Where would you ski in the Alps?

After thoroughly enjoying having Gore as my home mountain for the last few years, I now have a challenge in front of me - where to ski in the Alps.  I've temporarily moved to the beautiful little county of Luxembourg (plan to be here 2-3 years) and am starting to scope out where to plan my upcoming winter getaways.  However, what would seem like a dream come true has actually proven to be a bit stressful - I've gone from being relatively knowledgeable about the ski areas in North America to knowing next to nothing about what's available in Europe.

So, I figured I'd toss this one out to the experts - where would you ski in the Alps?  I'm an intermediate-advanced skier (do everything at Gore, and the glades are my favorite - but there are a few runs at Whiteface and definitely stuff out West I'll steer clear of).  My wife is a solid intermediate.  I enjoy having a mix of challenging, steep, bumped runs along with moderate cruisers.

With that said - where have you read about that you'd always love to go?  Or, maybe you've had the opportunity to ski here yourself?  I'd love to hear about it!  

Chamonix. For it's beauty, tradition, and challenges. It's also a bit more affordable than the ritzy resorts.

I have limited experience in Switzerland. I've been twice and went to the same place both times - Arosa  (Visiting family and they alternated between Arosa and Gargellen - both times I went it was Arosa).

Arosa is very quiet, and I'd bet many have never heard of it. It's at the end of a road - the road to town doesn't pass through.  I wouldn't call it challenging - really an intermediate's dream.

While Swiss food has a bit of a bad rap - the on mountain food was excellent IMO. Simple but tasty, and served up fast.

For the full experience I'd recommend staying in "Inner Arosa" - the old town.

Verbier (big, but not crazy big, 4 valleys)   then a 2 hr train ride to Chamonix.. You must go to Chamonix.   However check the weather..more often than not the snow is heavier there or visability is bad.    The train is the way to go..so cool.  

I have such great memories of the village...then we bought cheap wine and cheese and partied on the trian back to Verbier.  

Hire a guide in Verbier...amazing backcountry.  


JOIN SKI CLUB OF GREAT BRITIAN---crazy discounts on tickets, travel and guides.      Go on one of their trips..you will get scored (graded) as to what kind of skier you are and then you ski with folks of your level....guides come free---just tip.    This will be the best advice I can give.  I was a member for about 5 yrs.    the first year may be free, but whatever the cost is today..you will get good return on investment.    Great news letters too.  


  http://www.wordtravels.com/Ski-Resorts


Nice website to compare/contrast.    You will enjoy your next two years...Lucky man.    

wow what an opportunity  as others have said i'd have to go to chamonix at least once to experience the ski mountaineering history and after reading/seeing edge of never and other movies.

i loved traveling in austria and would return to vienna and definitely make it back to zellamsee-kaprun to ski the glacier again. great mountain and town although with a somewhat frighteningly tragic history

Brian wrote

I've gone from being relatively knowledgeable about the ski areas in North America to knowing next to nothing about what's available in Europe

What a horrible problem to have.

I'd definitely hit the big names, just to see what they're like: Chamonix, Les Deux Alpes, La Grave, etc.

If you're more into touring, the Haute Route is on my life list.

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Verbier is o n my list...

Greek Peak.  Or is that in the Mediterranean??  

ScottyJack wrote

Greek Peak.  Or is that in the Mediterranean??  

 We found St Anton easy to get around on including the ability to ski to the other nearby towns. Frequently we were taking a bus back to St Anton from Zurs or Lech. It was odd how most were just skiing the groomed out runs with all this vast untracked stuff all over. There would be huge sections of nice stuff right next to a trail and most just stayed on the groomer. Must have been all the Brits on holiday. One thing I didn't care for was the lift loading. It's a free for all with people pushing all over the place to get ahead of each other.The apres ski scene was a sight in itself.

St Anton tram and you can see all the people just on the groomer with no one coming in from offpiste




From the tram there was this little mini gondi to go higher





Chutes coming down from tram house













In one of the chutes





Long ass bump run



This was the start of a 2hr run that took us over to Zurs







A couple of the toasty Brits


They had a couple apres ski bars where lots would stop until dark. When you opened the door to this place at 4pm you'd swear you were in some night club at 2am. You still had to ski down maybe 600 vert or so. There would be people scattered all over the place. It was like running a nastar course

Incredible photos. Wow.

We found that when there was fresh snow SOME would go offpiste but not nearly as many as you would expect.

That is one thing about Switzerland - the pushing and shoving in the lift lines will stun you.  If you wait your turn you, or attempt to alternate you'll never get on.

Harvey44 wrote

- the pushing and shoving in the lift lines will stun you.  If you wait your turn you, or attempt to alternate you'll never get on.

It was unbelievable and a bit of a turn off

My only ski trip to Europe was to Lech, Austria. We had a great time and can agree with Skimore; it is a great place. We skied all around Lech and Zurs and did not even feel the need to head over to St Anton. Lech is an old school village and Zurs (just up the road) is more of a modern ski village.

Here's last year's discussion about the Alps.

I have been lucky to have skied about 2 months total in Europe

Since you stated that your skiing ability is intermediate to advanced I'd suggest St Anton / the whole Arlburg region in Austria or Davos in Switerland.  Chamonix and Verbier are awesome areas but are better for strong experts that can ski and find their way off piste.

The entire Dolomite region in Italy would also be very good for you and the food is off the charts but it would be harder to get to from where you are living than the other two i suggested.

Thanks all for the awesome suggestions - I knew this was the place to go. I'm definitely going to try to do a combo of big places and lower key ones - I have a feeling my true love will be the smaller ones.  The tips on the lines in Switzerland - and the on-mountain apres-ski party - are very good to know about.  I'll check back in as I make my way around.

My bigger challenge will be finding something within a couple hours so I can daytrip it when I don't have the time/cash for a big getaway.  I think there may be some places equivalent to the 250' vertical I grew up learning on outside of Cleveland - but I guess it's better than nothing.

Too bad I moved here for work - I can tell already there won't be enough time for skiing...

Great Pics of St Anton. Only went there once but the memories are indelible. Reminds me somewhat of Whistler/blackcomb. I'd recommend it to anyone. Lots of above treeline skiing. From what I remember the tram is really up there near the top terminal which is cut into a sheer rock wall, a little scary on windy days. Also had a few days at Garmish-Partenkirken, also lots of fun and so close to Munich and the Hauf Brau House. Can't go wrong, great skiing and great beer.

Ausable is really on the mark here. I like his take on skiing in Europe and might just add La Grave.

Skiing in the Dolomites for me is a first priority because of the pictures I've seen of the incredible mountains there, and it might be possible to tie that in with a trip to Cham than if you go to Austria.

Have a great trip, report back.

someone played the food card and given that, this article always made me want to go here to ski (terrain notwithstanding). but hopefully i have been planning a chamonix trip for too long to be distracted.