Val d’Isere

Val d’Isere is one of the best known ski resorts in the world and is part if the Espace Killy area that includes Tignes .The area has seen considerable investment in the lift system over the last few years such as the Face Olympique de Bellevard . Val d’Isere has also poured money into projects such as the amazing leisure centre and swimming pool, which anyone with a two day plus lift pass, can swim in for free.

This year they are upgrading the lifts in the Grand Prix area. The main lift in the area, the Santons, will be replaced. The Fontaine Froide which is the lift that takes you up to the where the Funival arrives. This means that you don’t have to ski back down into the village to avoid the current slow and cold Fontaine Froide chair. Both lifts will be replaced with a 6 seater detachable ski lift.

Lucinda, our Val d’Isere specialist, was delighted at the upgrade news and had this to say. “The Fontaine Froide lift is one of the most basic lifts in Val d’Isere. Getting on the lift poses many problems especially for beginners lacking confidence! Having used this lift many times before,  I have seen a fair few accidents occur, due to the sheer speed the lift approaches those wanting to embark on their journey to the top of the Olympique. If timings are wrong you are sure to get smacked on the back of the knees or if you are really unlucky pushed forward and dragged under the lift. One could confidently say that the lift is due an upgrade.”

www.catered-ski-chalets.co.uk

Verbier adds a new lift for the 2012/13 season

Next winter will see a new lift in the Verbier ski area. The lift operators will be installing a cable car from La Châble to the village of Brunson, which has its own ski area. You can currently access Brunson by bus, but very few people choose to do this.  We asked our Verbier expert, Alex, for his thoughts on this development and the opening up of the Bruson area.

“Bruson is pretty niche, it is north facing and has great powder, usually only locals or those in the know go there.  It is empty most of the time. You go to Medran, get the bubble down to Le Châble and then change for this new lift.”

This development is in addition to the new lift that replaced the La Combe and Mayentzet chairlifts. The new lifts opened mid season, this winter. At the foot of this lift you can get your lift pass and there rarely is a queue, making it an ideal lift to take during peak weeks.

www.skichaletsverbier.co.uk

More choice when booking a winter flight.

The low fare airline, Monarch, has announced that it will be offering flights to some of the most popular ski destinations this winter. This is great news as it will give ski tourists more choice of airport and a bigger chance to snap up a bargain flight.

Monarch will be flying to Grenoble, Friedrichshafen and Munich from December until Easter, specifically for the winter sport trade. This is in addition to its current offering of Innsbruck. From these airports you can access most of the popular eastern Alps resorts as well as Switzerland and Austria.

The carrier will also be launching flights to Milan, Verona and Venice, enabling passengers to get to the resorts in the Southern Alps and the Dolomites.

The cost of a flight starts at £37 one way and Monarch offers ski equipment carriage for £19.99. They have no charge with a debit card and will charge 2% to anyone booking with a credit card.

Monarch fly from Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, London Gatwick and London Luton. Monarch have also announced that they will be running these ski routes from Leeds Bradford International Airport.

Monarch has been around for twenty years and is used as a charter airline by many ski tour operators. So the chances that you have flown with them before is pretty high. In our experience the airline is as good as any other low fare airline and very comfortable with short check-in queues.

If you are booking a flight for the winter and want accommodation, have a look at our transfers and accommodation only options.

Source

Top 16 stupid ski questions asked on Yahoo Answers.

We have trawled Yahoo Answers to find the questions that no one wanted asking about skiing. Please feel free to try and answer the questions in the comment section.

The Ischgl Blog of Blogs

You may have heard that we went to Ischgl for our end of season trip. The trip was so much fun that it has

spawned many blogs paying tribute to it. Below are links to every piece by our office scribes.

www.ischgl-euro-party.blogspot.co.uk

www.kirstyskiblog.wordpress.com

www.notanotherskiblog.tumblr.com

www.iloveischgl.blogspot.co.uk

www.allthingsski.wordpress.com

www.blog.interactiveresorts.co.uk

10 Reasons Why La Plagne is Worth a Visit.

We recently posted a blog about the improvements that La Plagne is putting in place for the 2012/13 winter season.  The response we received to the article went a bit like this, “It is a bit..ummm…chavvy” and “It needs a bomb!”. To counter these negative feelings towards, what is an overlooked ski resort, we gathered together everyone in the office who had been to La Plagne and we came up with 10 reasons why you should go.

1.       Massive ski area with Terrain to challenge all levels.

2.       You can find a good run whatever the weather.

3.       Linked to Les Arcs.

4.       Plagne Centre is no uglier than Tignes.

5.       Different villages mean there’s something to suit everyone.

6.       Convenience. Almost every chalet (a few exceptions) are either ski to the door or VERY close.

7.       Vast amount of off-piste. The North Face is a “must-do”. Good parks too.

8.       It’s cheaper than most other resorts in the area to stay in a catered chalet.

9.       Family friendly. Kids will love the logo.

10.   Good nightlife without being a party town

If that has made you think twice about La Plagne, then check out the chalets we have at www.laplagnechalets.co.uk or give us a call and speak to one of our La Plagne specialists.

La Plagne has plans

The resort of La Plagne is making some welcome improvements for 2012/13. The lift operators will be focusing their attention on the Plagne Centre area.

They plan to replace the 4-man Becoin chair with a 6-seater chairlift which will result in the Biolley draglift being moved, but we are not sure where to.  The Jean Luc Crétier stadium will be entirely remodeled creating an extra 30% of ski terrain, this also involves moving the Stadium building to the Verdons Piste.

The Mont Saint Sauveur piste will receive a wider finish which will be achieved by the removal of the two draglifts in the area called Z and Cadri. To accommodate this change the nearby Colorado chair will be moved downhill. One of our sales consultants, Claire, is not so sure that the disappearance of the Z is a good idea. “This distresses me! The Z was a handy little drag that gave enough height to get across to the other side of centre or down to Scotty’s without having to take Colorado all the way up”

There is also good news for beginners and children. The move of the Colorado chair will help to make space for a new beginner’s zone between it and the existing Funiplagne. To make the beginners area as user friendly as possible, a covered rolling carpet will be installed.

The La Plagne tourist office say “The object of these works is to completely reorga­nise the snow front in Plagne Centre to improve skier comfort in this sector”.

Interactive Resorts Ski Trip to Ischgl, Austria.

Well, that was the season that was. It started, as usual these days, with a lot of writer-types in various publications mouthing off about the lack of snow (in mid-November) then, to our joy, the Alps raised two defiant fingers to the lot of them and dumped fresh powder all over the place. We here at Interactive Resorts had our noses hard to the grindstone throughout, and it was with a great sigh of relief that we put the phones down on the 15^th of April and flew off to the Austrian resort of Ischgl for our annual End of Season Blowout.

Our location of choice for this year was the Zita, a good quality 3* chalet just up from town center. It had everything we need; hot and cold running water, seventies bathrooms, someone to cook the food and someone else to serve it, and a roof. Perfect. Of course our akela, Mitchy, took one look at it and threw her toys out of the pram. She insisted on the 5* luxury chalet Abendrot and told the Boss that if she didn’t get it, she’d scream and scream ‘till she was sick. Cue one upgraded guest and a smooth start to the week.

Things began with a swing, and our first night out in resort was an absolute belter. Simpo rocked the dance floor as per, Kirsty eyed up her prey, Hawko dropped Mitchy from his shoulders, Phil drank beer off the floor and good clean fun was had by all. Ischgl’s nightlife is outstanding. If you like lively oompah beats and table-top dancing then you need look no further quite frankly. Absolutely brilliant.

Day 1 on the mountain and we were fresh as daisies. I can honestly say it’s been a long time since a ski area has impressed me the way Ischgl did. The lifts are modern, fast, comfortable and superbly well-positioned. The pistes are well-groomed, long and pleasantly varied. As for off piste, you could barely ask for more. Like her cousin St. Anton, Ischgl has an absolutely stupid amount of lift-served off piste and you can see it all around from the vantage point of your chairlift.

The conditions, whilst not perfect, held well. Oddly enough the sporadically inclement weather seemed to fall into place perfectly with our big nights out, which meant that when it was miserable up the mountain we were too hung over to ski much anyway, so it didn’t matter! The skies cleared after every bad-weather day and we notched up no less than 3 full days of bluebird skies and light, fresh powder up top. With a bit of exploration we had identified the best lines, and the powder junkies amongst us made the very most of it. Rob demonstrated a prowess in the powder matched only by his speed on-piste, Mike did a lot of moaning about having the “wrong board for the snow,” Ballsy held it together most admirably despite having just nailed the Paris marathon and Simpo got a good bit of practise almost landing “big air” off ½ meter drops. Stack of the week contenders were Jim for his elegant head-over-heels powder to piste dismount and Rob, who somehow managed to fall over whilst stationary at the bottom of a chairlift.

Thursday saw us all bundle into a coach for a day out in Solden, a neighbouring resort. We were shown round the chalet Hermann, a very lovely 4* property within easy reach of 2 main gondolas, then taken up the mountain by Sev, a strapping 6 foot ski-god who was to be our mountain guide. To Flora’s dismay, Sev divided the group up into the stronger powder skiers and the cruisy-reds types, and led the former off into the valley for the fresh pow. Solden’s ski area certainly gets my vote and is a bit better for beginners than Ischgl in my opinion, but the ski area doesn’t seem to join together quite so well. The locals were welcoming and an afternoon of rowdy après ski followed, during which somebody left the microphone unattended for a few seconds and Theo was allowed up on stage. We left after that.

The Valley Rally, which had been planned to perfection as ever, was slightly dampened by bad weather but the show of Superhero fancy dress was spectacular. Special mention went to baby Henry’s outstanding getup, the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles were immense and Beethoven.

And now we’re back! We had high expectations for the lovely resort of Ischgl, and they were met and exceeded in true Austrian style. It’s stunningly beautiful, lively, friendly and authentic. The ski area is just epic, with enough to keep even the most advanced skiers happy for a full week. In powder it’s a hard act to follow and the lift-served off piste is amazing. Iscghl, wir saluten sie.

Ever wondered what the history of snowboarding is but only have two minutes to spare? Then have a look at this history of snowboarding in 2 minutes.

End of season review 2011/12

Way back in November UK news papers were awash with news of the poor snow conditions in the European Alps. Reports in the Daily Mail and the Sun managed to cause uproar within the ski community not just for peddling horror stories about potentially ruined holidays, but also for ill-informed journalism. As we all know, the scaremongering in the press was short lived and what has been called an epic season shortly followed. This is the 2011/12 winter season story.

December

A few days into December the snow arrived much to the relief of many who had booked early season ski holidays. This first snow fall wasn’t a mild flurry, it was the heralded as the best beginning to a winter season in the Alps for a decade. This early snow was to set precedence for the whole season. The white stuff kept falling through the whole of December guaranteeing fresh powder for most tourists. During the Christmas week the snow receded giving festive skiers an extra special present of excellent snow and blue skies. One royal couple had made a public announcement in December that due to the recession they would not be going on a ski holiday – they clearly had no idea what the season would turn out like! As if to prove a point just before the New Year the snow started again.

January

January was a jam-packed month. It was snow overload with great photos filling the internet, some of the best coming from Courchevel. One photo dominated the headlines, the now infamous picture of “the road” (pictured right).  At first it was reported to be the road to St Anton, then it was numerous other routes. It was later reported on Planet Ski that it was in fact taken in Japan and is a tourist attraction! More snow fell with some resorts even getting cut off but this did mean that the skiing conditions were perfect.  Also in January: the injured Chemmy Alcott joined ITV’s Dancing on Ice, Billy Morgan pulled the first triple rodeo, Britons called for breathalysers on the slopes, the inaugural winter youth Olympics took place, Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke died while training, World Snow Day was celebrated and it snowed some more.  We must not forget that January was also the month of the snowboarding crow.

February

Not as much snow fell in February but that by no means meant it was a bad month and many resorts saw the best conditions at half term  in years. The big story in the Alps came from a small group of chalet hosts, calling themselves the ‘Les Menuires 7’. A rogue tour operator had decided to dismiss his staff on questionable grounds,with no pay, prompting the chalet staff to stage a sit in protest. The staff did eventually leave after strong online support forced the chalet owner’s hand but the dispute is yet to be resolved. Also in February and outside Europe: penguins arrived in Dubai’s indoor ski centre and a ski through Starbucks opened in Squaw Valley, California.

March

March was a bit like taking a sauna followed by a cold plunge pool, repeatedly. At some points in the Alps it did feel as if summer had come early, but on every occasion, when the snow was looking like it was about to evaporate we were provided with some more. The range in temperatures and varying snow conditions did cause instability and more avalanches, like this one that struck a chair lift. With such good on piste conditions it was no surprise that resorts were announcing that ski tourism was on the rise. It also meant Prince William and Kate, the couple who vowed to not ski this year, headed out to Meribel for some skiing. There was good news for the UK’s winter Olympians as UK Sport finally granted them funding. British athletes also represented the nation strongly in the European X-Games in Tignes, which this year saw the first appearance of the medal machine that is Shaun White. It wasn’t all good news for winter sports stars however, as March saw Chemmy voted out of Dancing on Ice.

April

The revelation of WiFi on the lifts of Val Thorens and the promise of a Folie Douce in Meribel next season dominated the ski news headlines in April. Also the inevitable happened and 200 skiing students travelling home from the Alps after a University trip were not allowed on the ferry due to drunken antics on the way out.  April has also seen a late dumping of snow and some beautiful bluebird powder days, which we are more than pleased about as it means our end of season trip to Ischgl should be like the whole season has proven to be: Epic.