Any skiers out there?

Great area. I have stayed at Meribel Mottaret (slightly higher) and Courchevel 1800 (Jardin Alpin). As you probably know, everyone ends up on the Glacier at Val Thorens when there is little snow...this is fine if the links are kept open. One year, while staying at Courchevel we were bussed to VT and I think it took around 2.5 hrs!

If you haven't had a lesson for a while, it is well worth it, given the new design of modern skis. They are incredibly powerful, but technique has changed significantly over the last decade or so....this means to get the most out of them, it is worth taking on board the necessary adaptations.

IMO If this is something you wish to consider, it is always best to get native English speaking Instructors (Brits, Americans, Aussies etc). Most of these resorts either have little British Ski Schools or English speakers working there, especially in the International schools.

What I do is suss it out on the resorts website and ring round till I get what I want. I then book it well in advance, as these instructors get booked up early. I can usually access this info if you have difficulty. If this is of no interest, there's no harm done.

Cno

Hopefully some good news for skiers -

Snow forecast (over next 9 days):
Meribel.....75 cm
Verbier.....95cm

Fingers crossed

Cno

Wow, great!!!

Will keep you updated....watch this space.

When do you leave (lucky ******)?

Hi  me and the girlfriend possible 2 friends are think of learning to skii, snowboarding for me. Does any one have any good advice. Also would like to know when exactly skii season ends in certain places i told there are variations.

Hi SF

I would recommend that you would look at Andorra, which is fun, good value, lively, great for beginners, duty free and has English speaking instructors. The down side is that the snow can be dodgy and there is no glacier to retreat to....if you can wait till the conditions are good, this is ideal.

The combined area called "Grand Valira" is probably the place one to choose. It's made up of:

SOLDEU. Picturesque with plenty going on. (My preference)

EL TARTER. Quieter, more family oriented.

PAS DE LA CASA. Ugly purpose built, but party capital of area.

GRAU ROIG. Little more than activity centre built high on the slopes

CANILLO. Old charming village

ENCAMP. Decent sized town, connected to area by long cable car

The Soldeu Ski School (00376 890591) is recognized as one of the best English speaking ones in the world.

The question about the season is hard to answer, except to say that it starts when the snow falls (early Dec), and ends when it melts (shortly after Easter)....which is weather and geographical location dependent.

Higher resorts with Glaciers are usually safest, France is good for this (except for the Pyrenees). Austria is generally lower, but is more northerly (which doesn't necessarily help).

With the weather being so unpredictable, I would advise waiting till conditions are good in the area you pick, and then grabbing a last minute deal (should be possible in a recession and with the strength of the Euro).

I am assuming that you are staying in Europe, but if that's not the case, the USA and Canada now open up.

Hope that helps

Cno

3 weeks to 3 valleys! was checking hte webcams this morning - first snow cover on but very thin so far...

Latest report for Meribel:

Lower slopes - 30cm
Upper slopes - 60cm
Forecast (9 Days)- 26cm

Looking good.

On the webcams it looks more like 5cm lower and 15cm upper cover but i hope it will improve!

from today's J2Ski report...

Our latest snow report (8 Dec) indicates snow depths of 15cm (Upper Slopes) and 5cm (Lower Slopes), with the last snowfall on 7 Dec. Méribel reported "Fresh snowfall".

My info comes from the Ski Club, who have been in Tignes for the last week (Rep training), with impressive reports and picture of the levels of snow.

The greatest amount of snow fell in the Western Alps, with Val D'Isere/Tignes area reporting nearly a meter in certain places.

Latest figures:

Lower......32cm
Upper......80cm
Last snow..10cm (7th Dec)
Forecast...23cm (next 9 days)

If interested, I will be able to give more accurate feedback from 17th Dec, when SCGB Rep reports back on a daily basis.

I follow ski club site as well but not the members' zone. 

I learned to ski in the mid 70s and yes there have been incredible changes for the better imo, I love taking taking those long smooth turns with a good pair of carving skis. I did try snow boarding for a morning in Chamonix a few years ago and all I managed to do is carve up (and not ina good way) the t-bar tracks ops:  I'll leave snowboarding to the youngsters...

So you started a couple of years after me...it took me years to learn how to ski off-piste on traditional 2m skis.....then they changed the goal posts, and invented "Fatboys".

I love Zermatt, it has to be one of my favourite places in the world. We spent a few days of our honeymoon there 3 years ago, with a view of the Matterhorn from our balcony Would love to go back in winter for skiing!