european kids half term 2010

acarr wrote:Tony, is the snow ok at that time of year?

Never ever been a problem, but thats because I have always been careful with my selection. I always tend to go to higher resorts anyway to make sure there will be skiing if the weather isnt great.
Past experience has told me that Jan is quite a cold month, and therefore it is likely to snow lower down, although thats not always the case of course. I have found that the early season snow falls in December make a good base to ski on in Jan, and generally the weather has mostly been clear and sunny when we have been just after new year. It was very cold in St Anton, minus 12 in the village at midday, and minus 45 up the mountain at night, but that only helps preserve the snow of course.

I am no expert on conditions, weather, snowbases etc, but what I would say is pick somewhere with decent altitude skiing, ie above 1800m and you should be fine. Some of my best weeks skiing have been in early Jan, including St Anton this year.

I went to Austria in the last week of Jan last year to avoid the various european half term holidays, there was no problem with the snow but I picked the week an Irish radio station was having their ski tour in the resort and everywhere was absolutely packed, including the ski schools and lifts with Irish teens and twenty somethings. A lot of beer was drunk but not a lot of skiing done.
So you never can tell