family friendly ski resorts

1.     With very young children and toddlers it is worth finding a resort with minimal transfer times.  Some resorts can have a 3 or 4 hour transfer time on a coach from the airport, which many small children (or parents) couldn’t cope with. Consider Austrian resorts such a Kaprun, Bad Gastein and Kitzbuhel which are near to Salzberg Airport or French resorts such as Flaine or Morzine which are close to Geneva airport.  Older children may survive the longer journeys so you will have a larger selection.  For more details and a list of resorts worth considering, look at our section on holidays at www.littleskiers.co.uk/holidays-explained.

 

Top Family Friendly Destinations to consider:

Valmorel, France

Flaine, France

Borovetz, Bulgaria

Rauris, Austria

Galtur, Austria

Choosing ski holidays???

Useful website which has all the piste maps for various countries.

Check out : www.skipistemaps.com so you can be sure what runs (and their levels) are available in the resorts you are looking at.  

09/10 flights now released

Easyjet & BMiBaby have just started to release their winter flights for the skiing season 2009/2010, consider booking now to get the best flight deals.

Easyjet website:

Easyjet are currently offering £25.99 per person (including taxes & charges) from East Midlands to Geneva on Monday 18th Jan, returning monday 25th January for only £20.99.

A good site worth looking at is SKYSCANNER where you check out all the flights from a majority of the low-cost carriers, including all the add on charges and taxes, making it easy to compare fares.

www.littleskiers.co.uk

New Helmet law in the Alps after spate of deaths

A new law requiring all children under 14 to wear helmets on the slopes has been rushed into resorts in Austria following the death of a mother in a high-speed collision on the piste. Beata Christandl died of head injuries after a collision with a German politician, Dieter Althaus, at a combined speed of 60mph. Althaus, who was wearing a helmet, survived the impact, but suffered a skull fracture and remains in a coma.

Mrs Christandl is the 17th skier to die in an accident on the piste in Austria this season, and the authorities are under increasing pressure to extend the law to cover snow-sports enthusiasts of all ages. Doctors say sustained sub-zero conditions have created faster pistes, making impacts significantly more severe when skiers collide. Christian Kaulfersch, an A&E doctor, said: “Crashes at 30mph are like falling onto concrete from a second-floor balcony.”

Austrian authorities predict 5,500 serious head injuries on the slopes this season, and Swiss resorts report about 150 cases every day. Josef Schmid, of the Austrian skiing federation, supports making helmets compulsory for all skiers. “We recommend that all skiers wear helmets,” he said. “It’s not just young children — adults also need protection. With the new carving skis, people tend to ski faster and overestimate their abilities. The slopes are very busy; it’s safer for everyone if you wear a helmet.”

Before now, helmet use has been mandatory only in some Italian resorts, and only for skiers under the age of 14, but Betony Garner, of the Ski Club of Great Britain, which recommends helmet use for under-14s, says increasing numbers of skiers and snowboarders are seeing the benefit of head protection: “Lots of twentysomethings wear helmets because it makes them look like a freerider, but I’ve seen increasing numbers of mothers and older men wearing helmets.”

Yet Dr Mike Langran, of the International Society for Skiing Safety, warns that wearing head protection won’t necessarily save a skier’s life. “Helmets may prevent or reduce the severity of many minor or moderate head injuries, but there is no data to support the idea that they will protect against fatal head injuries,” he said. “The absolute risk of a serious head injury is extremely small, and in my opinion — and that of most ski-injury experts — does not warrant making the wearing of ski helmets mandatory.

“The single most important thing is for skiers and boarders to ski/board within the level of their ability — don’t try speeds, slopes or tricks way beyond your ability level.”

www.timesonline.co.uk

Spring skiing continues in Scotland

Monday 06 April 2009
British Ski Club of Great Britain writes:

Three of Scotland’s five snowsports areas will be offering Easter skiing, making this one of the longest snowsports seasons in recent years.

Cairngorm webcam-Monday
"Scotland was amongst the first snowsports country in Europe to start operations this season, with the Lecht opening on 31st October 2008”, says Marian Austin, Chair of ski-scotland. "Scotland’s normal winter weather pattern means that, while the east usually gets good early snow, the west and centre often benefit from late snow, which is what we’re seeing now.”


According to our snow reports, Cairngorm still has a 23cm on its upper slopes and is offering good spring skiing thanks to overnight grooming. The pistes will be hard at first, but will soften as the day warms up. The Nevis Range has 28cm on it supper slopes thanks to some recent fresh snow, and similarly to Cairngorm the snow cover is firmly packed in the morning but this quickly softens as the day heats up. Off-piste skiing is still available in the Back Corrie if you're prepared to make the 25 minute walk to access the terrain! And finally, Glencoe is currently closed but will be re-opening for snowsports over the Easter weekend.

RECORD NUMBERS OF SKIERS THIS SEASON

Winter 2008/9 attracted record numbers of skiers to the Scottish resorts thanks to heavy snowfalls in February. All the areas reported high numbers of first-time visitors who normally ski or snowboard abroad, possibly linked to the attraction of saving money by skiing more locally.

“What we find at this time of year”, adds Marian, “is that when people don’t have snow in their back gardens, they think there’s no snow in the mountains. That means a good, crowd-free experience for those who do come to ski or snowboard at this time of year, with some really great good-value offers and the chance of fair weather overhead to go with it.”

The three ski areas of Nevis Range, CairnGorm Mountain and Glencoe Mountain all have some special offers and events planned for Easter. On Good Friday, Nevis Range is offering a day’s skiing or snowboarding for the price of a gondola ticket (£9.50 adult, £5.50 child), whilst CairnGorm Mountain will be celebrating the 90s from Saturday until Monday, with free skiing for those who can produce a CairnGorm season ticket from the 90s.

Glencoe Mountain is also offering limited-availability Saturday or Sunday tickets at £20 (adult) and megadeals including full day ticket, ski, board or blade hire and 2 hours instruction for £50 (junior). Both Nevis Range and CairnGorm report their terrain parks are open and CairnGorm will be hosting Freestyle coaching sessions from 9th to 11th April (pre-registration necessary) and the Highland Freestyle Event on 11th April.

The forecast is for predominantly cloudy weather this week across the Scottish resorts which could deliver some fresh snow. Fingers crossed!
Related websites

* > www.ski.visitscotland.com

How much snow???

Well, what a skiing holiday.  We've just come back from Flaine in France and it has been fantastic.  It snowed every day and night, apart from the last day, so we have been skiing on-piste in snow well above the boots and off-piste in snow up to our knees!

Europe has had the best snow fall in years so if you are off skiing soon or even as late as the Easter holidays you should be in for a real treat.  One thing to note if you are going soon, it is very cold!  I have never known it so cold, I even had to buy some tights for under my ski pants!  It was between - 14 and -20 degrees every day so do check the temperatures where you are going and pack thermals accordingly - I was so thankful my two Little Skiers had theirs.

European Snow Reports (01/13/09 weekly)
Ski Resort	Lower Slopes	Upper Slopes
Chamonix	70 cm	190 cm
Cortina	80 cm	220 cm
Lech-Zürs	70 cm	105 cm
St Anton	50 cm	140 cm
St Moritz	130 cm	200 cm
Saas Fee	95 cm	285 cm
Sölden	20 cm	200 cm
Val d'Isère	105 cm	165 cm
Zermatt	235 cm	250 cm

Snow Reports

Good snow, sunny in Austria. New snow for Bad Gastein (30/160cm) and Saalbach (40/125cm).

In France, cold, sunny. Alpe d’Huez (70/125cm), Les Deux Alpes (60/150cm).

Good skiing in Switzerland. Andermatt (50/280cm), Wengen (40/65cm) have great snow.

In Italy the Milky Way resorts have great snow. Sauze d’Oulx (160/260cm). In Andorra. Pal/Arinsal (70/120cm), Arcalis (60/170cm). New snow expected in Bularia Bansko (80/105cm), Borovets (60/110cm).

thanks to www.ski-europe.com/