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Val Thorens at Easter, anyone been?

7 replies

dontcallmethatyoucunt · 08/01/2017 18:29

As I continue in my quest for good Easter snow, I'm trying to get a feel for Val Thorens.

We've been to:

tignes - good as you can get above the freeze line and ski in an area with snow.

Cervinia - able to find snow that's actually not either ice or slush as some very high piste. Not much challenging terrain.

What's Val Thoens like? Is it easy to get highs and stay high?

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witchmountain · 15/01/2017 09:36

I've been right at the start of April so still a bit earlier than Easter this year. Plenty of snow but quite often very icy in the mornings (I came back with a broken wrist!) and slushy in the afternoons. You wouldn't have wanted to go down to the linked lower resorts but there was enough up high. I was still relatively inexperienced (not very confident intermediate) so the conditions were probably not as difficult as I remember them. We were only there for a long weekend but I don't recall skiing anything more than once so it would have kept us going longer.

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gingercat02 · 15/01/2017 09:40

Oh was excited by this thread as we are going to VT at Easter. Wish O hadn't bothered now

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dontcallmethatyoucunt · 15/01/2017 09:44

Thanks witch. Do you recall if you could get high enough to avoid the ice?

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Bellabelloo · 15/01/2017 09:46

Val Thorens is really high - similar to Tigers in terms of height, purpose built and part of a large ski area. Some great Michelin star restaurants! You're as safe as you're going to get with snow!

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witchmountain · 15/01/2017 09:55

That must have sounded overly negative!

I think it was more the aspect of the slopes than the height because some were fine and some weren't. They did soften up as the day went on. I wasn't very confident so I would have noticed every bit of ice and a lot of the slopes were fine.

gingercat if it makes you feel better I would still go back! Especially if I was having to go as late as Easter this year. It's pretty much as good as it gets height-wise.

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witchmountain · 15/01/2017 09:59

Also when I say you wouldn't have wanted to go down to the lower resorts there was really no need. Lots of skiing in VT without needing to go down to Meribel etc.

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dontcallmethatyoucunt · 15/01/2017 10:32

ginger, I'm pretty confident it'll be good. Just trying to weigh up the particular resort against others. I'm slightly ski obsessed though so mainly an excuse to talk snow