International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) 2021-2022 Europe Resorts/Conditions/Meetups

[Henry]

Had a good trip to Kitzbühel. Covid rules are easy to follow...keep the vax card & mask at hand. FFP2, KN95, N95 masks are approved, and KF94 didn't get any guff. Show the vax card to buy lift tickets. Mask everywhere indoors and in lift lines and on all lifts...maybe not the T-bar or magic carpet.

Avoid Element3 Sportshop ski rental. They promote heavily, but they oversell their inventory. No one got the skis they thought they'd reserved, and some didn't get the class of ski they paid for, they got a lower class. Many were fitted short, because that was all the shop had. One person had their skis stolen, the shop wanted about half again what the skis retail for, and they were less than the class of skis the person had paid to rent. And insurance against theft wasn't offered. Stick with a rental shop under the Intersport franchise.

 

[AlpsSkidad]

Had a good trip to Kitzbühel. Covid rules are easy to follow...keep the vax card & mask at hand. FFP2, KN95, N95 masks are approved, and KF94 didn't get any guff. Show the vax card to buy lift tickets. Mask everywhere indoors and in lift lines and on all lifts...maybe not the T-bar or magic carpet.

Avoid Element3 Sportshop ski rental. They promote heavily, but they oversell their inventory. No one got the skis they thought they'd reserved, and some didn't get the class of ski they paid for, they got a lower class. Many were fitted short, because that was all the shop had. One person had their skis stolen, the shop wanted about half again what the skis retail for, and they were less than the class of skis the person had paid to rent. And insurance against theft wasn't offered. Stick with a rental shop under the Intersport franchise.

We always have had great service at the Intersport Kitzsport Hahnenkammbahn. Additionally it’s in the building just under the main gondola, so boot up, and go straight from there.

​

 

[Ice2Pow]

Returned a week ago from Zermatt. It's not been a great snow year there, but we had a blast.

 

[Cheizz]

I really like this site for both current snow depths as well as forecast: https://wepowder.com

 

[James]

Anyone have any suggestions for a day in Strasbourg, France?

 

[Cheizz]

The closest ski areas are Gérardmer or La Bresse-Hohneck (both 1.5 hour drive from Strassbourg). But I'm not sure what the conditions are like overthere. Never been.

 

[slow-line-fast]

Ski area snow depths on a map - easier to glance at than a list

Wetterkarte und Schneebedingungen für Alps

Ein nützliches Werkzeug für das Finden der besten Schneebedingung in Alps für Ihren Ski-Urlaub. Animierte Alps Wettervorhersagen und Overlay Schneeberichte, aktuelle Wetter und Webcams

de.snow-forecast.com

The site also shows forecasts with a nice breakdown by elevation, especially the zero-degree line.

Bergfex is also good as already noted above, can look at snow forecasts by day or cumulative

 

[Itinerant skier]

Squeezed a unexpected day in at Valmalenco Italy yesterday. Easy train/bus from Milan. Tram from Chiesa. Great little resort. Much smaller than the big ski circuits of the region, but good fun and several inches of fresh up high.

 

[Nobody]

^Lucky guy! You arrived right after the one and only (so far) big Snowfall of the season, on the night from Friday to Saturday it snowed about 30-40 cm in about 24 hrs. Sunday was a "KaiserWetter tag" (at least until after noon , wherre I was at Passo del Tonale)!
Yes, Chiesa Valmalenco is slightly off the radar from the "big names" (Madesimo as an example), still for a day of skiing is great value and easily reachable.
On a day like Sunday (talking about Passo del Tonale now), everyone and their sisters where out in full Freeride paraphernalia, tracking out all that was possible.
Several small slides where triggered in full view of the mountain huts, on the closest/easiest lines, so much that the Army patrols started to be very worried and kept on the lookout with binoculars...
Despite having a watering mouth seeing all that Godsend, and despite Junior wanting to ty and ski offpiste in the powder, I kept to the groomers (Junior not ready for the "big lines" yet...), letting him wander here and there, just to start to have a taste of it.
Snow on the groomers was soft and easy, very "wintery", not the kind of heavy snow I would have expected in a April snowfall...
The previous day we enjoyed skiing in knee deep snow, still keeping on the groomers, under the snow fall and we had a blast, also, not many ppl were around!
Again on Sunday, wihh everyone out "en force", and thanks to the snow softness, in places an embryo of moguls started to form.
Had a blast skiing those as well (in real moguls I would be in big troubles though, those were just terrain ondulations, by their dimensions)

 

[Primoz]

On a day like Sunday (talking about Passo del Tonale now), everyone and their sisters where out in full Freeride paraphernalia, tracking out all that was possible.

It was same here, and I admit I was out there in full freeride gear too... for first time this season. Until now it was never enough snow around here, to bother going with lifts, but this one was actually pretty damn cool, and one of those pretty rare days, that I could ski powder on lifts in sunny weather Normally I do this is real shitty weather, as it's only option to get something not already fully tracked, but last Sunday was exception. Conditions, at least around here, were still a bit tricky so you needed to know what to do, but in general it was much more stable then I thought. So I needed to wait till April to finally took my wide skis out and go to ski powder on lifts. And to make it even better, it was only third "soft" day this winter. Everything else was pretty much ice and hard crust, as those 3 times it was snowing here this winter, it was always snowing with storm winds, so by middle of day, there was no powder left anywhere, except some super dangerous couloirs, where all snow was blown to.

 

[Rod9301]

The French pyrenees got 80+cm of snow and the last two days were really good.

 

[James]

Chinese Downhill with short hikes on 4/23
It’s long! With long sections of the bottom not groomed. Pov.
This is St Anton?

Start at about 55 sec.

Over view. Those ungroomed parts look rough.

 

[Cheizz]

It's Lech, actually.

 

[Cheizz]

In the mean time in Val d'Isère, France...

 

[JCF]

Chinese Downhill with short hikes on 4/23
It’s long! With long sections of the bottom not groomed. Pov.
This is St Anton?

Start at about 55 sec.

Over view. Those ungroomed parts look rough.

Thats a HOOT !
The guy just flies that mogul section - and then goes down on the little bump at the end.

 

[Sibhusky]

It's an annual event.

 

[slow-line-fast]

Let's all just hope that intercontinental travel will be possible next winter...

For those who are thinking of visiting Europe (more specifically: the Alps) next winter, here's some info on school holidays and when NOT to go (crowded, expensive). All this information is compiled by the Dutch Ski Federation.

Some things to consider:
The French only ski in France
The Italians only ski in Italy
The Austrians only ski in Austria
The Swiss ski in Switzerland and Austria
The Germans ski mostly in Austria
The Dutch mostly ski in Austria (75%)
The Belgians and Brits mostly ski in France

And here is a total graph of expected number of skiers per week for next winter:
View attachment 138155

Note that France has different Christmas holidays, compared to the rest of Europe. Therefore: the first week of January (1-8) is out of the French school holidays. Cheaper accommodation and fewer (French) crowds in that week in the major French resorts. For those of you who are planning Christmas in Paris and New Year and some skiing in - let's say - Megève... Go for it!

Just a translation of the legend (the less obvious ones):
Tsj = Chech Republic
Oo = Austria
Dui = Germany

Bump as I was looking for this very helpful graph of expected skier volume, and found it here.

 

[Cheizz]

Bump as I was looking for this very helpful graph of expected skier volume, and found it here.

The one in the opening thread here is the one from last season. For the 22-23 season, look here: https://www.skitalk.com/threads/when-to-ski-the-alps-in-2022-2023-season.26790/

 

[neonorchid]

I hope this isn't indicating a lousy upcoming snow year for the Alps:



or crazy patterns with snow in the wrong places...

 

[Cheizz]

Last season was kind of lousy snow-wise. And I had some great skiing.