New Year-How Crowded?

Rod Jenkins wrote:

Take deep breath

French Pyrenees.

legs it out of side exit


Not out of the question. We spent a summer holiday in Bareges. In June.
It snowed the first night (Saturday) and the Tourmalet didn't open 'til the
Friday. Having walked some of the pistes we do have a yen to go back to see
what the skiing is like.


It is remarkably extensive, linked as it is to La Mongie and they've
upgraded a number of lifts and opeend up the Pic Du Midi now. Something
like 50 lifts all told, including cable car, gondolas, funicular.

I've been going there for years: adore the place.

Take it to email if you want info of where to stay, etc.


--
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I remember Bareges/La Mongie from the Easter of 1982 , Fantastic, the
1st & last time I ever stayed in a "chalet" style acomm, above the local
post office. When I lived in the UK it was a bit of an adventure . Add
in the Times £8 a night inclusive . Booked up & hitched all the way ,
well cheap ! Great place, amazing its still low key :-)

Nigel

The Older Gentleman wrote:
Rod Jenkins wrote:


Take deep breath

French Pyrenees.

legs it out of side exit


Not out of the question. We spent a summer holiday in Bareges. In June.
It snowed the first night (Saturday) and the Tourmalet didn't open 'til the
Friday. Having walked some of the pistes we do have a yen to go back to see
what the skiing is like.



It is remarkably extensive, linked as it is to La Mongie and they've
upgraded a number of lifts and opeend up the Pic Du Midi now. Something
like 50 lifts all told, including cable car, gondolas, funicular.

I've been going there for years: adore the place.

Take it to email if you want info of where to stay, etc.

Nigel wrote:

well cheap ! Great place, amazing its still low key :-)

It's still cheap. Our hotel bill, family of four in two rooms, eight
nights half board, including a heroic bar bill, was just over 800 quid
last year.....

And with the cheap flights to Toulouse and Carcassonne....


--
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BOF#30 WUSS#5 "Worse than Timo" - Official

"Rod Jenkins" wrote in message
...
We have always skied off peak, usually last week Jan, first week of Mar.
This year we are contemplating the week including new year. Is it very
crowded all week? Any suggestions for where might be relatively quiet in
Europe, assuming there is reasonable snow everywhere.

La Thuile in the Aosta valley. Just wrap up warm.

- Neil

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 15:50:06 +0000,
(The Older Gentleman) wrote:

Rod Jenkins wrote:

We have always skied off peak, usually last week Jan, first week of Mar.
This year we are contemplating the week including new year. Is it very
crowded all week? Any suggestions for where might be relatively quiet in
Europe, assuming there is reasonable snow everywhere.

Clears throat, begs for silence

Waits for crowd's murmurings and sneezin to stop

Take deep breath

French Pyrenees.

You doing your normal, then? We'll be repping in Andorra for the whole
period, if you fancy popping over...

legs it out of side exit

Too late.
--
Ace (bruce dot rogers at roche dot com)
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.

Ace wrote:



French Pyrenees.

You doing your normal, then? We'll be repping in Andorra for the whole
period, if you fancy popping over...

Blimey. A bit far, actually. We'll be out there Feb half term.


--
Trophy 1200 750SS CB400F GN250 CD200 ST70 YTC#3
GAGARPHOF#30 GHPOTHUF#1 IHABWTJ#1 BOTAFOT#60 ANORAK#06
BOF#30 WUSS#5 "Worse than Timo" - Official

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 19:45:47 +0000,
(The Older Gentleman) wrote:

Ace wrote:



French Pyrenees.

You doing your normal, then? We'll be repping in Andorra for the whole
period, if you fancy popping over...

Blimey. A bit far, actually.


Ah. Not looked at a map.

We'll be out there Feb half term.

'The whole period' meaning xmas & new year.

--
Ace (bruce dot rogers at roche dot com)
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.

"PG" wrote in message ...

Of course it's incredibly busy

Well, maybe not that busy. Although I normally try to avoid New Year
week I went for a week 2 years ago at la Plagne and there were far
fewer queues than in February despite less snow and fewer lifts being
open. We had no problems getting an appartment for that period... it
was actually harder to find a hotel in Val d'Isere the year after for
the first week of January, which is traditionally very busy as the
Forces and Unis are doing competitions there.

Of course, I've seen the same figures as you and know that wrt visitor
numbers by far the busiest time is the two weeks of the Paris winter
school holidays. To be avoided at all costs. I'm normally ski
touring then :-). That's 14th Feb to the 1st of March 2004 for those
interested.

With the RTT people are tending to spread their holidays more.

Bruce makes a good point that all the schools are off over the
Christmas/NY period and I can only suppose that people are spending
time with families (most workers will only take 1 week, if that, and
of course we don't get the 26th as a public holiday). Christmas is
more a winter sun holiday time for the French - Club Med. in Marroco
or somewhere like that. The slopes are generally viewed, with good
reason, as having poor snow and being cold and grey.

"Rod Jenkins" wrote in message ...
We have always skied off peak, usually last week Jan, first week of Mar.
This year we are contemplating the week including new year. Is it very
crowded all week? Any suggestions for where might be relatively quiet in
Europe, assuming there is reasonable snow everywhere.

Cheers,
Rod Jenkins
UK

Hi Rod,

We consistently (last 20 years) go skiing in France for New Year,
either in our own appartment in Samoens (Skiing in "Grand Massif" at
Flaine, Morillon, Les Carroz or Samoens itself) or in another place
(this year we are going to Oizans).

I always felt there were a lot of people there, but less "skiing" than
in February. The atmosphere is different, probably because people are
also busy with the New Year's eve etc... We discovered that New Year's
day was probably one of the best in the year to ski: normally good
snow, all slopes that can be open are, but nobody until beginning of
the afternoon (guess why ?). So we start early our New Year's eve,
decide at 10:00 pm it is midnight (anyway, it is midnight somewhere !)
and go to bed to be the first and (almost) only on the slopes at 9:00
am.

So I think you should be able to find nice places to stay and enjoy...

Dominique Foucart
"Samoens que j'aime", skiing and hiking in Haute-Savoie
http://www.samoens.int.ms

info and booking: +32 (0)499 327415