Ski Trip Travel Plans for 2017-2018 season

[surfsnowgirl]

I'm on the ski trip planning committee for my ski club and some of places we are considering are Zermatt, Switzerland, Madonna di Campiglio, Italy and Val-d'Isère in France with Heavenly in Tahoe for a domestic trip. Our first meeting is tonight so we'll start to review quotes and go from there. If anyone has any insight about these destinations I'll bring the comments to my ski club meeting tonight as discussion points.

From a personal standpoint and I'd like to get one more year of North American skiing under my belt before I venture to Europe. I'm very interested in the Heavenly trip as I've been to Tahoe but never skied there.

I plan to stay local and ski most of my season in my usual Western Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Quebec but we'll do one out west trip and Heavenly sounds fabulous.

What are people's plans next season?

 

[Started at 53]

We have already booked Deer Valley for December 11-19 this year. We are looking at a Ski Club trip to Vail (7 days)and another club trip to Taos (7 days). Participation at both club trips will be dependent on my work schedule which I do not control. We will also likely make another trip to Colorado, so looking at 3 to 4 trips for the 17/18 season.

The Pug Utah gathering sounds cool too, not sure about that as my wife likes to stay in one location and that is a multi-location gathering.

 

[Crank]

I know Zermatt ain't cheap! My club went to Cervinia season before last and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We did not make that trip. They also went to Tahoe staying at Heavenly to mixed reviews this past season. I am not a huge fan of Heavenly and Tahoe so did not attend that trip either. There were 2 days when there was no skiing due to weather and they are still trying to get some lift ticket refunds from Heavenly. Also, South Lake Tahoe has all the charm of a strip mall. But don't let my prejudices stop you - lots of people like heavenly and Tahoe.

This season we are looking at quotes from Taos, Mt Bachelor and Kitzbuhel. I will probably be trip leader for Taos and will also have to decide between attending next seasons gathering in UT or attending the Kitzbuhel trip in early March.

Not sure where you are located, but there is a ski travel show in NJ this Sunday which will have a lot of tour operators and reps from many resorts. Our ski club board are all attending.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I know Zermatt ain't cheap! My club went to Cervinia season before last and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We did not make that trip. They also went to Tahoe staying at Heavenly to mixed reviews this past season. I am not a huge fan of Heavenly and Tahoe so did not attend that trip either. There were 2 days when there was no skiing due to weather and they are still trying to get some lift ticket refunds from Heavenly. Also, South Lake Tahoe has all the charm of a strip mall. But don't let my prejudices stop you - lots of people like heavenly and Tahoe.

This season we are looking at quotes from Taos, Mt Bachelor and Kitzbuhel. I will probably be trip leader for Taos and will also have to decide between attending next seasons gathering in UT or attending the Kitzbuhel trip in early March.

Not sure where you are located, but there is a ski travel show in NJ this Sunday which will have a lot of tour operators and reps from many resorts. Our ski club board are all attending.

Your proposed club trips sound awesome. Unless my eyes were seeing things I think the Zermatt quote was very reasonable. I'll know more tonight. I'll have to see if by my being on this planning committee means I'll have to be trip leader for one of them. This is my first time being on this committee so I'll get the dealio when I get there. I'm in southwestern CT. I looked up the expo and it's about 90 minutes away. I have plans mid afternoon through the evening in New Haven, CT but I'll mention the expo to my guys tonight. We have quotes to review and there will be more coming in so have a little time to finalize.

We had such an amazing time at Lake Louise and Sunshine Village we may just skip the ski club trip and go back there

 

[Dave Marshak]

All those are great places, but if you need to make a commitment months (or even weeks) ahead of time you should go high elevation and north. Summit County, Utah, Northern Rockies. I'd love to go to Taos or Squaw Valley, but I my friends and I have been spent too many vacation days skiing marginal (or worse) conditions when the weather went sideways the week before we arrived.

dm

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Yeah all our trips are set in stone by our open house at the end of September. Great advice about elevation, I'll raise it tonight.

 

[BS Slarver]

Switzerland is cheaper than you think, especially if you plan ahead, NYC to Zurich at 500 RT without group a bulk rate and the US dollar = Swiss franc.
Killer skiing can be as low as ~ 50 / day before a group discount.

We have a big group that travels every year with +\- 200 people. We are heading back to BigSky next year, they treat us very, very nice !

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Switzerland is cheaper than you think, especially if you plan ahead, NYC to Zurich at 500 RT without group a bulk rate and the US dollar = Swiss franc.
Killer skiing can be as low as ~ 50 / day before a group discount.

We have a big group that travels every year with +\- 200 people. We are heading back to BigSky next year, they treat us very, very nice !

Unless my eyes were deceiving me the cost was around $1600 or $1700 for everything. I was at work this am when the quote was emailed. Will look at it more closely in a little bit.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Meeting was fantastic last night. Many familiar faces including a woman I skied a bit with in Sunshine Village. Guess the trips ideas stem from the survey we send out to our members. Zermatt was #1 on the list and has been for a few years. Got a great quote from them so thinking that will likely be the winner. Final cost I think will be somewhere around $2100 pp with everything included including airfare, hotel and 6 days of skiing.

I think the domestic trip will be Heavenly as the rate is just too good, that should be around $1600 pp including airfare, 6 days of skiing at Heavenly including 1 day option in there of going to Northstar or Kirkwood. Price may vary a bit as they are looking into airfare options. A few of the guys are going to the ski show this sunday in Jersey and the boston on Wednesday and will get other quotes from Sun Valley, Big Sky and Steamboat. We have our next meeting tuesday where we'll finalize the destinations.

One option for us personally is Heavenly but we also might scrap the club trip altogether and just go back to Banff as we liked it so much. We'll coordinate our time with our friend there and make it a fun filled week.

The other thing we are definitely doing again outside of the club is to go up to Quebec again to ski Mont Sutton, Orford and Owls Head. The club's still going up there but I think they are going to go to different resorts with more nightlife around.

We aren't partiers so Michael and I don't pick destinations based on nightlife. Good skiing and a decent hotel is mainly what we are after.

My ski club is shying against Big Sky because apparently there isn't a lot or any nightlife there. It's nice if it's there but I don't pick a ski area based on the party scene.

Glad I'm on the ski trip committee because it's cool to see the inner workings on how it all comes together.

 

[Sibhusky]

Whitefish definitely has more going on at night than Big Sky. Big Sky has way more acreage, though.

 

[DanoT]

We have already booked Deer Valley for December 11-19 this year. We are looking at a Ski Club trip to Vail (7 days)and another club trip to Taos (7 days). Participation at both club trips will be dependent on my work schedule which I do not control. We will also likely make another trip to Colorado, so looking at 3 to 4 trips for the 17/18 season.

The Pug Utah gathering sounds cool too, not sure about that as my wife likes to stay in one location and that is a multi-location gathering.

The Pugski Gathering features 2 days at Alta and 3 days at Snowbird and they are right beside each other so no moving to different accommodation required. The other 2 days are at Snowbasin and it is I think and hour or just over an hour away.

 

[Crank]

Our club has been to both Whitefish and Big Sky. Both were great! We went back to Big Sky last season without the club - really love the skiing there and yes there is no nightlife. Whitefish is smaller and less rad, but is a tree skiing paradise and we really love the town as well.

 

[Jilly]

The Eastern Townships have some great skiing, but nightlife is in town and especially not at Owl's Head. It's bring your own party. Same can be said for the lower Laurentians too. If they want park, ski and play...Tremblant has that life style.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

The Eastern Townships have some great skiing, but nightlife is in town and especially not at Owl's Head. It's bring your own party. Same can be said for the lower Laurentians too. If they want park, ski and play...Tremblant has that life style.

I'm personally content skiing at Orford and stopping in at the Burger Pub and hanging for a while and then the Estimont is so awesome with those outdoor spas but they....want....more..... They are planning to go to the eastern townships again over MLK weekend but want to try different resorts. Wish I could remember the names that were thrown out. We might go with them or just may come back up to Sutton/Orford/Owls Head on our own. 3 of my best days of skiing last season came from Sutton and company. It was amazing. Our eastern Canada trips are over the MLK long weekend so Sutton and the others around are easier to do since only about a 5 hour drive. I will mention Tremblant at our next meeting but I fear they'd nix Tremblant just because it's that much farther up and hard to do just on a 3 day weekend.

 

[Jilly]

Mont Sutton, Mont Orford, Bromont, Owl's Head is all there is. Well we always considered Jay Peak as part of it too.

Tremblant is 4 lane highway through the Canadian portion till you're about 10 min from the hill. Lots of American's that weekend on bus trips. Or you can fly in from Jersey.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I don't think people would be into driving south a couple hours to get to jersey to then fly to tremblant. Driving sounds like it would be the best option. Bromont is one of the ones I was thinking of. Here's a list I'd found

http://mountainvertical.com/best-quebec-ski-resorts-height.php

Ones I think came up last night were Le Massif, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Mont Saint Sauveur

 

[Jilly]

Let me put it this way.....we drove past Bromont for 20 years. Only skied it once. Now if Frederick Lepine was offering a clinic...I would stop!

Mont St Saveur is just north of Montreal. Some on slope accommodations. And SkiBam drives the extra hour to come to Tremblant when that is almost in her backyard. Now Quebec city is another story and worth the drive.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Let me put it this way.....we drove past Bromont for 20 years. Only skied it once. Now if Frederick Lepine was offering a clinic...I would stop!

Mont St Saveur is just north of Montreal. Some on slope accommodations. And SkiBam drives the extra hour to come to Tremblant when that is almost in her backyard. Now Quebec city is another story and worth the drive.

Got it

 

[surfsnowgirl]

@Jilly Looks like we will be talking about Quebec City. Will have more details by next week.

 

[agreen]

I really want to check out some of the smaller mom/pop type places next season in Montana. I'm thinking of a Snowbowl, Lost Trail, Discovery loop. Legit terrain, no frills, quaint towns, and cheap lift tickets. Perfect!