Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
Punto :-)
A beginner should not buy skis!
A beginner should not buy skis!
Well, that can be an individual decision. If you fly in your own plane then you carry them free, the weight is around 5kg, and you arrive needing to rent nothing. (IMHO you can’t really rent boots or helmets – been there, done that 
). Also if you live in the countryside, under a hill, and it sometimes snows up, then you have a pair of skis to mess about on. And if you take an airline (BA) a sub-1.9m ski bag goes at no extra cost and you can pack quite a lot of stuff inside the ski bag.
Fairly obviously those who have been skiing since age 5 (the bulk of the people on the slopes) have all this well sorted and probably a lot of them rent. But also per central European tradition many/most of the people live in city apartments and don’t have the room for skis at home.
Peter wrote:
And if you take an airline (BA) a sub-1.9m ski bag goes at no extra cost and you can pack quite a lot of stuff inside the ski bag
You limit yourself to flying BA though. From where I understand you live (near Gatwick), easyjet has a lot of good options for ski resorts, and it’s a cost (money, convenience) to bar flying easyjet because you “need” to fly BA to take your skis for free.
I have storage at the ski appartment and still rent (for maintenance, to get new material every year, and so I can change skis according to snow conditions), but sympathise as I am also no stranger at sometimes having pleasure on the sheer fact of owning nice things.
Peter wrote:
Well, that can be an individual decision
Of course everything is an individual decision. Helmet of course and boots are very good to own. Skis are a pain even in your own plane and are cheaper to rent unless you ski a lot. For the money you get better skis renting by a long shot.
You limit yourself to flying BA though
Not actually. Justine and I use EJ when we can, but as one gets older one tends to not sleep so well, or fall asleep so easily, and one is less willing to get up at some crazy hour and make one’s way to the airport half shagged and being like a zombie for the 1st day. And the “cheap” EJ flights depart 6 to 6:30am. In my recent trips the BA option departed some 2hrs later which to me makes a huge difference. The extra cost with BA (it does cost more) is the cost of a salad for two 
The free carriage of skis, saving some 80 quid, is also nice, but as you say not a primary consideration.
I know loads of people who will get up at 1am and drive 3hrs to Stansted to save 50 quid and use Ryanair and then sit for 2hrs on a bus at the other end, and they feel good about it
This is why GA travel should work well for skiing. You can leave home 8am, take off say 9am, do a 4hr trip (say UK to Bolzano), 1.5hr transport at the far end, and while you won’t make the slopes (they mostly close ~4pm local) you are ready the next day and you didn’t kill yourself getting there. Zell am See or St Johann should be even quicker.
Agree. Me & my friends working “9-5”, the GA trip is slightly more complicated, but actually managed to beat commercial (taking same train out of the city) the people flying commercial. Trip was in a C210, we flew into Lyon Bron and ubered to Lyon St Exupery to get car rental (from where it’s 1h40 drive to appartment). The ones flying commercial flew to Geneva and had to drive slighly over 2h.
Lyon Bron and Grenoble are problably closest airports you have for skiing, with ski not far away, and you don’t have to get in / above mountains. I think from the UK, unless you have Jason’s plane, it’s the best options around. You don’t (seem to) have the working hours schedule so it should be even easier (You could just get Courchevel rated as a matter of fact. Since you actually transport skis, you could ski down the apron).
Here is a really quick and dirty video from Corvara and Confusco. Some was done with the S7 phone and the rest with the FDR-1000V action cam (with lens correction in Sony Vegas)
It’s a really scenic place.
I will probably not be able to do Bolzano (or any other ski trip) this winter because of the new engine going in in February, and then I have to fly it at high power for some double figure number of hours. I will do some trips to LFAT at 2000ft all the way
A little update regarding “ski shuttle” buses from Bolzano: I spoke to the owner of one ski shuttle bus company which runs from Verona and he said they cannot do Bolzano (not even stop there to pick somebody up, despite them driving past it) because it is a different tourist promotion authority and these authorities are in competition with each other.
There don’t appear to be any ski shuttles from Bolzano, due to the lack of airlines going there. That leaves car hire, public buses (which can be pretty “random”) or taxis which are c. €250 to say Corvara.
Madonna di Campiglio is damn good. Great long blue runs up to 4km and if you hit the slopes 8:30am it is not crowded.
There is a bus from Trento town which should stop at Bolzano (it is on the way) but doesn’t seem to.
The hotel wifi is about 100kbytes/sec and they disconnect everybody after 60 mins so here’s a few pics in the meantime:
Looks great! I’ll be going again on Sat 18th via Trento (or Verona).
Went for a day to Courchevel recently. Oh, the prices they ask! Italian sun is just as good for me :)
