Where can I expect good snow in Europe early Jan?

think you might be suffering from a mild case of amnesia - I can personally
think of at least 5 trips in the past 20 years where I've had s**t
conditions in January....last one, Serre Chevalier two seasons ago....and
two years before that !!!

Regards

"Dominique Foucart" wrote in message
...
January is supposed to be excellent for snow in most ski resorts of the
Alpes.

In over 25 years of december / january ski, I never failed to have enough
snow to enjoy my holidays.

Best Regards,
Dominique

--
* /^\ Dominique Foucart
* /\ / \ * Photos et randos en Haute-Savoie
| V /\ \ Pictures and trails in Haute-Savoie
/ / \ V°o www.samoens.int.ms

"WeatherCam" wrote in message ...
think you might be suffering from a mild case of amnesia - I can personally
think of at least 5 trips in the past 20 years where I've had s**t
conditions in January....last one, Serre Chevalier two seasons ago....and
two years before that !!!
"Dominique Foucart" wrote in message
January is supposed to be excellent for snow in most ski resorts of the
Alpes.

In over 25 years of december / january ski, I never failed to have enough
snow to enjoy my holidays.

.... or easily pleased

I have been in Europe France, Zermatt, St Anton at Christmas or in Jan
a bit (~10 weeks?) over the last 10 years.

What I expect is.

- Not necessarily full snow cover
- About 50/50 clear skies and socked in.
- Some Cold/windy
- Some closed down lifts for some of the time due to weather.

So:-

Go high - get more snow and cold and wind
Go low - hope for snow and a bit of shelter

I, sad bugger that I am, always go high. Never had the bottle to
try lower down 'cos I like the snow. I have no idea if it is the
"right" choice.

One GOOD thing about Jan is that it is pretty quiet when
everything is open - So there is the option of a late booking
after you have determined the snow conditions.
I have done the late booking bit a lot in Jan and have
never yet been unable to find somewhere decent enough to go.

No amnesia at all, I have been skiing in at least 12 different resorts (and
the last 5 years in Samoens) and never ever had a no snow situation...

--
* /^\ Dominique Foucart
* /\ / \ * Photos et randos en Haute-Savoie
| V /\ \ Pictures and trails in Haute-Savoie
/ / \ V°o www.samoens.int.ms
Appartment Rental Information:
http://web.wanadoo.be/fam.foucart/lo...info_rqst.html
Information Locations:
http://web.wanadoo.be/fam.foucart/lo...info_rqst.html

"WeatherCam" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
think you might be suffering from a mild case of amnesia - I can
personally
think of at least 5 trips in the past 20 years where I've had s**t
conditions in January....last one, Serre Chevalier two seasons ago....and
two years before that !!!

Regards

"Dominique Foucart" wrote in message
...
January is supposed to be excellent for snow in most ski resorts of the
Alpes.

In over 25 years of december / january ski, I never failed to have
enough
snow to enjoy my holidays.

Best Regards,
Dominique

--
* /^\ Dominique Foucart
* /\ / \ * Photos et randos en Haute-Savoie
| V /\ \ Pictures and trails in Haute-Savoie
/ / \ V°o www.samoens.int.ms

I have been in Europe France, Zermatt, St Anton at Christmas or in Jan
a bit (~10 weeks?) over the last 10 years.

What I expect is.

- Not necessarily full snow cover
- About 50/50 clear skies and socked in.
- Some Cold/windy
- Some closed down lifts for some of the time due to weather.

So:-

Go high - get more snow and cold and wind
Go low - hope for snow and a bit of shelter

I, sad bugger that I am, always go high. Never had the bottle to
try lower down 'cos I like the snow. I have no idea if it is the
"right" choice.

One GOOD thing about Jan is that it is pretty quiet when
everything is open - So there is the option of a late booking
after you have determined the snow conditions.
I have done the late booking bit a lot in Jan and have
never yet been unable to find somewhere decent enough to go.

Probably the best bet...
On low or high, the good combination if you can afford it is to stay in a
village that is low in the valley, and to ski on a reasonably high resort
(1600 in the north alpes, 2000 in the southern).


--
* /^\ Dominique Foucart
* /\ / \ * Photos et randos en Haute-Savoie
| V /\ \ Pictures and trails in Haute-Savoie
/ / \ V°o www.samoens.int.ms
Appartment Rental Information:
http://web.wanadoo.be/fam.foucart/lo...info_rqst.html
Information Locations:
http://web.wanadoo.be/fam.foucart/lo...info_rqst.html

No amnesia at all, I have been skiing in at least 12 different resorts
(and
the last 5 years in Samoens) and never ever had a no snow situation...

;-) Despite your impressive address then I'm afraid that either your
standards for what counts as enough snow are less than mine or you just
haven't been about much. Over the years I've been to lots places where there
existed a "no snow"* situation, including (roughly left to right): Whistler,
Sun Peaks, Lake Louise, Fernie, Les Deux Alpes, Alpe de Huez, Avoriaz,
Cervinia, Val d-Isere, Verbier... I could go on. This was all high-season
and there were many unhappy punters in each case. Of course I just went
somewhere else... the sad people were those who'd been duped by the
ski-holiday operators.

My basic point is that it's generally a little bit foolhardy and dangerous
to do what the tour operators want and book way in advance... it certainly
helps their cash flow, but it's no guarantee of snow.

So my answer to the question "where can I expect good snow in Europe early
Jan" is... ask me in early January. If you absolutely can't wait until then,
pick somewhere with summer skiing or take/hire a car and be prepared to
move.


phil

[* ok, so they always have a little white strip of man-made snow somewhere
to keep things running. In some cases they may even have a good 15cm
everywhere laced with rocks, or a flat glacier with summer conditions on it.
Even these can be crappy when it rains.]

Go high - get more snow and cold and wind
Go low - hope for snow and a bit of shelter

There are resorts where you have both high altitude runs if the snow
is iffy and treelined runs for shelter/light definition (and just hope
that there has not been much snow and it is foggy all week!). You
could try

Courcheval
Courmayer
Sestriere
Selva
Zermatt
Serre Chevalier
Schladming
Flims

"phil" wrote in :

No amnesia at all, I have been skiing in at least 12 different
resorts
(and
the last 5 years in Samoens) and never ever had a no snow
situation...

;-) Despite your impressive address then I'm afraid that either your
standards for what counts as enough snow are less than mine or you
just haven't been about much.

The impressive address is actually rather the point. If you live close to
the skiing you always know where the snow is (or more importantly, isn't),
even within a single resort or a small area, so you never end up going
where there's no snow. The same thing applies with crowds, incidentally.
Horrendous lift lines do still exist, but I, living in Geneva, generally
manage to be somewhere else.

I absolutely agree with waiting until the last minute to choose,if you're
going in January. It's quiet anyway, and if snow is limited you will be
sure of being where it is, rather than where it isn't.

Jeremy

(Carl_M) wrote in message . com...

Go high - get more snow and cold and wind
Go low - hope for snow and a bit of shelter

There are resorts where you have both high altitude runs if the snow
is iffy and treelined runs for shelter/light definition

The reason that I do not fancy that plan too much is that when
the weather is difficult and there are closed lifts everyone
wants to go to the same few places which results in queues either
enroute or where the conditions are better.

In order, I chose resort by:

Reliability of snow
Capacity of lift system
Resilience of lift system

I therefore always end up in the same concrete wasteland in the sky
huddled inside my life saving neck tube. (I exagerate a little).

My 'measurements' are of course just vague impressions and it
does concern me that I am missing out by sticking to my criteria
fairly rigidly as I have done for quite a few years.

Anyway I now have a new plan, POWDER, however I don't know yet
how I an going to find it. High does seem like a good start

(AnyBody43) wrote in message . com...
(Carl_M) wrote in message . com...

Go high - get more snow and cold and wind
Go low - hope for snow and a bit of shelter

There are resorts where you have both high altitude runs if the snow
is iffy and treelined runs for shelter/light definition

The reason that I do not fancy that plan too much is that when
the weather is difficult and there are closed lifts everyone
wants to go to the same few places which results in queues either
enroute or where the conditions are better.

In early Jan the ski area would have to be very restricted for queues
to be a problem. If the poster was going at Christmas then yes you
can have problems.

The other option is to book late but that is also a risk, if
conditions are poor the tour operator will give you a very good price
to have what you wanted to avoid (skiing between the rocks etc), if
conditions are good (or especially if the snow has only fallen on one
side of the Alps) you will have to pay full whack to get accomodation
that noone else wanted.

Different people also look for different things, would you prefer to
ski in bleak conditions where you are struggling to see one piste
marker to the next but on good snow or in sunshine on a track that is
icy first thing and then the odd bare patch appears before turning to
slush in the afternoon. (I'm going to Tignes in early Jan so I in the
same group as anybody :-)