Europe Feb/April 2013 with wife

[Buster Highmen]

She is a very capable boarder, just lacks confidence. We ride Silverton pretty often as well as the BC around here in the San Juans. I had already emailed skilodge, so I will wait to hear back from them. Not really interested in tracked out terrain, we love to chase the powder. I will look back into La Grave. Would it be worth it to stay in Monetier and drive to La Grave one day?

If she rides Silverton, she will have no problem @ La Grave which is ginormous and likely to have untracked somewhere.
Yeah, you could stay in Monetier and drive up to La Grave, but it's kind of silly not to stay there one night one your way through.

But yeah, La Grave is at most 40 minutes from Monetier so you could stay at either and you could even ski Claviere/Montgenevre on your way from Monetier over to La Thuile since that drive is around 3 hours at most.

Lots of gnarlers p00-p00 the Milky Way (Montgenevre/Claviere/San Sicario/Sestriere/ Saulze d'Oulx) but we found a ton of great pow there skiing from the top of Montgenevre (Rocher L'Aigle), crossing a liitle col into Italy to ski down a rack of NE facing bowls into Claviere. Then there's the Janus which was pretty gnarly. The Milky Way is really really nutso huDge.

Thanks again for all the help and advice...if you are in any of these areas when we will be I'd love to buy you a beer or ten.

Buy me a beer in the tent; ask Jenny if I'm there. she'll know.

[Hugh Conway]

Would it be worth it to stay in Monetier and drive to La Grave one day?

It's a relatively quick drive either way. either stay in la grave or the other side, pick where to ski based on the weather etc. On storm days the serre che etc. side has more friendly tree skiing options ime.

Yes, the meccas have good skiing. So do tons of other places.

[A2thaK]

If she rides Silverton, she will have no problem @ La Grave which is ginormous and likely to have untracked somewhere.
Yeah, you could stay in Monetier and drive up to La Grave, but it's kind of silly not to stay there one night one your way through.

But yeah, La Grave is at most 40 minutes from Monetier so you could stay at either and you could even ski Claviere/Montgenevre on your way from Monetier over to La Thuile since that drive is around 3 hours at most.

Lots of gnarlers p00-p00 the Milky Way (Montgenevre/Claviere/San Sicario/Sestriere/ Saulze d'Oulx) but we found a ton of great pow there skiing from the top of Montgenevre (Rocher L'Aigle), crossing a liitle col into Italy to ski down a rack of NE facing bowls into Claviere. Then there's the Janus which was pretty gnarly. The Milky Way is really really nutso huDge.


Buy me a beer in the tent; ask Jenny if I'm there. she'll know.

The tent at Silverton? Or is there one at La Grave too?

[Buster Highmen]

Silverton. Virtually everyone there knows me, the guy in the dumb toque.

[plugboots]

OK, now everybody shut up. He knows where to go. Well, maybe one more pic taken 20 turns later:

[Buster Highmen]

Never made it to La Berarde. Next time?

[plugboots]

If you go in the summer, sure. In the winter, the town is really shut down, so you go to St. Christophe. IMO only ski that side if you do Olympic or Rama couloir, (or some other variation), and have a taxi arranged or some way to get out of there. Not to mention the 3? mile traverse to town. I've done it a lot, and I'm done. Takes too much time, people want to have a long lunch at La Cordee, (the restaurant there), etc.
Now that I've said that, everybody I go with that has never done it before says it's the run of their life, yada yada.

[Buster Highmen]

Don't know, but I thought one skied through La Berarde on the way to St. C. Anyway, I'll do that one next time.

[plugboots]

When you look at a map, you'll see it's a different drainage. The Glacier de la selle drains towards Christophe.

[Toby]

Thread diversion.

... The Maurienne (... Val Cenis) ...

Buster, I know you've written about the Maurienne before (from searching). Any more non-generic-google tips/insight would be appreciated. I'll be spending a month there next winter.

[Hayduke]

This is Europe we're talking about right? You shouldn't plan anything except your flight and car hire. Then go where the snow is.

[A2thaK]

This is Europe we're talking about right? You shouldn't plan anything except your flight and car hire. Then go where the snow is.

You really think I will be able to find hotels a week or two before I go? I feel alot better having everything planned out so I don't have to worry about driving around some foreign town in a snowstorm trying to find a place to stay.

Also, all the hotels I am looking at have a 3 day- 1 week prior to arrival free cancellation. So, if the snow is crappy there or better somewhere else, I can change it.

[Toby]

As others have said, outside of February you can rock up anywhere and find accommodation. It's good to have some idea so you don't get ripped off at the priciest hotels in town, but there'll be free beds. Destination areas will fill up in February, Xmas, Easter, special events (e.g. Worldcup), etc. but apart from that I'd have no problem arriving anywhere by lunch/mid-arvo and expecting to find good beds. I've personally done this extensively in Austria. I'd have no problem doing it anywhere in the Alps.

[Buster Highmen]

Thread diversion.


Buster, I know you've written about the Maurienne before (from searching). Any more non-generic-google tips/insight would be appreciated. I'll be spending a month there next winter.

There's a lot of great skiing out of the Maurienne, from accessing Val Thorens and the Trois Vallees to touring up into Val d'Isere from Bonneval Sur Arc. We skied at Val (was Mont) Cenis, Val Frejus and Val Thorens and despite Val Frejus being relatively tiny ("only" 1200 meters vertical drop) there was a ton of great skiing there with a rack of great chutes below the upper gondie to a hidden couloir that opened up onto an apron above a monastery. Cenis was cool too with a little less timbered skiing, but lots of interesting open bowls and sidecountry. Val Frejus base is ugly newer architecture though with some older buildings on the access road.

One thing is that a main rail line goes through the valley up to Val Frejus before going into Italy there. Down valley from there it's hard to get away from, so beware about hotels backing up to a rail line.

We made that mistake so even though the hotel was nice and food was great, the rattling of random trains at night lessened my appreciation for the hotel.

The Frejus tunnel goes through into Italy. It's a toll, but you can easily get to Bardoneccia, which we didn't ski, and then the Milky Way which I think is underrated. We didn't get up to Bonneval, but I know there's some heli ops that fly out of there shuttling between Val d'Isere and Bonneval sidecountry. One can take the train from St. Jean Maurienne through the Frejus tunnel to get to Bardoneccia and Oulx (Milky Way).

[CarveMan]

I've been to Cham the last 2 years in March.

http://powderbible.com/category/chamonix-2011/
http://powderbible.com/category/chamonix-2012/

It's not busy and I wouldn't book anything. Just get the rental car and follow your nose - if you're sick of somewhere, bail, if you love it, stay, if it's snowing somewhere - head there.

Book your flights and a car ex-Geneva and enjoy.

[CarveMan]

You really think I will be able to find hotels a week or two before I go? I feel alot better having everything planned out so I don't have to worry about driving around some foreign town in a snowstorm trying to find a place to stay.

Also, all the hotels I am looking at have a 3 day- 1 week prior to arrival free cancellation. So, if the snow is crappy there or better somewhere else, I can change it.

People are so hung up about that kind of thing. I literally wrote a book (gratuitous plug: http://powderbible.com ) to help people realise that forward planning is the best way to potentially ruin a ski holiday.

Here's an excerpt:

A second example is the country of France. France is, by a significant margin, the most popular tourist destination in the world. As a result it has a highly evolved and competitive tourism market. So while you may not be able to breeze into town and pay a few euros to stay next to the lifts, the chances of finding a bed within a few kilometres of where you want to be is high.

Each town will also have an official Tourism Office that is a wealth of local information. On a European road trip many years ago we stopped looking up guidebooks and the Internet when it came to accommodation – we just followed the street signs to the local Tourism Office and in most cases we were met with friendly, English speaking people who were more than keen to show us the range of tourism options available and, in some cases, make the calls on our behalf to the hotels in the area at the price range we were looking for.

While the main resort towns may have enforced, expensive six night minimum stays, there are many accommodation operators in the satellite towns for whom Winter is low-season.

[A2thaK]

People are so hung up about that kind of thing. I literally wrote a book (gratuitous plug: http://powderbible.com ) to help people realise that forward planning is the best way to potentially ruin a ski holiday.

Here's an excerpt:

I totally agree that forward planning a ski vacation is not ideal. That's what I love about living in Durango with multiple areas nearby. If it is snowing in T-ride, I let my boss know I'm taking a powder day and head up there with no forward planning. However, I am an engineer and need everything planned out for a big vacation like this. Also, I am doing this vacation as a 5 year anniv with the wife, so staying at decent, quaint type hotels is important as well.

I'm thinking the best route is to book the rooms, and then play it by ear. That way I have a place to stay if the snow is good, and if there is better snow somehwere else, I can cancel the reservation and follow your advice.

[A2thaK]

I've been to Cham the last 2 years in March.

http://powderbible.com/category/chamonix-2011/
http://powderbible.com/category/chamonix-2012/

It's not busy and I wouldn't book anything. Just get the rental car and follow your nose - if you're sick of somewhere, bail, if you love it, stay, if it's snowing somewhere - head there.

Book your flights and a car ex-Geneva and enjoy.

According to http://about-france.com/school-holidays.htm there are school holidays until March 17th, so I was going to avoid those dates. Thats's why I'm planning Feb 3-16.

[TeleAl]

Well, if you are going that way, then La Grave should be one of your stops.

I had written a longer email earlier, and never sent it.
It basically said, La Grave sits in the shadow, but the skiing beats everywhere else.

Oh, and for school holidays, I am going to go out on a limb here and say,
I doubt La Grave is affected by school holidays.
It's not a family resort.

[A2thaK]

Thanks again to all who helped me out. Just booked flights (free thanks to the United credit card 55,000 bonus miles at signup) and rental car. Going Feb 1-15. La Grave-Serre Chavalier-Montgenevre-Chamonix. All the hotels are booked, but I can cancel them and change plans based on weather up to a week or so out. Really pumped!

Looking at guidelagrave.com for the two days at La Grave and Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix. Will probably do private guide for the two of us at LA Grave, but then might just do the more affordable group guided for Cham.

[old goat]

We did the group guides in Cham with the CGC--worked fine as long as you don't get stuck with someone like me in your group. I guess you can do the VB with the guides on a snowboard but you might double check--they do respond to email. I'm guessing they might have to organize an all snowboard group or something--anyone know? If you can ski you might enjoy it more that way--it's pretty easy skiing and a lot of flat. The guides go to Courmayeur as well, worth doing for the view of Mt Blanc and the skiing of course. We just went to the guides office after 6 the evening before each day we wanted to ski with guides and found out where they were going the next day. If you wanted to stay in Courmayeur we liked the Hotel La Grange in Entreves--just up the road from Courmayeur at the end of the MB tunnel and moderate walk or easy drive to the courmayeur lifts. Skiing with a guide was definitely worth it--they drive you to the lifts, you get priority on the lifts--especially important for the top of the Grand Montets, which you should probably have a guide for anyway because of crevasses.

[A2thaK]

Goat-I have been in contact with both guide services and they are aware that we will be on boards. I had actually originally planned on staying in Courmayeur, but the gondola up to the top closed earlier this year for a new gondola to be constructed. Thanks for the heads up on the priority lift line boarding-I was not aware of that. We might look into skiing just for the VB. Thanks again

[old goat]

Good news about the Gondola being replaced--that one was pretty scary. Of course the French one isn't exactly new, and the lift to the top of Courmayeur belongs in a museum. The lift up from the mer de glace to the Montenvers hotel is another relic--hope you have enough snow to ski or ride all the way down to Chamonix. If you do get to ride Courmayeur you'll look across the valley to the immense South Face of Mt Blanc realize that the little cliff band near the top of the face is 2000 ft high. Our skiing guide, Pierre Labbre, was in the party that set the speed record for the winter ascent of the Super Integral--climbing the Peuterey Ridge on the right side of the face from the valley floor to the top, descending to the bottom of the Freney face, and ascending that. 6 days. It's big. Hope to get to Cham in March myself.
As far as the Grand Montets you have to make an appt for the lift to the top and it's often fully booked. The guides get to cut in line. The Mt Blanc unlimited ski pass includes the Aiguille du Midi, the top of the GM, Courmayeur, and if you're there long enough which you probably aren't a trip to Verbier.

[DeathVan]

Breuil-Cervinia, Italy in the Aosta valley is another great option.

The resort connects to Zermatt and the town is directly under the Matterhorn.
-I was skiing and golfing there this Summer for a while, it is cheaper than Switzerland or France



the weather can change rapidly


The Ymeletrob Bar is the spot

-and Courmayeur is fantastic and a very short trip from Chamonix, it is nice escape from the madness that is Cham