Skiing right at the start of jan. Any pitfalls to consider?

[nowwearefour]

We usually go feb half term but can't next year. W have insets after Christmas hols so can go 2-9 jan. I assume ski schools operate then and all is just th same as feb half term? Seems to be much cheaper and I am wondering why!!!

Lack of snow? Obviously depends where you are going.

Really? Is the snow gonna be better in feb? Planning to go quite high in the alps. But I wouldn't have considered it being worse then than in feb but now I'm gonna go and look up the stats! Thanks

You might find it quite cold if you are used to skiing in Feb half-term.

I have tended to god early January in the past. Always managed to ski in a fashion but the snow is not as good later in season.

*as good as it is later in the season. Typing and cooking is obviously beyond me!

Potential lack of snow, more risk of bad weather, cold. Especially if you go high up can get very cold.

I have been skiing at that time of year many times and have never had a lack of snow.
It's really cold and no schools anywhere are on holiday at that time, which may be why it's cheap?
I think it's a really good time to ski as quiet and the snow is really good.

Until we had children, we normally skied in January - we didn't want to pay for high season if we didn't have to!

It's cold. It's icy. Moguls that are forgiving piles of fluff in February are monstrously large, hard and nightmarish (for me!). The steep groomed blacks will be sheets of ice. You might not see the sun all week if you're very unlucky.

However... You can hone your ice technique; getting someone good to do your edges helps enormously, there are hardly any queues and it certainly brightens up the post Christmas blues! I feel bereft with no January skiing and I'd pick January over March any day. After years of January skiing I am very very good when it's icy now blows own trumpet

NB. We always go high. Vail was completely Baltic in January and I've had very little snow in la Plagne in January before - it was a very bad year though, 2002.

Thanks. I don't like the sound of cold and icy!! I love the sun.....

You could probably go to the Caribbean at a different time with the money you will save by going in Jan? Or try Easter? Nice and sunny with lots of water skiing. Except week beginning 26/03/15 Easter when it was freezing and snowed all week in Les Arcs.

Typically the Europeans ski for New Year so that week is often quiet in resorts but the hotel staff etc still need paying, so they'd rather fill the beds. Disadvantage is that unless you are lucky it can be cold and snow patchy if you don't get additional snow falls. Days are short too.

What Sarah said, i agree with pretty much everything! Short days too.

This is proving rather difficult to decide!

Cold and short days. Are you going with young children?

Lots of university trips tend to go that week so may be worth checking out if your resort of choice is the place where lots go.

Dcs will be 8 and 10. The short days I don't mind so much but the cold is worrying me.

I always ski Xmas week (and a few days either side) and Feb half term/the week after. In Saas Fee, so 3600m and on a glacier. It's still been sunny a lot of the time even 18th/19th December. We've never not ski'd, even last year when the weather was awful and nobody had snow there were only 1 or 2 of the unpisted routes not open. We lost a day to heavy snowfall and avalanche blasting in december, and got trapped in a whiteout in mid feb.

You can have pretty much the same weather on any given day I reckon. One pic is me in some moguls the Saturday after Feb half term, the other is my DP's mum 2 days before Xmas on the glacier. Not much difference in terms of sun.

It can be a little windier/colder earlier in the year, but on a glacier you are really exposed as there's no trees, an it's more important to get out earlier and ski earlier in the season because it might be dark and horrible earlier. Benefit of Jan is no massive lift queues, and a great opportunity to work on your hard snow technique, though we get very few icy patches where we are, and the same ones exist in the busy half term because of slope aspect and volume of traffic.

We often go the 3rd week of January.

Dc are now 7 and 9 and usually ski in thermal base layer, fleece, ski jacket and Salopettes. A good windproof neck muff and wool socks also make a big difference.