I think there is a lot of variation between ski locations in how crowded with kids they are.
For example Grand Bornand was packed with kids, of all sizes, right down to pre-school ones. This made skiing challenging 
There were other problems there which is why I never went back, like crap food and crap customer service.
At the other end, Cervinia has very few kids.
Probably a big factor is how easy is it to drive somewhere, get your boots and skis on, and get onto the ski lift straight from the car park. If you can do that, you will have a lot of family business, because it avoids the expense of hotels. And family skiing is pretty expensive… starting with the airline flights.
Antonio wrote:
370KTS! (…) Did you take a selfie of your grin at the time?
Well I was thinking a bit about how we would get back later on ;-)
Frans wrote:
What did you pay for parking fees?
I think there has been no change in fees at LSZS for quite some time, so still 80 CHF 0-3 tons plus VAT for parking from 2 to 24 hours. All not cheap but I like it is predictable. You come 10 times you pay 10 x the exact same amount, no fighting with handling or similar.
Yes, that’s right. They never charge some additional made-up stuff. I was just wondering if they would charge 5 CHF per hour, like they do in summer (with a maximum of 80 CHF per 24 hrs) for small GA, or if they still charge – according to the official fees – 80 CHF from 2 hrs. They are also in winter not too strict on that 2-hour free limit, I must admit.
Samedan remains an expensive place, but it’s indeed predictable and still nothing compared with Buochs on weekends.
Frans wrote:
They are also in winter not too strict on that 2-hour free limit, I must admit.
Our experience has been if we really stayed “for the day”, so usually about 6 hours, it was always 80 CHF. Once we did a training flight with a lunch only and it did not seem to matter much if that lunch took a little over 2 hours and there was no parking charge.
I’ve not been pushing this fly to ski idea because
1 and 2 have been fixed so it is just about possible for me to fly to something. Only high altitude locations will have snow through March, however. Cervinia does – have just been there.
Our last fly 2 ski did result in a technical emergency, the snowboard shoe delaminated!
Luckily the plane was right next to the slope at LFLJ and I always keep a wide selection of tools in the plane including some fast epoxy. So 25 minutes later it was good to go:
It did last very well through the rest of the day even at agressive boarding pace. So having proper tools and materials on the plane did pay off in an unexpected way!
But the temperatures have been extreme in mid February, I was actually riding without my jacket. On many south faces the snow was basically gone. You leave the slope you might fall on bare rock. It was a great day but unless there is some massive new snow coming I assumed the season to be over.
Looks like you are skiing a lot harder than I am in this video
As things get warmer, all that remains is the higher altitude places. The low level places (Winterberg, etc) will just disappear. Cervinia is not yet using any significant artificial snow, although I found the conditions back in early Jan to be quite icy. Now they are great – lots of snow in the past week.
Cervinia has tons of snow and is open until 7th May
I’ll give it a try on the weekend after Aero, weather permitting.
This is a bit of a laugh but does anyone know a good ski shop at a minimal distance from the UK, which I could fly to and maybe meet up with somebody?
It might actually be Aosta… just 3hrs. Cervinia is not closed until May 07 2023 (estimated).
The reason is that I had various problems with boot liners and need new ones bought and fitted. The boots are fine – Head Nexo 110 LYT. UK ski shops – few within driving range – range from dire to absolutely dire and that is even before they tell you that why should they sell boots (1hr) when they can sell you a jacket for £500 in 5 mins.
