 Poster: A snowHead
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To set the scene. I'm 43 and I learnt to ski aged 26. Ten years ago I was reasonably confidently skiing blacks and doing a week's skiing a year. Eight years ago I had a baby! Since then I've skied 3 days in Italy (Santa Caterina), 3 days in Austria (Scheffau), 4 days in the US (Heavenly) and 2 1/2 hours in France (Le Grand Bornand). The 2 1/2 hours was because I fell and twisted my knee - that was 3 years ago, I hadn't put skis on since. 
The baby is now 8 and I decided it was high time we had a proper family skiing holiday. My son is generally quite nervous about trying new things so I wanted him to learn in resort rather than going to Tamworth (where he could play up!)and also where I could leave him rather than stay and watch. I also wanted him to muck in with other kids and for us to be able to have a decent six-day skiing experience for the first time since he was born. So a package which included some sort of kids club and ski school was required. I can't remember exactly how I came upon the holiday I eventually chose as I booked it a year ago but it ticked all the boxes.
So we were booked into L'Hermitage with Crystal flying from Manchester on 7th April. My son was booked into Whizz Kids for the week which included 2 1/2 hours (approx) ski school in the morning, a hot lunch, non-skiing activities in the afternoon and two hours evening activities as well. I know that this sounds like completely off-loading him but he loved it. He did mini golf one afternoon, high ropes another. One afternoon I went to pick him up early and he told me to go away! So that was him sorted! At the end of the week he passed his ESF Piou Piou badge and seemed very confident. He wants to ski with Mum and Dad next time and has said he'll practise at Tamworth so he can.
We thought the Hotel was excellent. The staff were all great, the meals were great - a choice of three different mains each night. If we could have improved anything it was the rooms. With three of us they were a little short on space and a little tired but nothing to get worked up over. We had the hotel packed lunch each day which worked out at 5 euros each for a baguette, packet of crisps, chocolate bar, piece of fruit and a can. Considerably cheaper than eating out at lunch time. We also bought the 10 beers for 30 euros card from the hotel. Each beer was a pint and we had the choice of Stella or (I think) Lowenbrau. We're not big drinkers and along with the complimentary house wine at dinner that did us. So once we'd paid for ski hire, lift passes etc we didn't really spend much else - just the occassional coffee up the mountain.
So onto the white stuff. Well a couple of weeks before flying we were getting really worried, the upper depth had dropped by over 1 metre and the webcams were showing big patches. Luckily it starting snowing on the Saturday afternoon we arrived and they had about 15 - 20cm. We really needed to get our ski legs back so on our first day we stuck to the main area around the 1st DMC which is all greens. Day two and we decided to go up to the 2nd DMC and try Le Couloir, a blue. Personally I think it's a red. It was a little icy and to be honest with our still wobbly skiing we found it hard going. So we pootled around the main area again, still building up confidence. Day three and we decided to try Le Couloir again. By this time Saturday's fresh snow was all but gone and the freeze-thaw cycle had set in. My husband fell twice on Le Couloir that morning which really shook him up. As the day went on he was less happy and we finished early. That evening his finger started swelling up and he was worried he'd broken it, he couldn't bend it. So day four and I was on my own. We did spend a bit of time watching our son in his ski school as it was quite misty and I didn't fancy venturing too far on my own. I went a little further to the Bergers side of the DMC but didn't do anything too adventurous. However, I could feel that my mojo had returned. Day five and although my husband's finger was looking better he decided to take another day off. We'd had more snow overnight, maybe another 20cm, so I decided I had to go for it. I'm still not as adventurous as you lot (!) but this is what I did:- I took the DMC to the 1st stage and then skied the "Retours Bergers" picking up "Agneaux" down the the Marmottes chair. I took that chair up the Plat Des Marmottes and skied the blue "Dahut"back to the first stage DMC. I then carried on taking "Boulevard des Lutins" down to the very short but steep Champ Clotury button. This got me back onto another blue "ChampClotury" which I skied until we met "L'alpette" I then took L'alpette (a red) into Oz En Oisans. An impressive (for me) 950m descent. It was a fantastic run, some great tree-lined parts and the bits of red I did were fine. Checking the time I realised I still had time to watch the end of my son's lesson so I got the Poutran gondola back to the 1st stage DMC and skied down a gentle green to where the ski school lessons were. In the afternoon I went up the Signal chair a few times and did the gentle "Hirondelles" blue. Inspired by my excellent day my husband came up for our last day. We did the "Hirondelles" a few times to get his confidence back. Unfortunately the mist came down big-time and we decided to call it quits for this year. Although I didn't as much skiing as I would have liked given the area I had to play with I really felt I'd got the bug back and that I could still do it. Alpe d'Huez is a great resort as it has plenty of runs to choose from and the pass also covers Les Deux Alpes and Serre Chevalier (although we didn't go to those resorts). The village has plenty of amenities but still has some Alpine charm. We stuck to the hotel in the evening - my drunken apres days are long gone. We did go out for a meal at Smithy's one night, this was very nice, we had the set meal at 25 euros per head, it's Tex Mex so nothing unusual but good all the same. This wasn't a cheap holiday, Whizz Kids on top of ski passes cost the best part of £1,000 on top of the half-board accommodation for 3 but I thoroughly enjoyed it as did my son so it was worth it.
I was checking the forums while away and noticed there was a few discussions around childcare and Crystal so I'll link this up on those threads too.
Thank you for reading.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Yes that was us! He was fine once he got off the coach thanks! First time he's been travel sick since he was about 2!  Now trying to figure out who you are ...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Ahh - got you! Well done to your two - I think the kids all did really well. 
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FAQ
's but with none planned this year we booked this last minute Crystal deal - sooo glad we did - had a cracking week!!! 
