(KIngston, Ontario, Canada)
As I mentioned in a recent post, the dates have been chosen and I am now deep into the “venue selection process” for this winter’s ski trip. It’s not on the same scale as planning an entire year’s worth of travel, but this is the most complicated travel problem I’ve faced for quite some time. Today’s lengthy post, illustrated with some pictures from March of 2010, is all about figuring out when and where to ski.
There are usually about 6 of us, coming from 4 or 5 different countries (depending on the year) and two continents. Thanks to e-mail, this is not an insurmountable barrier. However, while it is great to be in regular contact with my “ski posse”, it can sometimes still feel like herding cats when it is time to make a decision. Not only are we in different time zones, but we all in different professions (with their own “seasons”) and our countries all have different “high seasons” for holidays. In Canada, for example, there can be a lot of competition in the workplace for “March Break” vacations.
Geography, economics, and our own preferences dictate that the ski venue will be in Europe. We also like to discover new resorts, so we rarely say “let’s just go back to the same place as last year”. This is where things get really complicated. Europe is a small continent but there is a huge amount of skiing.
The first consideration is the time of year. February is traditionally the month for ski holidays in Europe, so prices are often double what they might be in January or March. As January is also the coldest month and high-altitude skiing means even colder temperatures, this means that we will generally ski in March.
Skiing in March rules out a lot of the lower-altitude resorts, as we need to be sure that the resort will have sufficient snow. This means that we are more or less confined to the Alps. This is not a terrible fate but it does rule out some interesting off-the-beaten-path possibilities.
The next consideration is national price levels. While we always stay in inexpensive accommodation, a strong currency and high standards of living can sometimes push even the cheapest accommodation out of reach. Right now, pretty much everything in Switzerland is out of the question because of the very strong Swiss Franc. It’s not just the hotel cost: we also have to consider the cost of lift passes, ski rental, food, and transportation to/from the resort.
As we enjoy exploring different pistes and most European bookings need to be for a week, the resort needs to be of a certain size to hold our interest. We don’t want to ski the same slopes six days in a row. This rules out all but the largest stand-alone resorts. Generally, we are looking for a ski “region”, where a single pass gets you access to a variety of different resorts (ideally linked by pistes rather than by bus or train). We try to avoid purpose-built resorts: it’s much more interesting to ski in and around real Alpine villages.
Once we think we’ve found a region or resort, we also need to consider our access to the ski lifts. An otherwise perfect village 6 miles from the nearest lift does not work. Ideally, we want something in the “middle” of the region that allows us to access all of the resorts covered by the weekly ski pass.
We also need to find accommodation for 6 unrelated people. Ideally, this would be in 6 single rooms, although this is not always possible. Most hotels don’t have many single rooms, as the economics favour putting more than one person in a room. Also, many seemingly ideal hotels are booked a year or more in advance, either by tour groups or by returning skiers who have enjoyed the resort in the past.
We also need to eat! One of the great attractions of European skiing is the (usually) excellent on-mountain and in-resort dining. However, this is not always the case. Evening dinners can be problematic: after 8 hours of skiing, we don’t want to wander all over town trying to find a reasonably-priced place with good (local) food that has tables available and appeals to all 6 of us. Lately, we’ve found that a well-chosen hotel offering half-board (with each day’s breakfast and dinner included) is a good solution to this problem. But good-value accommodation and good food don’t always go hand-in-hand.
With all of these considerations, the initial stages of the search can be overwhelming. Nobody wants to let the others down with a lousy venue or a proposal that not everyone can afford. This year, I did have a small crisis at one point and wondered whether we should just go back to a “safe” resort that we’ve visited before.
However, after much research and some frustrating late nights at the keyboard, the chase appears to be coming to a successful conclusion. It looks like we’ve found our 2016 ski region and we are down to a couple of hotels in 2 different resorts within that region.
This year’s destination is the cross-border Via Lattea (“Milky Way”) ski region in northwestern Italy and southeastern France. This region hosted the skiing events for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino (Turin). Whichever hotel we choose, we will indeed have quality accommodation in a large ski region (that most of us have never visited before) with great food, interesting local culture and sights, good access to lifts, and very reasonable prices. While it was a challenge at the time, it is great to know that the long hours of preparation will not be in vain!
