@Steve Angus,
Long time lurker and infrequent poster here but I have to say, thanks for all your updates, they go a long way to fill the gap of not being able to be there
Not sure when I'll be able to ski again and probably have to bribe the wife I'm sure as I was very fortunate to be able to ski wth the Army Reserves in Val/Tignes each year but have just been retired as I'm officially too old now
I did manage to get in a final trip last January before everything kicked off but really missing it for sure.
I've been following the avalanche rescue, very lucky man indeed! Having never done it, one thing which puzzled me was how the probers know they've hit a person and not something else. Is it all down to feel and do they train with real people?
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?
Down to feel and hitting something before you expect to. If the probe keeps going down 1.6m and then only goes to a 1m you might be on to something. Also a probe transfers a surprising amount of feeling.
T Bars remind me of working at Sheff Ski Village and the carnage caused by inexperienced users of the T Bar there. I quite like those up on Pisaillas as it gets you access to some lovely skiing.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@Skid, hear hear, for those of us stuck in the UK away from the mountains Steve's posts are a welcome link to the Alps - I lap up every word.
After all it is free
After all it is free
There are a few skiers on the Bellevarde webcam this morning (I know, I just can't help it... ). Any idea how/why?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
The La Daille touring piste is open. The route begins by the Funicular and follows the Verte slope up to the top of the La Daille bubble. From there, you can either ski down or continue up to the top of the Bellevarde or the Borsat ridge, both of which are pisted.
They are also preparing something similar over on Solaise and that is planned to open in time for the French school holidays.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@muppet, is the Folie doing takeaways?
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
So you never skied in Scotland @PeakyB, @snowornever, I have vivid and fond memories of instructors putting their nervous clients with us "more competent skiers" on the t bars.
To qualify, I was at the time only in my second week, sure do learn quickly!!
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.
@Rogerdodger,
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So you never skied in Scotland @PeakyB,
Yes a few times. A gentle wooden sideways-on single chairlift last time at Aviemore. A fancy new gondola at Aonach Moor... but don’t recall T Bars.
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ivid and fond memories of instructors putting their nervous clients with us "more competent skiers" on the t bars.
I find behaving bizarrely and erratically in the lift queue, comes easily to me, usually secures a private T Bar.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Well folks I am glad the drag lift confusion has been sorted out but to answer some of the other points below:
Skid - thanks so much for your kind words! Hope you get out here again sometime soon! In terms of how you know you have probed a person and not a rock etc - to be honest you can just 'feel' the difference - a little 'give' but not too much if you get my drift! And yes if you hit something shallower than you had been then that gives it away too!
endoman - didnt know you used to work there!
j b - thank you I try my best
head_like_a_rock - exactly as muppet says!
PeakyB - they should do takeaways but they aren't!
Meanwhile what I have I been doing the last couple of days.... well when not getting drenched as it has been VERY warm and wet / slushy wet... is home schooling / sorting the kids out (OMG thats tough enough in itself) as well as spending yesterday teaching at Apex and then today the main event was a HUGE food shop down the valley and then putting it all away! So over €500 later we have enough food to have filled the freezers up as well as the fridge and some more. We also treated ourself to a takeaway curry from our friends who are normally the chefs at one of the YSE properties in town and this season they are selling 'ready to heat at home' food - totally yummy and spoiling this evening!
The kids have been having their friends around (its still allowed here) and have gotten on pretty well with their school work too!
In and around town as well as the warm temps things have been ticking along. Lockdown is NOT coming yet / French people will still be allowed to visit for the school hols albeit with closed lifts and the town is ticking over. In fact they are hoping to have more activities on during the school hols a bit like they did in the Xmas / NY hols including an airbag on the snow front but it will be interesting to see how busy it really gets! After all the heavy snow we got last week the temps have risen and spoiled it all. Today it was amazing watching the Spring like temps mean the mountain was literally falling off itself !!!! The nice snow (certainly off piste) has become ruined unfortunately so the numbers touring is less than it was but still remains substantially high which amazes me!
Not much else to report this end! Must get back to the lesson planning for tomorrow folks and then I really must get to bed before midnight!
TTFN
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@Steve Angus Thanks for your updates - we enjoy seeing "what we could have won" when we see your posts! Good to hear that the Mr Angus role is going well.
Booked for next year now (last year's money transferred to this season then again to next season now). Best wishes to your family
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Quote:
well when not getting drenched as it has been VERY warm and wet / slushy wet
Just checked some old pics/videos from last season on my phone. It absolutely poured with rain up to about 2800 mtrs (top of Toviere) on the 2nd of February. Rained for about 24hrs and destroyed the off-piste after some great early season snow.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@Steve Angus,
Curry being cooked by YSE chefs? In all of the years I've stayed with YSE I never had curry for dinner.
This time last year I was enjoying one of many weeks being looked after by Murray, Christina & the staff in Les Chardons.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Hmmm
Skiers and boarders at top of toviere this am and a piste basher clearing snow by the resto!
Not jealous at all
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?
Skiers at the top of Borsat lift today and the green Borsat piste all groomed. Is the lift open or are they skinners?
MissElectra - thank you. Yes going OK thanks! Get excited for the next trip you have booked in!!!!
GeorgeVII - about the same this year!
welshflyer - indeed not the normal YSE food. But this year it is indeed Murray and Christina who find themselves without any guests so they have set up as entrepreneurs and offering a weekly changing menu of amazing food. So they cook / delivery once a week either Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Moroccan and all sorts of one off specials like Xmas day meal, they are doing a Valentines day menu etc too. So the locals (well mainly the expat community) are queuing up to get hold of some of Murrays amazing food once a week! It helps keep them afloat and every few weeks we treat ourself and I think it is a win, win situation for all concerned. Good on them... amazing Indian food!
snowornever and bar shaker - yes there are PLENTY of people skinning up every day (all the people you will see on the cams are people who have skinned yes - NO lifts are open apart from the magic carpet for reasons mentioned above AND the Stade Legettaz drag bottom Solaise for the Club des Sports kids EXCLUSIVELY and only at the weekends!) - hundreds Id say! Its like a conveyor belt of people starting off from the bottom of the funi each am!!!!! Wish could get up there myself but until schools go back it aint gonna happen!!!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Steve Angus, as time goes on if it was to be feasible for Tignes/Val D’Isere to open properly, say mid to late March to early May do you think they would do it to benefit from those 6 weeks of pent up demand or not bother?
@Steve Angus, I think @VolklAttivaS5 is really asking the question most of us want the answer to: as a local on the ground is there any hope of French resorts anywhere opening up for the last weeks of the season?
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:
I NEVER go on a T Bar with anyone else these days. Keep your fate in your own hands
On busy days on the glacier in Tignes I don't think you'd have much chance of riding on your own. If the racing kids see just one person on a T bar they'll hurtle over and join you half way up. Disconcerting! They're brilliant of course, but don't appreciate that not everybody is up to their careless competence.
After all it is free
After all it is free
@pam w, ways and means
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Is riding a T Bar becoming a lost art?
I quite enjoy them....but it requires pairing up with someone of a similar height (and who can stay on their feet). I don't really enjoy riding them as a single person.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
pam w wrote:
Quote:
I NEVER go on a T Bar with anyone else these days. Keep your fate in your own hands
On busy days on the glacier in Tignes I don't think you'd have much chance of riding on your own.
On the glacier most people have good alignment so it isn't a problem with two on a T bar. I would try to avoid sharing with anyone not on race skis though.
Quote:
If the racing kids see just one person on a T bar they'll hurtle over and join you half way up.
They are not supposed to do that.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
@Steve Angus,
I thought that it was Murray & Christina who were offering haute cuisine meals from around the world. There aren't many YSE staff who are residents in resort.
I also know your neighbour Henry, I've skied with him and been to his talks when I lived in London.
Say hello to them all from me, Laurence (they wouldn't guess that I'm Welsh)!
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.
@Old Fartbag,
Quote:
Is riding a T Bar becoming a lost art?
I quite enjoy
It is because there’s not many left. Kids these days, eh, they just have it too easy.
The fun of the rope tow up on Solaise has been taken away too.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
A 6 for his double century.
If he was a skier he’d be Jean-Claude Killy.
ROOOOOT !
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
VolklAttivaS5 - the possibility of opening in terms of lifts being open - we'll take it that that is the definition of being open! Bars, restaurants, hotels, apartment buildings etc - which of those may or may not open is another story and for the sake of this I dont think we need to consider it! I DO think that there is a VERY good chance that something will open in terms of lifts yes! However they (resort by resort) may not open every lift and this could be linked to availability of staff to run them as well as the cost-effectiveness! Cost-effectiveness also plays a HUGE role in other elements too e.g. hire shops, hotels - the list is long. Some hotels in Val ALREADY made the decision back in January to keep doors closed all Winter - it just isnt worth it by the time they spend money on deep cleans and training staff etc. The few weeks of bookings MIGHT make sense for a small family owned ski hire shop for example - they have the skis sitting there so may as well open! Those of us already here would of course find it easy to suddenly offer ski lessons (as an example). But there is also the more complex issue of being reliant on international tourism here.... the ESF for example may be find with lots of French coming here for lessons but that would not help me at all! I think basically that IF the resort is given the 'OK' to open the lifts there will be a big push to offer (as a resort) whatever is possible.... and hotels to chalets and from restaurants to taxi companies to TRY and offer as much as possible! But it will most likely be in vain and for MANY of us pointless (we will get LESS government financial help as we 'could' do our job).
j b - see above but 'yes' but unless you live in France or whatever it won't make much use!
welshflyer - yea you guessed it correctly - no there is not many YSE locals no. I was with Henry today - I mentioned you but he scratched his head a little unfortunately!
PeakyB - sometimes these 'lost arts' work the opposite way too... when I hear people talking exclusively about 'carving here' and 'carving there' as if that is the ONLY way to ski! And INDEEED how could I forget the cricket - we are on top for sure.... what a good start to the India campaign! Keep it up boys!
Getting colder and snowier - once again!!
After those few days now of warmer than average temps it has once again started snowing again this evening and the wind is picking up! In fact it has been so unseasonably warm that we could do with some more snow and colder temps - but since I'm really only home schooling and sorting the kids out etc I dont care it being unseasonably warm - haha!
Talking of which now the school hols have started Olivia is lucky to be able to ski with the club des sports and tomorrow they have a full day of skiing lined up! In fact ahead of the World Ski Championships starting this week and the slalom not for a wee while yet Clement Noel and some of the other French team are currently training on the Legettaz stade so all the kids are being shipped to lap around on a 'privately open' La Daille Gondola - easy for us to get her there and back twice a day - haha!
Ben is also doing a week of ESF lesson in the afternoons this week so he will love that!
In fact yesterday with the start of the French hols (as I said above the French are allowed to travel to these 'closed' ski resorts and ski tour etc and as I said also previously to that magic carpets dont count as lifts apparently for some reason!) the magic carpet at Tignes Les Boisses opened (well both of them really). So we took Ben on his skis there and Olivia on her snowboard - we had a lovely afternoon with only about 2 other people on there.
The most interesting thing about the afternoon was that (across most of the Alps / Pyrenees) the Saharan Foehn wind is blowing. When the wind has been coming from the south for a few days (as it has) it finally gets enough momentum to pull the sand from the Sahara with it... so everything had a slightly yellow tinge to it (in the air) yesterday - it was if you permanently had yellow tint goggles on all day! Today the results are seen with this tiny film of yellow everywhere - it does happen every few Winters but it is still weird seeing it!
You can see it in the background here... pics from Radio Val of Clement Noel and some of the French team training yesterday!
So I am on half term as well now Apex have broken up for 10 days or so... so it works out well with my kids being on half term the same time thankfully. Lets hope the 87,000 odd cars that are due into the Savoie this weekend (if I understand it correctly) (99.9% French I believe!) dont shaft our covid numbers! They have increased the frequency of the Train Rouge as they are certainly expecting more people in town - gulp! Tignes is between 250 and 500 cases per 100,000 at the moment and Val still over 1000!!!! Fingers crossed as the school hols here being extended longer would be a real downer!!!
TTFN
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
With those levels of COVID, an odd idea of Lockdown (travelling great distances for hols) and a wealth of French vaccine deniers will we get to PSB in December for your tuition. Thanks for the update Steve.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Thanks @Steve Angus, I won't say it's what I wanted to hear but it sounds realistic. Chances of international travel are less than lifts opening up at some point (and that is a lot less than certain).
All I can do is cross those fingers tighter than ever....
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Steve Angus, thanks, yes my definition of ‘open properly’ was just the lifts actually as the bars and restaurants don’t feature too heavily on my radar.
That is a lot of COVID cases in Tignes and especially Val D’Isere, more than I thought and way more than where I live in the UK as we are on 136 cases per 100,000.
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?
@Steve Angus,
Quote:
Lets hope the 87,000 odd cars that are due into the Savoie this weekend (if I understand it correctly) (99.9% French I believe!) dont shaft our covid numbers!
That sounds incredible from where I’ve been sitting, with occasional walks around the exercise yard, in recent months.
Good luck and stay safe. Don’t know if there’s a French language version of this video...
@snowornever, Laughing I NEVER go on a T Bar with anyone else these days. Keep your fate in your own hands.
On the other hand it is much more comfortable and sociable to travel up with someone else. I will often wait for someone to join me on the T bar, but then I never go on one with monoskiers or snowboarders
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@johnE,
Quote:
On the other hand it is much more comfortable and sociable to travel up with someone else. I will often wait for someone to join me on the T bar,
Each to his own. I’d be sociable as in ‘for pity’s sake stop wriggling’.
Monoskier on a T Bar....only for those with perfect balance or crazy!
With those levels of Covid, they shoudnt even be thinking about opening up the resorts, tbh
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@GreenDay, it’s OK, the vaccine sceptics can smoke more Gauloises, eat more garlic, 3 types of foie gras a week, keep tongue to themselves when kissing and
After all it is free
After all it is free
...end of rant
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.
Quote:
Monoskier on a T Bar....only for those with perfect balance or crazy!
I only tried a couple times in Val d'Isere (it was a long time ago when there were T bars in the resort) and once almost made it before bringing me and my wife off.
I quite enjoy them....but it requires pairing up with someone of a similar height (and who can stay on their feet).
Last time I went up Montets someone was waiting there and asked me if I'd mind going up with his roughly 5 year old daughter (he went up with his even younger son). Going up with the bar behind my knees and pulling it down to keep it at the right level for her to be comfortable was a challenge.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
as I was very fortunate to be able to ski wth the Army Reserves in Val/Tignes each year but have just been retired as I'm officially too old now 
I NEVER go on a T Bar with anyone else these days. Keep your fate in your own hands. 
). Any idea how/why?
I find behaving bizarrely and erratically in the lift queue, comes easily to me, usually secures a private T Bar.
