Which North American Skiers Should Ski in Europe?

I would add Engelberg to Fraser’s list above and make it 12 expert destinations.

But I would agree with his take that Val d’Isere is #1.
1) Snow reliability if booking in advance.
2) Once you have been guided a couple of days you can navigate fairly easily on your own assuming favorable snow stability.

I agree about Zermatt too but I’d be careful about advance booking if off piste is a priority, as it’s very rocky and needs a lot of coverage. But if you get it right we found Zermatt as non competitive for powder as typical intermediate areas in the Alps.
 
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Between the various TRs, I counted 30 ski areas visited in the Alps this season spread across four FTOers -- cementing our status as a small yet ambitious group. :eusa-clap:
 
No idea who this youtuber is, but it showed up in my feed so I watched it. Decent look at pricing and US/Euro ski differences though the video title is never really answered at all (not a surprise).

Shelby Church youtube video
 
While the sequence about US/Euro pricing is fine, she's using one visit to Zermatt -- probably the most expensive Alps resort -- in the driest season in decades as her entire sample size for the preposterous takeaways in the cons section (i.e. "extensive lift closures" and "confusing layouts"). I stopped watching at that point to avoid throwing an ashtray at my laptop.
 
Zermatt was a bit of a disaster this year. The Monterosa group were below average. Not good. But up the Aosta Valley conditions were good. France was even better.
 
This was likely my driest Euro trip.

And I had a week in PacWest. Sun.

Oh well…. Can’t win them all.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
"extensive lift closures"
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We saw a fair number of lift closures in the Milky Way areas, which made inaccessible moderately expansive terrain pods at the north end of Sauze d'Oulx plus the highest surface lifts at Sestriere. I attribute this to the ongoing ski resort issue of staff shortages. It didn't bother us as we were too busy skiing the powder most of the Italian customers were ignoring.
 
Tony Crocker said:
We saw a fair number of lift closures in the Milky Way areas, which made inaccessible moderately expansive terrain pods at the north end of Sauze d'Oulx plus the highest surface lifts at Sestriere.
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Sure, but that's an outlier experience. My point was that she was using a sample size of one resort and extrapolating that to the entire Alps range with hundreds upon hundreds of ski areas. Similar to a foreigner skiing only at Mad River Glen and then saying "The uphill transport at U.S. ski areas is shockingly archaic: technology from my grandparents' era!"
 
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Not arguing with James at all. His review was so scathing I figured it would be a waste of my time to watch the video, particularly since video is my least favorite means of consuming information.
 
From WB's Facebook page:

WB.png



Not to put too fine a point on the pricing discussion, but this is what's considered an excellent day-ticket deal these days and compared to the window price, it is a steal. You just need to commit by May 29. I suspect that to reach $84/day, you have to buy ten days. Wouldn't you just go ahead and purchase the Epic Pass at $909? Am I missing something?
 
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There are quite few of these deals floating around. Snowbird is offering a flex 5-day pass with no blackouts for next season at $78 per day.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
From WB's Facebook page:

View attachment 35660


Not to put too fine a point on the pricing discussion, but this is what's considered an excellent day-ticket deal these days and compared to the window price, it is a steal. You just need to commit by May 29. I suspect that to reach $84/day, you have to buy ten days. Wouldn't you just go ahead and purchase the Epic Pass at $909? Am I missing something?
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Is that USD? Or Canadian?
 
Sbooker said:
Then you’ve just got to get your head around the accommodation and food and drink prices.
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Yes, that is a comparatively fair price for day tickets in North America. Could it have been so difficult to put "CDN" in that Facebook advert?
 
This is not the right place for the question but it’ll save starting another thread.
My wife has a new job that is likely to throw my 2024 winter plans out.
Has anyone skied in Austria and Italy in February? Do they get as busy as the French hills reportedly get?
 
The reputation of Italy is weekend concentrated. James ran into a mob scene at Bardonecchia on his arrival Saturday last season.

The week to avoid in Austria is Mardi Gras week which about half of Germany gets off. That’s Feb. 10-17 in 2024.

In reference to your prior inquiry, why don’t you go to Canada in February?
 
Tony Crocker said:
The reputation of Italy is weekend concentrated. James ran into a mob scene at Bardonecchia on his arrival Saturday last season.

The week to avoid in Austria is Mardi Gras week which about half of Germany gets off. That’s Feb. 10-17 in 2024.

In reference to your prior inquiry, why don’t you go to Canada in February?
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The idea was to go to North America in the spring so I was hoping for something different.
Japan was planned for January but now Kylie will have to work our school holidays to cover for other people that won’t be working. February is not ideal for Japan because the crowds around Chinese new year are apparently crazy and are tipped to be even worse next year as the Chinese border is open now after a long time closed.
But it may have to be Canada I guess.
 
I am looking for suggestions on where to go in Europe next winter. I prefer ungroomed trails, bowls, trees etc when I am skiing in NA and will spend my whole time skiing single to double black runs at resorts such as Copper, Abasin, Revelstoke, Lake Louise, etc. My group however will include some who will likey be more on piste. My understanding is that at most resorts in Europe ungroomed is generally equivalent to out of bounds. Are there any resorts with larger free ride zones or resorts where it is easy and inexpensive to hire a guide for 1-2 people?
 
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