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

A snowHead

England being thrashed by the Aussies.... Aussies??

A snowHead

You guys need to get KP back in the side

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

@Drogue, @Steve Angus, Same question - how's it looking for the intro this week?

I had a fantastic afternoon today with Terry from TDC, we skied powder through the trees in La Daille, and after the work over Xmas with the TDC guys in Tignes I can now link turns in fresh stuff without wiping out on every turn! Can't wait for more later in the week Happy

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Drogue - well actually an intro to off piste course is heading to flatter / easier and therefore safer terrain anyway so yes it is not an issue. It was more a case of seeing rock / stone coverage on some of the routes as opposed to straight avalanche danger! There is an introduction to off piste actually running this week in Val d'Isere in the afternoons with me (by coincidence)... you could get over to Val for the afternoon and join the group as there is one spot left as I write! It is Tues and Wed pm and then Fri. I do not have the Tignes planner in front of me but they could also have one running - not sure! Glad you have enjoyed the sessions with Giles before!

SammyQ and intermediate - Thanks very much! - I aim to please!

Very quickly folks I meant to add and listening to HAT Hangout this evening it reminded me.... they had to close the Laisenent Express yesterday because people were being reckless and endangering people on the pistes below by skiing above the pistes off piste and setting slides off onto the pistes. People are totally oblivious to the conditions around them sometimes and selfish and it is purely through lack of education and understanding of their responsibilities and the conditions. AS SOON AS YOU STEP A MILLIMETRE OFF PISTE YOUR POSITION CHANGES TOTALLY TO YOURSELF AND THOSE AROUND YOU! Anyway lets hope this sort of things is not the tip of the iceberg otherwise it will not be too long before we start getting wrapped in cotton wool and told where we can and cannot ski and the european model become more like the north american model where lift pass prices rocket so resorts have more resources to 'control' an area as opposed to the pistes only!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Hi Steve, am a lurking reader of your posts, though only an occasional skier in Val. We are currently on holiday in Tahoe--skiing in Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, where my stepson is instructing (his second season; last year he was in Japan). It's mild and devoid of any significant snow for the last month, save for 4 inches last week. Grrrr! We have hacked around what is open, on piste only; there really is nothing skiable in the side county at all.
Despite feeling a bit cheated not to be in the Alps at the moment, I have enjoyed vicarious powder skiing and off piste via your posts, and just looking at pics of proper fresh snow compensates a bit for our conditions. (Obviously this week, I'd be good and not stray into the danger zones off the side).
To give you a bit more context- it is currently 12 degrees C in Squaw at the bottom of the mountain. We are just about to take a stroll into Tahoe City in the warm sunshine. No need for a coat. No snow on the ground here at all.....

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Perty: It can't be that bad can it!!!! Have fun - it'll be all right! I actually had the best days powder skiing of my life (well one of them anyway) in Squaw Valley many years back when a good friend of mine was teaching at Sierra at Tahoe and we took a day trip there - it was awesome!

A little bit of...

and then a little bit of...

It really was rather cloudy and miserable with yet more snow lurking around first thing but by mid morning it hard cleared up nicely. I had an old client I see every couple of years and her brothers girlfriend first up and we had a lovely fun morning working the greens and blues around the top of the Solaise. It was a fun morning and the mid lesson hot choc break was welcomed by us all as it seemed really chilly morning - colder than the -10'ish temps officially said it was!

Anyway with the sun coming out it was a nice day when it warmed up!

My afternoon was spent with a nice couple of people out here in Val for the first time but they seriously underestimated their abilities which is normally quite rare.... we started on the verte up Bellevarde but before too long we were on to reds up there and some really good changes were made.

I picked Olivia up from creche and this evening has been spent doing some filing.

Thought I would sign off with the following written by Wayne Watson of Alpine Experience today here in Val - sensible observations.... what are people thinking!

"...it’s incredible where people are laying their tracks. The Arcelle/Manchet has been hit hard, the Banane has been skied to death, and I’m sure it’s the same on the big slopes over in Tignes. The base is still rotten and all that new snow has added to the weight on the snowpack. Over the past few days there have been quite a few deaths in the Alps and here we’ve had avalanches in the Super Santons and Combe des Lanches where skiers needed to be dug out, plus slides in the Lower Manchet, the Combe du Signal and the Face du Charvet to name a few. It’s dangerous out there and people seem to think that they’ve made a good call if they ski a big slope and it hasn’t slid. It’s quite sad really, and very worrying!"

TTFN

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

P.S. Meant to say I'm looking forward to seeing Kellie and Andy tomorrow for our annual ski together... will be good to see you guys!

After all it is free

Great day on the slopes today. We used the 'up and over' from the Solaise and it was damn cold and windy as we dropped onto the Fornet side compared to the Solaise. However, by the time we got up to the top of the glacier, the sun had come out and the wind dropped a bit. Still cold but the snow was great.

Looking forward to getting a few more hints and tips off you tomorrow Steve. Hopefully you can get rid of a few more of the bad habits and I'll try an banish my 'lazy ski' style Little Angel

A nice day

Well it certainly felt cold up there today and the sun never really got going (despite what the picture shows) and it was one of those days when it was chilly but pleasant non the less!

After taking Olivia to creche first up I headed to the office to drop my off piste BCA Float pack off... I then had a productive session with Ruegg team and we worked on some technical stuff on reds before laterly working on Trolle down into Tignes Le Lac. We had time to look into how to deal with not only bumpy cut up terrain on blacks but also how to deal with hard pack snow too. I threw in some drills but as is always the case in situations like this you need to give enough info for development out of lesson time but not too much so as to complicate and cloud the mind! It was an enjoyable morning... thanks ever so much to them for the wonderful gifts for Olivia - too kind of them!

We had a discussion about 'active' versus 'passive' skiing and how to get off the so called intermediate plateau. Indeed many / most skiers are stuck on the plateau.... Why? Well it is simply the ability to use the skis to the users advantage versus just standing on them and letting them take you for a ride. I always come back to it and it shows up in skiers you see on the mountain / teach but how often are the skis simply pushed / pivoted around and then nothing happens apart from a slide.... there is no skill in that... in fact the skis are taking the user for a ride. Depending on how confident a skier the person is will allow (or not) the user to go faster / on steeper terrain / in poorly visibility / to 'throw' themselves down a given piste but all that in itself is no reflection on skill. On the flip side a skier who actively uses their skis through pressure, edge and rotation (amongst other skills) is developing the abilities to actively ski a slope and thus move off the plateau. Probably 75% of lessons have this theme as an 'underlieing' and unstated goal / reason for being there.

Anyway it is rather interesting stuff (if you like that sort of thing!)

After lunch I met up with my group of 6 'Introduction to Off pisters' and it is a whole mix of people. It is always a struggle getting 6 packs, transceivers, probes and shovels to the meeting point by yourself but it is necessary! We had a good safety introduction and the team of 3 doctors / medical people (it is the doctors conference this week), head-hunter, seamstress and accountant all headed off as the weather closed in a little. We skied a Collett off piste warm up... followed by a 'sud' Jardin de Borsat and then went into the cairn under the pisteurs couloir. We had to cross over a lot of avalanche debris to get in there but we were rewarded with some lovely snow. It was very interesting as overnight a large slide had come down across the entrance to the Spatula but also a large slide off the top of the Charvet as well as Moniteurs couloir sliding too (see photo above) - not that often that you see that amount of debris in there but anyway it was good for the team to see avalanche debris up close! They did so very well and I was pretty happy with the lovely snow we found.

After teaching we had a ski school meeting to watch a new Canadian Avalanche Association video that has just come out talking about the latest safety advisories that are recommended.... jolly interesting stuff actually!

Thats all for today folks. There could be some nice snow on its way over the next few days - if snow-forecast.com are correct (they are optimistic 99% of the time in my experience) then we could have another couple of feet coming by Friday - who knows!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

"'active' versus 'passive' skiing" above.
From personal experience I could not agree more with what Steve has written. It's amazing what a big difference just one lesson can make on this subject & would definitely benefit the majority of skiers you see on the mountain. One of the most satisfying things is that you also experience lots of further improvement when putting it all into practice post lesson. Big thumbs up.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Loving these posts in the run up to VDI trip in a few weeks. Perhaps Steve will help me with my "'active' versus 'passive' skiing". Or he'll just laugh at my awful technique. Smile

snow reports

Thanks Steve for another great lesson yesterday. It certainly helped today and I've been practicing my active skiing rather than falling into my passive (or as I like to call it 'lazy' skiing). Kellie has been working on her "sha***** not shi*****" today too.

Generally, even though you can ski ok, having someone point out some minor tweeks and improvements can make a huge difference, especially when dealing with difficult conditions. Couldn't recommend an occasional top-up lesson enough.

Here was our pic of the day !!

@Steve Angus, have you got any afternoons free this week? Maybe Saturday? I'm here until Sunday and would love to have someone show me some off piste before I go.

Iv got my pack but left the kit inside because we were over the weight limit. Puzzled

You know it makes sense.

AWESOME FOLKS.... glad you either liked or hopefully will like the session. Yea get 'active' on the skis don't just stand there!

sno trax Thanks ever so much again to you and Kellie (you know what for) - so kind of you..... and keep the "sha***** not shi*****" private! Ill let that one out the bag in a one to one situation as it can offend that one !! Ha Ha.

Anyway it is not every day you can post a photo of batman skiing.... more on that later!

The day started with cloud but we had a slight light bulb hanging in the air more or less all day which made all the difference. It was slightly warmer too than it had been and was certainly forecast so all in all the weather was a lot better than had been forecast! As we set off with the same girls from a couple of days back up the Olympic non of us thought we would be able to see much up top and that the wind could be a challenge but as it turned out it really was OK.

We started easy and worked our way up and up until I thought that they were ready for their first red run and they really skied the Fontaine Froid so very well.... I was very proud of them.... to finish the session off we skied the lower half of the Orange down to La Daille.

It must be said that the snow conditions are just perfect at the moment they really are and the pistes and off piste are finally in great shape after a shaky start to the season!

I got my timings rather wrong this morning so was rather late back for a short lunch stop before having to go and get my off piste pack from the office and head off to meet my afternoon off pisters.

So how did I end up with Batman in my group.... well one of his mates on the trip with him has his birthday today so all of the gang in his chalet had to dress up as a superhero for the day.... so it was rather strange setting off with the group having one dressed as Batman but fun non the less. Energy and expectation levels were high so we started with some smooth off the side of the Verte before some technique development and then diving into the Jardin de Borsat where we had some LOVELY snow - top notch stuff. The weather was holding just enough to alllow OK visibility so I made the call to do the Tour du Charvet and it is my first trip in quite a while down there. To be honest the snow was not that great and a little heavy especially lower down but the group loved being out in the middle of nowhere.

I had a busy apres returning the packs, going to the post office, booking a table for tomorrow night as Clare and I are having our first night out just the two of us since my birthday in October, then coming home to bath duty. Clare has gone for a meal at a friends house so I am catching up on lots of Silent Witness episodes - hence rushing tonights update as it is gripping stuff!

Glorious surroundings out on the Tour du Charvet

P.S. MASSIVE congratulations to a friend Mikey on passing his Eurotest yesterday.... I think it was his 20th attempt or something like that.... so that is him finally finished and we shall see him teaching on the slopes next season here in the Espace Killy!

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

Liveezy - just saw your message!!!!! I personally am fully booked the remainder of this week - not teaching Saturday this week but Sunday instead I am afraid - sorry! HOWEVER I am looking at my planner and there could be a colleague that is free - and yes Friday afternoon would be the natural slot if that would help! What sort of off piste are we talking about - have you done a lot here in the EK? Drop me a pm if you are interested!

A snowHead

Just clicked with all the ***. How do you explain pelvic tilt to a 7 year old? Shocked

A snowHead

nemesys - send them Yoga-tots or buy them a hulahoop.

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

This has just appeared on the Val Lift Status page:

EN HORS PISTE NE SUIVEZ PAS LES TRACES SANS SAVOIR OU ELLES VOUS MENENT ! (Off piste do not follow other tracks if you don't know where they lead)

Wonder who got lost?????

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Sorry for the late update!

Yesterday was one of the those hectic days.

I dropped Olivia off at creche and then made my way to the meeting point. IT was one of those grey days when nothing was really happening - the odd blast of wind, the odd snow flake, the odd glimpse of sun for a minute - but nothing of anything really.... just crappy vis for the most part!

I skied my am session over to Tignes so they could say they had been to Tignes and we found some nice shelter on the lower slopes especially where the vis was better and wind was calmer!

The afternoon was spent with my seasonnaires and the weather had not really improved too much! Anyway the plan was to tackle 'steeps' as well as some freestyle thrown in. My timings were all over the place mainly because I had to get over to Tignes as the Val Park was closed! Anyway they were landing some nice little tricks by the end of the session so well done all... The thing they like the most was twirly birds (always a firm favourite) whereby you are linked together with your ski poles rotating around and around in circles!

Anyway I was also on pick up duty from the creche as Clare was working over in Tignes in the afternoon so it had actually gone 4pm when I got to the top of the Col de Fresse so it was a JOLLY quick ski back down towards La Daille and then dow the Avalanche path in order to get home and then collect O..... I was only 10 mins late in the end!

The next couple of hours were rather chaotic as it was bath and tea time for her and then Clare and I got ready as we had our FIRST night out (just the two of us) since October and got a babysitter in. We had a lovely meal (ate far too much) at Victors.... a real international variety of food - jolly good value for money too. It is Swedish owned so there are some great scandi foods on there but Clare had fish (as she always does) and I had an amazing quesadillas! Washed down with a couple of beers it was a lovely evening.

All evening and overnight (last night) it has been snowing hard and although the sun is yet to rise I think we have about 20-30cm of snow out there already so it could be a nice powder day and I am supposed to be off piste all day today - yeehaa!

TTFN

Interesting double cloud layer above and below us.

chocksaway - they will be referring to people continually trying to ski down the Gorge de Malpasset at the Fornet most likely!!!!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Well there was a little snow overnight and a slightly delayed start at Solaise but there is some rather pleasant gentle powder around that even a klutz like me can cope with.
A little breezy at altitude kept a few of the lifts closed. Lovely snow though for those arriving next week.

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

@Steve Angus, What a day!! Thanks so much Happy

It was Awesome!! I'm absolutely delighted with all the progress I've made this week with you and all the TDC crew. Hope you saw the lovely tracks I left in fresh powder as you went overhead on the chairlift this afternoon Happy

This week I've finally cracked not just powder but carving AND grippy short turns. Happy days.

But the highlight of the week had to be watching Batman flying down the Tour de Charvet!

After all it is free

What a surprise but a nice one

Well the snow storm raged all night long and we woke to about 20cm down here in town and more up high.... in fact since the weather has been moving in from the east (which usually brings localised and heavy snowfall on the Italian border) the Fornet glacier area apparently received some 60cm of snow!

It was rather overcast and still snowing heavily this morning although stopped pretty early on BUT remained grey with some glimpses occasionally of the light bulb in the sky.

Anyway there was a lot of blasting to be done and to be honest they were very slow in getting things open. It was about 9.30 before the Rogoney even opened and the wait for people at the Olympic and Solaise was crazy. So when Rogoney opened we got a few laps in there and the snow as AWESOME. I got some video of my Off Piste Intro team which I shall put up online soon, ripping up the powder.... a jolly nice group actually. Anyway after a couple of laps there we saw the Solaise was open so we goti n the queue for that but after a minute of waiting the lift went 'tech' so closed and we had to make the snap decision to dive onto the Bellevarde Express and get some laps in. With so many people squeezed into such a small area the snow gets chewed up quickly but I was able to find some freshies and we had a great time.... I reckon nearly 30cm in places.... great fun. After a couple of laps we headed back to the Rogoney and made the most of the snow there.... Bearing in mind we had to stay low because of the openings (by mid morning Solaise and Bellevarde were both open) I thought it was a successful morning.

On days like this there is lots of lugging off piste packs around so by the time I had done some sorting of packs at lunchtime and made it to lunch I was staring but a nice Calzone from Tartine filled me up nicely.

The afternoon lead to better weather and we were able to get high... however it still looked nicer Bellvarde side so my seasonnaires group and I headed that way for a maximum turns sort of afternoon making the most of the wonderful snow. We were one down due to illness but hey the 5 of us had a great afternoon. The only bit that was disappointing was around the corner towards the baby spatule that was wind scoured but we got some great turns in. I was surprised that Familial was such nice snow but it was nice. We covered a huge amount of ground - too many places to list here (and I don't want to give away too many secrets about where we went but it was a nice day!).

After finally returning the packs (phew) it was home time. It will be an early night tonight as I am exhausted this evening.

This photos pretty much sums up today.... grey and windy up high but LOVELY snow everywhere. Out of interest and can show how conditions vary from place to place on the mountain this little gully on the right hand side of the photo has been skied.... now the flank as you look on the left into the valley would have been totally wind loaded and extremely dangerous - especially if anyone was skiing the gully at the time (which is a terrain trap is has to be said). The flank on the right however would have had nice snow too but would have been a much safer bet. Within 2 seconds of taking this picture and putting my phone away we saw people going to ski the left hand flank as it is accessible from the piste.... lets hope no one was skiing the gully underneath at the time.... out of interest all of it is just off the side of the piste. Stay safe everyone!

Where did the day go?

Well after a lazy start to the day.... nice family breakfast and some play time with Olivia our friends Gav and Lou came around with their little girl Mea..... so it was chaos for an hour or so then I made my excuses as I had to head to Bourg to do a food shop....

.... some 3 hours later I was back with LOTS of shopping to see us through the next few busy weeks (and a naughty cafe lunch in Bourg in the sun to boot too!).

So somehow it is now 6pm and having watched some rugby and put the shopping away I am writing todays blog.

This evening a few of TDC coaches (including myself) are helping out at Snowberry as there are some 1600 scandinavian students in town (as they have just started their half term hols) and 90% of them need to get ski hire through Snowberry. Could be a hectic few hours.... but we are being 'paid' in curry so I cant complain!

Weather wise it was such a lovely day and it is supposed to be sunny all week. The snow is great too (although the wind has battered things a bit and the pisteurs had to do a lot of control work again this morning).

I am working tomorrow but only in the morning so hopefully I can get my batteries fully charged as we head into peak season now for the next few weeks.... the local schools (in the south-east of the country) as well as the north-west of the country (and a few areas e.g. Strasbourg) are on holidays this week.... next week is obviously UK half term and then over the following few weeks it is hectic.

A few pics from today.

Check out the cheap diesel (if you can read the sign)..... €116.9.... bargain!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Great updates Steve. I can't wait to get back out there. Just booked for March 15th, woo-hoo!!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I am out there again on March 14th whoo hoo

snow reports

GLORIOUS

Despite some high level winds, today can only be described as glorious.

Anyway last night was fun but crazy busy. From 7-8 we had an hour to get ALL the boots and skis into the back rooms of Snowberry then grab the Tignes Cuisines (YUMMY - highly recommended) curry that came in. When the doors finally opened it was a VERY well organised production line. There must have been 40 staff plus 4 TDC coaches in there. Anyway each person passed down the production line and in the space of 3 hours we processed something like 800 scandi students. Interestingly they all spoke EXCELLENT english which made it easy for us to converse with them. My job was running from the 'foot measuring station' along with 3 others taking the official measurements written down and getting someone in the back stores to pass the correct boots size and shape profile then taking it back to the 'fitters' who were showing them how to put the boots one.... back and forth, back and forth. Anyway I was shattered when I finally rolled into bed about midnight!

So this morning I had a couple of long standing clients (instructors) from The Snow Centre and we worked our way through some things towards their next level of qualifications! It was not the most usual of sessions as I purely worked psychological and tactical with them and we decided we would go for a tour around slopes that they normally dont ski when they are out here. For the first hour we literally had the place to ourself and the best run of the morning was definitely Genepy from the Motte down to Val Claret!

Clare was out practising on her snowboard (it has been a while since she last taught on the board) as she is teaching a bit over half term this year. So that was her for a couple of hours this afternoon so I was on daddy day care and we had a fun time. She is almost getting the co-ordination to start crawling but not quite yet a while! As soon as Clare got back she popped out to see a friend (as it turned out 'friends') and baby in Rize so I took an afternoon nap which was lovely!

A roast dinner and now writing this followed by a couple more chores and we are all done and I cannot wait to get to bed tonight!

Whilst I remember I recalled something today whilst I was teaching that I thought you would like to hear. So apart from fitness and fear the next most important 'barrier' to progress for the average skier (i.e. typical person on the mountain) is 'self awareness.' So what is meant by that is if a skier or snowboarder understands what good skiing is, understands what they are doing write and wrong and crucially have the awareness to link the two together then the most progress can be made. However in order to do this we have to learn ourselves so we can help ourselves to learn. It is what we call the student / teacher dependancy level and the better we are the more the learner must take the lead!

Anyway enough 'heavy' talk for tonight... a few pics of today.

Night night!

A bit of everything today

It started clear and cold but warmed up rapidly. I had a one off lesson with a group of lads who come each year for a boys trip and there was banter all round right from the offset. They wanted to develop their off piste skiing in terms of technique as well as getting some mileage and discovering some new routes. However it was immediately clear that there was quite a split in ability with one guy having a lot of off piste experience and another very little.

Anyway the main place we headed was to the Pays Desert..... we were in for a treat as the t bar had not opened yesterday (and by the looks of things they were still having technical problems with it as it kept on stopping). There had been a lot of snow up there and the snow quality had looked good from far away. Indeed the snow was very deep - about knee deep plus some with skis on and for the most part it was lovely snow although the wind had touched it in a few places. You had to be wary of decelerations in the snow and going over the handle bars but all in all it was lovely snow. The only downer was one of the team (the more novice off piste skier) fell and lost a ski for half an hour. Anyway all in all I was about 30 mins late back but its not the end of the world when you got to ski powder all morning!

The afternoon was back with Mark, Marina and Mich the usual suspects from seasons past. It is always fun skiing with them. Some tired legs meant that we had to be a little more chilled towards the end of the session but we managed to work on some general technique and 'active' skiing on the Arcelle for a couple of laps before moving onto some carving and then finally skiing down Piste L (my first ski down there this season) to town for a beer. There was some great changes but more importantly some good understanding of what needs work on over the next couple of days before the next session.... so practice time folks.

A nice chat and a couple of beers in Blue Note finished the day off nicely.

Clare was on Olivia duty so it was a nice relaxed evening catching up with a couple of things.

More sun is forecast tomorrow and onwards... am on piste tomorrow.

You know it makes sense.

A glimmer of Spring in the air

It was one of those days when you got a glimpse of what Spring will be like. It started chilly and warmed into such a nice afternoon. There will of course be PLENTY more Wintery days to come but I do like the Spring so today was a nice day!

I had Linda and Rachel again today and we continued working toward their BASI Level 2 award. Today was all about short radius turns! We made the most of the early conditions whilst everyone was still sleeping and lapped around a couple of times on the Arcelle. The snow first up was lovely and we got some great runs in and some changes were made. It was not too long before the masses arrived and skied rather fast with rather too much in the way of skidding and scrapped the snow off to make it a rather nasty red run as it can turn into. Anyway later on we ventured up to the glacier and got some more good stuff in before finishing the lesson with some video analysis. Good work girls!

Rachel getting a chat from me (not that often that I get to be in a photo) re short turns!

After lunch Clare, Giles and I all headed out for a ski together and we had a cracking time blasting around.

I retired early to pick Olivia up and then Linda came around for a cup of tea and to see Olivia. Clare was at a meeting regarding a TDC booking with some colleagues that is coming up so it was just the three of us. A nice cup of tea and biscuits for an hour or two... it was lovely. After a quick call home on Skype it was dinner and bath time for Olivia and once again the day is coming to an end!

The Frostgun Invitational freestyle big air event qualifiers are on the face this evening.... have not been up there to watch... really should go up there sometime. Either way the kicker at the bottom of the Face is HUGE..... you could get a double decker bus in the gap and the lip to the landing zone is about 100 foot.... some huge tricks coming up!

I have also managed to put together the video of the Off Piste Intro group taking their turns in the powder last week to. The snow was deeper and lighter than it looked in this picture and it was awesome to see their several days of drills and technical work pay off as they got in some great turns.... well done all!

http://youtube.com/v/sED2eqtIRF4

It is a day for videos today....

This video was shot yesterday in Tignes looking at the west face of the Crete du Genepy. The heli sound is that of the chopper that has just been up with the pisteurs to drop the bomb in the snow to create this controlled PIDA slide..... it is pretty big ehh!
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10205359167395102&pnref=story

Also whilst talking about avalanches there was someone caught out in the Col des Fours today.... one person buried but dug out by his friends luckily!

Stay safe folks!

The French army were on exercise early doors this morning up the Manchet Valley!

Beautiful vapour trail across the skies over Val this morning!

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

@Steve Angus, curious to find out where is the Col des Fours?

A snowHead

Col des Fours: From the top of the Fornet bubble head along the road over the Col du l'Iseran and then bear right so you are heading south gently downhill staying on the same side of the valley and not attempting to go over the snowed in road bridge (Pont de la neige). When you run out of downhill it is then a 1-1.5 hour gentle skin SW. Turn right over the ridge and descend with any number of variations past the Refuge du fond des Fours. Down the Manchet valley to the Manchet chair. Everyone doing Cugnai will feed in from your skiers right as you enter the head of the Manchet valley.

If you've got strong skinning legs you can press on west to the impressive (but decidedly dodgy) Face/Pentes des Lorès.

A snowHead

Another lovely day and one more to come before HT chaos and the (potential) return of snow for the weekend!

First up I headed to the Arcelle with Linda to get the best of the snow before it all got scrapped off. We got first tracks down and then the second run we only had about 10 people ahead of us so it was jolly nice down there. We worked on precision within her short turns today and in particular looked at why her left ski washes out at the end of her turn to the right. We did quite few drills to get things tidied up and there was some good changes.

When we were coming up the Manchet Express for the second time I saw my first 'mega' ESF snake in quite a while and the first of what will be many over the next few weeks of school holidays! The photo shows the 14 kids in the group! I had a discussion with Linda about the future of the ESF and I really think that here in Val and Tignes the next 20 years could see interesting times in the fact that there are fewer younger instructors joining their ranks each year but instead going elsewhere like Oxygene, EV2 etc. The problem is that the ESF acts like a pyramid scheme with the longer serving instructors taking money off the profitability of the larger groups that the younger instructors have to run. Outside of the school hols there is little work for these younger instructors so they don't earn much money. The older instructors rely on the younger instructors running these groups but it is catch 22 in that the younger instructors are looking elsewhere for employment so bit by bit and without flexibility in their business model the ESF are being challenged in the sheer fact that there are alternatives out there not only for the consumer but also for the potential employee (instructor). So I think the next 20 years (perhaps more, perhaps less) will be interesting times in a resort like Val!

The afternoon was spent with Mark, Mich and Marina again and we did more on the tactical development front as well as looked at some technical stuff but mainly got some good mileage. We headed to Tignes and back amongst other things and it was a jolly nice afternoon. I got some video for them and they could see (I think) the changes they had made in their skiing. We lapped a few times on the Fontaine Froide and I must admit for the first time this season (and bearing in mind that the slope faces totally due south) it was a little soft at the bottom - the first temporary sign of Spring in the air but that will soon shift I am sure.

Anyway Olivia was MEGA tired this evening and inconsolable so she was in bed very early poor little thing.... hope she is not coming down with anything.

I also managed to snap my lift pass in half whilst it was in my pocket today to - just bumped it whilst taking my skis off.... walked all the way to the STVI office in the Solaise Cable Car building to be told that they can re-issue it at the Sun Bar ticket office from 8.30 tomorrow morning - grrr a wasted trip.

Anyway bed time!

andy1234 - as Grinning says!

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

@Steve Angus, Don't think the lift passes are made to the same standard anymore !! I managed to break my lift pass twice last season in Val over 3 weeks Confused

Don't know whether to blame the odd fall, banging it off chairs/pomas or sitting on it at lunch.

I did invest in a harder plastic sleeve for it the second time when I had to renew it under the Sun Bar.

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

As you have mentioned the Sun Bar it reminded me how good their burgers are.....feeling hungry now. Laughing

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

14 kids in an ESF snake is not 'mega' at this time of year in the Espace, it is average Skullie

You'll need to Register first of course.

muppet - Brilliant idea - just found something suitable to protect my new pass! Us Ayrshirians (I was born in Irvine!) have brains!
Kenzie - well this week it is quite large but for the next few weeks it will be average as you say.... I think low 20's was the largest class I ever saw!

Another glorious day in the mountains.

It was relatively (although they were typically French and late opening) easy getting my lift pass re-issued this morning and then it was show time with Linda!

We headed straight for the Grand Pre to work on carving and lapped around and around and around and around for nearly 2.5 hours working on things. For the first few laps we had the place to ourselves and the snow was awesome. Linda really made some good progress today... much for lateral initially, followed by angulation at the end of the turn which all helped her to start influencing the turn.... keep going Linda!

I had a rather interesting lunch hour which ended up being a lunch 20 mins after I managed to knock one of my cat tracks of getting off the Olympic after downloading at the end of my am lesson.... anyway I thought it had fallen off inside the cabin so as soon as I realised a millisecond later I jumped back on the cabin to scour the floor.... I could not see it and by then the cabin had filled up behind me so I had to ride back UP the mountain to then come back DOWN yet again.... when I got off the cabin for the second time my cat track was sitting on the side .... well that was a waste of 10 minutes.

Actually it was one of those days with that lift as I was asked to take a radio up when I first went up this morning to give to the liftie at the top... I almost left it in the lift but didn't!

Anyway by the time I had gone to the office to collect packs for my afternoon seasonnaires it was quite late so I just ended up eating the rest of my lunch in Snowberry.

It was the first of three sessions I will be doing with this group of seasonnaires off piste and after the safety chat we headed up Solaise and I was surprised by the quality of snow I found on north facing aspects... some nice stuff actually! We did a little bit of technique too towards the off piste and finished up with my first Grand Vallon of the season and it was surprisingly nice snow in there.

Both Clare and I were late finishing up (I was by the time I had dropped off all the packs back at the office) so it was a rush getting changed, picking Olivia up from creche and then dinner and bath time for her. So it has been a whirlwind of an evening.!

Anyway I am shattered this evening so signing off now!

More sun and some clouds forecast tomorrow before a little snow perhaps over the weekend - who knows!

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

@Steve Angus, Great photo down to the valley floor. Vertiginous and nausea inducing just looking at it on a laptop Toofy Grin

After all it is free

Hi Steve,
Thank you for 2 great lessons again this week. We really learned a lot. Hope You, Clara and Olivia have a great season.
Look forward to seeing you next year. I will look out for you at Lords in the summer.
Mark, Marina and Mich.

Gonna be mega quick this evening as we are all out for a TDC Ski School meal at Barillon in La Daille and the baby sitter has just arrived.

So Clare worked this morning and I had a morning off and then it was role reversal this afternoon!

I had my seasonnairres group and we skied a good top to bottom Grand Vallon and then a nice and chalky Danaides Wall followed by Lavancher Couloir.... I was testing them out to make sure that they would be able to cope with the heli ski route that most of them have shown an interest in me doing with them later in the season!

A quick drink at Blue Note and then home for shower and Olivia bath time and now dinner time.

There are 38000 cars forecast to be on the road tomorrow so LEAVE EARLY OR ARRIVE VERY LATE to avoid massive traffic jams in either direction!!!!!!!

Weather wise we have some snow on the way but the forecasts vary between LOADS and virtually NOTHING - so that pretty much sums up snow forecast.com and meteoblue.... either way I think the wall to wall sunshine is coming to and end which is good as the snow was starting to suffer in direct sunlight!

More updates tomorrow but both Clare and I have a day off (last one together for a while) and of course it will be Valentines Day cook up by yours truly and possibly a slight heavy head to boot too!

TTFN

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Happy Valentines Day and welcome to the start of half term

It was a jolly nice evening last night.... AWESOME steak and a lot of fun. 24 instructors and partners can certainly make one heck of a noise and we really let our hair down!

I was back just before midnight and hit the sack.... Clare had her party hat and 'late' pass so got home sometime after that and I was dead to the world!

Today dawned and it was a very sluggish morning on all accounts .... even Olivia seemed quiet on our account.... thanks!

Weatherise it was a nothing day really.... it went one minute to thick cloud and an attempt at snow to blue skies a few mins later and back again. It was WARM first thing but is a little colder now but still not really that cold for this time of the year and they still think it could snow over the next few days but as usual snow forecast.com are SO optimistic - I personally think anything up to 30cm on the mountain in the next 3 days or so will be a GREAT result but I hope I am wrong and we get LOADS!

I was happy to not have to do to transfer day today.... there were some 20km of traffic jams coming up the Tarentaise today! Hopefully readers of this were not stuck in it!

I spent most of the day chilling, watching England being thrashed in one sport and giving a thrashing in another (cricket and rugby) and preparing for our Valentines dinner. Readers may very well remember that we have a tradition in this household in that each 14th Feb I make a three course meal for us.... I CANNOT cook so it is a mission for the whole day usually..... anyway I managed to rustle up Onion soup from scratch and it was jolly nice even though I say so myself! Main course was steak fondue and salad which again was lovely and desert was a quick apple crumble receipe I found online.... not quite as good as I had hoped but jolly nice non-the-less!

The photo above shows the Olympic gondola dressed for Valentines day 'private cabin for two' mode. Quite a nice idea - must do it one year!

Tired so off to bed.... fun and games of half term starts tomorrow on the teaching front.

mpurser - hope to catch you sometime possibly at the cricket indeed! Otherwise next year. Not sure when I will be at Lords but on and off over the Summer but there are so many matches there and there are several of us in the teams that we take it in roster to decide which ground we are at.

Help!!

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

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