Is half-term always that quiet?

I'd been avoiding half-term skiing for the last few years due to the stories I used to hear of crowds and queues...but as the kids have got older the time came this year.

What had I been worrying about? - yes there were noticeably greater numbers at the main lift stations with 5-15 minute queues at these ...but nothing like I had been imagining. Once away from the main intersections there were no lift queues and we had plenty of slopes to all to ourselves.

Was this
> A quiet year?
> Simply the size & lift system at La Plagne (where we were) handles numbers really well?
> Or is that the norm and the stories were unfounded.

Most of this video will give you an idea how quiet the slopes were....recorded 15th-20th Feb 2015

(excuse the length, you don't need to watch it all to see my point).

It really depends on which other European countries are having their half terms for example, not all the french regions have half term at the same time and may also be the week after ours which obviously makes a difference. I've been in les arcs over the English half term and it's been relatively quiet. On the other hand I've been in france when most of the French areas including the Paris region, as well as the belgians and Dutch have had their hols at the same time as ours so then you have the crowds. The same in Austria when they, the Dutch and the Germans have the same hols as ours. So its worth looking on line when you book for half term which other countries are on holiday at the same time as it's not automatically rammed at half term. If the french are all at the same time then look to Austria.
Apologies for being a bit long winded but that's how it works.

Good point Birdymiller. I think this year there were two French regions (including Paris) coinciding with UK. No idea about Belgians or Germans (although for sure there were stacks of Belgians 'tanking' down the outside lane of the autoroute in some really large & flash cars).

Looks like you had a really great time. Loads of Dutch cars were heading down the motorway towards Munich when I was driving to Stuttgart from Heidelberg on 21/2. The Germans, Austrians and part of Italy have always week off over Shrove Tuesday/Ash Wednesday - it's their Carnival week.
Once skied in Söll when it happened to be UK, German, Austrian, Dutch and Danish (and most likely Italian) half-term. I never had seen so many people falling and hurting themselves on the slopes. Ski school instructors told us that there had been 2 incidents when the instructors were taken down! by the reckless skiers and they were really concerned about their kids' groups safety! Not nice.
So you had a really lovely time, fantastic! A nice video too, thank you.

AFAIK regarding the UK half term week this year (14-21 Feb), the same week was shared by France (inc Paris), Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and one or two old eastern bloc countries. Though France, Germany and Netherlands stagger their hols among their different regions. Maybe you were just lucky. Glad you enjoyed it.

I wonder have some of the resorts simply improved their infrastructure enough to be better able to cope with larger crowds :?:. There is no doubt that the modern high speed 4 and 6-man chairlifts plough through a crowd very quickly.

Where you tend to get bottlenecks is usually at cable cars or older, slower lifts. Resorts like La Plagne are so vast that it is usually possible to get away from the crowds easily and quickly by moving out to the fringes of the resort and avoiding the obvious areas:wink:.

We always go on half-term to Seefeld, and it was definitely quieter this year than all past three. This, even though I believe (from the research that I did way back), that the whole of western Europe had the same week off this year.

BTW Enjoyed what I managed to watch of your video.

Huwcyn wrote:We always go on half-term to Seefeld, and it was definitely quieter this year than all past three.

Interesting direct comparison. Eurozone struggling??

I think comments on newer faster lifts also must help. La Plagne have the replacement Collosses lift open this year.

Huwcyn wrote:BTW Enjoyed what I managed to watch of your video.

:thumbup: