I've got an apartment in the alps and 3 children and lots of equipment to take so this year we're driving.

Normally I'd take the train direct to Bourg-St-Maurice and then the funicular.

I appreciate generally what you're saying but surely chains must make a difference on the rears? And having the X5 with 4wd must be benefial over 2wd cars?

In all reality I'll only be doing one trip up the mountain at the beginning of the week and one trip down at the end. In all the years I've driven this route there's probably only one occassion when the road hasn't been cleared.

Getting a full set of winter tyres is surely overkill for this trip. BMW don't even know if they can provide them and they estimate the cost at over £2,000 without storage, plus the hassle of changing over, etc.

If the road from Bourg to the resort is really bad then I could leave the X5 in Bourg and take the funicular up.