Easter is easily one of the best times to go skiing. There are many misconceptions about skiing during Easter, mainly about the availability of snow. We’ve written this blog to show you the many advantages of skiing at Easter, and hopefully quash some of those misconceptions about late season skiing.
Les Coches April 2018
Sun
One of the many advantages of skiing at Easter are those beautiful blue bird moments. There is nothing better than looking out across the mountains with the sun beaming down on you from above. Also, more sun means less thermals, so more space in the cases and less layers to pull off at the end of the day.
Later in the season, the days become longer, meaning you’ll get more hours of skiing compared to travelling in the depths of winter. You’ll also be able to sit out in the sun for your mountain lunches without risking losing your fingers.
Chalet Susanna and Imogen April 2018
Snow
A lot of people don’t want to ski in Easter as they fear there will be no snow. They will either only stay in really high altitude resorts, or will avoid April all together. Now, whilst we can’t guarantee you that there will be snow at Easter, we also can’t guarantee it on any other day of the season either. There are un-skiable days throughout the season due to changes in weather.
Most people will tell you altitude is often considered a major factor for how long the snow sticks around, whilst this is certainly true, there are a multitude of factors that impact the amount of snow on the mountains. Ardent sits at just 1200m, but achieves a snow sure rating of 5/5. The orientation and subset of the slopes play a huge role. Ardent for example is in a sheltered north-west facing valley and a rock base keeps the snow cold. In recent years snow-making has become more and more widespread as resorts invest heavily to make sure key runs are skiable.
Ardent: 12th of April – Chalet Grolets
All of the resorts we operate in have snow making facilities and the home runs remain skiable till the end of the season.
Our seasonaires stay out a few weeks after the end of our season, and typically enjoy skiing right up until the day they leave. In fact, we haven’t had to close a resort early in the 25+ years we’ve been operating.
Sitting 600 metres below Avoriaz, the main run remains skiable until the end of the season
Ardent: 7th of April. – Home Run
Time off and Costs
The kids are off school for the Easter holidays and most people have at a few days off for bank holidays and the lucky ones get a couple more, meaning more holiday days saved for the rest of the year. Half term weeks are always the more expensive option, as parents with older children aren’t taking their kids out of school limiting them to the half terms and inflating prices across the board.
However, Easter rates are typically quite a lot cheaper than other half term holidays. There are usually some great end of season offers in resorts as the season starts to wind down. Often ski hire is cheaper in these weeks, and there are normally some great deals to be found on lift passes as well.
For example from the 1st of April, the Porte’s du Soleil are offering a FREE children’s lift pass with the purchase of an adult Porte’s du Soleil lift pass. This represents a saving of £223 per child.
Prices for 22/23 starting at £1411 for an Adult and £1155 for a child.