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It was great to see Jim again over Christmas and we went to several local Swiss ski resorts. We were also able to tune the powder technique around Christmas itself - not at all usual! Later in the break the temperature went up and we were forced to remain more or less on the Piste.
Our first real ski holiday was in a new resort for us of Serfaus. We chose it because it is fairly high and we couldn't be sure of good snow so early in the year - we needn't have worried. One point to watch though, the lift pass for Serfaus does not include the Fiss area as we thought and it's very easy to get stuck - as we did and have to buy a half day pass! It is possible to buy only the necessary lifts but we decided that we wanted to see the area anyway. We were, after some arguments able to upgrade our passes but it would have been cheaper if we had bought the right ones from the start. Early in the week we found the off-piste very heavy and found ourselves skiing the fairly easy pistes but as the snow fell during the week we were able to get away from the pistes and get in some powder practice for St Anton.
Our next ski holiday will be in St Anton am Alberg and we are again hoping to meet up with the normal team. After that comes our group holiday in Obergurgl and we are pleased to say that Richard will be back with Bernadette (hopefully she can keep him under control). Sadly, Jane and Kevin will not be with us (due to the sound of expected little skis...) They have promised to come back in the following year. Steve however will be with us as loyal as ever. Our last Holiday this year will be back to Flachau. We had such a great time there last time we are even going back to the same hotel.
Last season we had some really good skiing. The better snow has once again been in the East. It seemed the further East we went the better the snow became. Our first holiday (taken in Early January) was in Gashurn. Here we were quite high and had fair snow. We had a great time but the snow was certainly not at it's best. We were pleased to have chosen a higher resort. Needless to say it snowed when we had to leave the village and we actually had to fit the snow chains to leave the village!
Our next holiday was taken in St Anton am Alberg. Here we met up with our old friends Alois and Joshy. We were slightly disappointed to learn that Alois is no longer competing in the World Championship Powder Eight's. However they were able to find us superb untracked powder snow every day - even if we did have to walk for an hour or so to get to it! It was great to see the same faces that we have seen for the last few years. There was also some new faces too and we quickly became good friends with them too. One in particular, Walter Alpiger from Eastern Switzerland, we got to know quite well. Unfortunately Walter suffered an injury on the last day whilst skiing with Alois. Hopefully it won't prove too serious - get well soon Walter.
Our third holiday was a return trip to Ischgl. This time however we took the group with us. The group was severely reduced this year. That didn't stop us enjoying ourselves. Ischgl is a great resort and always investing in the lifts and opening new areas. We really enjoyed the investments and new lifts. Nobody got too unruly, I guess that was because Richard was not there this time. We're hoping he'll be back next year. Jane has promised to bring some more young girls so that should attract him - with or without Bernadette!
Our last holiday with Jim was in Obertauern. Once again this was a return visit and once again it was at the end of the season. Regular readers will know that we try to take our later holidays towards the east of Austria because of the better snow record. Once again we were proved 100% correct in our estimate of the weather. It just snowed and snowed and snowed. we were getting about 75cm of snow a day. By Wednesday it was not possible to see any of the cars in the car park - they were simply buried. What is more, it was not possible to see if a car was even there unless you could see a car-radio aerial or a windscreen wiper. Some people were already putting poles, sticks, shovels at the rear of their car to prevent the snow plough or snow blower from hitting them! Fortunately, the hotel owner was kind enough to bring in the snow blower on Friday to dig out our cars. If he hadn't, I don't think we could have dug the car out with our shovels in less than 4-5 hours. As it was the snow that fell on Friday night took us an hour to dig out. As we drove home (Westward) we saw the snow level rise and rise. In Switzerland it was so warm that on the next day we took our motorbikes out and went for a very enjoyable short motorcycle ride. I dread to think what it must have been like further west. France must have been terrible!
You can find more Ski Pictures on our Photo Page.
You should be able to find snow reports in Switzerland and in Austria. I don't feel that I can recommend either France or Italy on environmental issues. If you are interested in keeping skiing beautiful the click here. Be warned this document is not a light-hearted nice-to-read article like the rest of this site.
Current Snow Depths
in Switzerland
Where the new snow has
fallen
Current Avalanche Danger
Well we've skied in many places in Europe. We've got lots of stories to tell and want to share them with you. On a serious note I think that since we are all investing lots of cash into our chosen sport that we should know all about the places we are choosing to ski in. So far the only reports that we have here are;-
Saas Fee -
Switzerland
Obertauern -
Austria
Cervinia -
Italy
Ischgl- Austria
St Anton -
Austria
Alpbach -
Austria
Flachau -
Austria
Gaschurn -
Austria
If you want to add your report please send it to Duncan for inclusion.
If you want to know how much your pound, dollar, franc etc will buy you,just click here.
You can
email Duncan and Michelle here.
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