Skiing late Jan - where/what/how?

Hmmm...

I'm writing from London. I've booked a Channel Tunnel crossing for me and
my car - leaving 17th Jan, returning 31st Jan.

I want to spend a good part of the two weeks skiing, but I'm not sure where
to go.

I've been downhill skiing quite often, so am a reasonably accomplished
skier. Am inclined to do something a bit different - off piste, ski
touring, scary stuff. Chamonix worth a trip? There's somewhere else near
Chamonix as well which is only off-piste - can't remember the name of the
resort unfortunately, perhaps someone could remind me.

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a good guidebook?

I don't own skis & boots - should I hire them in the UK or locally? The
latter might be a lot of hassle if I visit 2 or 3 resorts during my trip...

Thanks,

Alan.

"Big Al" wrote in
:

I want to spend a good part of the two weeks skiing, but I'm not sure
where to go.

I've been downhill skiing quite often, so am a reasonably accomplished
skier. Am inclined to do something a bit different - off piste, ski
touring, scary stuff. Chamonix worth a trip? There's somewhere else
near Chamonix as well which is only off-piste - can't remember the
name of the resort unfortunately, perhaps someone could remind me.

If you haven't skied off piste before I wouldn't recommend Chamonix. With
the exception of the Vallée Blanche, which is probably not the best place
to learn, most of the good off-piste skiing is quite steep. A better
choice would be the Espace Killy, which has enormous areas of moderate
difficulty off-piste, and also has the Top Ski school (in Val d'Isère),
which has a good reputation for off-piste instruction.

If you want to do touring then Chamonix is good, but so are most other
stations and lots of places which aren't stations as well. But if you've
not done any off-piste skiing before you will struggle using touring
equipment on natural snow; it would be better to get a bit of off-piste
skiing experience first. For a first experience of touring you'd probably
also be better off going later in the year; although you can get good
conditions any time in the season touring in typical spring conditions
(sunshine, firn snow) is a bit more friendly than in typical winter
conditions (cold, windy, deep snow).

Scary stuff - I suggest you learn the techniques and skills at your own
speed, the object isn't to get scared per se, particularly not by getting
out of your depth.

The off-piste only area sounds like it might be la Grave. It's not
particularly close to Chamonix, and most of the skiing is fairly
difficult and fairly serious.

Alternatively, can anyone recommend a good guidebook?

There is a series of off piste guides published by Vamos covering Espace
Killy, Chamonix, Trois Vallées, and Alpe d'Huez and la Grave. They should
be available in ski shops in the UK or through amazon.co.uk. They are
bilingual french/english.

I didn't say anything about safety above, but the introduction to the
Vamos guides is a good place to start learning what equipment you need
and what you need to know.

I don't own skis & boots - should I hire them in the UK or locally?
The latter might be a lot of hassle if I visit 2 or 3 resorts during
my trip...

Lots of people will have more informed opinions about this than me, but I
would have thought it would be useful to be able to change them if you
didn't like them or just wanted to try something else, so I'd suggest
resort hire. Note that touring skis and boots are different from the
equipment you normally use. You can hire touring equipment, but not
neccessarily in all resort shops.

Jeremy

Jeremy Mortimer wrote:
"Big Al" wrote in
:


I want to spend a good part of the two weeks skiing, but I'm not sure
where to go.

I've been downhill skiing quite often, so am a reasonably accomplished
skier. Am inclined to do something a bit different - off piste, ski
touring, scary stuff. Chamonix worth a trip? There's somewhere else
near Chamonix as well which is only off-piste - can't remember the
name of the resort unfortunately, perhaps someone could remind me.

If you haven't skied off piste before I wouldn't recommend Chamonix. With
the exception of the Vallée Blanche, which is probably not the best place
to learn, most of the good off-piste skiing is quite steep. A better
choice would be the Espace Killy, which has enormous areas of moderate
difficulty off-piste, and also has the Top Ski school (in Val d'Isère),
which has a good reputation for off-piste instruction.
I'd agree with that, Cham might be a bit much for first time off piste.
In addition to the Espace Killy I would recommend St Anton, the ski
school there do good off-piste lessons/guiding.


Alternatively, can anyone recommend a good guidebook?

There is a series of off piste guides published by Vamos covering Espace
Killy, Chamonix, Trois Vallées, and Alpe d'Huez and la Grave. They should
be available in ski shops in the UK or through amazon.co.uk. They are
bilingual french/english.
These are good (at least the Cham one is, haven't read the others), but
for a first timer you really need an instructor or guide, a book is no
substitute.

I don't own skis & boots - should I hire them in the UK or locally?
The latter might be a lot of hassle if I visit 2 or 3 resorts during
my trip...
If you are planning on traveling around then it might be a hassle, maybe
you could arrange to do a circular trip so you end up passing the
original resort on the way back? Also, why travel? The resorts mentioned
have tonnes of skiing for 2 weeks, especially if you are new to off
piste. I am usually in favour of a road trip and love to visit more than
one resort, but if you are mainly interested in learning and have never
been to the resorts before then I'd be tempted to stick in one place.

Verbier would be a good place, easiest place for an accompliced piste skier
to start with offpiste since there are so many decent offpiste runs close
to the pistes.

Tommy Petersson wrote:

Verbier would be a good place, easiest place for an accompliced piste skier
to start with offpiste since there are so many decent offpiste runs close
to the pistes.

In my opinion the best red-grade lift-served off-piste is Cervina and
Flims-Laax. There are areas at each which have long sections of
medium-steep un-moguled bands of terrain between pistes and lifts
offering many different lines.

With some exceptions, lift-served off-piste at Verbier is steeper,
longer, higher and more moguled.

funkraum wrote in
news
Tommy Petersson wrote:

Verbier would be a good place, easiest place for an accompliced piste
skier to start with offpiste since there are so many decent offpiste
runs close to the pistes.

In my opinion the best red-grade lift-served off-piste is Cervina and
Flims-Laax. There are areas at each which have long sections of
medium-steep un-moguled bands of terrain between pistes and lifts
offering many different lines.

With some exceptions, lift-served off-piste at Verbier is steeper,
longer, higher and more moguled.

Yes, I can agree with that Cervinia is pretty nice when there's fresh snow.
And since the majority skiing there are mostly interested in piste skiing,
the snow last a while.

But if you *don't* get fresh snow in Cervinia, the pistes there are a drag.
And going over to Zermatt every day to ski one third/fourth of their system
becomes somewhat tedious after a while.

/Tommy P.