druddle

Hello !

We are looking to go with a load of friends skiing/boarding for a week over New Year this year.

Has anyone got any advice on where to go ? Italy looked quite good but we have had no experiences in Europe, only Colorado.

Needs to be somewhere that can accomodate some novice skiers and also that has a good medical facility cos i am bound to break somehing again

Cheers

Dave

Brendan Hughes

Dave - if it's novices, my experiences of the French and Italian ski school instructors were that they were brilliant at skiing but atrocious at teaching, just interested in showing off and taking you round the mountains. I've never tried Austria or Switzerland, but I would hope their Germanic instructors would actually teach. Since I went to Canada in 98 I swore I would never go back to Europe, as the quality of pretty much everything was so much better. Check the prices if you are tempted, but jetlag puts a downer on if it's only for 6 days. My skiing is crap due to having French (non) instructors for the first 4 weeks, the Canucks still can't correct me. My boarding OTOH is fine - guess where I learned.

I've also been thinking about skiing at New Year, as I now have a kid at school so am tied into holiday periods. Other thought is, you will want real snow, and I don't know how easy this is over new year, so look for a resort either that has access to a glacier/ is at high level, or that is absolutely plastered with snow cannon.

Medics - well mate, that's your own fault

BJH

druddle

We would go to Breckenridge again cos we know people that live there, but as you say its the jetlag thing.

There will be boarders and skiers, of varying abilities. And there must be frequent stops available to lower the blood levels in my alcohol stream. Hic.

gregh

based on the snow this year I'd go to the US for new year

Greg

Toerag

I went to Saa-Fee over Xmas this year, there's a glacier so you have guaranteed skiing if it isn't blowing a gale. I'm a novice so I was only on the nursery slopes, but the area isn't that big. Zermatt is in the next valley (45mins by coach) so you could combine the 2 resorts. www.saas-fee.ch A friend of mine went to Val thorens a couple of years ago and said it was great, but another friend went there this year and there was F-all snow. Western US or canada sounds like your best bet, although you'll need 2 weeks to make the most of your time there.

MarkJackon

Were going to Les Gets in France which is on the Swiss Border in three weeks, will report back then !

Jackson Hole in Wyoming was great, generally better than europe.

Jer

Just back from Chamonix, superb teaching, food, booze, scenery, skiing and accommodation.

Can't recommend it enough

Jer