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February Half-term - crowds



 
 
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  #11  
Old December 13th 07, 07:09 PM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
Excess
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 61
Default February Half-term - crowds

On Nov 26, 9:08 pm, " Andy.Cooke.
wrote:
Hi,

Despite desperately trying to get any other possible time to go, it
looks as though my wife and I are stuck with going skiing in the week
of the February half-term (Saturday 16th February - 23rd Feb).

The price hikes are painful enough, but if we're going to have to pay
through the nose, the crowds are going to rub salt into the wounds.
Where is best to go to avoid pistes like the M25 and half-hour queues
for lifts?

It's got to be Europe, and the following resorts look the closest to
being affordable:

Alpe d'Huez
La Plagne
Serre Chevalier
Flaine
Hopfgarten
Verbier
Pas de la Casa
Saas Fee

I'd really appreciate any steers. On the comfort/affordability front,
the Alpe d'Huez, Pas de la Casa and La Plagne options look nice, but
I'm concerned about their popularity - will everyone be there?

Cheers,

Andy Cooke
--


Why don't you just avoid the big resorts altogether. These will be
particularly crowded. La Plagne and Alpe d'Huez of your list will
probably be most crowded since popular with international clients and
the week of 16/02 is not only the Paris area of France it's all other
European countries too. Flaine or satellite resorts like Samoens
http://www.peakretreats.co.uk/ski/samoens.htm or Morillon
http://www.peakretreats.co.uk/ski/morillon.htm are even better from
that point of view. See special half-term deals many other smaller
resorts at http://www.peakretreats.co.uk/ski/ha...iing-deals.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XS
Peak Retreats http://www.peakretreats.co.uk
Ski Collection http://www.skicollection.co.uk
Ads
  #12  
Old December 13th 07, 07:20 PM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
Ace
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 275
Default February Half-term - crowds

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:09:20 -0800 (PST), Excess
wrote:


Why don't you just avoid the big resorts altogether. These will be
particularly crowded. La Plagne and Alpe d'Huez of your list will
probably be most crowded since popular with international clients and
the week of 16/02 is not only the Paris area of France it's all other
European countries too. Flaine or satellite resorts like Samoens
http://www.peakretreats.co.uk/ski/samoens.htm or Morillon
http://www.peakretreats.co.uk/ski/morillon.htm are even better from
that point of view.


Point of order!

Flaine/Grand Massif is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a small
resort. In fact, it's larger than the other two you mention there. It
weighs in with 265km of piste, compared with 252km for l'Alpe d'Huez
and around 200km for La Plagne (Combined total of 425km for Paradiski,
and I've not got the old figures to hand, but I think it's about a
50/50 split between La Plagne and Les Arcs).

The rest of what you say is spot on, though.
--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.
  #13  
Old December 14th 07, 08:48 AM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 9
Default February Half-term - crowds

The "Grand Massif" has been really cleverly arranged. Of course blues
will be crowded at some hours, but if you choose your pists correctly,
and your lifts, you won't be stuck in a huge queue.
For those who go to Flaine/Morillon/Les carroz, avoid the "Les
molliets" lift, especially when it's 4pm or 4pm30.

  #14  
Old December 14th 07, 09:54 AM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
Ace
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 275
Default February Half-term - crowds

On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:48:36 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

The "Grand Massif" has been really cleverly arranged. Of course blues
will be crowded at some hours, but if you choose your pists correctly,
and your lifts, you won't be stuck in a huge queue.
For those who go to Flaine/Morillon/Les carroz, avoid the "Les
molliets" lift, especially when it's 4pm or 4pm30.


Even there, and at busy periods, it rarely gets worse than a five
minute queue. Compared with the sorts of delays you get in some other
areas it's nothing at all.

Which raises an interesting point: Which is the worst resort for
queues? My first thought says the three valleys, notably trying to
return late in the day to Val Thorens via Meribel/Mottaret.

Anyone got any worse ideas?


--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.
  #15  
Old December 14th 07, 11:47 AM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
Excess
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 61
Default February Half-term - crowds


Flaine/Grand Massif is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a small
resort. In fact, it's larger than the other two you mention there. It
weighs in with 265km of piste, compared with 252km for l'Alpe d'Huez
and around 200km for La Plagne (Combined total of 425km for Paradiski,
and I've not got the old figures to hand, but I think it's about a
50/50 split between La Plagne and Les Arcs).

The rest of what you say is spot on, though.
--


Ace, thanks for clarifying as some people may indeed have had the
wrong impression but Samoens IS a small resort linked to a BIG ski
area. Most important though is that the Grand Massif is not crowded
compared to other large ski areas because the ratio of accommodation
to km of pistes is much lower.
  #16  
Old December 17th 07, 11:24 AM posted to rec.skiing.resorts.europe
@elgy(nati-spam).org.uk
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 41
Default February Half-term - crowds

Ace wrote:
On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:48:36 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:


The "Grand Massif" has been really cleverly arranged. Of course blues
will be crowded at some hours, but if you choose your pists correctly,
and your lifts, you won't be stuck in a huge queue.
For those who go to Flaine/Morillon/Les carroz, avoid the "Les
molliets" lift, especially when it's 4pm or 4pm30.



Even there, and at busy periods, it rarely gets worse than a five
minute queue. Compared with the sorts of delays you get in some other
areas it's nothing at all.

Which raises an interesting point: Which is the worst resort for
queues? My first thought says the three valleys, notably trying to
return late in the day to Val Thorens via Meribel/Mottaret.

Anyone got any worse ideas?


I went to Flaine on the 6 January 2007 and found fairly long queues – at
least 10 minutes for each of the telecabin most of the day and this on
one of the quietest weeks of the year. I know that this was a period of
particularly bad snow and that the Flaine bowl was attracting everyone
from the lower resorts in the Grande Massive, but I had been in Les Arcs
over the Christmas and part of the New Year weeks (almost peak season)
barely a week before and the queues there were much less.

Any way the winner of the resort with the worst lift queues is:

St. Anton, by a long way

I did once queue for over an hour in Borovets for the main telecabin out
of the resort but since this was in the early 1990s and the only foreign
visitors were British (all stoic queuers) the queue was well behaved and
pleasant (you could even leave for a coffee and come back to your
place). After that queue there wasn’t even a 30 second queue for the
rest of the day.

Whistler at Easter was also bad, but I suspect this was largely due to a
combination of poor snow, some sort of festival and the spring break of
US universities.

However, for shear consistency, St. Anton must take the prize.

The general well behaved queues of Borovets and Whistler leads me to
wonder why in notorious bottlenecks a delicatessen ticket system could
not be invented. You arrive at the lift, collect your ticket and then
you are free to get a coffee (or lunch in some places) then come back
when your number is up and get on the lift. Effectively you get a
reserved seat when you arrive at the bottom of the lift. Perhaps the
cafes could even sponsor it. With modern “hands free” lift passes this
could be very easily implemented.

John
 




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