International (Europe/Japan/Southern Hemisphere) General Europe Q

[dbostedo]

On the subject of lodging, as far as I can tell, most European double rooms are usually just one big bed? That's a little too cozy for guys trips... We want our own beds!

It varies of course, but in many European hotel rooms I've been in, the queen beds are usually made of two singles that can be separated. You might want to ask.

 

[fatbob]

On the subject of lodging, as far as I can tell, most European double rooms are usually just one big bed? That's a little too cozy for guys trips... We want our own beds!

Ah the Austrian twin! Technically it's 2 separate mattresses and duvets in the same frame. Only really see it in Austria

Just look for 2 bed or twin rooms elsewhere rather than searching for doubles which is indeed the term for a couple size double bed.

 

[James]

One doesn’t have to spend lots of time on lunch. What is nice, is that every eating place is not owned by the resort. For good and bad.
It is helpful, if one wants advice, to know what type of things one is looking for. If you want groomers that can be one thing etc.

It’s like if one is looking to go out west and you won’t ski moguls. Recommending going to Taos wouldn’t be appropriate.

 

[msutherland]

I havent skied as much as most of you but I went to Zermatt right before the Covid shut down and it was most definitely worth it. Other than the travel time on the way over Im not sure what wouldnt be worth it? Zermatt is considered on the expensive end of resorts and it was still cheaper than most western resorts. Lift tickets and rentals are way cheaper. I stayed in an unbelievable mountain hotel in Furi above Zermatt and was able to ski in ski out right from the door. Unbelievable history and culture, tremendous spa, pool, saunas, steam rooms, breakfast included for what a hotel room out west costs. Check out Sylvania Mountain Hotel . As far as the vert and skiing... it doesn't even compare. Between Zermatt and Cervinia there are something like 350 Km of trails, not acres like in the US. I skied non stop for 6 days and didn't see a fraction of it. The lift system is also so much more advanced than ours. Snow quality may have been slightly better in the western resorts Ive been to but my son mainly went off piste and he said it was awesome, I tend to stay on Piste. If you are skiing Salt Lake City or Denver areas obviously fights are way cheaper but honestly my tickets to Switzerland werent anymore than it cost me to fly to Whitefish or Big Sky. I did have to get a train to Zermatt and that was costly but I made up for it and then some due to rentals and lift tickets being so much cheaper. You can spend as much or as little as you want on meals. Much like western resorts. Honestly i didnt find it any more expensive than the western resorts i went to. Overall i spent about the same amount as i would have at western resorts and the overall experience in Zermatt blows anything Ive had in the US out of the water and its not even close.

 

[James]

Hey @Nobody , or anyone else. Ever been to the Rheinhold Messner Alpine Museum in Kronplatz? Just found out about it. Designed by Zaha Hadid, I would go to check it out. What area/pass would one be skiing?

Museum / Messner Mountain Museen

www.messner-mountain-museum.it

 

[Cheizz]

Kronplatz has its own skipass, but is also part of Dolomiti Superski.

Although the Messner Mountain Museum also has branches in the city of Bolzano. But the building in the picture above is in Kronplatz.

 

[Nobody]

@James, @Cheizz did beat me to the answer. He's obviously correct.
Kronplatz (Plan de Corones) is a mountain and a resort in its own right, and as said, is also part of the wider Dolomiti Super Ski collective skipass. The ski area can be accessed from different places, Bruneck-Brunico, S.Vigil -S.Vigilio di Marebbe, Olang-Valdaora.
As the town7villages in two languages suggest, it lies in the bilingual (I should say multi-lingual, as there is a third official language, Ladin) autonomous province of Alto Adige SudTirol, in NE Italy. If you ever plan a tour of some of the Italian ski resorts, let me know!

 

[James]

@James, @Cheizz did beat me to the answer. He's obviously correct.
Kronplatz (Plan de Corones) is a mountain and a resort in its own right, and as said, is also part of the wider Dolomiti Super Ski collective skipass. The ski area can be accessed from different places, Bruneck-Brunico, S.Vigil -S.Vigilio di Marebbe, Olang-Valdaora.
As the town7villages in two languages suggest, it lies in the bilingual (I should say multi-lingual, as there is a third official language, Ladin) autonomous province of Alto Adige SudTirol, in NE Italy. If you ever plan a tour of some of the Italian ski resorts, let me know!

All these names!
I think that’s a big, big difference with North America. We associate one name with one ski area. About as spread out as it gets is Aspen-Snowmass. If say Carbondale, very near, had it’s own ski area, and another town nearby had a ski srea, and so on, people might be more prepared for Europe. I think in general this is why most stick to names they’ve heard of. Which frankly is not many.

Hell, the first time I went to Chamonix, this confused the hell out of me. I made a last minute decision to go from Geneva airport to Chamonix for a couple days instead of getting to Verbier early. So on the plane with crappy wifi I’m trying to find lodging. Just things like Chamonix-Mt Blanc showing up listed as the town confused me. Was it the same? Stuff like “only 20km away”, then you look and it’s in Italy. I finally put in Chamonix Centre Ville figuring that had to be right.

The only way I really solved the mess was just going to google maps and getting names of places. Weirdly places were either full or it would shunt you to ridiculously priced places. Then the wifi cut out...
Eventually at the airport, with my Swiss SIM card purchased at the Post Office in the airport, I was able to make a connection.

When I got there, I discovered the Swiss SIM card didn’t work in France. Lol. My plan for world domination thwarted. Fortunately, I called Sprint and got an International plan added. The Swiss SIM worked very well in Switzerland on the mountain. However, it was absurdly expensive. I’d get messages like “Special! Get 10 SMS messages for 5 ChF!” Such a bargain.

I’ve since never bothered and just use Sprint which works ok. Generally use Whatsapp if possible.

 

[Cheizz]

Coming to Europe? Just use Google Maps and this site to find out which village goes with which ski area: http://www.opensnowmap.org/?zoom=12&lat=45.10267&lon=6.13483&layers=mapquest&marker=false

 

[James]

Coming to Europe? Just use Google Maps and this site to find out which village goes with which ski area: http://www.opensnowmap.org/?zoom=12&lat=45.10267&lon=6.13483&layers=mapquest&marker=false

Can’t get it to work. Pc only?

 

[Cheizz]

I can get opensnowmap.org on any browser... weird. http://opensnowmap.org/

Anyway, Google Maps should do the trick, although some French lifts and runs are not in there. Don't know why.

 

[Tony Storaro]

What area/pass would one be skiing?

Dolomiti Superski.

 

[Nobody]

Dolomiti Superski.

Yes. And no.
Buying a DolomitiSuperski skipass one would have access to all the 12 skiing areas forming the consortium.

12 Ski Resorts | Dolomiti Superski | Dolomiti Superski

Scopri le dodici zone sciistiche del Dolomiti Superski, posizionate in Trentino - Alto Adige e nel Belluno, nelle meravigliose Dolomiti

www.dolomitisuperski.com

If one has no time to ski each of those or a meaningful substet (or the €) , one could buy the valley (area) specific skipass and just ski there.
Amongst which:
-Kronplatz
-Alta Badia
-Gardena
-Val di Fassa (and Fiemme)
-Cortina
-Civetta (Val Zoldana)
One can ski from one area to the next (core and starting point of it all is the SellaRonda tour, skiing the four mountain passes and four valleys around the Sella Massif) in most cases. So much that the term "Ski Safari" (either all lift served skiing from one village ot the next, or skiinig up and skiingt down from mountain hut to mountain hut) has been coined for some of the offerings .
But, in the Dolomites, and generally speaking in the italian alps, a "resort" is associated to a mountain village (or town like the case of Brunico) as well.

 

[Rod MacDonald]

Yes. And no.
Buying a DolomitiSuperski skipass one would have access to all the 12 skiing areas forming the consortium.

12 Ski Resorts | Dolomiti Superski | Dolomiti Superski

Scopri le dodici zone sciistiche del Dolomiti Superski, posizionate in Trentino - Alto Adige e nel Belluno, nelle meravigliose Dolomiti

www.dolomitisuperski.com

If one has no time to ski each of those or a meaningful substet (or the €) , one could buy the valley (area) specific skipass and just ski there.
Amongst which:
-Kronplatz
-Alta Badia
-Gardena
-Val di Fassa (and Fiemme)
-Cortina
-Civetta (Val Zoldana)
One can ski from one area to the next (core and starting point of it all is the SellaRonda tour, skiing the four mountain passes and four valleys around the Sella Massif) in most cases. So much that the term "Ski Safari" (either all lift served skiing from one village ot the next, or skiinig up and skiingt down from mountain hut to mountain hut) has been coined for some of the offerings .
But, in the Dolomites, and generally speaking in the italian alps, a "resort" is associated to a mountain village (or town like the case of Brunico) as well.

definitely would be criminal to visit this area and not go round the whole circuit.

 

[Cheizz]

Well, to ski the entire Dolomiti Superski would take a week or two. The ski areas are more spread-out than you might think... #skiinggoals

 

[Nobody]

definitely would be criminal to visit this area and not go round the whole circuit.

Well, to ski the entire Dolomiti Superski would take a week or two. The ski areas are more spread-out than you might think... #skiinggoals

I agree, about both comments.
I have been vacationing in the area for 30+ years, one week each winter. Never, ever managed to ski more than a subset. in that week. Based in Colfosco, meant to be able to ski the Sella Ronda, go to La Villa and ski the Grand Risa, go to Ortisei passing through Selva di Val Gardena, go to Passo Falzarego and ski the great descent there, ski the Marmolada and back (optionally to reach Cortina, in later years a new tour formed, the so called "The Great War round"). All on skis (and some minor transfer on coach, specifically for the Falzarego and Cortina, but necessary to avoid crowds and , after all, the transfer to Armentarola from Corvara is made of easy runs). Been able to ski the Civetta area recently, and there is a project to link (e.g. allow to reach it with on skis / lifts only) it with Cortina and from there to the other areas.

 

[Tony Storaro]

Well, to ski the entire Dolomiti Superski would take a week or two.

Make that a month

Endless fun.

 

[PowHog]

Referring to the initial question about pros and cons of the areas mentioned:

- Zermatt
Ups: vast on-piste terrain, highest vertical drop by far (7000+ ft), best scenery, pistes go from very easy to most difficult and steep, got some après ski too, car free resort, excellent food
Downs: very, very pricey, often long, dry spells (but stable weather), high peak altitude (shouldn't be an issue if you handle the high Colorado resorts)

- Arlberg
Ups: vast off-piste terrain, decent vertical drop, usually gets a decent amount of fresh snow, great après ski in St. Anton, great area to grow into off-piste skiing (excellent ski school groups for that)
Downs: while there are challenging pistes the resorts are known for it's off-piste and backcountry skiing, unstable weather, very pricey, many ski bums

- Dolomites
Ups: often stable weather, awesome scenery, vast area (think resort hopping), great piste skiing for intermediates (but got some really challenging terrain too), great food, reasonably priced
Downs: snow situation often unpredictable with long, dry spells - check before you commit

Have fun!

 

[Rod MacDonald]

- Dolomites
Ups: often stable weather, awesome scenery, vast area (think resort hopping), great piste skiing for intermediates (but got some really challenging terrain too), great food, reasonably priced
Downs: snow situation often unpredictable with long, dry spells - check before you commit

Have fun!

Snow conditions could be as you state, but the Dolomites pride themselves on their snowmaking system, with virtually 100% coverage over the entire area, so piste skiing at least is virtually guaranteed regardless of snowfall.

 

[Nobody]

Snow conditions could be as you state, but the Dolomites pride themselves on their snowmaking system, with virtually 100% coverage over the entire area, so piste skiing at least is virtually guaranteed regardless of snowfall.

So true, Dolomites heavily rely on snowmaking, but so do many other area on the southern side of the Alps (mine included). They mix the man made with the natural product , especially at lower altitudes, to obtain a more "stable" cover. At Tonale, they have installed snow making devices even on the "glacier" (this for another reason, it is to try and increase the snow coverage depth of - what is left of - the Presena glacier so to slow down the inevitable melting)
As for the Dolomites, when I was a teen, before snowmaking took hold, there were tales that during those dry spells - entire seasons sometimes - all available hands (men, women, children) were being sent out to brush the snow from all suitable places (even fro mthe tress, so the lore says) and put it on the slope to allow tourists to ski....