Well, the ski season has well and truly opened, with Zermatt, Saas-Fee, Davos-Klosters, Flims/Laax, Verbier, St Moritz and even low-lying Gstaad open, if only partially. Locals say this is the heaviest November dump in living memory, and the snow conditions are so good that even some resort runs are open, e.g. Verbier. Of course, the avalanche risk is also high and in some areas the snow cover hasn’t formed a good base over the rocks and meadows below, but it is a promising start. My wife is down in Sierre and Sion home-hunting today, within site of working lifts… and I am in the Netherlands being an ice hockey dad! Oh well, not long before I will be donning skis and hitting the piste.
Where is the best place to ski?
The perennial question and subject of many an apres-ski discussion is “Where is the best place to ski?”.
Well Mountain Management Consulting and the University of Innsbruck asked 47,935 skiers and snowboarders exactly that question and the answer was…
Also in the top 10 were Adelboden, Laax, Arosa and Saas-Fee, with
Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis (Austria), Solda (Italy), Alta Badia (Italy), Val Gardena (Italy) and Kronplatz (Italy) the more unlikely names filling out the top 10 places. Interestingly nowhere from France or the USA features, but they do seem rather dismissive of French resorts and they do a separate survey on North American sites (Whistler, Deer Valley and Vail are their top 3).
So the question is still open. Which really is the best ski resort in the world? Personally I am content with Zermatt, but my personal top ten ski resorts in the world looks a little different.
Bumper ski season forecast
Accuweather gloomily reports that “Eastern Europe Braces for a Cold, Snowy Winter”, but for winter sports enthusiasts this sounds all too promising. Indeed AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys says “Ski conditions will be fantastic for the 2014-2015 ski season, especially when compared to last year”. There is already some good dumps occurring in the Alps and Accuweather predict that an active storm track and cold air will bring a lot of snow to the Pyrenees, Alps and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula. Switzerland looks set for a bumper winter season.
If you want to check out the current snow conditions you could do worse than look at the web cams at Zermatt.
Ski and Snowboard Playlist
Well, it’s that time of year when people start putting together best of the year playlists, and playlists to take on ski holidays and stuff… and I am no exception. I don’t listen to music whilst I ski, I hasten to add – that just seems so “not in the moment”, but I have put music to some of my ski videos and here is a sample. The music comes from my collection, so I MUST like it, but the length of the clip largely determines which songs I have associated with the video. Oh, and there is a link to the lyrics and a link to the ski resort for each song:
Wasn’t Born to Follow – Byrds
Feldberg
Most Precious Love – Blaze
Kitzbuhel
Right here, Right now – Fatboy Slim
Obersaxen
Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space by Spiritualized
Feldberg
Whole of the Moon – Waterboys
Adelboden
Rush Hour – Jane Wiedlin
Obersaxen
Dread Lion – Upsetters
Zermatt
Pow Pow – LCD Soundsystem
Aletsch Arena
Shine on You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd
Toggenberg