Europe 2025/26

This just in from the Grey Lady:

A Crisis in the Alps: Airbnb, Climate Change and Americans​

The mountains’ resort towns have reached an inflection point, facing changes that threaten their cultures and even survival, as demand for short-term rentals reshapes the landscape.

www.nytimes.com

A Crisis in the Alps: Airbnb, Climate Change and Americans

The mountains’ resort towns have reached an inflection point, facing changes that threaten their cultures and even survival, as demand for short-term rentals reshapes the landscape.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
jamesdeluxe said:
This just in from the Grey Lady:

A Crisis in the Alps: Airbnb, Climate Change and Americans​

The mountains’ resort towns have reached an inflection point, facing changes that threaten their cultures and even survival, as demand for short-term rentals reshapes the landscape.

www.nytimes.com

A Crisis in the Alps: Airbnb, Climate Change and Americans

The mountains’ resort towns have reached an inflection point, facing changes that threaten their cultures and even survival, as demand for short-term rentals reshapes the landscape.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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Makes accommodation very cheap in the months of April, May, June, September, October and November. Early December, most of January and most of March pretty reasonable too.
 
This caught my eye from James' link.
In Chamonix last winter, there was a 32 percent increase in overnight stays from U.S. customers.
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Perhaps the relative value proposition is starting to dawn upon the general population of American skiers.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
Perhaps the relative value proposition is starting to dawn upon the general population of American skiers.
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Or the marketing for European resorts on Ikon and Epic is starting to register with Americans who have a passport.

Makes me think of Australians who only ski at Epic resorts in the USA because they can use Epic at home.
 
MarzNC said:
Or the marketing for European resorts on Ikon and Epic is starting to register with Americans who have a passport.
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It would be interesting to know if the American visitation numbers have increased in the summer hiking/climbing period too. If not I would say your assumption is correct.
 
As noted in the Zermatt thread I have now booked the first four nights at the start of our trip in Zermatt. I was waffling because the weather forecast is unsettled, and you're not skiing much off piste in Zermatt if visibility is bad. Logistics flying into Milan suggest doing Zermatt at the start or end of the trip, and of course we have no clue what weather will be April 3-7. But April 5 is Easter, and consequently hotel prices in Zermatt were a better deal for next week than over Easter.

If sbooker's flight is still on, I would STRONGLY suggest he join us in Zermatt. It is not often that the Hohtalli/Stockhorn off-piste is adequately covered, and we have 3 sources saying it is good to go after last weekend's storm.

My guess is that we will ski a couple more days in the upper Rhone Valley and then look at the Briancon area and the upper Maurienne Valley for the rest of the trip. But I see no urgency for hotel reservations in those places.
 
Tony Crocker said:
As noted in the Zermatt thread I have now booked the first four nights at the start of our trip in Zermatt. I was waffling because the weather forecast is unsettled, and you're not skiing much off piste in Zermatt if visibility is bad. Logistics flying into Milan suggest doing Zermatt at the start or end of the trip, and of course we have no clue what weather will be April 3-7. But April 5 is Easter, and consequently hotel prices in Zermatt were a better deal for next week than over Easter.

If sbooker's flight is still on, I would STRONGLY suggest he join us in Zermatt. It is not often that the Hohtalli/Stockhorn off-piste is adequately covered, and we have 3 sources saying it is good to go after last weekend's storm.

My guess is that we will ski a couple more days in the upper Rhone Valley and then look at the Briancon area and the upper Maurienne Valley for the rest of the trip. But I see no urgency for hotel reservations in those places.
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My flight has been cancelled. Iran lobbing drones and missiles at the airport.
I couldn’t get any other flights through Hong Kong or Singapore.
I’ve booked for June but will be taking hiking shoes instead of skis. It’s yet to be determined if there will be enough avgas for me to get there that point. Fun times.

Have a great time skiing. I’m sure Zermatt will be lovely.
 
Very ironic and abnormal that Northern or NordStau weather systems are impacting Northern Switzerland and Austria. I thought this was more common January and February which makes these areas quite reliable and very snowy.

Instead a less-planned trip to Switzerland (US was not worth any spend $) results in heavy snow to 1000m valleys.


What is a Nordstau? - wePowder

wepowder.com wepowder.com

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Waist-deep powder on April 1st - wePowder

PA#13 issued with details on the snow dump between Monday and Wednesday
wepowder.com wepowder.com


Instead of skiing a snow-covered Garmisch -Zugspitze, Germany in mid-winter....it's available April 1st.

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As in 2019 we are in Portes-du-Soleil to have below tree line skiing available in bad visibility. Monday morning was difficult in that regard with also some riming of goggles like Tseeb and I experienced at Big White also in 2019. Sunday on the Swiss side and late yesterday afternoon it was just thick overcast, adequate for skiing higher on piste but light still too flat for off piste.

I was correct in my assessment that last week’s storm resurfaced Portes du Soleil very well. It’s all winter snow in Chatel and Avoriaz above 1500 meters. Swiss side has sunny exposure and had some melt/freeze from partial sun last Fri/Sat, but even there the slick manmade subsurface was well buried.

I’ll be interested where ChrisC and snowbird surfer go. It’s somewhat of a too much snow situation. You need adequate visibility for off piste plus WePowder forecasts Level 4 avalanche conditions. It looks like about 6 inches new at our Châtel hotel this morning.
 
Tony Crocker said:
last week’s storm resurfaced Portes du Soleil very well. It’s all winter snow in Chatel and Avoriaz above 1500 meters
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Good to hear given how late it is in the season.

Tony Crocker said:
we are in Portes-du-Soleil to have below tree line skiing available in bad visibility.
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The PdS has a great selection of terrain although one could argue that you're missing the whole point of being there by not being able to see those gorgeous views (Dents du Midi, et al), visualize the distances you've travelled on skis, etc.

I keep reminding myself that the next time I fly through Geneva I need to finally ski at the well-regarded but lowish elevation:

Roc d'Enfer (950 - 1,800m)
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Praz de Lys (1,430 - 1,980m)
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jamesdeluxe said:
I keep reminding myself that the next time I fly through Geneva I need to finally ski at the well-regarded but lowish elevation:
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I have seen some articles advocating that these are very high-snowfall resorts due their proximity to Mont Blanc massif, and the resulting snowfall is greatly enhanced as storms get 'stuck' coming in from N, NW, W.

Not sure.

Flaine/Grand Massif, and likely Les Contamines are similar....
 
ChrisC said:
I have seen some articles advocating that these are very high-snowfall resorts due their proximity to Mont Blanc massif, and the resulting snowfall is greatly enhanced as storms get 'stuck' coming in from N, NW, W.
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As the crow flies, Roc d'Enfer (950 - 1,800m) is seven miles directly west of Avoriaz (985 - 2,254m) but I've never heard anything one way or the other about prolific snowfall.
 
Fraser claims high snowfall in both Avoriaz and Flaine, the two places we are skiing this week, and used the same rationale as ChrisC for Flaine.

This afternoon we moved between the two. It was shocking to see zero snow in Morzine, including on the piste coming into town. Les Gets was thin too. Here’s the gondola going up Mt. Chery from Les Gets.
IMG_7188.jpeg


Shocking because snow in Chatel and Avoriaz was excellent all 4 days. It took until today for the visibility to be decent enough for us to ski the Choucas, Fornet and Grandes Combes sectors of Avoriaz and it was well worth the wait. Swiss sector of PduS had good coverage too though surfaces more variable with exposure.
 
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Today will be our last ski day. We will spend the last 4 days of the trip in Italy doing tourism. It's warming up gradually but Sunday will be in the 40's with no overnight freeze. The past week I've been skiing with a knee brace and the occasional discomfort has been manageable. The pleasant surprise is that the last two days at Avoriaz (25.5K, 4 K of powder) and Grand Massif (31.4K, 2K of powder) have been outstanding, and unlike the latter part of the Feb/Mar road trip I've had the energy to take advantage.
 
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10 total, 2 in Zermatt, one weather day off then 8 consecutitive: Saas Fee, Ovrannaz, 4 Portes du Soleil and 2 Grand Massif. 60K in the two Grand Massif days. Lower and sunny sectors all in spring mode today.

I had to try that notorious Gere poma today. Fortunately the track was not rutted or icy due to recent snow but it’s still a 2,320 vertical foot workout.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Saas Fee, Ovrannaz, 4 Portes du Soleil and 2 Grand Massif. 60K in the two Grand Massif days. Lower and sunny sectors all in spring mode today.

I had to try that notorious Gere poma today. Fortunately the track was not rutted or icy due to recent snow but it’s still a 2,320 vertical foot workout.
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What did you think of Saas Fee? My $0.02 was beautiful, huge, great village, but not much off-piste since it is so glaciated with crevasses.

Grand Massif surprised me, and I found it very worthwhile.

The Gers Poma is likely the worst surface lift in Europe due to its length and exposure. Andermatt-Gemmstock's poma is difficult as well.
 
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We daytripped Saas-Fee, used a parking garage and shuttle bus to the Alpin-Express base, spent zero time in the resort. Yes the piste footprint is surprisingly small, this despite a rare even in the Alps continuous run of 6,000 vertical. We covered everything in about 4 hours including a final run on Plattjen, well timed as it’s in direct afternoon sun. It will probably be the final TR of the trip due to so many scenic pics to review.

Liz was astounded by the scale and quality of Grand Massif as she had never heard of it or any of its components Flaine, Samoens or Morillon. I’m not sure why it escapes most American skiers’ attention. The Brits are there in force and Vanat says it gets 1+ million skier visits.

I had a good idea from ChrisC’s 2023 TR. I had some concern two days would not be enough but weather, conditions and my knee brace cooperated to rack up that 60K vs. 48K in one day for ChrisC.

Terrain quality of Grand Massif is excellent, better IMHO than Les Arcs, which has similar logistics. With medium altitude range but primary north exposure a good analogy might be Serre Chevalier but surely Grand Massif averages much more snow.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Liz was astounded by the scale and quality of Grand Massif as she had never heard of it or any of its components Flaine, Samoens or Morillon.
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It's hard to physically miss -- you can see the upper Flaine terrain while driving by on the A40 highway from Geneva. I've threatened to go there several times over the past dozen years and some logistics challenge always came up and it turned into "eh, I'll go on my next trip." :eusa-doh:

I’m not sure why it escapes most American skiers’ attention.
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Do you think that it's a "how good can it be with a location so close to Geneva?" issue? Fair or not, if you're unaware of Flaine's skiing qualities, you've probably seen pix of its brutalist architecture, which recalls the creepy exterior of the Biocarbon Amalgamate building in David Cronenberg's horror classic Scanners.

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The Brits are there in force and Vanat says it gets 1+ million skier visits.
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Fraser has always been bullish on GM's snow record, micro-climate, underrated qualities, and status as a UK magnet. He chalks up the resort's comparative low profile to not quite being a Top Ten in any specific category:

While Flaine cannot pretend to compete with the very top tier of Alpine ski resorts when it comes to snow reliability (e.g. Tignes, Val Thorens, Saas-Fee and Obergurgl), it does rank as one of the most snow-sure ski resorts in the Haute-Savoie - perhaps the most snow-sure ski resort if you are looking at a combination of resort level and more general snow cover/quality.​

Two years ago, I added the Flaine chapter from the Where To Ski and Snowboard book to ChrisC's report, which is so extensive that I feel like I've already been there!
 
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