The view from............ Val d'Isere and the Espace Killy

A snowHead

holidayloverxx - opening week - should be fun - empty slopes and (certainly up high at least) the snow is usually excellent so all in all you will have an excellent time. That is great - either drop me a line or contact TDC re lessons that week (doesn't make any difference however you book it) - shouldn't be too busy so there shouldn't be too many problems in fulfilling the request. Looking forward to it - see you then.

Pedantica - yea it is annoying / weird the way I cant get the pictures to work..... ill work on it. That is sad about the dog - had not heard about that..... the power of SH's in bringing news such as this!

Iski - oh yea gearing back up again now the Autumn has arrived - little by little I'm ramping it all up again!

A snowHead

LAST UPDATE OF THE SUMMER

That can only mean that Winter is on the way.... well one could argue that it has already arrived!

Anyway the next time I post we will be back in Val d'Isere! Can't wait! Summer has once again flown by and it will be sad to leave friends and family but I cannot wait to leave the (now) dreary weather and withering leaves and head back to the land of snow and bitter cold! Get those skis back on and do it all again!

The last month has been marked really by two main things.... more on those in a minute.

The second half of September was once again busy on the cricket front .... although by the end of September I had pretty much had enough of watching it! I was all over the country so I am quite happy that the cricket work is on hold for now and I am able to spend some time at home!

However early October and we were off down to Rock in Cornwall for our first family holiday. As happened a couple of years back the father in law took a house down there for the week and all 'this' side of the family were invited down for a week of fun and games. So everyone was able to come for differing periods of time but we made the most of it.... with up to 10 people there are any one time it was a lot of fun.

The weather was awesome and the house really nice. We did lots of walks along the beach, fish and chips of course, cornish pasties and a bike ride where Olivia came in a buggy behind me along the old disused rail line that is the Camel Trail which was great fun. On top of that I managed to squeeze in a couple of rounds of golf with Clares' father which was wonderful at St Enodoc golf course... beat him once and drew the second time. There was LOTS of good eating to be had

The other big event happened just the last Sunday when Olivia was christened surrounded by god mothers and fathers and family back in the same church and by the same vicar that married us in 2012. It was a lovely day.... my parents as grandparents thoroughly enjoyed the day too as it is their first grandchild so it was a great day.

However now I have decided that I need to get fit in time for the season and lose some Summer weight (most people put on weight in the Winter and lose it in the Summer - I am the opposite). So I have now started a fitness drive to see me up to the season and onwards.....

First family holiday in Cornwall

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10456210_10154722700460416_8980898248521611714_n.jpg?oh=a1c120ee951f5bad8c8fa42992cc24fc&oe=54BBA01A&__gda__=1420530255_12683dc13c8cb3c4353922e809001316[/img]
Cool dudette in her sunglasses.

Back in Val d'Isere
The days are getting shorter, people are waxing the skis and the snow is starting to settle on the mountain tops around town....

Ok maybe not enough snow to ski on yet but the mountains are whitening up!

The testing of the snow cannons for the Winter has started - Winter IS COMING!

A new moving indoor magic carpet goes in (but not sure where as cant work it out - anyone know?)

Well that is about all for this month. I will be back to write daily blogs from mid November when we are back in Val.... In fact we go on the 4th November and that will allow us about 3 days to get everything in the 'new' flat sorted out before Clare's mum arrives with Olivia and we settle into our new family home altogether. We got confirmation through this week that Olivia has her place at the creche which is very exciting news indeed!

Until Val..... stay safe.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Steve Angus, looking forward to seeing your adventures as a family in Val d'Isere. Smile

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Steve Angus, wow, you little baby is so young and you convinced Val d'Isere to have a new indoor magic carpet for her already Smile

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Looks like the new Magic carpet is at the bottom of the Val snowpark running up from the Marmottes chairlift towards the Borsat express Puzzled

You'll need to Register first of course.

Steve Angus, I love St Enodoc, gorgeous place! And Olivia is super-cool! Very Happy

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Im back

Yes folks I'm back.... well it has been a lot later than planned I am afraid... this is mainly due to the incompetence of France Telecom in getting my internet connection set up here.... Over a month back we ordered the internet for here before we left the UK and after initially being told it would be a week or so to remotely activate the internet it transpired a couple of weeks back that this was actually incorrect and an engineer visit was required - so hopefully and finally tomorrow the engineer will come and connect us up. For the meantime we have been using a slow and expensive dongle system and now using my iPhone as a hotspot - grrrr France Telecom.

Anyway I am now back to give daily updates etc from here in Val d'Isere for another season and there is no time like the present to start.

I have not really been on SH's much recently so not totally up to speed with some the goings on of other threads but as usual hopefully this thread will give a day by day reflection on life out here.

This is / was the view from our balcony today. As you can see there was a couple of weeks back some really good snow fall but since then the temperatures have been too warm and most of the snow has melted. Indeed it was announced today that when Val opens this weekend only the Pissaillas Glacier area will be open and access to there will be from the Fornet glacier. Best of all lift passes will be free this weekend!

The last few weeks since the last post has revolved around packing up (tons of stuff) and getting out here... then Olivia flew out with her grandma (gave Clare and I a few days headstart to get this place sorted) and then several weeks now of a mix between unpacking, bits of DIY (e.g. building new shelfs etc) and looking after Olivia and getting her settled in. We have hardly stopped and as always the run up to the season is busy and only seems to get busier.

I will keep it quite short here but sign off for today and get back into the swing of daily updates bit by bit.... this is a little photo taken of our little Olivia in the snow the other day (before it melted here in town). She has settled in well and starts in the creche on Monday (eek 7 months old already - wow).

After all it is free

^ bless her with those little chubby cheeks, what a sweetie!

Anyway YAAAAAAAY welcome back Steve!! I was wondering when your updates would start again.

Will you both be instructing this season and taking it in turns to babysit?

Looking forward to the daily reports, I'm delighted to see my favourite thread is back up and running.

Wishing all the Angus family a fantastic season - let it snow!

@HoneyBunny, +1 Very Happy

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@Steve Angus, I too was wondering whether you would be giving us the lowdown and high points of EK this season. Welcome back and looking forward to reading your posts. Very Happy

ps. don't bother with the other threads unless you're in to SCGB, Simon Butler and ESF Laughing

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

One for the locals, maybe:
The Toviere webcam seems to suggest that the area outside the top of the recently-replaced lift (Aeroski?) has been scattered with car tyres or similar.
Does anyone know what they are for? Won't they make it rather tricky getting out of the lift station?

snow reports

@Red Leon, the snow will cover it up! I suspect it stops the taurpaulin lifting up which protects what ever is under there (Tennis courts etc). 2 years ago I was out in Val D'Isere early Dec, you could "see" the tyres at the start of my 2 weeks, after 1 dump they were gone and I skied over them most mornings without ever catching them.

The thoughts were that they protect the roof of the new Toviere lift from the piste bashers.

You know it makes sense.

Steve Angus, Welcome back, have a great season.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Well the phone line part is done....

Another mild day (for the mountains) with light cloud cover for the most part but no sign of snow I'm afraid!

I seemed to be busy all day with either Olivia things, waiting in for the France Telecom engineer to do his thing and then popping into town to visit the post office, get my carte neige and a couple of other errands.

I just about managed to get a couple of little DIY jobs started but as always will have to come back to them tomorrow.

Clare took Olivia over to Tignes for a babies music group with other expats which she said was fun.

We had a very long and boring call to our resident french bureaucracy expert come french accountant assistant girl, Suzie and we talked through how we were should complete the family benefit registration form(s) which being French take ages.

The latest on the internet is that although the phone line is now connected it will be a further week'ish until the broadband goes live..... grrr!

Anyway thanks folks for your kind words welcoming the thread back online.... I aim to please!

As far as the tyres situation is concerned - basically it is partly to protect the surface underneath from machinery but also so people know when the snow is thin and they could go through to the ski scrapping surface underneath.... so at the end of the day it helps the pisteurs work out how deep the snow is but mainly protect both the snow users and the underlying surface equally so it is a win win situation - that is my understanding of why the tyres are put in particular places on the hill (or at the bottom of it!).

The photo of the day today shows how little snow we have in places - this is the south facing mountain side so really we need snow urgently. However I am sure that as soon as it gets cold enough they will go crazy making artificial snow and certainly up high on the glacier should be good!

TTFN.

A snowHead

COULD BE INTERESTING

Well it started grey out there and got more and more murky as the day progressed until it started to drizzle down here in the village from about lunchtime onwards.... nothing too heavy. I think it COULD (just could) be snow up very high but we are still a few degrees above freezing down here in town.... so I think it could be interesting on the glacier tomorrow as it looked more socked in up there than down here in town. The freezing level could mean there is a good amount of snow up there - possibly.... or on the other hand it could be freezing rain that has fallen. Either way I can imagine that there will be loads of seasonnaires that will head up there tomorrow eager to show off there stuff and totally trash their skis etc.... or worse!

So yes we have finally made it through the long and slow inter / pre-season period and the lifts finally start turning tomorrow morning.

I was up at the bank this morning asking some questions and setting up a meeting for next week about something.... headed to the post office and generally got a pretty productive morning in. Clare headed to La Daille to pick up the uniform for this season (will try and get a photo of it tomorrow............. yellow mustard jacket and grey trousers - I think it looks quite nice but Clare is not so keen!)

The plan had been to take Olivia for a swim this afternoon but as soon as I got her all togged up and up there I found out that they had technical probs with the pool so would not be opening for another couple of hours so frustratingly binned that idea and headed home....

Spent way longer than planned but got there in the end, hours putting up pictures and photos around the flat and it really feels more homely now which is nice.

So tomorrow is my first day of teaching also so I will be busing it up to Fornet (must see how reliable the new digital bus arrival time signs are) for the lesson.... lets hope for nice snow for the first day and boots not too sore!

Cheers folks and bring on Winter 2014/2015!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

well you can tell winter has arrived when Steve starts posting, have a good season Smile

You need to Login to know who's really who.

That little baby is absolutely gorgeous; what a poppet. Val d'Isere, on the other hand, looks a right gloomy mess at the moment. Great to have your thread back again, Steve. snowHead

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Just heard the lifts are closed in Fornet. Is that correct and does this mean there is know skiing anywhere today in val d'Isere. Sad

You'll need to Register first of course.

Good to see you back online Steve

If somebody with more influence than me with the big man upstairs can have a word, then several dumps in the next 3 weeks would be great.

See you in the 3 weeks anyway Steve, regardless of snow. Off to go and kit the kids out now.

Jason

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

False start....

Yea I'm back kitenski!. Thanks pam w - yea Olivia is rather special even though I do say so myself. trainee snowboard jedi - yep ill see what I can do and see you in a few weeks time!

But yea snowcrazy and timlongs there were certainly high winds in town today! I headed up to the Fornet and there was perhaps 50 people at the bottom of the cable car waiting in anticipation for the opening. The wind was not horrendous down here in the valley but there was certainly a stiff breeze blowing. After meeting up with what would have been the first students of the season we had no option but to wait it out in the Crozets and see if anything started moving.... we could see that the cable car was only moving occasionally to move pisteurs up the mountain and apart from that there was nothing else moving..... and there was no sign of anything moving. Bit by bit the hoards of people disappeared and it was obviously that it was a non starter this am - so we will have another go tomorrow morning and onwards from there. I do believe that they did get the lift open in the afternoon but I am not sure what time. Radio Val were talking up the wonderful piste skiing which I am reliably informed there is, up on the glacier - you just could not get there!

Anyway it was good to get all kitted up for a 'dry run' and bump into some familiar faces for chats so it was not all wasted!

Home for lunch which allowed Clare to head to the gym and me to have some time with Olivia.

We headed out for a family walk and to the Blue Note for a quick drink this afternoon and to catch up on the rugby before Olivia got hungry so we have now popped home.

The busiest place in town it would seem was the ice rink and they have managed to use the underground chilling to actually create an ice rink.

Looking rather thin on the Lievre Blanc!

The new out/indoor cafe area at the Crozets at Le Fornet cable car base station

Ice skating in 5 degrees heat anyone!

That's about all folks - fingers crossed for less wind tomorrow... as last night there will not be any fresh snow overnight - too windy and warm but at least we have a chance for a ski!

A great day in Val d'Isere today - up at le fornet, down to la daille, did the hidden valley, passed the folie douce and came down Orange - and just to top everything off picked up pine cones en route to make the chalet more rustic.

Always good to be in the mountains! Interesting to see how much snow needs to fall to cover the boulders in the dry river bed that we know as the Hidden Valley.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@Jude1, the Hidden Valley is fantastic! Did it last year. One of my best ever days.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@Jude1, did you get any pics of that route sans neige?

snow reports

@Jude1, do you mean the Vallee Perdue? Thought that was the Lost Valley??

I was told it was called 'Piste Perdu' , i.e. lost piste. That was in the late seventies though.

You know it makes sense.

Yes its official the season has started teaching wise for me.

After the false starts of yesterday we got up the hill. It was strange as it actually felt windier at the bottom than it did yesterday but obviously it wasnt as problematic for the lifts. Anyway we headed up (it takes quite a while on the cable car then gondola) and then headed off down towards the Cascade chair and lapped around contently for several hours working on technique - well done David and Christine! The snow was not too bad at all to be honest... although the pistes are narrower in places and there are areas where it is thin and black and yellow markings are being used. Initially it was not too busy but later on it did get busier (never more than 5 minute lift queue which you can cope with). The visibility varied somewhat and it definitely deteriorated as the morning went on when a bank of cloud rolled in that led to a large snowfall down to 2500m for much of the afternoon (yay snow).

Anyway it was a good morning.

I headed home and it was a quick change before heading to sort out the parking pass for the underground car park and do some manoeuvring of the car and some of its contents to sort out. These things always take longer than you think you are going to.

After that we had a family trip up to Gav and Lou's to celebrate their daughter Mea's first birthday party... Olivia was on form and it was a lot of fun (yummy cake).... it was quite funny as Mea managed to get some icing from her cake down her throat so I am sure she will be bouncing around like crazy this evening!

Suddenly it is the end of the day and you are doing bath time and dinner and before you know it it is blog time and then bed time.

The temperature is dropping inch by inch and there is perhaps some snow around but how much we get is open to serious debate around town.... my hunch is not too much (certainly not in the next 24 hours) but who knows.

Tomorrow has a full day of lessons lined up for me and then perhaps no lessons on Tuesday - who knows!

Zero degree isotherm at 3000m - oh dear!

Slow work on the Cygnaski redevelopment! It will be ANOTHER Summer before it is finished - way too long.

P.S. Regarding the debate above... the "Lost Valley" or "Piste Perdu" or "Valley Perdu" is all the same thing... Perdu means lost for starters (unless I am mistaken) and the piste bit refers to a known descent that they used to consider as a piste many years ago.... in the same way the Tour du Charvet or whatever is not really a tour by technical terms but is a tour away from the pistes as an outing.... so it is a muddle up between technical and non-technical and english / french translations...... I stand to be corrected on all this!

Vallee Perdu

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

fantastic to hear all the updates, keep it up for those of us who aren't lucky [brave] enough to live in the Alps

A snowHead

@Steve Angus, what are they doing exactly to the Cygnaski? I stayed there once in 2008 and I thought it needed renovating even then

A snowHead

@Steve Angus, Get doing the snow dance for us steve - looking forward to our group doing a couple of OP sessions with you in jan!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

VolklAttivaS5 - the owners sold it (finally) and it is being turned into about 20 luxury apartments starting at 2 bedrooms (think about 1/2 million € each). Should finally be finished in 2015!
PaulC1984 - have called in all the favours and all the snow WILL come!
michaelbury17 - my pleasure!

The long ride up and down starts.

Well it was the first day of the season for a full day of lessons for me. The resort decided that it would be €27 a day for a lift pass (which is about half price) and you can buy any combination of number of days for that price (up until next weekend). So it was again up the long bus ride to Fornet and then the cable car and then the gondola to get up to the snow. It had snowed perhaps 5-10cm up there overnight and there was some cloud that soon moved in to mean that most of the day was spent in thick cloud with little vis BUT on the plus side if continued to snow most of the day down to about 2500m but barely settling (at the moment) lower down.

I continued the development of Christine and David that we had started yesterday (sans any alcohol influences from them today!) and made the most of it. There really is only a couple of options slope and lift wise up there so we looped around and around on the Cascade chairlift working on (amongst other things) lateral and vertical separation and again some good changes were made (when we could all see where we were going which was tough even at the best of times!)

I don't think it was as busy today as it had been yesterday but there was way more people up there than I thought there would have been.... however the presence of 500 odd members of the British Army made things busy as they tend to move en masse in their 'training' groups - some with instructors and many winging it! They are here for another 6 weeks apparently until it culminates in their champs in January!

At lunchtime I had arranged to meet my afternoon lesson at the top of the Fornet cable car - however no sooner had I gotten off the downloading Vallon bubble when I got a text saying they had decided to go to the top so I turned straight around to go back up the Vallon lift.... it just seemed today as if I spent all my time on buses to and from Le Fornet, up and down the cable car and gondola and when not doing that on the Cascade chairlift - ha ha!

The snow continued most of the afternoon and to be honest the snow really is very good up on the glacier for the most part as I reported yesterday but as soon as you drop down off the glacier it is thin and I for one would not be wanting to chance my luck and ski down to the mid station where the cable car meets the Vallon bubble - wrecking skis time! The air temperature never got below about -1 at 3000m but it seems colder than yesterday with the stiff breeze (at times) and the constant snowfall and coupled with the poor vis it really felt like the middle of Winter up there!

Olivia started in the creche (only a sort of one hour intro thing) today and all seemed to go well by all accords so it will step up a little tomorrow. I will be going with Clare and her tomorrow as my lesson schedule this week has shifted a little so not planning on skiing tomorrow.

The town is awaiting the juries decision on the World Cup and I very much doubt it will happen but we shall see!

That is about all for today folks. If you get a chance check out the new Radio Val d'Isere website - it is petty good now it was relaunched last night.

TTFN

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Nice new uniform Steve!

I'm getting fed up with looking at a green and muddy Val on the webcams, think you need to sacrifice a ski boot or two to the snow demons.

You'll need to Register first of course.

The weather went the other way... - no snow but blue skies instead!

Well after a chilly night last it was all change today. It was just under zero outside the front door this am (although that soon changed and it was a very warm afternoon in the end) and they even managed to fire up the snow cannons (briefly) on the Face / Rhone Alpes and other key runs all over the place.... I think they only fired for a few hours so it is not as if there is loads of man made snow out there.

I managed to snap from a distance the cannons going - just to prove to you all they were on!!!

The sun soon came out and it turned into a lovely day. Those up on the glacier (I was not teaching today) reported some good powder to be had in places like the Pays Desert.

red 27 - which I was a golf pro too!
HoneyBunny - hmm not sure a boot or two will do the job - may need more than that! Yes I like the new uniform too!

So the main event this morning was going to the creche to complete ream after ream of paperwork for Olivia and getting things sorted that end. She was in for about an hour whilst we did the necessary and it will take a few more days before she is totally happy to be left as there was some tears (again). Anyway tomorrow is another day! They are SO nice in there and it is very good value for money! We are very lucky to have that facility within a 5 minute walk of here!

News from around town (apart from the weather) and everyone hoping that it continues to get a little colder over the next week to allow snow making as well as the possible arrival of some natural stuff, was of course talk about the World Cup races (still). The pisteurs have been putting the fencing in down at Le Daille in the hope that perhaps the race may happen if it does snow but I think they are being optimistic! FIS arrive for a decision in the next day or so!

The photos below were NOT taken by me but by a couple of friends (Lena and Val) so I hope you like them!

Not much else to report this end - spent most of the afternoon doing a couple more little pieces of DIY that needed doing and ticking of the to do list which is finally under control and just in time before the season gets going for real!

Amazing - low hanging clouds over the Lac du Chevril - thanks for the pic Lena!

Guess it must have been cloudy down in Bourg this morning! - thanks for the pic Val

The cloud spills up over the dam - again thanks for the pic Val!

Tomorrow I am up on the hill in the afternoon so hopefully I will be able to get some nice snowy pictures for you all tomorrow and keep everything crossed that once again tonight it is cold enough that they can continue snow making!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Steve Angus, the photos your friends took are amazing - thanks for sharing.

I keep looking at the forecast and depending on which one you believe, its saying some snow this week in the village and a dump next week - crystal ball time, but what do you reckon as the man on the ground?

Glad to gear that you're getting Olivia sorted out. You probably haven't even considered this yet, but what happens when she goes to school? Would she do Xmas & summer terms in the UK and Easter term in France?

After all it is free

@Steve Angus, Love your posts! Nice to read the combo of teaching and snow as well as life in Val Happy

Noticed that you teach with TDC - I had some brilliant tuition from somebody on the Tignes side when I was out there a couple of years ago. My family and I are out for christmas week so I'm doing a lot of snow dances in the run up judging by the current conditions lower down....! Just wondering if you would mind PM'ing me with your prices for teaching? I try and get some form of tuition in every holiday if I can afford it and thought worth finding out from yourself as I like the company and you seem like a nice guy too which helps! Ta muchly

Hi going to pop over to Val d for the day to see my Nephew, have to buy him a B'day present - does anyone know of a good parapente in the area ? Puzzled

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Forgot to mention will be on the 14th Dec rolling eyes

Help!!

The view from............ Val d'Isere and the Espace Killy

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Snow Reports - weather - snow conditions