Davos 09'

rfarren

rfarren

New member
Wondering if any of you have been to Davos, or had any experience there? I'm wondering what to expect, because I was just offered a free trip there in early January.
 
In general early season is speculative in the Alps in terms of snow cover. I wouldn't advise spending your own $ that early, but since it's free I wouldn't hesitate.

Where to Ski and Snowboard (British ski guidebook) rates Davos above average for experts and snow reliability and excellent for intermediates. It is critical of some lift bottlenecks and potential long lines, but the early January timing should mitigate that.

You should hopefully get advice from someone who has been there, but among the FTO regulars even our ski area count leader ChrisC has not.

7-year weekly average base depths (cm) for Davos from Ski Club of Great Britain:

Week Upper Lower
Nov
1 78 12
December
2 70 23
3 88 29
4 104 32
5 124 43
January
6 137 53
7 133 53
8 135 58
9 146 71
February
10 163 82
11 175 88
12 194 95
13 215 97
March
14 220 89
15 218 76
16 230 69
17 242 71
April
18 243 56
19 248 39
20 283 55
 
James' reference uses the same source I looked up last night. FYI that tour operator ski-europe has organized some NAJSA Europe trips, incliding the one I did to Chamonix in 2004. They did a nice job, including arranging for 8 of us to ski Vallee Blanche on short notice when it had not been scheduled originally.
 
The wife and I used Ski-Europe for a 2003 trip to the Kitzbuhel Alps. Their prices covered hotel/breakfast, airfare, and rail or bus transfers between the arrival airport and resort. Back then, you could replace the transfer with a one-week rental car, which was really helpful. Instead of skiing every day at Kitzbuhel, we were able to spend one day each at a bunch of far-flung ski areas (Zell am See, Saalbach, Alpbach, Westendorff, Auffach, Brixental)... similar to going to Summit County and driving to Breckenridge, Keystone, Winter Park, Vail, Beaver Creek, and Copper, rather than skiing at the same place the entire week.

We haven't used them since because the two times I went to Lech, it was cheaper to book everything ourselves. One thing I don't like is that Ski-Europe's accommodations only include breakfast, instead of the more typical "half-board" (breakfast and dinner). Also, Ski-Europe's plans don't include a seven-day lift ticket, which is part of the package when you book a hotel on your own. So between the lift ticket and paying for dinner every night, you're easily talking about an extra $600-700 per person.
 
The only bad thing about the 2004 Chamonix trip was that the package did include dinners, which were mediocre at the Alpina Hotel. In Chamonix it probably would have been better to eat at local restaurants. This issue would vary by resort and hotel. At an upscale place like Lech, I suspect most of the hotels serve excellent dinners, so I'm sure James made the right choice there.

FYI the Extremely Canadian trips include dinners, and both Escorpio in Las Lenas and Edelweiss in La Grave had very good food. But EC groups do tend to run up healthy bar and wine tabs :) .
 
I have been to Davos for four days last season. It is truly one of the best ski resorts in Switzerland. Stay in Davos means that you can ski in five different ski resorts. If you are beginner just choose a easier part of the resort and you can be on your own without disturbance. But on the other hand if you are an expert in skiing there are loads of powder runs and demanding slopes in other parts of the ski resort. The only let down is that Davos definitely is pretty pricy. I found a detailed test report while surfing the net. I think it is very useful: Ski Davos
 
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