Early booking for 2019 !

The easy jet flights went on sale late April and set our skiers group on wassap into hyperdrive what to do? Where to go? Which airport? Do we book through an agency again? Or book flights and apartments? Will it be self-catering big chalet big group? Or lots of double rooms in a hotel? Two - three weeks later on the 10th of may flights and hotel was booked for 4!

              originally I suggested Zermatt as it was somewhere new and near the Matterhorn I would like to see the Matterhorn, but Zermatt is in Switzerland, you need a lot of Swiss franc’s to buy beers! like all of Switzerland its an expensive resort so we ruled that out , after much discussion ali came up with a good compromise I would still see the Matterhorn and there was lots of beginners slopes for Gary ,


          We chose Cervinia it’s an Alpine resort in the Valle d’Aosta region of northwest Italy. It’s known for its snow-capped mountains, including the pyramid-shaped Matterhorn. A network of slopes connects Cervinia to the Swiss Zermatt, and to the Plateau Rosà and Ventina glaciers.


               Bob wasn't in a position to book just yet at that time but we were keen to get it booked, Cammy is working and living in Germany now so we didn't book his flights, we originally booked two double rooms at apartments with Ali and Gary one room me and Cammy sharing another room. we booked these rooms and paid our deposit bob and his family then decided it was a goer and booked there accommodation, then Ali had a new plan we would book an apartment with air B&B and cancel the original booking all good the ball was rolling, we changed our apartment bob got flights booked for him Joyce aunt Alison and the boys, then Ali had to pull out for family reasons! This will be the first time in over 10 years me and Ali won’t be skiing together


           

            I was looking at prices for ski passes for cervinia it wasn’t as straight forward as other resorts because there’s options for cervinia only or cervinia –zermatt and other variants, The prices are on the cervinia website. Here is briefly what I found out its 299 euros for a ski pass that covers zermatt and cervinia if bought from the cervinia /italian side (its more expensive for the Swiss )! Its 230 euros for a cervinia –valtour pass and then you can buy one day top ups for around 30 euros to go to Zermatt! So If you go to Zermatt twice during the week, it is cheaper to buy one-off top up’s. BUT If you go more than twice, it is cheaper to buy a 6-day international pass and you don’t have to que pick days etc., SO! I think for me I am going to probably go for the all slopes pass for 6 days as I will probably do more than 3 days popping into the Zermatt side of the mountain, A week pass also has the advantage of No queueing for top ups. And you can be more spontaneous - just pop over for a few hours when you fancy it, rather than feeling you have to get up early and spend the whole day in Zermatt, to get your money's worth. But I bet many people who buy a week pass do not go over more than twice, so it may well end up being cheaper to just get daily top ups! We will all need to make personal choices on this especially the beginners in the group, Cammy will be with me so he is getting the 299 euros cerv-zer pass! Bob I am unsure of as he may spend a bit of time with Calum this year is he in ski school? I checked children’s prices? They are free for under 5`s but need to be booked with the parents pass

Some stuff I considered for our decision - There are 20 lifts in Cervinia and 34 in Zermatt, serving up 160km of Italian pistes and 200km of Swiss ones, joined up into a shared ski area via Plateau Rosa. But buying a joint Cervinia/Zermatt pass costs £100 less if you buy it in Cervinia than it does in Zermatt, and you can then pass freely between the two resorts. Europe’s highest ski lifts take you up from Zermatt into the heart of one of the world’s biggest ski areas – crossing the Swiss border to the Italian resort of Cervinia and also including Valtournenche in the Aosta Valley.  The area includes incredible runs for all standards, with the world’s second biggest lift-served vertical drop (2,379m), and an epic 20km descent down to Valtournenche 20-kilometre red run The 3^rd longest run in Europe Access one of the world's longest ski runs from the Klein Matterhorn, also known as the Piccolo Cervino. Europe's highest cable car whisks you up onto the Klein Matterhorn over gigantic glacial crevasses. From its lofty height of 3,883 metres, take an epic 20-kilometre descent down red runs to Valtournenche at 1,524 metres, Cervinia's lift-linked neighbour. Alternatively, from the Klein Matterhorn, you can ski the 13-kilometre descent down into Zermatt, Switzerland. Whichever direction you choose - Cervinia or Zermatt - this is one heck of a run which begins with enormous glacial fields and drops into steeper mogulled terrain. Due to its altitude, the ski runs from the Klein Matterhorn are consistently skiable from late November to mid-April. For something slightly shorter, try Cervinia's red Ventina piste, an 11.5-kilometre descent from Plateau Rosa

          BRING IT ON cannot wait  

               

As part of my research I had a look at what people were saying on trip advisor -

            Personally I think the entire swiss project is disreputable so if you can avoid contributing to it financially all the better. If you do go over turn off your phone and under no circumstances eat over there, the lads got stung around 40 euro for a salad not realising the exchange rate. There’s enough Great food on piste in Italy and its always very affordable.

Another unfortunate scam is if you buy the international pass allowing you to go into Switzerland you DO NOT get access to the other resorts in the Aosta valley. Whereas if you buy a local pass, which is much cheaper, you can also ski (at least one day if not all the time - check this) in Pila or any of the other resorts in the Aosta valley. This is important as lift closures due to high wind in Cervinia are quite frequent. I was there for four days and bought the international pass at significant expense. Days two and three, and half of day four the entire resort was closed due to high winds (in fairness when I got up for the first half of day four I realized this was entirely justified, winds were absolutely unbelievable). This meant days two and three involved a one hour drive each way to Pila where I then had the indignity of having to buy another pass which would have been free if I had just bought the local pass. This can only be the Swiss' fault I think.

I had made my mind up that completed my research for ski passes it was time to look at ski hire!

The nearest ski rental to our apartments is called Genzianella Sport I checked it out for ski and boot hire and read the reviews there was a a lot of bad reviews of this shop which is a shame as it seems to be the independent local shop , I next checked out cervinia 2001 not much further away than our closest but in the opposite direction still very close . they had lots of good reviews a much better website and were giving you 15% off for booking on line which seemed good, next I checked nol ski which is a bit further up the same road but still close enough they had really good reviews it was one or two euros more expensive than cervinia 2001 but said it was offering 20% off line bookings so they were much more expensive to begin with and still more expensive with a supposed extra 5% off than 2001! Still on our street a little further than the other 3 is called top one! It has a few bad reviews and a few good the price list had no online booking discount and looked 10 euros more. I recommend we go for 2001!

I got home from work on the 14^th of January leaving me only 12 days to get organised for skiing among other things for example I get home on the Saturday and have a trail race including a lot of specialist equipment’s and foods on the Sunday I shall have to be prepared for that and going back to work on the Monday all before I leave, this doesn’t take into account the normal everyday stuff of training visiting mum shopping cooking nights out. Thankfully I have a list I prepared on previous years so my packing wouldn’t take long I got the big ski bag out the loft and consulted my packing list!  

Packing for ski Holiday

1. garmin watch with its charger,  (garmin inreach device possibly but it’s not on a subscription so pointless unless I activate the subscription )
2. ski goggles and helmet 
3. Prescription Glasses spoggles and sun specs
4. Hats - woolly and thin 
5. First aid kit with sun cream sachets , gaviscon , lip salve and compede, support bandage ,ibrufen gel, deep heat, crèmes ,
6. Buff`s maybe a scarf
7. Swimming shorts for sauna
8. Utility knife Head torch
9. Ear plugs
10. T shirts – 7 technical T`s couple of dressed  T`s
11. Fleece/jumper/hoody
12. Body warmer /Gillet
13. Down jacket the big one and a small one rolled for pack 
14. Waterproof jacket gore Tex one and lightweight plus possibly a ski jacket
15. Gloves lots of pairs thin and thick
16. Underpants 8 pair
17. Long johns x 2 
18. Trousers casual possibly a dressed pair and maybe Ron hills
19.  Ski boots
20. Socks 3 -4 pair normal plus 6 pair ski socks
21. Walking boots crocs/flip flops , 
22. small backpack with camelback
23. mac book-reading book- Ipad
24. Toilet bag
25.  walkie talkies
26.  sallopettes
27. Trek bars, nuts, drinks, food, spices herbs ,whisky , some lemons , porridge ,almond milk ,coffee
28. Passport and Brewdog passport for airport bar ,Halifax clarity card travel wallet
29. Headphones
30. Flight booking printouts & copies of holiday insurance and any other booking details
31. Mobile phone and charger 

Pens, notebooks, go pro, mobile phone, various chargers, reading & guide books, Selfie pole!

, possibly buy a new carry case for my digi camera and take it make sure its charged 

Ok that’s as much for the packing list I can think of!