Europe 24/25

[ChrisC]

Fair enough. My first choice was Lech for this group but I was over ruled. I think off-piste is always a crap shoot particularly in these low snow rocky areas for sure but Jan 28 is not exactly Christmas time. Having mostly opened pistes and then some side piste powder if we got lucky enough didn’t seem like a terrible bet.

I am seeing some good videos coming out of the Arlberg.


And I get it.... I ski with some of my MBA friends based in London, but I don't have a pull. It was Lech vs. Courmayeur in 2022. Courmayeur won. And now it's Engelberg vs Japan/NMacedonia.....it's Engelberg. I am along for the ride....unless it's really a dumb choice...I will go along.

 

[berkshireskier]

Fair enough. My first choice was Lech for this group but I was over ruled. I think off-piste is always a crap shoot particularly in these low snow rocky areas for sure but Jan 28 is not exactly Christmas time. Having mostly opened pistes and then some side piste powder if we got lucky enough didn’t seem like a terrible bet.

Still hopefully will work out fine, I dont see why they wont have most of the pistes open by then. Last night seemed to be a nice snow and some more later this week. I ca relax a little now I think. Like you said, average still seems to be in play so I’ll be happy with that. If it’s average, I think the comparison to Stowe or DV might be a bit overdone. I was there in a low snow year in 2019 and skid exclusively on piste and it was not a comparable experience to Vermont in any way. The vertical at Corvatsch, the scenery everywhere, the food etc. It’s a bigger package skiing over there in nearly every way.

One day I’ll have the ability to be more flexible but for now, 35, two young kids, school schedules, traveling in a group with others with opinions, I kind of gotta take what I can get.

No need to explain, SandGNut. There could be worse fates than having to ski in St. Moritz in January.

 

[skiandgolfnut]

No need to explain, SandGNut. There could be worse fates than having to ski in St. Moritz in January.

Totally. This is my 8th trip across the pond now and seems to me like the worst case outcome is far more related to visibility and white out days than it is to the lack of snow scenario. At least for the type of trip me and the people I ski with are usually looking for. I have been lucky to have only gotten a couple of bad weather days.

 

[Tony Crocker]

2019 was the year Liz and I skied St.Moritz in January and it was definitely not low tide. We got some powder leftovers at all of the areas. The earlier Nordstau storms were very strong and hit everything hard in the eastern half of Switzerland.

Corvatsch is a lot like Zermatt with big boulders, needs lots of snow to ski off piste I’d guess. Corviglia is harder to say. Great when we were there but south facing and I’d have some concern if mostly manmade snow.

I’ve said before that Aspen is the close US analogy to St. Moritz. That means lack of excessive crowds due to remote location from metro areas. The groomer snow was probably the best I’ve skied in the Alps, though as noted we had very favorable conditions on that trip not only there but at Arosa, Engelberg and Andermatt.

We have had some very good times in the Alps when confined to groomers (Jungfrau good example) but I’m generally restless with more than about 3 days in that scenario. The Dolomites would be the exception to that with such massive sprawl, great food and amazing scenery.