Skiing in Europe over the Christmas break

"Jeffrey Golenbock" wrote in message
om...
Also, how does St. Anton compare with these places in terms of likely
good snow conditions.

Thanks for your help.

We spent Christmas 2002 at St Anton.

The snow was very poor, hardly any at resort level which made getting down
in the afternoon/evenings hard work. Queues for the main arterial lifts were
horrendous - I would not choose St Anton again for a Christmas holiday.

Clive

"Clive Perry" wrote in message
...

"Jeffrey Golenbock" wrote in message
om...
Also, how does St. Anton compare with these places in terms of likely
good snow conditions.

Thanks for your help.

We spent Christmas 2002 at St Anton.

The snow was very poor, hardly any at resort level which made getting down
in the afternoon/evenings hard work. Queues for the main arterial lifts
were
horrendous - I would not choose St Anton again for a Christmas holiday.


We spent Xmas 2002 down the road in Ischgl - snow was fine & plenty of it.
No powder because it hadn't dumped for a week or so before. You could ski to
the bottom but it was a bit soft - but the Gondola is fine for getting down.
Besides, you can lock your skis up at the middle station so you don't have
to cart them down the hill every night.

I.

Clive Perry wrote:
"Jeffrey Golenbock" wrote in message
om...

Also, how does St. Anton compare with these places in terms of likely
good snow conditions.

Thanks for your help.


We spent Christmas 2002 at St Anton.

The snow was very poor, hardly any at resort level which made getting down
in the afternoon/evenings hard work. Queues for the main arterial lifts were
horrendous - I would not choose St Anton again for a Christmas holiday.

We were in Stuben Christmass 2002 and it was just fine, no real queues
anywhere we skied and Lech/Zurs were fairly quiet. Snow conditions
certainly weren't good though, I do recall being concerned when we
arrived that I was able to stand around in shirt sleeves quite
comfortably. Quite a contrast from the previous year when the snow was
being delivered in multiples of meters each fall :-)

Ian

I'll vote for Zermatt.

If you haven't skied Europe, then don't comprise: just ski the best!

Top skiing is 3850m - an impressive statistic. The village itself is really
pretty, and then again the Matterhorn looms at the end of the valley. The
skiing is varied, for all but novices. The links to Cervinia in Italy
provide a good contrast.

It is not cheap, but it is memorable.

Accomodation can be in hotels or chalets. For private chalets see
www.interhome.com, for example. For catered chalets try the UK operators
such as Inghams (http://www.inghams.co.uk/) or Scott Dunn
(http://www.scottdunn.com/ski/index.html). UK travel operators can usually
provide "accomodation only" if you don't need the UK flights! The Zermatt
website has the hotel information etc (I particularly like the Perren and
the Parnass - both have good locations and good food).

Hope this helps!

"Jeffrey Golenbock" wrote in message
om...
I am considering bringing my family to Europe to ski over Christmas
break. We are looking for a location that has advanced terrain, but
are concerned that skiing in Europe at that time of year will mean
poor conditions. Any suggestions as to where we could go that would
have the greatest likelihood of good snow? Any help will be
appreciated.

Hi

On 27 Feb 2004 20:20:28 -0000, (Adrian D. Shaw) wrote:

Yn erthygl , sgrifennodd
Jeffrey Golenbock :
I am considering bringing my family to Europe to ski over Christmas
break. We are looking for a location that has advanced terrain, but
are concerned that skiing in Europe at that time of year will mean
poor conditions. Any suggestions as to where we could go that would
have the greatest likelihood of good snow? Any help will be
appreciated.

How about central Switzerland? If you're hiring a car, you'd give yourself
the choice between Engelberg and Andermatt (probably both good at that
Depend on the weather. Comes the snow from north or west is Engelberg
better. Comes the snow from the south Andermatt + Sedrun/Oberalp
(Railway from Andermatt)

Johannes

Hi

On 26 Feb 2004 15:21:13 -0800, (Jeffrey Golenbock)
wrote:

I am considering bringing my family to Europe to ski over Christmas
break. We are looking for a location that has advanced terrain, but
are concerned that skiing in Europe at that time of year will mean
poor conditions. Any suggestions as to where we could go that would
have the greatest likelihood of good snow? Any help will be
appreciated.

Try Davos

Johannes

Jeffrey Golenbock wrote:
I am considering bringing my family to Europe to ski over Christmas
break. We are looking for a location that has advanced terrain, but
are concerned that skiing in Europe at that time of year will mean
poor conditions. Any suggestions as to where we could go that would
have the greatest likelihood of good snow? Any help will be
appreciated.

After careful consideration and reviewing the other responses (inc my own) I
would say:
Zermatt

(Jeffrey Golenbock) wrote
(Jeffrey Golenbock) wrote
I am considering bringing my family to Europe to ski over Christmas
break. We are looking for a location that has advanced terrain, but
are concerned that skiing in Europe at that time of year will mean
poor conditions. Any suggestions as to where we could go that would
have the greatest likelihood of good snow? Any help will be
appreciated.
All of these sound great. I've been to Val d'Isere and Val Thorens,
both were fun, but that was in February. I know there are no
guarantees, but is the snow cover at the end of December likely to be
pretty good, or would we be taking a big chance? We ordinarily ski in
late December at Alta in Utah, which is pretty much guaranteed to have
good snow, sometimes great snow, and we're wondering if we skied in
Europe, we might find ourselves with poor conditions that time of
year.

Also, how does St. Anton compare with these places in terms of likely
good snow conditions.


Hi,

I am a fan of Tignes.

I have been before Christmas as follows:-

Weather Snow
1994 24 Dec Val D'Isere No recollection No recollection
1995 23 Dec Tignes Le Lac No recollection No recollection
1998 18 Dec Tignes V. Claret Good Great
2000 (late?) Nov Tignes Lac Weather hard Good on Glacier
2001 7 Dec Tignes Lac Good Great


"No recollection" means "no specific recollection".
"Great" refers to on and near piste skiing only.

On no occasion was there not enough snow to ski or such that
there were huge queues everywhere. I would not hesitate to
go again at Christmas if it suited my schedule.

I have had a lot of overcast/snowing days. My feeling is that it
is about 50% but maybe I am only remembering the bad weeks. The
November trip had dreadful weather including one day freezing fog
and the only decent snow was on the glacier so it was pretty chilly
but I was on a full time skiing course for the week so it didn't
matter so much.

I remember a lot of sunny days from the 1998 trip.

Good luck.

"hhh" wrote in message
...

Note to the original poster: Espace Killy = Tignes/Val d'Isère. Val
d'Isère
is probably the nicer of the 2 to stay in as it has more traditionally
Alpine architecture.

Yes, the architecture and night life are nicer in Val, but Val is 200-300 m
lower than Tignes, and at Xmas that can make a difference. Some years the
early season snow cover at 1800m is very poor, so skiing down to resort
level in Val can be touch and go, you may end up taking the cablecars down
the last stretch to protect your skis...

But it's not a big deal, the two resorts are so well interlinked that in any
case you will be skiing in both