Alps Weather (I hope no one is getting caught up in this mess)

I don’t get this. My crew loves decent vegetables and we find them easier to locate in North America. There is only so much ham, cheese and bread one can take.
Give me (table service) American food every time.

I agree there are limits to the number of cheese/potato/egg/ham dishes I want to eat after a while - especially in Germanic Switzerland and Austria. But French and Italian options abound - especially in respective countries - which provide seafood, pasta, salads, roasted vegetables, etc Desserts, and beverages are generally better in Europe.

Lunch is often a disappointment in US on-mountain restaurants, but is getting better - away from just burgers/chicken sandwiches/fries. West Coast/Rocky Mountain Towns can have decent Asian/Cali/Indian/Tacos/etc off the mountain.
 
I somewhat expected this might be ChrisC's response when I posted Fraser's response to my questions yesterday.

Jackson is almost all HS lifts now, Targhee has a new mountain and Sun Valley added new glades from Seattle Ridge - and all are well-covered. Also, I have a local family friend for a day at Teton Pass.

We're looking at it differently. Liz has some knee issues and is unlikely to be venturing off piste unless conditions are primo. If it gets worse she'll be requesting some non-skiing tourism like we did last spring. Nice and Monaco are an easy day's drive from our likely ski destinations. And if we go down there we'll probably hit Isola 2000 and Auron on the way.

I was into some more pisted skiing at perhaps Gstaad, Crans-Montana, and a lesser extent Portes du Soliel and Flaine, but there is too much terrain washed out/under 2000m. Zinal/Grimentz was looking OK and possibly might recover.

Likely focus on either 1. Southern Alpes (Serre Chevalier/Puy St Vincent/Les 2 Alpes/Alpe d'Huez) or 2. Val d'Isere/Tignes plus Ste. Foy/Las Arcs. Bourg St. Marice has a lot of options. (Most 3 Vallees options want you for the week.)

Give things another 10 days.

On a positive note: WePowder is more confident about impending storm and issued a Powder Alert. Clipped the more interesting parts.


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Where to go?

As mentioned, this weekend is actually just a bit too early for powder. Sunday will see some snow higher up in the Western Alps, but accummulation by late afternoon is still limited. Monday already has significantly more options with around 20 centimetres fresh in and around the French Northern Alps, but Tuesday looks to be the best day with serious amounts in the French Northern Alps and the rest of the north-western Alps. Small sidenote: note that there is not a solid base everywhere. We see in the north-west Alps, for example, big differences between below and above 2000 metres. In the Northern Alps, snow cover is quite thin in many places even to higher altitudes.

For the southern Alps, the Julian Alps will clearly be the winner in terms of snow accumulation, with Sella Nevea - Kanin being a good option, for example. At the moment almost everything is open there and a fine base. The only open question is when they will open after the snowfall. Tuesday with the sun out could be a dream day in this corner. But also nearby areas like Nassfeld with a good base or Lombardy is with about 20 to 30 centimetres seem like great options at the moment.


Extra update over the weekend

Due to the exciting weather situation next week, there will be an extra update over the weekend.


Courmayeur above whatever its rain line was will surely have its modest number of pistes trashed in short order. That's why I suggested ChrisC relocate. So now he can pull the plug completely and not be on the hook for lodging costs there?

The Italians spend most of their time on the sundecks of Courmayeur. Over New Years in 2015, there were not too many liftlines or slope congestion. It's kinda like a Cortina for the Milan/Turin crowd - get up late, ake a few runs, start with long lunch and drinks, then get down the mountain early to change into designer wear to promenade at sunset/apres-ski.

This trip got locked in back on June 18th for a heli deposit and lodging for $250. Then I had a heli balance due in mid-December of $500 or so. There are other guys that want to do heli, so I might be able to sell my spot for cost (3 runs at 3-5k vertical). The heli operation has other areas nearby so we might follow the snow (La Thuile, others). Both the Toula Glacier off the cable car and the heli terrain are above 2000m, so they might be OK by Feb 1st.

Also, this is as much a social outing too. Just 4 days - and La Thuile is about 30 minutes away.

I just did not envision the vast majority of the Alps being sub-par.
 
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there are limits to the number of cheese/potato/egg/ham dishes I want to eat after a while - especially in Germanic Switzerland and Austria
While cheese/egg/potato/ham dishes are in the majority in Germanic countries during the winter, I never have trouble finding fresh vegetables and salads there, even in on-mountain eateries.

Lunch is often a disappointment in US on-mountain restaurants, but is getting better
Yes, it's getting incrementally better (for example, the Roundhouse at Solitude serving Himalayan-ish dishes) but outside a few isolated exceptions, U.S. ski food is always a disappointment compared to Europe. It ain't even close.
 
While cheese/egg/potato/ham dishes are in the majority in Germanic countries during the winter, I never have trouble finding fresh vegetables and salads there, even in on-mountain eateries.

I would agree. The larger self-service mountain huts will generally have soups, salads, vegetable plates....

Asian places - Indian, Thai, and Chinese can be found. Pizza/Italian is everwhere.

The only thing that scares me is when Europe tries to do Tex-Mex. Oh my - some combinations are really off!
 
outside a few isolated exceptions, U.S. ski food is always a disappointment compared to Europe. It ain't even close.
James is referring to on-mountain, and I would certainly agree. The main problem is that on-mountain F&B in the US is nearly all operated by the ski companies, many of which view it as a captive audience situation to exploit, rather like sports/music venues and amusement parks. Meanwhile socialist Europe has independent restaurants on-mountain that compete in quality like in most locations.

I recall my first ski guidebook in the late 1970's saying that Aspen was the only ski resort with fine dining competitive with big cities. But IMHO ski resort town dining in North America has dramatically improved over the 40+ years I've been skiing. I don't see a lot of difference vs. Europe there in the major resorts, so maybe that was sbooker's perspective. In small towns I'd guess they take their food more seriously in France and Italy.

The other difference is the hotel/half board situation. It's ubiquitous in Austria and not uncommon in the other alpine countries. Lots of those hotels strive to make their dining quality part of the attraction of staying there.
 
And that can include multiple attempts to mount the surface lifts.
Don't forget the T-bar at Copper. Worst is when there is a decent line for the specialty lift/terrain and they chew up a surprising amount of capacity just to fall off in the first 50 feet.
 
The problem is good food in the US is expensive though.
That's current exchange rates. During my 2008 trip to La Grave, the Euro was over 1.50USD. Liz and I were also in Australia in 2012, when AUD was 1.03USD.

Has sbooker not noted the difference between resort town and on-mountain dining in the US vs. the Alps? He has skied in the Dolomites, where you can't ski anywhere as much as 1,000 vertical without passing an independent restaurant. :icon-lol:
 
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That's current exchange rates. During my 2008 trip to La Grave, the Euro was over 1.50USD. Liz and I were also in Australia in 2012, when AUD was 1.03USD.

Has sbooker not noted the difference between resort town and on-mountain dining in the US vs. the Alps? He has skied in the Dolomites, where you can't ski anywhere as much as 1,000 vertical without passing an independent restaurant. :icon-lol:
Yeah the Aussie peso makes catering for 6 in tourist traps expensive. We’re leaving Paris this morning and will be in accommodation where we can self cater for the next few weeks. We’ll eat breakfast in always. The kids will eat lunch in after their snowboard lessons each day for the first week as their meeting point is about 100 yards from our apartment. We’ll eat out most of the time for dinner but I’ll avoid the high end places. (I’ll send the kids for pizza one night and treat Kylie to something swish I guess).
Looks like it’s unlikely we’ll get one sunny day for the first week. The kids will have to wait for the second week for some views I suppose. I really hope snowy and gloomy weather doesn’t negatively affect the newbies idea of skiing. In hindsight Les Arcs would have been more suitable with their more prolific tree lined runs.
 
n hindsight Les Arcs would have been more suitable with their more prolific tree lined runs.
Yes, but Les Arcs 1800 would have been rain saturated and quite ugly until it gets refreshed with new snow.

Beginner snowboarders REALLY need soft snow to ease those first day body slam falls. My younger son Andrew was lucky to have his first day on a snowboard during a raging blizzard at Mammoth. Adam's first snowboard day was on manmade at Big Bear and even though he progressed well he was beat up and exhausted at the end of the day. Both kids' first days were at age 9.
 
T
I agree there are limits to the number of cheese/potato/egg/ham dishes I want to eat after a while - especially in Germanic Switzerland and Austria. But French and Italian options abound - especially in respective countries - which provide seafood, pasta, salads, roasted vegetables, etc Desserts, and beverages are generally better in Europe.

Lunch is often a disappointment in US on-mountain restaurants, but is getting better - away from just burgers/chicken sandwiches/fries. West Coast/Rocky Mountain Towns can have decent Asian/Cali/Indian/Tacos/etc off the mountain.
Imo
The food in the alps is head and shoulders above the us resorts.
The on mountain dining is down right civilized.
I also remember some dynamite Indian in Zermatt.
 
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Imo
The food in the alps is head and shoulders above the us resorts.
The on mountain dining is down right civilized.
I also remember some dynamite Indian in Zermatt.

My sample size is skewed.

British Columbia has amazing food and wine: Vancouver to Whistler.....Nelson to Revelstoke. And BC wine! Whitewater is one of the best ski cafeterias in the country. Quebec and BC are almost on par with Europe. My favorite: is Sushi Village Whistler.

California/Tahoe could not do $22 chicken fingers. Nor can most of Seattle's local resorts. Sun Valley is great food on the mountain.

And New Mexico - the choice is red or green!

I generally skip USA lunches and do my boring breakfast of oatmeal/fruit/protein shakes....and the dinners as protein/veg/whatever.
 
I generally skip USA lunches
I'm not very typical either. In Europe we usually have large breakfasts and dinners, especially in the half board situation. And I'm also often trying to cover a lot of ground skiing in new places. Last spring in the Alps we stopped for lunch 4 times (3 at Club Med in adverse weather, one with locals in Verbier) out of 16 ski days.
Whitewater is one of the best ski cafeterias in the country.
Yes, but we tend to remember places that good because they are relatively rare on-mountain in North America.
 
On the topic of food and drink in the Alps I have discovered a place called La Croisse in Tignes Le Lac that does truly great coffee. Easily the best I have experienced in Europe (yes including Italy). Two cafe crème and two croissants for less than eight Euro.
I usually find European coffee way to weak and milky. So much so I often opt for American style drip coffee if it’s an option.
 
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