I was also overtaken in Sestriere by a skier my instructor assured me was 94! I'll be impressed if I can still walk at that age, let alone ski! :shock: