Where and when should I spend my semester abroad skiing?

Moonshine

Member
Trying to get a lot serious feedback on this thread. I'm hoping to go on exchange next year for a semester. At first I was sure I was going to New Zealand. But after watching McConkey for the first time over spring break (if you haven't, please watch it), I am pretty sure I just wanna go ski for 4 or 5 months somewhere really fucking awesome. I grew up skiing the east coast, but I wanna do some REAL SKIING on some REAL MOUNTAINS haha. But yeah, looks for some insane pow, pillows, parks, etc., the real deal. I think it will probably work out best for me to go 2nd semester, so January-May or June. So what do you guys think? Need a university with easy access to skiing for 4 or 5 months. Help me out NS
 
UBC, catch the snowbus to Whistler. Student pass at whistler is dirt cheap and it's one of the best resorts in NA.

Oh, and I guess UBC is a good school too... amazing campus and great people
 
http://selkirk.ca/program/ski

We currently have 2 Scottish exchange students in our program, and they love it!

Nelson is a super laid back ski town in BC, and the local hill (whitewater) is gaining attention super quick. As for the school part, you"ll learn about different aspects of managing a ski resort, all while going to super awesome parties and meeting some awesome people!
 
alps man- one of the coolest places I've ever experienced even without the skiing, and the mountains are incredible
 
i want to be outside the US. i speak english obviously and some french. mastering french would be dope. Switzerland?
 
Verbier - In Switzerland, French Speaking and has some really incredible terrain. Only problem is £££.
 
Depending on what you study, a lot of courses in Innsbruck are held in English nowadays - business studies especially (Master programs,....)
 
Innsbruck in Austria has lots of really good resorts near by. Mayrhofen is about an hour down the road and there's a huge selection.
 
Austria is considerably cheaper. I've skied in all four of the Alpine countries (France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland), and I found Austria to be the cheapest. Italy wasn't as horrifically expensive as France or Switzerland either.
 
If you can, I'd definitely head for the Alps. As someone said, Austria is the cheapest, but any of the countries would be sick.
 
Spent a semester in Lausanne, Switzerland. Verbier less than an hour by train, super affordable with student rail and lift pass. Tons of resorts nearby and easily accessible. If your learning French anywhere in french/swiss alps would be cool.
 
if you want "real mountains" head to chamonix, it may be a bit pricey but there's some crazy terrain and so much touring to do!! if you climb or do any mountaineering then its even better. also your not just stuck to chamonix, your with in an hours driving distance of a couple of resorts plus you just drive though the tunnel and your in Italy. check out jacob westers latest edit to get an idea for it.
http://vimeo.com/89929456

 
This might be a dumb question, but would I be able to use any French in Austria?? Sounds like Austria or Switzerland at this point
 
I'm sure if you went to school in Austria there would be French speakers in your school, so if you went out of your way to try to speak French I'm sure you could.
 
Grenoble/lyon in south east france or maybe chamberry if there is a uni there would be a good option. from there you would be within an hour or so of most of the french alps resorts and extra hour would take you to italy, switzrland or austria. Heard that innsbruck has a big university and if you went there you could ski everyday. wouldn't imagine that there would be much skiing in NZ jan-may as that would be their summer time.
 
I did an exchange year in Austria when I was in high school. Super easy access to all the skiing and pretty inexpensive. I had the time of my life there, definitely recommend it (for universities look into any thing west, Innsbruck, Salzburg. Shy away from Vienna it's super far from mountains)
 
Great, thank you! It's looking like I'll be looking into Austria and maybe France or Switzerland. New Zealand will have to wait
 
If you're going for school remember that if you swap hemispheres you might be starting in summer and ending mid fall.

As mentioned above anything else you want to get out of it? If you're learning another language and want to improve on those skills moving to a country that speaks said language could help a bunch.
 
Just come to innsbruck. There are so amn many possibilties for shredding ehre, its insane. Plus you have early season parks n stubai and hintertux from the beginning of october and late season parks up to the end of may. And in the meantime, you can go shred anywhere in tirol for basically nothing (520€ for the season pass). I dont think any other place an offer this many possibilities. And basically everyone in innsbruck shreds,mso you will make tons of new friends and people to shred with!
 
12953741:HolySchimmel said:
Just come to innsbruck. There are so amn many possibilties for shredding ehre, its insane. Plus you have early season parks n stubai and hintertux from the beginning of october and late season parks up to the end of may. And in the meantime, you can go shred anywhere in tirol for basically nothing (520€ for the season pass). I dont think any other place an offer this many possibilities. And basically everyone in innsbruck shreds,mso you will make tons of new friends and people to shred with!

thanks for the input man. tryna figure my shit out now. do you know when the winter semester starts/ends?
 
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