What’s New this Ski Season

The European ski season this year has got off to one of its best starts in several years with reports of amazing snow fall in the Alps already. Some resorts, particularly in the northern Alps have received masses of fresh snow already, even to low levels. And if you are considering or have booked a ski holiday, I Love meet and greet takes a look at what’s new for this ski season.

New Ski Areas and Lifts

Four ski resorts in the French Pyrenees have joined together to form a new fantastic 247km ski area combined under one name, Pyrenees 2 Vallées. Saint-Lary will now share a lift pass with neighbouring Peyragudes, Piau-Engaly and Val Louron and will be linked by a shuttle bus, making it easier to nip between them.

In Courchevel, a new bubble lift at Moriond to Bel Air will be in place for 2017/18 which will be taking 2400 skiers every hour up towards the heart of the Courchevel Moriond ski area. This super slick efficient lift will be running alongside a hair-raising 3km toboggan run, with eight underground tunnels and a 450m vertical descent, straight down into the village.

The chairlift to Palinkopf in Ischgl, Austria is being replaced by a high-speed six-seater chair which can carry 2,700 people an hour and has all the latest mod cons including heated seats, cover and automatically locking and opening safety bars.

In Switzerland three new lifts have connected the neighbouring resorts of Andermatt and Sedrun for the first time, creating the country’s largest ski area.

In the popular Val d’Isere resort in France, work has commenced on the £170m Coin De Val project which is set to redevelop the resort over the next five years. A new piste and underground moving walkway will connect the slopes directly with the heart of the town with a new shopping area, restaurants, apartments, hotel and bus station.

Voted the World’s Best Ski Resort, Val Thorens will also benefit from a new high speed 10-seater gondola as the Moraine chairlift is replaced. The new gondola will take skiers from the Maison du Thorens up towards the Col area of the resort.

New Flight Routes

Grenoble will benefit from increased flights as Jet2 and British Airways will be running Saturday flights from Stansted and Heathrow. Jet2 has also expanded its ski flights with departures for the first time from Stansted to Geneva, Salzburg and Lyon. easyJet will be running new flights from Gatwick to Klagenfurt in Austria.

If you are looking to go further afield and fly off to the States for a bit of skiing, Norwegian Airlines has recently launched flights from Gatwick to Denver opening up access to the Rocky Mountain resorts including Vail, Breckenridge and Aspen.

Ski Holiday Airport Parking

If you are jetting off to the slopes to make the most of the superb snowy conditions, use I Love meet and greet’s airport parking service, which allows you to drive to the airport building to be met by one of our experienced drivers, so you don’t have to struggle with your skis or snowboards.

By Sarah Anglim at 28 Dec 2017