I assume it's a fire sale price that early in the season.
Europe 2025/26
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
All inclusive about $1000usd. Food, lodging, lift tickets, instruction.
Dorm type set up for youngsters.
Patrick
Well-known member
Driving back from Lyon last evening -2c. Today you cam see the snow in the hills du Bugey just few kms east of here. Taking our leave by train Wednesday and head towards the Alps. Some areas have opened this weekend (Tignes and Val Thorens in France), Zermatt is scheduled to open extra lifts next weekend.
In case @Patrick wants to go on a long train ride 
-- here's a report live as it happened today from Hintertux:
-- here's a report live as it happened today from Hintertux:
Patrick is still in Lyon. I think he only has time for Zermatt on this trip.
Patrick
Well-known member
35km East of Lyon.
Taking the train to Zermatt Wednesday, hoping for the weather to cooperate. Total all the skiing was shutdown in Zermatt and part of Cervinia. Suppose to snow until early Wednesday.
We have booked 5 nights in Zermatt (actually Fri-Sat nights are in Tasch, everything was soldout or crazy expensive. We might leave after skiing on next Monday or Tuesday. Overnight to train Hamburg and Copenhagen to spend our last week in Europe.
Current open terrain in the Alps according to skiresorts. 26 resorts open, here are the top 12.
Solden AUT: 98km
Zermatt/Cervinia SWI/ITA: 86km
Gurgl AUT: 71km
Hintertux AUT: 42km
Stubai AUT: 36km
Saas Fee SWI: 28km
Val Thorens FRA: 26km
Tignes FRA: 21km
Corvatsch/Furtschellas SWI: 20km
Sulden am Ortler ITA: 20km
Pitztal AUT: 19km
Kitzsteinhorn AUT: 16km
LAP at Hintertux yesterday
ChrisC
Well-known member
An example of a North American style snow report at an Austrian Mega-resort: Saalbach.
Also, I was getting worried about visiting Austrian resorts further east than Mayrhofen/Hintertux, but Saalbach has an amzing snowmaking system to get the resort about 50% open by early December despite receiving very little natural snow compared to western Austria - and espcially France/W Switzerland.
www.saalbach.com
Also, I was getting worried about visiting Austrian resorts further east than Mayrhofen/Hintertux, but Saalbach has an amzing snowmaking system to get the resort about 50% open by early December despite receiving very little natural snow compared to western Austria - and espcially France/W Switzerland.
Snow Report | Saalbach Hinterglemm
www.saalbach.com
Saalbach on piste snow quality in 2017 was at the same excellent level as in the Dolomites in 2018, both visits late January.
I'd definitely like to go back and re-experience Saalbach's intermediate groomer paradise, especially since the connection of Fieberbrunn.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I am interested in Saalbach's lift system and the experience of an ultra modern ski resort. There is some decent off-piste in Fieberbrunn, but that is not the goal - just a bonus for a run or two.
Will likely access the resort via Fieberbrunn since it's only 20-25 minutes from Kitzbuhel, and where I want to stay multiple nights. The only other town I am interested in is - Zell am See - on the lake. I don't care too much about Solden or Mayrhofen.
I have never tried to ski vast distances in the Alps in one day. Generally, I get obsessed by one sector, area, off-piste zone.
But I remember seeing the Arlberg "Run of Fame" - I was in Rendl and guys were trying to get from Warth and back in one day.
Run of Fame Arlberg | 85 km ski circuit & 18,000 vertical meters
The longest ski circuit in the Alps with 85 km of pistes and 18,000 vertical meters. Discover Warth-Schröcken, Lech, Zürs, St. Anton and Stuben am Arlberg.
Assume it is 20 miles each direction.
Therefore, play around at Saalbach on a few routes.
The Challenge - Ski your limit | Infrastructure in Saalbach
The largest ski circuit of the Alps - 12,400 m Altitude, 65 km of tracks, 6 hours’ of skiing experience The Skicircus challenges its guests with THE MOST
www.saalbach.com
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I've done the three German-speaking ones (Saalbach, Arlberg, and Hochkönig). All were worthwhile. I'll hit the Sellaronda at some point.
ChrisC
Well-known member
My motivation will be getting back to Fieberbrunn to avoid a $100-200 cab fare for falling short.
Perhaps that's why Zermatt-Cervinia does not really encourage a ski circuit. You are better off staying overnight in either Switzerland or Italy do to geography.
It's interesting that the French want none of this ski mileage nonsense.
Even navigating Serre Chevalier must be equivalent to the best of the Austrian ski resorts.
skiandgolfnut
Member
Starting to be real concerned with my 1/26 trip to Zurich. The next 10 days seem bleak and there has been little snow in a month within my 2.5 hour radius for the most part. Not that out west is looking great either. This stinks!
Assuming you have not committed to lodging, you should expand that radius. In January 2018 we were skiing in the Dolomites 48 hours after landing in Geneva with a short ski day at Pila on the way.
The SW Alps have been hammered over the past week. These are obscure places, but as James has demonstrated often, small in the Alps still means lots to explore by our standards.
The other option would be to go to someplace like Saalbach or the Dolomites with comprehensive snowmaking. Even though you'll be all on-piste the immense scale of these places still provide variety.
ChrisC
Well-known member
OpenSnow indicates a more typical NW-N flow after about January 1st. Wait and see.
The Eastern Austrian resorts are not doing well. The South faces of Saalbach, Mayrhofen, Skiwelt don't even have WROD open yet - just brown slopes with no snow. They need some snow and cold air.
The North faces of Kitzbuhel, and glacier resorts Kitzsteinhorn, Hintertux, and Solden look like decent coverage.
It appears the SW storms provided some decent coverage to the Italian resorts of Prali, Sestriere, and Monterosa.
Biggest dumps were in far southwest: 1.5 meters recent storm, 3 meters total.
James' kind of places in a country he resists, but the storm was also substantial across the border at Auron and especially Isola 2000.
I grazed the OpenSnow reports too, though they often must be taken with a grain of salt. As ChrisC mentions there were decent totals in Via Lattea, Cervinia (some spillover to Zermatt and Saas-Fee) and the Monterosa, but not much in Courmayeur or La Thuile.
Retour de l'Est spillovers into France farther north were modest, exceeding a foot only very close to the border at Val d'Isere, Montgenevre and Queyras. Since Val d'Isere also got the NW flow November storms and probably preserved most of it with favorable altitude/exposure, I suspect the skiing there now is decent.
FYI to @skiandgolfnut: Zurich to Val d'Isere is 5.5 hours drive, an hour less than our Geneva to Val Gardena drive in 2018 and not much different than L.A. to Mammoth or Seattle to Whistler.
James' kind of places in a country he resists, but the storm was also substantial across the border at Auron and especially Isola 2000.
I grazed the OpenSnow reports too, though they often must be taken with a grain of salt. As ChrisC mentions there were decent totals in Via Lattea, Cervinia (some spillover to Zermatt and Saas-Fee) and the Monterosa, but not much in Courmayeur or La Thuile.
Retour de l'Est spillovers into France farther north were modest, exceeding a foot only very close to the border at Val d'Isere, Montgenevre and Queyras. Since Val d'Isere also got the NW flow November storms and probably preserved most of it with favorable altitude/exposure, I suspect the skiing there now is decent.
FYI to @skiandgolfnut: Zurich to Val d'Isere is 5.5 hours drive, an hour less than our Geneva to Val Gardena drive in 2018 and not much different than L.A. to Mammoth or Seattle to Whistler.
skiandgolfnut
Member
I can likely change flights to Milan or Geneva as i booked with miles. I like the Zurich flight because it arrives at 630 AM and I can be skiing by 930/10 and only have 4 full days of skiing to begin with. But if need be I can either change destinations or cancel entirely and try again in March or just punt until next year. Luckily Im locked into nothing.