London Mags!!!!

[knowsam]

So maybe this is tech talk - but I'm pretty stoked, so it's here - plus it's August, so it's about the most ski related stoke out there right now. The Ms and I are moving to London UK (the stoked part) - looking to learn a bit about the ski scene out that way. Anything anyone can share about skiing from London that lets us leave Fri after work and be back Sunday night would be hugely useful, with bonus points if it's dog friendly.

I'm taking a pair of alpine and a pair of touring boots, but it is too expensive/hassle to travel with skis there? Obviously living in London, I'm not going to take a quiver, but is it worth it to have your own rig or do travel and space issues make it more common to rent each trip?

Cham is closest? Where else? Am I dreaming if I hope to get a few weekends in (I love my work and skiing and I really don't want to have to give up work days every time I ski). The MS is a powder hound, but it never hurts if she can find somewhere to relax and take in some good food. Seems like that's a hill standard in Europe, but anywhere a must on that side?

Anything you can add, hugely appreciated.

[Foggy_Goggles]

For a weekend trip your probably looking at the dryslope at Milton Keynes. Maybe I'm wrong. It's about an 11hr drive London>Cham on a good day and fuel ain't cheap. You can fly LON>GVA on easy jet but it will get expensive Friday evening>Sunday evening. But hey, maybe your loaded and don't care. If you really want to be a skier, I'd get over this "loving work thing". Find the "snow for euros" thread and post there.

[PNWbrit]

looking to learn a bit about the ski scene out that way. Anything anyone can share about skiing from London.

The London ski scene?

It sucks.

if it's dog friendly.

Weekend trips to the alps from London would be about the least dog friendly activity that I can think of?

[Foggy_Goggles]

How bad could it be?

Since the beginning of the Pets Travel Scheme in 2000, over 1 million dogs, cats and ferrets have travelled with Eurotunnel Le Shuttle

+/-24 hours of driving plus another 10 lounging in the car park. But, poochie just looooves to spend a much time as possible with us.

[PNWbrit]

How bad could it be?

A bit like the "cricket scene" is in SLC?

+/-24 hours of driving plus another 10 lounging in the car park. But, poochie just looooves to spend a much time as possible with us.

Yep.. although I wouldn't own a dog and live in London anyway.

[Tahoe Bromide]

I got offered a really good job in London some years ago. I took a look at the map and promptly turned it down.

[Mike Pow]

With planning and an ego park it's very easy to organise reasonably priced weekend skiing to Europe from London.

Pick your airports and book your flights way in advance.

http://www.skyscanner.net

Geneva, Innsbruck, Munich, Milan, Turin, Venice, plenty of Eastern European options like Sofia (Bulgaria), Skopje (Macedonia), Podgoriza (Montenegro).

Rent a car and stay out of resort. Way cheaper, more availability.

Go to the big names and it will be jam packed.

Go to the smaller resorts and it will be enoyable.

Look at the UK ski travel companies' brochures. If there's a big UK presence then either Saturday and/or Sunday will be quiet because that's changeover day for 1-week holiday skiers on a package.

Post pics and TRs

[Mike Pow]

And if the weather gods are smiling, then a 3 to 4-hr drive west of London will get you to my 'hometown hill', the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales.

Easy drive, dog friendly hotels and B&Bs, and great skiing when the conditions are right.

All hike to, but obvious and only an hour to the top.

Check these links

2013/14
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewt...eacons#2388201

2012/13
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=92399











We got the steeps, just need the deeps

[Arno]

Pretty much what Mike said. My own formula is late evening flight to Geneva or Zurich, rent car, go where I fancy. Cham is pretty handy but there are many many other places which will be fun for a weekend. Even the places you have never heard of will often be bigger than a lot of well known US resorts.
I generally take my own skis and boots. Saves time renting and if you're going somewhere small, the rental selection may be limited. BA, Swiss and Lufthansa all allow skis in their luggage allowance (may require careful packing tho)
We'll look after your dog if you give us a bit of notice

[Arno]

One more thing - take advantage of your Euro holiday allowance and do 3 or 4 day trips over a weekend. 2 days is better than nothing but it is a lot of hassle and expense for not a lot of skiing

[Mike Pow]

One more thing - take advantage of your Euro holiday allowance and do 3 or 4 day trips over a weekend. 2 days is better than nothing but it is a lot of hassle and expense for not a lot of skiing

+ 1

[sharcsplean]

I have been living outside of london for 2 years, and I can't wait to leave. The south of the UK is over crowded. Traffic sucks, and there is very little mountain biking

The dry slope in Bracknell is like masturbating with sandpaper - gets the job done, but not enjoyable.
There is a snow-dome, but I have not been there.
There is a company that does a ski train for 3 day weekends to France. It is an overnight train, I hear it is fun with some wine.
Chunnel is expensive and so are the tolls in France - it take 10 to 14 hours to get to Verbier or Cham. (my truck is slow - wife's car is fast...)
You can get cheap flights from Gatwick, especially if you book them in advance. It might be cheaper to rents skis, than to pay the large baggage fees.
We have a buddy who lets us store some gear in Switzerland, so we avoid a lot of luggage fees.
My kids have 2 1/2 weeks off in december, 1 week in Feb, and 2 weeks at easter. So, we still got in over 30 days, but the weekends here suck with out mountains.

[BGSTi_403]

To echo some of the comments: I think one key difference is the vacation mentality.

The "weekend warrior" set up where you drive to Vermont / Tahoe / Summit County every Fri night and come back on Sun is not really applicable in you live in the UK.

The typical ski trip for British tourists is a week – most chalets etc are rented on a weekly basis and people generally don’t rush for a couple of days of skiing over the weekend.

There are folks that would go for multiple weeks, and then there are the Scandys, who can ski bum en masse for 4-5 months on the back of generous unemployment benefits at home.

I have done weekend trips and they are certainly doable – Cham is probably a good option as travel and connections are pretty well dialed: 1 hr flight to GVA, 1 hr transfer with multiple options of carriers and frequent flights.

You pay extra for any checked luggage (including ski bags) on any of the budget carriers (ie easyJet) – if you a going just for a weekend, bring boots and rent skis – like in the states, the better quality equipment is in the Demo fleet.

[LiveLarger]

Ski scene in London? This has to be a joke!!

There is no snow, a ton of traffic, no mountains, no nature and even just getting out of town, is a project by it self. You can do weekend trips to the alps, but it gets expensive, since you will need to fly on the most expensive time. (late friday and sunday) or you have to take time off work. Seriously, as far as skiing goes, you might as well be in the desert.

[narc]

Ski scene in London? This has to be a joke!!

There is no snow, a ton of traffic, no mountains, no nature and even just getting out of town, is a project by it self. You can do weekend trips to the alps, but it gets expensive, since you will need to fly on the most expensive time. (late friday and sunday) or you have to take time off work. Seriously, as far as skiing goes, you might as well be in the desert.

The ski scene is basically rich people in finance buying patagucci. It is one of the furthest away places from any good skiing and on top of that there is water in the way and I don't know anyone that even tries to do weekend trips, the logistics just don't work too well and most people take time off.

One option I have done:
If you have deep pockets the best bet is the Eurostar from St Pancras direct to Bourg St Maurice overnight which gets you in at 6:30am. Stock up on food then take the 30min Funicular to Les Arcs (included in your lift pass), dump your stuff and walk to the lift. Either stay in Les Arcs or Bourg St Maurice using the Funicular.
http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/eurost...lps/timetables

[Mike Pow]

The ski scene is basically rich people in finance buying patagucci. It is one of the furthest away places from any good skiing and on top of that there is water in the way and I don't know anyone that even tries to do weekend trips, the logistics just don't work too well and most people take time off.

One option I have done:
If you have deep pockets the best bet is the Eurostar from St Pancras direct to Bourg St Maurice overnight which gets you in at 6:30am. Stock up on food then take the 30min Funicular to Les Arcs (included in your lift pass), dump your stuff and walk to the lift. Either stay in Les Arcs or Bourg St Maurice using the Funicular.
http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/eurost...lps/timetables

All depends on the OPs work schedule and family life. If week long holidays can be taken then they will work out cheapest per day.

If not, and weekend (Fri-Sun) or long weekend (Thur-Sun or Fri-Mon) is the go, then it's never been cheaper to fly from London to all of the European ski destinations. You just have to put a plan in place and secure the flights as early as possible.

Realistic weekend destiantions include:

the obvious
France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy

the not so obvious
Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, Andorra, Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro

The weather website snow forecast is your friend. Check who's going to get it and head there

http://www.snow-forecast.com/

If you're prepared to stay at basic B&B and book flights ahead of time you can get it to £200 per day easy. All in. Fight, accommoadtion, transfer to resort, lift ticket. Meals on top, which you'd spend in London anyway.

If you buy a season pass like the Tirol Card for Austria then you could do it cheaper over the course of a winter.

[rbk]

For one weekend at least make the trip up to Scotland. There is an overnight sleeper which will get you in for Saturday morning. Public transport to the slopes is pretty useless but plenty of people to ask for a ride from the station. If you wait til spring time you'll get some great days and if you want to ski steep gullies there's lots of those.

[Arno]

I'm not going to hold up London as a ski town but I think some are being a teensy bit over negative on this thread. You can get a decent amount of skiing in if you do a bit of planning. It's not the most economical but there are ways to keep prices reasonable. Certainly cheaper than the cally sleeper unless you are lucky enough to get a Bargain Berth!
And getting to nature takes about an hour on my bike and I live right in the middle. There are some surprisingly rural places even within the M25. It's not the Highlands but it feels a world away from Zone 1

[narc]

There is a snow-dome, but I have not been there.

160m at 10degrees. The gnar part is the fact the fridge is rammed full of brit gapers who mostly can't use the painfully slow button lift. Even racers use 150cm skis because it is so short.

[LiveLarger]

I'm not going to hold up London as a ski town but I think some are being a teensy bit over negative on this thread. You can get a decent amount of skiing in if you do a bit of planning.

Right, same can be said about Sahara or Gobi Desert.

[PNWbrit]

Right, same can be said about Sahara or Gobi Desert.

I think the Dubai snowdome is bigger than the one in Milton Keynes?

The London Ski scene died when they closed the big mountain riding that was available at Beckton Alps

[jamesp]

Tell me more about cricket in SLC.

[Schemeboat]

London is a rad city. I'd love to spend more time there.

[Mike Pow]

Right, same can be said about Sahara or Gobi Desert.

If I can manage 2-4 day ski trips to Europe from deepest darkest Wales, it's a breeze from London.

[neck beard]

About 12 years ago, things may have changed...

My wife lived in Milano. I was in London for a bit. Flew to her place every Friday, 6pm flight. Skiing Cham, Andermatt, others... nearly every weekend.

Key: All my ski gear was in Milano. In Ldn, my place of employment and incredibly small apartment were both 15 minutes walk from a station which had a direct regular train to one of the discount airports. Getting home late Sunday night would have been a drag otherwise.

I bought something like 3 months of weekend flights in advance, average price was less than 50 pounds each way from very poor memory. Would have spent that on beer if I stayed in town every weekend.

Buy a car and leave it with your ski gear in long term parking near Bergamo Airport. Or what ever airport suits your needs and has long term space.