Europe skiing in early January

S

SlushSeason

Member
Does anyone here have experience with skiing Europe in early January? I'll be on the continent over Christmas and am thinking of extending my trip to ski a few days.

I've heard the Alps can be unreliable in the early season, but what about the Balkans or Scandinavia? I'm pretty open to going wherever is best and offers more than just groomers.
 
From my experience and spending a couple winters over there it is entirely hit or miss. Also Europe is really big, so there can be a ton of snow someplace and none in another. Do you need to book things now? If you can, just wait and see where its snowing before you make any plans. Obviously the resorts with a higher base elevation will fair better with early season snowfall, but you never know. I had my deepest day ever at Verbier in December and the next season at the same time there was practically no snow.
 
Skied Avoriaz France last January 2023. I chose them as they are higher in elevation and it just worked well for my family and myself. They had decent snow and had a developed park, 10/10 would recommend.

Skied Chamonix and La Clusaz in January 2022 and both were okay but could've been better with more snow. Had a crazy wind storm a week prior which picked up a bunch of sand from the Sahara desert and carried it over that area so all the snow was like skiing on 100 grit sandpaper. Like mentioned above, it is a hit or miss some years. 10/10 would recommend as well.
 
Scandinavia is usually dark and cold in early january and snow will probably be shit outside of the slopes.
 
Depends on what you want to do. In Sweden most slopes are open by then but its ussualy not so good offpist early and its dark most of the day but the piste are good and not all places have built their snowpark yet but i know that Hemavan and Åre are building their parks early and have good parks that time of the year.
 
Where will you be on the continent for christmas? It's pretty easy to travel around without flights because there are no hard borders and trains all over central Europe but you should pick somewhere close to where you're going to be so you don't lose whole days of travelling.

Your best bet for Early Jan is to stick to the resorts that start higher up as they're considered 'snow sure' (or as much as you can be with the changing climate) and there are options in most countries with terrain in the Alps.
 
yo im going to mayrhofen with my family over newyear so i was wondering if someone knows what the park usually looks like by then???
 
14549961:fabbe said:
yo im going to mayrhofen with my family over newyear so i was wondering if someone knows what the park usually looks like by then???
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Mayrhofen are good at getting their park up and running. They will likely have a decent size rail line up, their small jumps, their med jumps and depending on the snowfall they might have the pro line built. They have the Penken Battle competition in early Feb so if they can, they will get all the jumps up and dialled-in in good time for that. Last year they were up and dialled-in for early Jan so you might get lucky and get to ride the full park on their rapid 4-man detachable.
 
14549967:FaunaSkis said:
Mayrhofen are good at getting their park up and running. They will likely have a decent size rail line up, their small jumps, their med jumps and depending on the snowfall they might have the pro line built. They have the Penken Battle competition in early Feb so if they can, they will get all the jumps up and dialled-in in good time for that. Last year they were up and dialled-in for early Jan so you might get lucky and get to ride the full park on their rapid 4-man detachable.
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yo thanks so much!!!
 
My last stop planned is Luxembourg, so Switzerland is definitely the closest option. I'd love to ski somewhere like Verbier or Zermatt, but I'm worried it'll be difficult to find accommodation for a reasonable price (by swiss standards) at this point.

I wouldn't mind traveling to somewhere like Poland or Slovenia for much better value, but all their resorts look like they're at much lower elevation.

14549949:FaunaSkis said:
Where will you be on the continent for christmas? It's pretty easy to travel around without flights because there are no hard borders and trains all over central Europe but you should pick somewhere close to where you're going to be so you don't lose whole days of travelling.

Your best bet for Early Jan is to stick to the resorts that start higher up as they're considered 'snow sure' (or as much as you can be with the changing climate) and there are options in most countries with terrain in the Alps.
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Early Jan is second best time to go to the Alps (after spring) - the mass tourism still hasn't started and temps are low (so even if snowfall is bad, which is very rare for Jan, there will be perfect artificial snow coverage.

If you are looking for parks - Laax is the best one in Switzerland and one of the best in the Alps. Accommodation is expensive though.

Austria has plenty of places and while people here are suggesting high elevation places like Hintertux or Stubai I wouldn't rely on a glacier on Jan - if there is a cold/windy spell glaciers are unskiable in Jan and very often are completely closed. Stubai does not even run their park in January - they close early dec and reopen in march. I would recommend Absolut Park, but it's on the eastern side of Austria.

Have never been to france but they have plenty of nice places as well.

You should also check out Livigno in Italy which is actually easier to reach from Switzerland. It is a cheap place with great parks and reliable snow conditions.

I myself live in the Balkans and ski here - January is when the good snowfalls usually begin, but in 95% of the time the Alps offer better conditions. Also freestyle is not that popular here and parks are small and lame. Freeride is good, but early january is often too early for that.
 
I skied at Laax and Zermatt in late December early January of 2019-2020. Not the best conditions but there was much more than I was expecting for natural terrain, and the parks were absolutely popping. There are definitely better times to go, but if you are already out there, I highly recommend extending the stay to lap.
 
Ruka was decent over New Years. More snow than I was expecting tbh. There were some parts that were not quite at peak season snowpack but I didn’t feel “limited” like I would at US resorts during this time
 
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