 Poster: A snowHead
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johnnyboy, What is happening in VT? I think I can speak on behalf on most SH's we are missing your regular updates, hope all is well!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Roy Hockley, he's pulled.....????
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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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We haven't had an update since the 5th of Feb. There's only so many helmet debates you can read whilst waiting for the next instalment!! 
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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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cfc5mu0, Pulled what, that could be painful 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Last time I saw him was in courchevel 1650, he did mention that he was in the middle of a good book.. must be a long one!
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Maybe he's got himself a job, working at the same place as Mlle Cutie?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Nick L, You, me and the rest of the  population!!
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Suspense is a great writer's skill.....Didn't Charles Dickens keep his readers enthralled by his weekly installments...but THIS is getting too much for us all! 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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didn't I see an update by Johnnyboy yesterday on the previous page?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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rayscoops, Good effort. 
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IMT, 
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You know it makes sense.
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rayscoops, IMT, you're such teasers!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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And relax.... I just got a text. He's coming online soon. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Julieanne wrote: |
| rayscoops, IMT, you're such teasers! |
did you bite?
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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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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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geepee, careful my friend - you might spark off a spelling&grammar diversion in this fairly straightforward thread 
Please resist, everyone - let's keep on the VT thang if we can, no?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Damn, completely missed that opportunity
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Every time I get an e-mail...Hello from Val Thorens... the pulse quickens and then a let down. Its worse than trying to get in a girls knickers on the third date, please please Johnnyboy help us with our addiction we beg you.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| slingman wrote: |
| Its worse than trying to get in a girls knickers on the third date |
Lose weight, or hit on bigger girls, and their knickers will be more likely to fit you
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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slingman, sorry 
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Anyone think it would be a good idea to start a separate 'Where TF is Johnnyboy?' thread? This would mean that people wouldn't need to suffer the agonies that slingman so eloquently describes, since one could assume that any future activity on this thread would be occasioned by Johnnyboy's re-appearance.
There is one thing that worries me about Johnnyboy's return: given his propensity to describe each and every run that he has skied, shall we have to give up all other activities for the foreseeable future, just to read his first post?
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You know it makes sense.
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Hurtle, Great idea, I just hope he is OK and just hasn't had time to post. I know how that feels - I was keeping a travel diary the other week while I was in South Africa but abandoned 3 days before the end as I just couldn't make enough time - still need to catch up with that before I forget about it all.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
given his propensity to describe each and every run that he has skied
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Hurtle, we went down the moguled black run combe de rosael with him last week, perhaps he is struggling to find the words to describe it??
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Poster: A snowHead
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
And when I say ugly, I mean real ugly; we’re talking Elephant Man here.
That about describes my first three days skiing on my return from the wedding back in Bristol. There had been snow on the Monday, the day I flew back, and the conditions on Tuesday were great; clear blue skies, great visibility, and the snow the previous day had freshened the piste up nicely. The good. Wednesday, however, the same could not be said. Completely overcast in the morning, the light was very flat, and things only got worse; it briefly threatened to clear about lunchtime, before completely closing in to reduce visibility to next to nothing. I didn’t stay out in that, and, with hindsight, perhaps I’d have been better off not going out at all, but ….. Anyway, that’s the bad.
Thursday I had arranged to try to meet up with Incogskisno who was staying in Courchevel for the week. I thought I’d avoid the first lift crush, and dropped down to the lift about 9.30. First mistake. Despite every chair being full on the lift going up, no-one as skiing back down the piste, and as the lift climbed higher I realised why; everyone was heading in the same direction as me, up towards Mont de la Chambre and the drop down to Meribel. There was a huge bottleneck at the chair and triple cable car up to the top (the entrances to both are right next to each other), and I picked the chair as at least the queue for that was constantly moving. Well, it was until it then proceeded to stop half a dozen times while I was in the queue. It took ages to finally get up to the top, and by the time I had dropped down to Mottaret there was a big queue for the gondola up to Saulire as well. At least I had decided that, if I wanted to get over to Courchevel the following week, to visit my friends who would be in 1650 for the week, I had better get first lift to get over before any bottlenecks could form.
So, having made contact with Inconskisno, we met at the top of the Verdons lift and headed back up to Saulire to take Creux down. It hadn’t been a good day, skiing-wise, so far; my legs just weren’t there, my weight was not right, and there was no rhythm at all to my skiing. I wonder whether the previous day’s skiing, in flat light which I still seem to find very tiring, was a factor, but perhaps I’m just looking for excuses. One way or the other though, I wasn’t skiing very well, even by my standards.
Having dropped down the steeper (though not steep) part at start of the run, I was trying to find a bit of rhythm on a flatter part. Up, turn, down, up, turn, down, up, turn, down, omg, crash. I felt I was skiing in a fairly predictable, regular manner, and hadn’t seen this guy at all; he was definitely uphill of me, but once I’d made my turn he was heading down and across, rather than straight down and, try as I might, I could do nothing to avoid him. I got knocked a good way down the slope, but was more perplexed by how it had happened; I really hadn’t been aware of him, and was shaken, more than anything else, that I hadn’t seen him coming. Anyway, I picked myself up, none the worse for wear, and caught up with Incogskisno, her husband, and three of their friends in a bit of a daze.
We set off and took a chair up, and unfortunately (for me) we were faced with a black mogul field. My technique, even on a good day, isn’t really up to them, and on a bad day, well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. I looked at the edges on both sides to see if off-piste down the side was a better option, but in the end had to struggle down as best I could. We came back out onto Creux, and headed down before stopping to pick a route; well, the others all stopped, but, for some reason, I didn’t quite manage it and bumped into poor Sally, the uphill skier of the group. I really have no explanation; I wasn’t even coming in fast at all, but whether I just misjudged it, or my legs refused to co-operate or what, but it was like being back in first week ski school. Quite apt really I suppose, as I was skiing like a first weeker, but, as you can imagine, I was mortified
After that I must admit my head went down a little, and I was really messy as we dropped down a moguled red to another lift. I at least managed the runs after that without further embarrassment as we headed towards 1650, but decided that, as I was skiing like a muppet and had to get all the way back to VT, I’d call it a day when they stopped for lunch and slowly made my way back. I apologised again to poor Sally and bid them all farewell, embarrassed at the impression I had no doubt left on them. I told you it was ugly.
Fortunately I’ve had a really good week since then. The honeymooners had spent a week in and around Barcelona before meeting up with his parents and his sister and her family for a week’s skiing in Courchevel 1650. Having learned my lesson by the queues the previous week, I made early starts most days and was generally in the first cable car up to Mont de la Chambre, skiing down Lac de la Chambre practically alone and getting the gondola up to Saulire before queues had a chance to form; I was at the top of 1850 by 09.45 most mornings. After a few problems meeting up the first morning (Dan, the groom, hadn’t taken his phone, Anna, his wife had hers straight to answer phone, and when I asked Martyn to text me Keith’s (Dan’s brother-in-law) number but not receiving it (Keith, I later discovered, was a little confused why Martyn would text Keith’s own number to him, which sort of explained why I hadn‘t received it)), I headed down to 1650 and bumped (not literally this time, thank goodness) into them sat outside a restaurant (educated guess, it was lunchtime!). Keith and Martha’s boys, Billy and Tom, had been in ski school in the morning, while their two and a half year old daughter, Daisy had been in creche; however, all three of them were out on skis in the afternoon, with their grandparents, Mike and Rona completing the adult contingent skiing with them.
Having picked a radio channel, meeting up was a little easier for the rest of the week, and a couple of times some of the party came over to VT to ski as well, including on Wednesday, when Dan, Anna, Keith and Martha headed over thanks to Mike and Rona agreeing to pick up the kids for the afternoon. We took the Funitel Peclet up and skied Lac Blanc down, before heading down to take Caron and Cime Caron up. This was on Mike’s recommendation, and he had been disappointed not to ski that path down to Orrelle when he had been over earlier in the week (we had taken the Funitel Grand Fond), and had pointed out his preferred route to Martha as we took the chairlift back out of the fourth valley. So, the moguls it was to be! Lucky me. Although I made a slightly better fist of them than back over in Courchevel with Incogskisno, I did venture off the edge halfway down, over smoother terrain, but with really horrible snow; Dan described it as bricklike, and that’s not far off what it was, but I managed to put in some turns on it and got safely to the bottom.
As we came back through VT I picked up my rucksack as I had been invited to stay with them all over in 1650 that night, and we made our way back through Mottaret to Courchevel. We were all treated to a fabulous fireworks display in 1650 that evening, fortunately before the children went to bed, and a lovely meal too thanks to Dan and Anna’s culinary talents before the adults too decided to call it a day. Just as well we weren’t too late, as, children being children, they were up first at 06.20, although after some prompting from Mike they did keep it down until gone 7.00. I got treated to Pingu’s attempts at snowboarding while the children had breakfast, before they were taken off for ski school and creche, and ended up skiing with Dan, Anna and Mike that day. Dan had picked a long run all the way down to Alures from the Les Menuires side of the valley, and the plan was to try that, so we went up to Saulire and set off towards Meribel. Well, when I saw we, I mean Mike Dan and I; unfortunately we lost Anna somewhere along the way, and couldn’t pick her up on the radio. She ended up right down in Meribel Village, which we eventually guessed from odd bits over the two way, and Dan headed that way while Mike and I waited down in Meribel itself.
Once we were all reunited, we took a couple of chairs up, skied the black Face down and then discovered the run down to Les Alures was shut due to lack of snow. Next on the agenda was Jerusalem, at my suggestion, so we took a gondola and chair up before skiing it; at the top Dan recognised the run and was pleased with my choice. We had lunch at the bottom of the run, and then decided to ski down to Les Menuires and possibly do La Masse if we had time. We had to get the chair up, and then made good progress down and decided that La Masse was indeed doable, so off we went. The black was looking badly cut up, so we opted for Fred Coveli instead, which was heavily moguled itself anyway. We skied down and headed back up the other side of the valley before splitting up and heading to our respective homes after another great day’s skiing.
I headed over to Courchevel again on Friday, meeting up with Keith and Martha for some runs in 1850 before we returned to 1650 to collect their kids. We all headed up the mountain, meeting up with Dan, Anna, Mike and Rona, and had a piste side picnic before trying out a couple of the boys favourite runs. Eventually I had to leave and head back to VT, so I thanked them all for a great week’s skiing and wished them a safe journey home. I had a great time with them all; Dan and Anna had been on my first ski trip, two years ago now, to Courchevel 1850, and Dan even remembered the first red they all took me on when we skied it at some point in this week, so it was nice this time to be able to properly get around the mountain with them this time, as well as all the time spent with the rest of the party. A really great week, and glorious sunshine every day, which continued right up till yesterday; today was cloudy and the light flat, but the first time since Wednesday two weeks ago, so I can’t really complain!
Sorry it’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve been really busy skiing, and have generally just got home, had a soak in the bath, and had a good read in the evenings; I’ve read a couple of good books (including a 1000+ page novel, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, not his usual thriller, but a very good read nonetheless, also The Poet by Michael Connelly), and have been slightly lacking in energy and inspiration. Oh, by the way, did I mention Mlle Cutie has a boyfriend?
It seems I made a bt of a rod for myself by posting so regularly, but I've just finished reading my last book, so should be posting a bit more regularly again now; reading can be so addictive, can't it? Anyway, hope this makes up for lack of recent posts; if you’ve made it this far, gold star for you.
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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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johnnyboy, thank the lord. I thought you were dead.............but didn't dare say
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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johnnyboy, great, glad you've been enjoying yourself (at least for the most part.) Don't feel shackled by this thread - people can play on the other one now, while you're away!
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johnnyboy, thank you, thank you, thank you, I can now sleep soundly again. BTW we can sort out the boyfriend situation in April, I know a few lardy boys
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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johnnyboy, phew, welcome back mate
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FAQ
