New Year-How Crowded?

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

"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


Not as bad as Feb, but I've found it crowded pretty much everywhere in
France over the New Year, except in the very small resorts. The week before
Christmas is better by far, but less snow sure, so you would need to pick
your resort carefully. I skied the 3V (based in St Martin de Belleville)
then and there was no waiting anywhere.

Pete

The day after Xmas the whole of Germany gets in there cars & invades
Austria . New Years Eve is normally booked out completely. Expect big
lift lines however, the ambience & atmosphere is great which most people
go for at that time of the year, skiing is just a sideline :-)

nigel

PG wrote:
"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



Not as bad as Feb, but I've found it crowded pretty much everywhere in
France over the New Year, except in the very small resorts. The week before
Christmas is better by far, but less snow sure, so you would need to pick
your resort carefully. I skied the 3V (based in St Martin de Belleville)
then and there was no waiting anywhere.

Pete

PG wrote:
"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



Not as bad as Feb, but I've found it crowded pretty much everywhere in
France over the New Year, except in the very small resorts. The week before
Christmas is better by far, but less snow sure, so you would need to pick
your resort carefully. I skied the 3V (based in St Martin de Belleville)
then and there was no waiting anywhere.

Pete



That's spot on. Small resorts have been good in my experience, and
although it can be busy in the big places it is not as bad as Feb. I've
also found St Anton was not quite as busy as I'd expected at New Year,
probably quieter than France, but I've only been there once at New Year
so it could have been a one off. It is *much* worse in Whistler if that
is any consolation:-). New Years day is often quiet on the slopes around
the world though, especialy in the morning. Can't think why.

As for specific suggestions, I'd just avoid the big names and take it
from there (i.e. not Val/Tignes, 3V, Verbier and the like). How about
Les Contamines, they've had good snow early season when I've been there.

"Hermann Strobl" wrote in message
...
dans l'article , PG à
a écrit le 1/11/03 20:06 :
Not as bad as Feb, but I've found it crowded pretty much everywhere in
France over the New Year, except in the very small resorts. The week
before
Christmas is better by far, but less snow sure, so you would need to
pick
your resort carefully. I skied the 3V (based in St Martin de Belleville)
then and there was no waiting anywhere.

New year is much more crowded than feb, because it is the same week for
all
regions of France... and the rest of the world !


Not my experience. In France *everybody* goes skiing at some point during
Feb, and the rest of the world seems to join them. Not the case early Jan.

Pete

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 07:01:37 +0100, "PG"
wrote:


"Hermann Strobl" wrote in message
.. .

New year is much more crowded than feb, because it is the same week for
all
regions of France... and the rest of the world !


Not my experience. In France *everybody* goes skiing at some point during
Feb, and the rest of the world seems to join them. Not the case early Jan.

But New Year's week itself is consistently the busiest of all in most
French resorts. It seems that the whole of France goes to the mountain
for 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.

Hi

As Hermann said Christmas-Newyear is the most croweded time.

On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 18:47:18 -0000, "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.

At switzerland i know 2-3 Villages.
Kandersteg www.kandersteg.ch but there are only 11km slopes. But you
can go from the to Adelboden with train and bus(I don't know if there
is a shuttle from Kandersteg to Adelboden). The main aera is normaly
crowded at Christmas, so you go better to Engstligenalp
www.engstligenalp.ch at the back of Adelboden. Or Elsigenalp
www.elsigenalp.ch between Frutigen and Adelboden.( Bus from Frutigen)
Other opinion got with the train through the tunnel up to the Lötschen
Vally http://www.lauchernalp.ch/.
Btw you can also stay at Frutigen.

Bad Ragaz it's not a ski resort it's a healt resort but at the Pizol
they got ~55km slopes www.pizol.com . You can make day trips to Davos,
Arosa, Lenzerheide if you like. (by train + bus)

Sörenberg www.soerenberg.ch
Only good if all lifts are open. The main area (Village area) isn't
very high (1160-1700m) last season there was just a ~5 lifts open. And
the lift at the Brienzer Rothorn( the other area).

Johannes

"Ace" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 07:01:37 +0100, "PG"
wrote:

New year is much more crowded than feb, because it is the same week for
all regions of France... and the rest of the world !

Not my experience. In France *everybody* goes skiing at some point during
Feb, and the rest of the world seems to join them. Not the case early
Jan.

But New Year's week itself is consistently the busiest of all in most
French resorts. It seems that the whole of France goes to the mountain
for New Year.

Of course it's incredibly busy, but it's not the 'traditional' ski holiday
time for the French. Most once a year holiday skiers tend to go during Feb,
and stay longer. Conditions are more likely to be good, especially for the
smaller resorts. I'd be interested to see the monthly stats for visitors
though. Approx. some 350,000 Brits go skiing in France alone each year,
joining around 4 million French on the slopes, as well as 200,000 Dutch,
300,000 Spanish/Portuguese, 250,000 Belgians, 300,000 Italians (always seems
more), 80,000 Central Europeans (mostly Czech), and just 12,000 from the US
and Canada . Most Germans head for Austria, then Switzerland, and Italy,
before France. So the Brits are still at the top of the league table of
skiing visitors to France (2001 figures).

None of which has much to do with the original subject, but in reply to
Ace's point, it's true that I've taken most of my New Year breaks in the
smaller resorts of the southern French Alps where the New Year has been
relatively *quiet*.

Pete

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.

legs it out of side exit


--
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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.
Rod