looking for a resort with loads of cruisy blues

A snowHead

polo99, has anyone mentioned Cervinia yet? I think that ticks all your boxes. Personally I found it a bit dull, but I prefer the steeper stuff, and you don't, so I think I would recommend it to you on that basis. It links to Zermatt for when you maybe fancy something a bit more challenging.

Don't get into the whole "I can do blues, but I can't do reds" way of thinking anyway mate. They're interchangeable terms in most resorts. Certainly in Cervinia the reds are more like blues. Then again there's a blue in Zermatt with a brief section where the pitch is more akin to a moderate black. Piste colour gradings: RUBBISH.

A snowHead

Ahem

Cervinia was the first response.

Note to self: read threads before replying and looking like a wally.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Saikee just took a look at the piste map for valmorel and it seems it could be a definite possiblity. It seems dominated by blues which is exactly what we want. I will definitily look into it further. were did you stay, wehre is the best place to stay in terms of vilage facilities, ie supermarket, night sledging, swimming pool, proximitiy to the slopes, area for keeping skis overnight etc.
thanks

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I will have a look again at cervinia but I am quite scarred from my last trip of the hype that was given to Niederau. Everyone was banging on how fantastic it was for this that and the other, how good it was for beginners etc and it was a total letdown. I realise that everyones ideas of what is steep and what is not is completely different. I dont know if you have been to Niederau but slopes that were marked blue used to be red and if I was doing the piste map, would have marked it black, but then others see it completely different. But I dont want to keep going on about it. There will be people who have been to Niederau and think that it is definitly the place to go and is fantastic for beginners and then people like me who are scaredy cats and just like to cruise without breaking into a sweat who thought it was rubbish because of different reasons. That is why I am making sure that I have the perfect fit this time and doing tons of research and asking loads of questions.

thanks for your replies though

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By your own anecdote then, piste colour gradings are not to be trusted. I agree.

Cervinia is by a considerable margin the easiest place I've ever skied (out of about 15 or so different resorts). I joked elsewhere that the lifts take you downhill, and you pole back up again.

Remember as well that you're getting better (yes you are). You should be less scared as time progresses, not more.

I'm not strongly advocating Cervinia anyway really, because it's rubbish. I think what's more sensible advice might be this: don't worry about it. Go pretty much anywhere except La Grave, take a good attitude with you, prepare for the occasional knockback and a handful of 'woah!' moments, because they happen, and you're not going to find anywhere where that isn't true, and have a great time.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

polo99,

I have a bad reputation here for always driving to the Alps. The car allows me to stay away from the resort and the expensive accommodation. Think I stayed in Albertville and Bourg St Maurice when I skied Valmorel. Valmorel is the mioddle about 17 miles in between. If you have a car Bourg St Maurice is the strategic place to be because up 17 miles in the valley you are in Tignes/Val D and down 17 miles you will be in 3 Vallees. BSM is the home for Les Arcs and you can ski or drive to La Plagne from there. Moutier junction for 3 Vallees is also 17 miles from Albertville.

I believe there are plenty accommodation in Valmorel because it is well developed but nothing as crowded or commercialized as 3 Vallees, Paradiski or Espace Killy. it is truly a beginner paradise there.

As for the other areas there is a small area in Cervinia with concentrated blue and the whole area isn't particularly difficult but then Zermatt top is also a beginner paradise because there is nothing but flat drag lifts there at the glacier plateau.

Saalbach and Hinterglemm has cruisy blue and Leogang has more at the bottom end. Depending on the stage a skier's skill Saalbach is really good for skiers starting to tackle red runs as he/she can then travel in one side of the valley and return via the opposite side. It is one of the largest skiing loops in the Alps, larger than the "White Ring" of St Anton/Lech, so no point just ski a small bit of it.

Haven't skied Niederau myself but I know it is particularly good for beginners. Its neighbour SKi Welt is also known to be beginner friendly and is one of the largest in Austria.

Pam W's suggestion of Les Saisies should be good for beginners too but I only drove through it in the summer on a motorbike. Most small skiing resorts, with limited number of lifts, in France, Switzerland and Austria are suitable for beginners I would say and Les Saisies appears to be a much larger than most. For oversesa visitor altitude is important as we need snow on the days we ski, other wise Praz Sur Arly, the neighbouring area to Les Saisies, is a known excellent beginner area. The Domain Evasion of Megeve/St Gervais/Rochebrune (on the same road to Praz Sur Arly and Les Asisies) has similar amount of easy blue as Grand Massif Morillon/Flaine/Les Carroz. The French side of Porte Du Soleil is famous of its cruisy blue in Les Gets/Morzine while die hard skiers would go to the "wall of Death" in Avoriaz. Most skiers go to Chamonix to ski the difficult terrians at the high altitude but half of the areas skiable by the Chamski pass are tiny resorts good for the beginners.

I think cruisy blue is everywhere in the French Alps. My obervation is the Swiss and Austrians appear to born to ski and their resorts are not as easy as those in France and Italy. To start with Swiss and Austria do not have green runs in their piste maps and they can learn skiing in local tiny resorts that rarely visited by internal skiers.

I would be interested to see if anyone can find a big resort, say with over 100km piste, that has more green and blue runs than Valmorel. I should also mention that many cruisy blue runs involve some flat areas that requires walking and have not been designed to promote begineer's skill and confidence. I find in Valmorel one can really cruise. Sella Ronda, Les Gets, Livigno and Tignes are also good for cruising but just not as widespread, consistent and extensive as in Valmorel.

After all it is free

Alpe d'Huez?

Never mind blues, it's got a whole resort's worth of greens. Genuine greens.

Also that's where I first conquered my (stupid, irrational, based on nothing at all) fear of red runs, and discovered that theyre - by and large - precisely the same as blue runs.

polo99, I know that you said you didn't want to have ski lessons but honestly, it does really sound like you need to have them. If you are very nervous of anything other than pretty flat runs then almost all resorts will have some bits that worry you - and that is especially the case if you want to link in to other areas, as you say. If you decided to have lessons, then you could do a lot worse than go to Les Gets and have lessons with BASS.

I don't know Valmorel, but from what I know (my lads went there on a school trip) and just reading about it, it does sound like a good place for you. The ski area is rather smaller than the Espace Diamant but there'll be a lot more English spoken and there are some TOs who run packages there. There are very few places in the Espace Diamant where it feels like you are going to "ski off the side of a mountain", by the way, and they wouldn't be in the easier areas (and not at all in Les Saisies itself).

Have you decided on self-catering? If so, you'll need enough French to do a bit of shopping and eating. If you haven't yet decided, the "catered chalet" option can be a very good way to have a holiday, especially with your friends. There are probably some in Valmorel.

By the way, I agree with the points above about piste grading - you shouldn't get hung up on colours. But I don't agree with the rather sweeping statement that French piste grading is "easier" than Austrian grading. Grading varies a lot between French resorts (in our area, some of the blues in Notre Dame de Bellecombe are steeper and generally more difficult than some of the reds in Les Saisies, for example) and I'm sure the same thing holds true in Austrian resorts.

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Don't mind saikee, he has lots of knowledge but sometimes his English is too mangled to be comprehensible!!! He has posted about a huge number of resorts but always drives to a low-lying town & then drives to a number of resorts - not exactly your sort of holiday. I've got the impression that sometimes he manages to drag Mrs saikee along on his trips but she only likes skiing nice gentle slopes in the sunshine. If she gets steep slopes or bad weather, saikee doesn't enjoy it either! He is also obsessed by stats (just see above post).

I haven't been to Les Saises so can't really help more but I can share some thoughts on the areas I have visited.

Soll/Skiwelt - Soll is a pretty little village but is a 5min bus/20min walk from the skislopes. No ski in/out here. Haven't been to Kitzbuhel but lots of people have said it is very pretty. Skiwelt is pretty flat & easy going with only a couple of black runs in a big area.

Les Gets/the PDS - This area is really close to GVA airport (1 1/2hrs) & is massive. Les Gets is at the western end of the area & the main side is very gentle. Over the back is the main side of Morzine (same lift pass) which has lots of blues as well. There are a couple of steeper bowls with red runs, easily avoided. There is another mountain (Mt Chery) which is pretty steep. Les Gets village was pretty small so you could ski right through it when I was there (in January). Downsides are: not always snowsure, long way from the main PDS (bus across Morzine needed) - might not really be a problem as even the Morzine/LG area is huge, very English & full of chalets.

Les Contamines - day trip from Chamonix, nice & gentle, very french & not linked by ski to anywhere else. I thought it was a similar size to Megeve but higher & not as expensive (is this wrong?) Must be close to GVA airport as well.

La Rosiere is the snowheads default answer to everything (just so you know). Sort of the Godwin's Law of snowheads

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La Rosiere is a bit crap anyway, and the route over to La Thuile is a tricky little blighter, leading to another Niederau situation where they'll ski everything they feel comfortable with in a day or two. I think it's a really poor suggestion with regard to the OP's needs. Sorry, whoever mentioned it.

paulio,

You are right. Cervinia is very good for cruising and more so if one is comfortable with red runs.

pam w,

I have been caught before by saying French is a bit easier for the beginners because it has green runs. However since Switzerland, Gernamy and Austria do not do green runs it is a lot harder to find runs suitable for beginners.

France also has skiing resorts concentrated at one end of the country whereas Austrian and Swiss can ski in all directions within their countries. The avarage skiing standard of these two countries appears to be different to me. If I live in Switzerland or Austria I can go skiing virtually every weekend but that may be difficult for the French living near the Bristish channel. It would be reasonable for us to find more beginner areas in the big resorts in France than in Switzerland and Austria, which also have small and flat resorts just like Praz Sur Arly but not visited by International skiers or tour-packaged by TOs.

From my own personal experience I found less beginners in Switzerland and Austria. The beginners are in every resorts but France and Italy seem to have more of them.

It is common in many large French resort to see small French children follow a skiing instructos going round the mountains like a snake. This is very rare in large Swiss and Austrian resorts.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

alex_heney, Niederau does indeed sound very limited, and particularly bad for beginners. Not surprised the OP is looking for something different!

Help!!

looking for a resort with loads of cruisy blues

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