Snow for the Euros.

[Meathelmet]

Anyone used those taxi//shuttle busses from cham-to-geneve? What are your recommendations? God-son (?!!) needs a ride saturday afternoon to catch
his flight and checking out decent outfits. Like, drivers that are not totally stoned or openly hostile towards their paxes...
And knowing that saturday will be crappy weather as well..

[JoeStrummer]

I have used them all and they are all about the same. They like to get you to the airport about 3 hours before your goddamn flight, and the Geneva airport is about like the Bozeman airport. Alpybus or ChamShuttle are fine. I switched to Mountain Dropoffs a couple seasons ago and they have been reliable.

Sometimes if I procrastinate and book last minute the shuttle companies are full and I end up at 2am bribing some British dishwasher type to give me a lift in his roommates's sister's car. So I would get it booked today.

[LC]

Anyone used those taxi//shuttle busses from cham-to-geneve? What are your recommendations?

Of the big companies on a scale from reliable-but-more-expensive (top) to cheap-but-less-reliable (bottom):

Mountain Dropoffs or Cham Van
Alpybus
Chamexpress
Easy Bus (Chamexpress under different branding)

Find quotes from each then pay your money and take your chance.

[Marius]

^^ Marius:
Where is the shovel and the probe? Or does that come also as a blow up version nowadays? I must have missed the newest invention.

its integrated. and a tiny bit of room is left for a wurstbrot (käsebrot also posible, sure. I wouldnt suggest Nutella or something similar) and a max 0.5l drink. and first aidkit (small one).

[subtle plague]

don't foget the purple dildo you're always carrying!

[JoeStrummer]

don't foget the purple dildo you're always carrying!

I thought I saw that thing posted in Gear Swap? I was going to PM and ask what qualified as "gently used." Looking for a friend.

[Toadman]

Just back from the Arlberg. Skied some pow. Drank some beer. Ate some cheese, and brats. Was generally a good time.









Cheers

[ClarkleberryFinn]

A whopping 13 seconds of today's fun:

[sqikunst]

Ah to see the vid tht drives home that painful feeling of not getting after it.

[Marius]

don't foget the purple dildo you're always carrying!

purple is so 2002. fuchsia is the new shit!

[freak]

fuchsia like in foxtail?

freak~[&]

[kalisto]

Just getting so jealous... Nice pics guys.

Question for anyone based out of the alps. Probably heading down with a bunch of friends over easter (like every other European). Thoughts who holds a decent amount of snow at the end of March, or is it more or less the same anywhere we go? Either Italy/France/Austria (ruling out switzerland due to cost).

Thinking stubaital just outside of Innsbruck, but pretty much open for whatever.

Looking for:
- Not OVERLY touristy or expensive (no Zermatt/Andermatt style towns)
- A place we can rent a big place to pack us all into (if you can even do that? Maybe I'm too used to big ass houses in north america).
- Decent snow (meaning, there's snow on the runs, not grass).
- Probably flying into one of the major airports, so semi easily accessible from one of them

Thoughts?

Some stoke from Canada... though this is all you'll get as our snow has been rained away...

[klar]

Question for anyone based out of the alps. Probably heading down with a bunch of friends over easter (like every other European). Thoughts who holds a decent amount of snow at the end of March, or is it more or less the same anywhere we go? Either Italy/France/Austria (ruling out switzerland due to cost).

Thinking stubaital just outside of Innsbruck, but pretty much open for whatever.

Looking for:
- Not OVERLY touristy or expensive (no Zermatt/Andermatt style towns)
- A place we can rent a big place to pack us all into (if you can even do that? Maybe I'm too used to big ass houses in north america).
- Decent snow (meaning, there's snow on the runs, not grass).
- Probably flying into one of the major airports, so semi easily accessible from one of them

Thoughts?

not difficult to find a big holiday rental, probably will be an apartment, not a house.

end of march is full on spring, usually best to aim high, probably want to have a glacier resort accessible. where exactly has the most snow will depend on what happens in the two months till end of march but generally all the glaciers are still perfectly fine by then.

what kind of skiing are you trying to go for, other than "snow on the run"?

[kalisto]

Skiing quality doesn't matter a whole bunch. I'm alright on skis, gf a little less so, and the rest of the crew is anywhere from beginner to 'intermediate'. Me and the g/f may or may not bring the touring gear, depending where we end up.

Mainly concerns for everyone else is really the cost of beer and not overly far from the airport given we only have 5 days or so (travel + skiing).

Some other suggestions were Portes du Soleil (not overly close to an airport), and La Clusaz. Haven't been to either, and neither seemingly have any glaciers up high, so I'm still open for pretty much anything.

thanks!

[klar]

stubai sounds like a good fit forthis prupose. could also look at zillertal or ötztal. All three valleys have glacier resorts (Stubai, Hintertux, Sölden) and some non glacier resorts. You could get a pass that's good in the whole valley and move around by free ski bus if you wanted to. closest large airport is munich, cloesest small airport is innsbruck. austrian aprés ski is much more interesting than the french version

[freak]

might be relatively difficult to find an appartement for easter holiday now though. but then, maybe not. maybe pm keksie if your interested in zillertal.

freak~[&]

[Mr. Mike]

I had a great lunch on the deck on the front of that hotel in March 2013. Good memories!

[sqikunst]

Would also recomend Ziller. For variety and ease of access.

[Meathelmet]

Kalisto, check also AirBnB. Scored a really nice apt in cham for 3 weeks (there now..) and been checking out other places for other
trips and you can find a lot of interesting places that lies under the radar.
Planning to do Venice marathon coming autumn and we found some house boats that cost about 1/4th that some crappy hotels
would cost at that timeframe. Worth a shot, perhaps?

[kalisto]

^ fuckin'eh thanks for all the good stuff guys. AirBnB seemingly has a bunch of good places.

[Franz]

while we're on the topic, myself and a few others will be in ze Alps in the beginning of April. Our major plan is doing the Haute Route (hired a guide as we're all Alps Neophytes). We'll have two days in Cham before the HR begins and anywhere from 2-5 days or so in the Zermatt area post HR.
Don't really have any plans for when we're in Cham so any recommendations would be awesome. If conditions allow I'd love to ski the Vallee Blanche (I know total tourist ski route)
And on the tail end we don't really have any plans either other than a few days in Milan and we'd like to hang out/ski in Northern Italy before our flight back out (out of Milan).
Thanks for any beta and/or flaming. Will gladly trade Jackson Hole beta, guided tours around to any locals who want to do the same for the areas listed above.

[CarveMan]

The Vallee Blanche is great if you've never experienced the high alpine in zee alpes - but if you're going to do the Haute Route you will be spending a week up in the high alpine - so the VB while spectacular might not be the mind blowing experience it is for a lot of flatlanders who do it.

But the good news is that there are a lot of variations in there that have spicier skiing. However it's a short window of time and conditions may not allow - best bet is to hire a guide and leave the destination up to them. A lot of the Cham 'big names' may not be in great condition for one reason or another but a guide will get you in to some lesser known zone that could be quite primo.

[j,the snowboarder]

Wouldn´t want to be halfway down Galti with this fella chasing me.. http://instagram.com/p/yciD9NnXj0/?modal=true

[geo039]

Ripz and I had a nice "scare" there a few years back..that pic is CRAZY!
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ip-to-Remember

Wouldn´t want to be halfway down Galti with this fella chasing me.. http://instagram.com/p/yciD9NnXj0/?modal=true

[Tryingtostaywarm]

^ fuckin'eh thanks for all the good stuff guys. AirBnB seemingly has a bunch of good places.

Öztaaaalllll. Fo sho. TONS of terrain to be had considering everybody is too busy getting their groomer on. Seriously though, I've been to Sölden far too many times on dump days skiing fresh tracks all day right off the lift unlike say...Andermatt or St. Anton where every 45* couloir will be ski'd out by 9:30. Then, you get to hang around all the Schwäbisch people coming down from Stuttgart. :-)

BUT, just realized you said spring time...could be complete dog shit skiing also.