Europe 2025/26

jamesdeluxe said:
I like the look and feel of Ikon's destination profiles. Interesting to note that they provide two key statistics that we've always struggled to find for European resorts: skiable acreage (they claim 3,802 for the entire region) and average snowfall per season (192 inches, which seems reasonable; however, where was it taken: at the base or mid-mountain?). I wonder where they accessed those figures.

View attachment 47330

This is a nice graphic showing the travel time between airport gateways to the target region. Funny that they don't bother to "translate" the code for Milan (MXP) for non-travel geeks.
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I think these are meaningless numbers not derived from any legitimate sources. It’s like the Summer Intern wrote this up on their last day.

Even the hrs/distance from Milan/Geneva are incorrect. Maybe Aosta City?

The Aosta Valley is a vast area! The drive from Courmayeur to Monterosa is at least 1.5 hours, and snowfall patterns are incredibly diverse. Courmayeur/La Thuile/Cervinia do well with storms from the west to the south. Pila/Monterosa do well from Med Storms from the south—lots of microclimate.

This Ikon nonsense is the equivalent of coming up with a single number for Summit and Eagle Counties, CO + (Abasin, Loveland, Keystone, Breck, Vail, Copper, Beaver Creek)
Snowfall: 250” for everything.
Distance from Denver 1.5 hrs to all resorts.

Or coming up with single numbers for the Tyrol.
 
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I have never seen ski acerage given out for European ski resorts.

Some estimates that might be more legit:

Conversion to Acres

To convert:
  • 1 km = 0.6214 miles → 800 km ≈ 497 miles of slopes
  • 1 square kilometer = 247.1 acres
  • However, slope length doesn’t equal area. To approximate:
    • If we assume 800 km of slopes correspond roughly to 3,000 hectares of skiable terrain (based on a similar ski region’s data), that’s:
      • 3,000 hectares = 7,413 acres


Ski Area / Region​
Length (km)​
Approx. Area (hectares)​
Approx. Acres​
Entire Aosta Valley~800 km~3,000 ha~7,400 acres
Breuil-Cervinia / Matterhorn Paradise~360 km~2,200 ha (est.)~5,400 acres
Monterosa Ski~180 km~1,100 ha (est.)~2,700 acres
Pila~70 km~400–500 ha (est.)~1,000–1,200 acres
Courmayeur~100 km +?SpeculativeNot clearly stated

Plus La Thuile
 
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ChrisC said:
I have never seen ski acerage given out for European ski resorts.

Some estimates that might be more legit:

Conversion to Acres

To convert:
  • 1 km = 0.6214 miles → 800 km ≈ 497 miles of slopes
  • 1 square kilometer = 247.1 acres
  • However, slope length doesn’t equal area. To approximate:
    • If we assume 800 km of slopes correspond roughly to 3,000 hectares of skiable terrain (based on a similar ski region’s data), that’s:
      • 3,000 hectares = 7,413 acres


Ski Area / Region​
Length (km)​
Approx. Area (hectares)​
Approx. Acres​
Entire Aosta Valley~800 km~3,000 ha~7,400 acres
Breuil-Cervinia / Matterhorn Paradise~360 km~2,200 ha (est.)~5,400 acres
Monterosa Ski~180 km~1,100 ha (est.)~2,700 acres
Pila~70 km~400–500 ha (est.)~1,000–1,200 acres
Courmayeur~100 km +?SpeculativeNot clearly stated

Plus La Thuile
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Thredbo is about 1200 acres from memory. I’m very familiar with its size. It certainly feels smaller than Pila to me.
I understand my thoughts are not exactly scientific.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
I wonder where they accessed those figures.
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ChrisC said:
I think these are meaningless numbers not derived from any legitimate sources. It’s like the Summer Intern wrote this up on their last day. Even the hrs/distance from Milan/Geneva are incorrect.
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Agreed. My praise was for how the collateral looked visually, not the accuracy of the content! I figured that if our resident experts @Tony Crocker and @Weathertoski (Fraser) couldn't find information about yearly snowfall, how did Ikon?
 
jamesdeluxe said:
@Weathertoski (Fraser) couldn't find information about yearly snowfall, how did Ikon?
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Fraser appears to obtain some snowfall totals for the Alps and often publishes them in the end-of-year summary entitled Who got the most snow?

Cervinia
Who got the most snow in the Alps in 2017-18?

Snowiest of all, however, and 'the snowiest resort in the Alps in 2017-18' was Cervinia, with 10.1m at resort level (2050m)- similar to the quantity recorded in Val Thorens in France - but an incredible 19.9m recorded up on the glacier at 3400m. So, in our book at any rate, it is the Italian resort takes the title this time around.
That's almost 800 inches!

And here are some snowfall averages cited:
To the south-west, Cervinia (Italy) was about on par at altitude, with 8.20m at Plateau Rosa (3480m, compared with 4.60m at resort level (2050m), where the average is just above 5m.
www.weathertoski.co.uk

Weather to ski - Who got the most snow in 2014-15?

Fraser Wilkin asks which European ski resorts got the most snow in the 2014 - 2015 ski season.
www.weathertoski.co.uk www.weathertoski.co.uk

This seems believable to me, considering I skied Zermatt-Cervinia in mid-to-late April 2018 and Cervinia's upper cable car slopes in early July 2004.
 
Ikon really dominates Italian skiing partners now, with wide coverage in the two major regions:
  • Aosta
  • Dolomites (Sella and Cortina)
However, these areas are unfortunately quite far apart - 5 hours - but you could do it with an overnight stop at a midpoint.

Epic has the less desirable Dolomite ski resorts, with the largest being Madonna di Campiglio (Bode Miller's favorite Euro region when interviewed).

However, all the USA skiers are essentially using their Ikon passes to ski Chamonix and Zermatt; the Italian ski areas will just be supporting members of these two iconic resorts. (I wonder how Mattehorn Ski Paradise will work - can you buy a Zermatt-Cervinia 'international pass' - or forced to buy/redeem a separate Cervinia pass after skiing over the border? Same issue with San Bernardo - I don't think La Rosiere is on the Ikon pass, and Ikon should not be referring to the complex name, and only La Thuile).

At Chamonix in winter 2024, every American I rode with on a lift was on an Ikon Pass skiing Chamonix and Zermatt - nearly 100%.

St. Moritz would also be an attractive destination to visit, along with Chamonix/Zermatt. However, I read that the famous Glacier Express no longer allows ski equipment on its winter trains. Stupid. The best part of the Glacier Express is perhaps the free train from Disentis to Andermatt, so I checked that box.


1756395568662.png
 
ChrisC said:
Fraser appears to obtain some snowfall totals for the Alps and often publishes them in the end-of-year summary entitled Who got the most snow?
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Yes, and I've been sending him a North America version for a decade. These are on his site through 2022-23. He didn't publish what I sent him for 2023-24, possibly because he didn't have time to do the a Euro version for that season.

Stuart was all over that Aosta Ikon announcement. It included even more fantasyland average snowfall numbers, so I was compelled to comment:
I don't know where you are getting these snowfall numbers, but no ski writer should ever accept a number like 591 inches unless backed up by a LOT of hard data. Maybe it's 591cm? The oft quoted 384 inches are suspect too. There are only a handful of microclimates in the Alps that get as much as 400.

Courmayeur and La Thuile are favorably placed to get storms from both Atlantic and Mediterranean and probably exceed 300 inches at higher elevations. Cervinia has very limited data (10 years, no monthly splits) measuring 200 inches at the base, 285 at Plan Maison and 330 at Plateau Rosa 11,400 feet. This is why I am very skeptical of 384 inch claims at areas that don't go higher than 9,000 feet. The Monterosa is farther east, totally dependent on less frequent Mediterranean storms. Terrain is magnificent but it has a very erratic reputation for snow, might be 250 inches at 10,000 feet top of lift service, half that at the bases far below.
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I may be :beating-a-dead-horse: about this, but I don't just get why 99% of ski writers will accept snowfall numbers that are almost surely wrong. Isn't it basic journalism that if you can't verify something suspicious, you say nothing at all?

ChrisC said:
an incredible 19.9m recorded up on the glacier at 3400m. So, in our book at any rate, it is the Italian resort takes the title this time around.
That's almost 800 inches!
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783 inches in a location that averages 330, that's big time volatility at 2.37x average, more than any place I have for North America. We know where to look for contenders:
Taos average 250, max 458, 1.83x
Arizona Snowbowl average 242, max 459, 1.89x
Palisades base average 258, max 494, 1.91x
Mammoth average 357, max 714, 2.00x
unofficial SoCal average 127, max 267, 2.10x

There are anecdotal comments that in 1972-73 Arizona Snowbowl got 500 (it was open for July 4) and Wolf Creek (average 388) got 800. That same El Nino yielded 738 inches at Portillo in 1972, 2.91x the 254 inch average from 1970-2007.
 
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jamesdeluxe said:
Agreed. My praise was for how the collateral looked visually, not the accuracy of the content
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The Summer Marketing Intern thanks you for the glossy compliment—regardless of the facts. Besides, ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini provided him/her with the numbers, which must be correct enough.

Gen Z does not care about sources or "systems of truth", but more if peers also adopt something as fact. If you have enough likes, its "truthiness" is enough.

I now need to request a one-page/paragraph cut-and-paste backup of key citations/facts.



Tony Crocker said:
783 inches in a location that averages 330, that's big time volatility at 2.37x average, more than any place I have for North America. We know where to look for contenders:
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I honestly believe it was a 'once-a-generation' ski year: 2017-18 - especially for Zermatt-Cervinia. Before my brother and I skied the resorts in late Jan/early Feb 2018, Zermatt was inaccessible for most of the week before we arrived (train vs. avalanche). I wish I had paid attention to storm tracks that season, but I think a lot more came up from the Mediterranean vs. a NW flow.
 
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I was in Cervinia the same last week of January 2018 that ChrisC was in Val d'Isere. Snow on roofs, piled high in parking lots was every bit the equal of what we see in big years at Mammoth or LCC.
 
Tony Crocker said:
I may be :beating-a-dead-horse: about this, but I don't just get why 99% of ski writers will accept snowfall numbers that are almost surely wrong. Isn't it basic journalism that if you can't verify something suspicious, you say nothing at all?
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The same reason my brother succeeds in Telluride: there are such low standards in ski towns, ski real estate, ski journalism, ski businesses, ski bars, and so on. He and his wife tried a metro area and tech jobs for a year - they would have likely just been hired and fired a few times in a few years if they stayed. Why bother?

Instead, they created a multi-million-dollar business in the Telluride Rockies because one was needed. How? Showing up on time, doing a decent job, paying attention to requests, and hiring ethical employees - not rocket science. Now they have Bill and Melinda Gates, the tech world, and all the Hollywood/NYC media types as their clients, who will pay for services. Chelsea Handler seems to want pot services.

Frankly, living in a ski town would drive me crazy - beautifully insane. Maybe I could do Vail or Park City, since they function more as metro suburbs, but no - it's a place to visit for me.

Although one-quarter of my friends seemed to decamp to Tahoe to ski during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Again, low standards in ski-anything are my expectation.
 
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ChrisC said:
Gen Z does not care about sources or "systems of truth", but more if peers also adopt something as fact. If you have enough likes, its "truthiness" is enough.
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Man, you nailed this ChrisC... I've personally noticed with many of my GenZ & millennial clients, as well as those in the wild that begin MANY statements with: "I feel like" ________ statement:

Sure its 100% verifiable garbage, but its doesn't matter as long as "they feel" its true; and its not like you can invalidate someone's feelings anymore so it remains 'truth'.
 
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