Ermm, not quite. The Nordwand was first climbed in 1938 by Heinrich Harrer (author of Seven years in Tibet), Fritz Kasparek, Wiggerl Vorg and Anderl Heckmair. The Japs didn't go near it until 1970.

A couple of years ago I corrected, indexed and proof read the English translation of Rainer Retter's book Eiger: triumph and tragedy 1932 - 1938. But the publisher has put it on hold, so it may not be published now.

You'll get over it, welcome to the ski forum. So Cortina's your favourite ski town ?

This is from the Grindelwald tourism site


THE EIGER – FIRST ASCENTS OF THE NORTH FACE
West flank from Eigergletscher: 11th August 1858
Christian Almer, Peter Bohren – Switzerland
Charles Barrington – Ireland
Mittellegigrat on ascent: 10th September 1921
Yuko Maki – Japan
Fritz Amatter, Samuel Brawand, Fritz Steuri – Switzerland
Lauper route: 20th August 1932
Hans Lauper, Alfred Zürcher, Joseph Knubel, Alexander
Graven - Switzerland
North face normal route summer: 21st – 24th July 1938
Fritz Kasparek, Heinrich Harrer – Austria
Andreas Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg – Germany
North face normal route winter: 6th – 12th March 1961
Toni Kinshofer, Toni Heibeler, Anderl Mannhart – Germany
Walter Almberger – Austria
North face normal route solo: 2nd – 3rd August 1963
Michel Darbellay – Switzerland
North face descent: 27th – 31st December 1963
Paul Etter, Ueli Gantenbein, Sepp Henkel – Switzerland
North face – first ascent by woman: 1st – 4th September 1964
Daisy Voog with Armin Bittner – Germany
John Harlin north face route: 23rd February – 25th March 1966
Dougal Haston – Scotland
Siegfried Hupfauer, Jörg Lehne, Günther Strobel,
Roland Votteler – Germany
Japanese diretissima: 15th July – 15th August 1969
Michiko Imai, Takio Kato, Yasuo Kato, Saturo Neghisi
Susumo Kubo, Hirofumi Amano – Japan
Winter diretissima: 20th – 25th January 1970
Peter Jungen, Hans Müller, Otto von Allmen
Max Dörfliger, Hans-Peter Trachsel – Switzerland
Czech diretissima: 4th – 29th August 1976
Jiri Smid, Sylvia Kysilkowa, Petr Plachecky, Josef
Rybicka – Czechoslovakia
North face in winter, normal route solo: 3rd – 9th March1978
Tsuneo Hasagewa – Japan

I know these sorts of articles have been around for decades prior to the Internet - but I also know that if I was commissioning such a list - my confidential one-on-one brief would be;

"seo blah blah blah, niseko, seo, blah blah aspen, seo seo seo, blah blah, seo seo seo, whistler still popular, blah seo blah, cortina is fashionable again seo blah blah seo - make sure it index's well in google, seo blah blah seo"

Richard, I was thinking something similar.
So instead of a useless thread discussing a useless article, put the heavily remunerated, white coat wearing scientists at the elite ski.com.au laboratory to work.

Crank out a survey or feedback tool so we can rank what we think are the top ski towns (or ski resorts or ski runs or ski town bars or ski wankers. Whatever. Pick one).
The collective brains trust and experience here likely even exceeds that of the clueless interns that crank out the current Top xx Ski!!! crap that gets regularly released by other media orgs.

Use the results for a PR based on the survey or tool results that rank (say) The Best Ski Lifts in the World!

"SKI.COM.AU Announces the Top 20 Ski Lifts in The World! Based on a extensive feedback and survey of ski.com.au's 20,000 users, the following are definitely the best lifts in the world'.
blah blah blah, niseko, seo, blah blah aspen, seo seo seo, blah blah, seo seo seo, whistler still popular, blah seo blah, fur coats are fashionable in Selwyn again, etc.
Make a nice summary, then individual pages counting down from 20 to number 1. add photos, plus a link for outraged comments.

How can this fail? No-one here will object, it drives traffic,seo, helps build your business, and it may even be remotely useful. Exploit the resource of the opinionated collective you have here.

After having done the 3 peaks tour (informal name we gave our holiday) this year I think the spark has been lit to do a bit of climbing and revisit some places in summer. The Matterhorn is top of the list, but jeez the Eiger was special also. Third peak - hidden behind clouds 99.9% of our short stay was Mont Blanc.

hard to get sick of this view:

Maybe. It's an individual thing. Personally, I think Telluride is the most beautiful resort in Nth America. Love the town, box canyon, views at the top.

But I have been skiing for 30 years (I am old) and to me Europe has cornered the market on jagged peaks, rising from a pristine valley, perfect town, etc etc.
There are many highlights, but for stunning, it's hard to beat the ridiculous location, views, and ski starting position of the Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix.

^^^ and if you fly into tride airport on a clear day it's jaw dropping! it's a very pretty place - and the town is cool as

They're a comin! Just gotta stop skiing.

And Carveman, yes we did. Once before lunch and then for our final run of the day. I have no legs today.

I never have much time for these sort of lists. Far too subjective and vague. A bit of fun for someone writing an article an article to generate some debate but in the end pretty meaningless. Even if you have visited all of those places your judgement will be coloured by the conditions at the time that you visited and the experiences you had. For the record I've only skied at 12 from that list (1,3,5,6,8,9,10,11,17,19,22,23) and wouldn't want to rate them myself, although I have always said that Chamonix is one place any serious skier / mountaineer really must visit at some stage.

Also why I never give anyone a straight answer when they ask where the best place to ski is. Far too many variables and depends on what you really want.

I will add throw in another example though - Narvik - scenery wise amongst the best anywhere and the skiing is quite a bit more than what appears at first glance.

more fun in successfull convincing your editor that you will need to visit all these town for research and to be able to write a fully informed article!

If that was the case I definately would have come up with a far more diverse list.

Wasn't it about towns, not slopes? How on earth could chamonix not be 1, you get to hang out with le creme of skiing hanging out at their dream- I just do t know how you top that

I would put Rossland, BC in there as a real ski town. The lifts at Red are 5 minutes away and they have a history of skiing more than a century old. They've sent more racers to the national team than any other town or city in Canada. Hell, you can ski right back into town and through the streets and yards if you know how. I'll be subjective and say the only other ski town in BC is Whistler. Everywhere else has too big a gap between lifts and town.

And another vote for a big ol' poll on ski towns as Zeroz says. Probably needs an open thread discussion first to develop a voting list.

If we do have a poll, many people won't be objective, they'll just nominate their 'home' resort.

So if there is a poll, people should be required to say what their home resort is in Australia and their main foreign resort and they would be excluded from voting for those places and have to vote for their favourite places other than their home resort.

That may sound awkward, but it's the only way I can think of to stop if degenerating into an expanded version of Thredbo v. Perisher... or Hotham v. Falls. v. Buller.

After the day I just had, here is my list of the best ski towns in the world:

1) Chamonix.

couldn't agree more about rossland.

My first trip to Colorado was in August 92 when I picked up a car and map of the Colorado scenic byways from the airport. Following that scenic byways route took you through most of the top ski resorts. From the airport drove to Independence Pass, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, short cut on a gravel road only open in summer to Crested Butte, down the Million Dollar Highway, near Ouray the scariest drive in my life, Durango then Telluride. So I'd just seen some of the best Colorado had to offer, but it was Telluride that blew me away. Caught the Coonskin chair up and did some hiking up the See Forever trail, drove and had a look at the awesome Box Canyon. There's a chance I'll get there this year in mid Sept for Telluride Blues & Brews. Then did a long drive to Steamboat, Rocky Mountain National Park, Winter Park and back to the airport. Did take a bit of a detour to Vail at some stage and the purpose built imitation Tyrolean village left me cold ! and right on a major highway ! Didn't take me long to get back, skiing Tellurde & Aspen in March 93.
I preferred Telluride in 92/93 than when I next saw it in 2006, seemed to have just the right amount of development back then, and no way would I ever stay in the purpose built Mountain Village when you've got such a great authentic town with 2 chairlifts from the town to the heart of the skiing. Same goes for Crested Butte (even though there's no lift from the town) or Aspen.

Where to Ski and Snowboard is a book that was first published in 1996, that gets revised each year. It's edited by a couple of Brits, Chris Gill and Dave Watts, with further contributions from another 20 or so people including Bronwen Gora for Oz/NZ resorts. They rate the resorts on 12 different classifications and also give their top 10 resorts for things such as international oversights, reliable snow in the Alps, off-piste wonders, powder paradises, black runs, weatherproof slopes,high mileage piste bashing, specially for families, dramatic scenery, lively nightlife and village charm.

The National Geographic uses the following basis to pick their top 25 -:

"Just what makes a classic ski town? It starts, naturally, with skiing and snowboarding so good they attract people like youth-bestowing fountains. Then add an inviting mountain burg steeped in ski heritage, amenities, and culture" and as people have said it's very Americanised.

Where to Ski and Snowboard uses the following criteria to pick their best resorts for village charm -:

"Resorts with traditional character that enriches your holiday - from mountain villages to mining towns"
So nothing to do with the quality of the skiing. This list is compiled by people who visit ski resorts as a job, and they do it well enough to sell enough books to release a revised edition every year.

My most recent edition is 2006, but village charm isn't likely to change much. The only resorts that they gave 5 stars for village charm are-:
Alpbach, Austria and 4 Swiss resorts - Murren, Saas-Fee, Wengen & Zermatt.
The other 5 that made up the best 10 were given 4 stars and are Champery, Courmayeur, Lech, Telluride & Crested Butte.
Other resorts that they gave 4 stars to were -:

Austria
Ischgl
Kitzbuhel
Nauders
Obergurgl
Saalbach/Hinterglemm
St Anton
Westerndorf

France
Chamonix
La Clusaz
Les Contamines
Megeve
Samoens
St-Martin-De_Belleville
Valmorel

Italy
Bormio
Cortina

Switzerland
Andermatt
Grindelwald
Villars

USA
Aspen
Stowe

Canada
Tremblant (It seems the Brits like the fact they can find some of Europe in North America)

It seems Brits don't get to Japan much, no detailed reports on Jap resorts.

Only one Oceania resort received a detailed report, Queenstown and it only got 2 stars for village charm - well it's not a village or a mining town !

The book is great and I'm sure I'll get another updated version sometime, just gotta remember it's from a Brits perspective. One of the things they really harp on is the need for very classy lunches, so the US lunchtime on mountain refuelling stations really rubs them the wrong way.

I have 2 editions of that book, its fantastic for using when your trying to decide where to go.
One ski town that I would love to stay in is Samoens in France.
From what I've read and seen of it it seems to be one of the most beautiful traditional alpine towns in the world.
The altitude is quite low however, at approx. 700m above sea level it would not have too much snow in the village except for in the peak of the ski season.
If i was to win lotto then I think this is where i'd probably buy a chalet and spend as much time as possible in, all seasons.
I also use the reviews in snow-forecast as a good guide to how good a resort is. They now have a ratings system like the ski & snowboard book too, scroll down for the reviews;

http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Samoens/reviews

I have a copy of that guide, but the best ski guide I've ever owned is unfortunately no longer available, it was The Peter Stuyvesant Guide to Skiing, published in 1985.

How funny is that now to think that the best ski guide of the time was produced by a cigarette manufacturer!

I know, I think it used to amuse me even back in the 80s, but it was common then for tobacco companies to sponsor sporting events.

Samoens in 1994. Can't really comment on the village - we only stayed overnight while transitioning between the Porties du Soliel and the Grand Massiv regions.

I think Samoens is the only ski village listed as a National Trust site in France. In July 2007 we called in there for lunch on a bit of a detour between Annecy and Chamonix. Some beautiful old buildings, only small with a direct lift link into the Grand Massif, though you'd have to catch a bus to the lift, just a bit far to walk with skis from the centre of town, though I guess you'd have a car. Very traditional atmospheric place, wouldn't get much of an international crowd. You'd need to be able to speak French.

So many towns, such a short list

Wengen was pretty special.