Latest posts for the topic "Skiing late April?"

Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:39:57 GMT

Hi, we were due to go to 12th Jan but had to cancel last minute due to family bereavement. There is possibility we may get a chance to go away end of April but have no idea where we would find enough snow. Can anyone help with suggestions please as we are desparately in need of break. Was wondering about US or Canada? Have only ever skied Austria.I apologise if this has been been raised before but not really in the mood to go looking through previous threads.

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:51:06 GMT

Tignes - stay in Val Claret (not a lower village no matter what any tour operator says).

Best case most of the valley will be skiable as will link to Val D'Isere.
Worst case the glacier with 6 or 7 lifts and the run back to the resort.

Spring conditions - start on the east facing runs (Col Du Palet) until getting soft then move up higher onto the glacier. Depending on temperature and how late you ski either ski back from the glacier on Double M or come down the funicular to avoid knee deep slush.

Was there 2 seasons ago - last days skiing 1st May.

Other glacier resorts such as Val Thorens, L2A will also be OK - I don't know and hence cannot comment on the Swiss, Italian and Austrian high level resorts.

Go for it!!

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:57:42 GMT

Thanks Old Andy, will look into this. Is it best to DIY or can you still get package deals this late.We always have to go same week in Jan because of work so have never bothered looking.

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:00:04 GMT

Hi Snowlily. Sorry for your loss. We are also looking at a late season break, though a few weeks earlier than you, so I've been trawling through the threads here. Some people have recommended Are in Sweden. I'm going to wait and see what the weather conditions are like nearer the time and go where the snow is. Maybe you could try that too.

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:31:01 GMT

Thanks Allie, hadn't thought about Are. We have to wait anyway to get leave confirmed so it will be very last minute.Very interested in hearing of others experiences of late snow.

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:54:08 GMT

+1 for Old Andy's comments. I'd be looking at Tignes or Val Thorens. Never skied later than last week in March before. Going to Val Thorens at the end of April this year. I am pretty cautious when choosing a resort, but have been sufficiently re-assured by people who have been before to part with my hard-earned.

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:45:12 GMT

Hi,

I would suggest Stubai Valley above Innsbruck, Austria skiing at the Stubai Glacier. This is a fairly large ski domain wide and easy pistes. Neustift is the main village. Fly into Innsbruck and bus to the Stubai valley, the alternative is Zurich or Munich and catch the train to Innsbruck right at the airport.
http://www.stubai.at/en

Re:Skiing late April?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:22:20 GMT

VT...its really high and usually one of the latest to close

Re:Skiing late April?

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 08:59:11 GMT

Or choose st christof, above st anton. The resort is tiny but its at 1800m and we skied there with masses of snow 13th April two years ago. Ski instructors all do their training early in the season or in April-may. They do it in kaprun, which is near zeal am zee. It s a glacier with 9-10 months skiing per year.

Re:Skiing late April?

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:23:21 GMT

pennyqss wrote:Or choose st christof, above st anton. The resort is tiny but its at 1800m and we skied there with masses of snow 13th April two years ago. Ski instructors all do their training early in the season or in April-may. They do it in kaprun, which is near zeal am zee. It s a glacier with 9-10 months skiing per year.

That might be a good call, area might be quieter which means less carnage on that blue that leads down to St Christof :thumbup:

Re:Skiing late April?

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 15:20:04 GMT

I never found that run carnage, in fact it was fairly quiet. Plenty of blues around st Anton that were nasty though to be fair

Re:Skiing late April?

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 17:07:34 GMT

Tony_H wrote:I never found that run carnage, in fact it was fairly quiet. Plenty of blues around st Anton that were nasty though to be fair

I think you have cleared that run from your memory banks ...... It was very congested in the afternoons, and you could see from day one there was an accident in the making and a Serious one just by the numbers of skiers. It was a woman staying in the same hotel as us, her husband got hit from behind by a boarder .... He broke a least one leg, fractured a hip and as far as I could make out from the guys friend possible spinal injuries, they estimated six weeks in a hospital in Austria before he could be flown back to the UK.
Before I really new the details we watched the helicopter flying in to remove what must have been the injured party from the piste.
From day one at the top was a bottle neck and to avoid the congestion they used to go off piste and cut back on piste further down, this encouraged average skiers to take this route, I think this was the direction the boarder
must of come from.
So in my humble opinion it is a piste that needs caution and should not be underestimated.

Re:Skiing late April?

Sat, 2 Feb 2013 06:03:30 GMT

I missed all that!!!! Must have been one of those days we went off and you stayed local.
We used that run to ski back from other areas at 4-5pm and it was never a problem.
You sure you're not thinking of the long fast blue down to alpe rauz where there were loads of collisions?

Re:Skiing late April?

Sat, 2 Feb 2013 07:57:37 GMT

Tony_H wrote:I missed all that!!!! Must have been one of those days we went off and you stayed local.
We used that run to ski back from other areas at 4-5pm and it was never a problem.
You sure you're not thinking of the long fast blue down to alpe rauz where there were loads of collisions?

Watched it all from a bar down in St Christoph

Re:Skiing late April?

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 09:05:46 GMT

Hi Snowlily,

I've skied in Are in the middle of April and although a bit slushy at the bottom the top runs were great. If you have a look on http://www.skistar.com/en/ it'll give you info on Are and a couple of other Swedish resorts.

I think the runs in Finland are also usually open until the beginning of May. I think Sweden and Finland would have to be DIY though as the tour operators finish at the end of the Easter Break which is early this year.

Re:Skiing late April?

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 19:05:48 GMT

Thanks for all the suggestions. Will be looking at them all but hoping that the OH work project goes well and finishes earlier than expected. I think even if it means not skiing down to bottom of resort and only having a few runs to choose from it will be worth it just to get our "fix" this year.

Re:Skiing late April?

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 19:41:11 GMT

In Austria Obergurgl is very high. As is Stubai glacier. Not that I ever went up in late April, but I cannot imagine them being slushy, neither are they madly busy in my limited experience (I was up Stubai last week, it seemed OK though there were quite a few people struggling with pistes above their skill).

Re:Skiing late April?

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 20:37:04 GMT

This could be as real possibility Innsbrucker. Thanks! Just been having a look on the Stubai website and it looks as if skiing is possible into June.Obergurgl is open until end April.We are very comfortable with all the reds in the Ski welt,do you know how they compare to Obergurgl/Stubai?

Re:Skiing late April?

Mon, 4 Feb 2013 20:51:14 GMT

Sorry NO Helmut- I've just re-read your post as well re Stubai, didn't mean to ignore your comment!

Still looking into Tignes/VT as well.