Pre Christmas skiing
I had a very irritating experience this year, skiing in the pre-Christmas week in the Alps. There was thin snow cover and not many visitors in the resort. The lift company, as a consequence, did not sell passes for the full area, but only for the local sector.

It is not unusual for large ski resorts to limit the number of pistes open in the pre-Christmas week, when there are only small numbers of skiers, but on this occasion, despite the fact that full price was charged for this local sector pass, only 7 of the 29 pistes were opened for skiers. This seems very expensive to me. What do other skiers think, and is it normal practice across the Alps to charge full price for such a small percentage of open pistes?

Hi,

Unfortunately this is a problem in many resorts in the Pre-Cristmas season, although in my local stomping ground of Les Arcs the pre season (12-18/12/2009) price for a 6 day pass was 150 euros which was 59 euros off the normal 6 day pass price of 209 euros.

With many of the alpine lift systems being sold off to private/commercial profit making companies some of whom have somewhat of a monopoly on the lift systems profits come before anything else,and with maybe less people going skiing or taking multiple ski holidays now they are just protecting their margins….....which doesn’t help us skiers, but with some resorts going bust over the last coupkle of years it helps them keep going i suppose.

When picking a resort checking the lift pass prices can now make all the difference bewteen a price that is manageable or one that is downright expensive.

jon.

Hi Richard,

I totally agree with your point about places such as Milton Keynes Snow Dome and other UK Fridges (lol), I think MK is around the £20 - £25 an hour mark, extra if you are hiring yur own kit so the actaul resort lift pass price is actually excellent value taking into consideration all the other extra skiing,scenery etc.

Again as with yourself i like to spend at least 6 -7 hours skiing, more if possible so again it turns out to still be good value,also peole can redyce the costs of a family ski holiday by going self catering,or staying in satellite villages and smaller resorts which are linked into bigger ski areas (Montchavin, St Martin ,Le Pre/Villaroger etc in my area for example).

Thinking about the family side of things if the tour operators didn’t rip off families during school holidays when some prices can be put up +100%  per person, the lift pass price might not seem such a big hit,again if you an avoid scheduled Saturday flight holidays and make your way there on say a Friday morning/afternoon flight and transfer many resorts have free lifts running at the weekends so even though the pistes serving them can be a little limited you can save a up to around £120 - £150 on the pirce of ski passes ,by only needing a 3-4day pass instaed of a 6 day pass.

All the best

Happy New Year

jon.

Hi Doug, I had the same thing for a few days pre Xmas skiing in Montgenevre, with only one gondola and one baby drag available from the village and also only one chair from the other side of the mountain.  Nothing at all open to the bowl at the top which was most frustrating, this was 17th 18th and 19th Dec.  The slopes were absolutely deserted for the first two days and even though there was only two proper lifts open it gave us about 20% of the resort to ski, not much but by the Saturday the rest opened for all the locals coming up for an early season ski.  The price for the first two days was only about three euros less however per day.  I also agree with the above however, 30 euros for 8 hours is pretty good but then there are dozens and dozens of resorts vying for you euros, Where were you Doug?

Adrian