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

A snowHead

franga thanks - yes lets hope so eh. Re the season and COVID etc... I think the season will be fine domestically here - there will be bumps and of course masks and all the rest of it and there could be (there are) some staff shortages across the board but for the most part if will be fine. International tourists coming over could be another story though! Macron will ride it out I think yes!
snow trax yes you have missed a good one for this opening weekend! I think everyone is running on dry for skiing on both sides yes!

And that was opening day

It hadn't snowed really overnight but was looking somewhat foreboding at breakfast time... the first day always takes so long to get ready but we finally managed to get out the front door with all the kids and kit needed. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that there was some technical issues (already can you believe it on day one) with the Marmottes lift... bearing in mind that that was the only lift up top on the Bellevarde side that was open it was a massive issue. Anyway it meant that our plan to take the Funi up was scuppered as they were not allowing anyone to upload... anyway we decided to head into town and give them some time to sort the issue out. It worked out and soon we were off.

I was surprised on the way into town on the bus how many people were not actually wearing a mask on the Train Rouge though - quite amazed by it really! There were even a couple of people on the Olympic who were barely wearing a mask too - it was around their neck at best. More than amazed id say!

Anyway it was surprisingly busy up there with decent length queues for the first few hours on the Marmottes lift. I had also heard that when the Marmottes lift was not functioning properly earlier in the day many people had ducked ropes and skied down past the Folie and onwards and downwards (nothing else was open remember) to La Daille - blimey their skis will be in tatters!

The snow quality however was totally amazing - ok the track from the top of the Olympic down towards the Verte etc was somewhat narrow etc but the snow was jolly good! So the 4 of us headed down the Verte and it was really the first time Ben had skied on the mountain for real so I was incredibly proud of my wee little man! After a couple of laps we stopped for a hot choc (before it got busy the Marmottes resto) and then one more lap before lunch there. So in about 2.5 hours we got 3 laps in and as I said the snow was good but pistes busy!

Olivia demolished her adult portion of spaghetti bolognaise and Ben the same but sausage and chips. I have to say the burger I had was awesome too. Ben managed to get himself lost as we left the place too but all was sorted quickly afterwards!

Olivia and I fitted in a couple of quick laps on the OK and she skied jolly well I must say whilst Clare did an extra lap with Ben and then we swapped over. By about 1500 we headed home knackered for a cuppa!

We headed into town for the first Blue Note apres of the season so it was nice having nibbles and beers and catching up with some friends!

The kids were so knackered though (Olivia even fell asleep on the bus on the way home!) that it was dinner and bed as soon as we got in.

And that brings you all up to date on a great opening day of the season... after such a long wait it was a lovely day!

A selection of photos to finish the update off.

TTFN

NOT my photo but taken by a friend Uffe up on the Val glacier this am... for those who were happy to queue for a LONG time to get there and back!

A lovely family selfie (we are getting a new uniform as you can see some of the zips a knackered on the old kit!)

The sun tried to come out a few times even

Plenty of queues thought and lots of no mask wearing worryingly

The snow came back in latter on in the day though - as the Xmas tree on the tourist office roundabout is now up

One knackered little girl after a fun day

Coming down on the funi at the end with their little friends

A second tired little person

A snowHead

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing! Conditions look great!

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

Some lovely photos Steve - almost like being there! snowHead

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Great photos!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Great photos @Steve Angus, can't you use your instructor pass to jump the queues? Toofy Grin

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@Steve Angus,
Any local feedback from the new Swiss transit rules?

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

(lazy c&p from t'other EK thread)
Excellent but sometimes challenging weekend. We stuck to Val, Bellevarde with Marmotte and Borsat lifts open. Big queues at both in the morning, especially with Marmotte breaking down several times, but eased after 12-ish. Lovely sunny day until it closed in around 3, so we repaired to Rose Blanch for apres session with old pals we haven't seen for 18 months. Today was a freezing whiteout, we were 4 run heroes before sacking it off. Just great to sit on a lift again.

@Steve Angus, we saw you and Claire in the Marmotts resto, but decided to leave you to sorting the kids with lunch.

After all it is free

capability - no worries - glad you enjoyed! Yea not too bad at all (conditions!)
pam w - indeed (cast your mind away from all the strife in the world for a few mins!)
nevis1003 - thanks
russ_e - wish I could but wasnt really working as such - besides they hadn't really set up a line for lessons as there were really any going on. Nice thinking though!
Kenzie - local feedback is mainly along the lines of a string of expletives and much like what is happening on here (been reading lots of threads today) - general confusion / panic / under or misunderstanding of what is isnt allowed and speculation on 'what next'. Either way non of it is anything other than bad news even if it all turns out to be nothing about nothing.
Dr John - ah sweet glad you had a nice day... I saw so many familiar faces yesterday - to be honest I think everyone was just happy to be back on the hill and having the opportunity to ski again eh!!!!

A day of fear!

Firstly Ill start off with a clip from another blog that I read each day - that of Wayne Watson the Alpine Experience instructor here in Val... he's only been here about 3 times as long as me - haha. Anyway his blog today started:

"What a start to my day! I woke at 6 o’clock to have a wee and stumbled over some shoes in the hallway. After thinking ‘where the f—k have these shoes come from?’ it hit me. Some drunk had staggered into my apartment during the night, puked on my kitchen floor and after wiping vomit on curtains and walls collapsed on my sofa! Instead of enjoying a couple of cups of tea in bed while catching up on my sports scores around the world I was cleaning up someone else’s sick. Yuck!

That will teach me for leaving my door unlocked. My thinking was if there was ever a fire I wouldn’t want to be messing around trying to unlock the door. Sadly, I’m now going to lock myself in at night!"

BLIMEY!!!!!!

Anyway back to my day here.... I was woken by my lovely daughter waking me with a cuppa in bed - starting to train her up well. Im REALLY particular about my tea especially up here in the mountains. Kettle boiling at slightly lower temp (makes a big difference), water cooling quicker as well.... it all adds up. So getting a decent cuppa tea up here is hard work... I even invested in a very special tea cup this Summer that is made from china but has a heating element in it - makes all the difference! Yippee!

Anyway it was a slow start to the day being a Sunday and with the kids watching a little Sunday am tv I enjoyed my eggs on toast Sunday am treat and Clare went for a snowy run (what was she thinking). It was cold and very much Wintery thats for sure with a few more cm's of snow having fallen (still not sure why people think skiing down to town is a good idea though as snow coverage is not exactly deep yet!

They managed to get the Solaise open today (just the top slopes up there) but the weather was not looking very enticing so we decided that it was just a better idea to head to the swimming pool. We were the first in there and it remained surprisingly quiet with (unusually) only a couple of locals in attendance. Anyway we enjoyed our time there before heading home for lunch!

With no signs of the weather improving after lunch the kids took themselves off to play and then Clare decided that she needed to practice her massage work as she is hoping to pick up a little freelance massage work this Winter... so I was very lucky to have a full body massage for an hour - amazing! The kids found it totally hilarious though hearing my pain as my muscles were worked hard!!!!! Haha!

Much of the day though was taken up by two things:

1) trying to keep on top of the developments with regards the Swiss side of things - looking at what it all means / what might happen next etc etc etc... we shall see.... but it does seem that especially if France adds the UK to a so called red list OR vice-a-versa then we are buggered - certainly for the time being.... if down the line this new strain is shown to be 'bad' then we are in REAL trouble... all along Clare and I have realised that this Winter was always potentially going to be harder than last Winter and the end of the Winter before (dont forgot the end of 19/20 Winter when this all started the lockdown 1 came at a point when all business etc had only JUST hit break even point).... why - well because there is no way the French government will bail us out again - the French government will be able to come skiing but that only helps about 40% of the local businesses and in some cases (100% or so for us!). Doh! Worrying times!
2) Trying to keep on top of the situation with regards Olivias school and teacher as the situation is problematic as they can't find a replacement and of course being peak season everyone is flat out working (as it stands at the moment!!!!!). So anyway its complicated but looks like they are incorporating the whole of Olivias class in with other classes across the school swelling numbers in all the other classes - no idea how this is going to work but a collective of parents (we are tagging along) are basically pushing back against the 'administration' by saying - "this needs sorting out".

Anyway just a couple of pics from today - the view at the bottom of the mountain of the ski test area and the (now running) Solaise Express lift going and a view of what it is like at the top - LOTS more snow forecast for this week too!

Photo courtesy of the Val Pisteurs

TTFN

We arrived Saturday night after having had to fit the snow socks at Sante Foy .
We had friends who had come down Friday with stuff for their apartment so met them in Danois at 9.
Now maybe it started to go wrong here but I did wake up in OUR apartment , and there are some odd pics I posted at 1.00am on Facebook that maybe need deleting Blush

.
We were all celebrating being back in the mountains.

Yesterday's weather plus a monumental hangover meant we skied 3 laps on soliase and a couple on Belevard before feeling sorry for ourselves a little longer back at the flat.

However I spot blue sky this morning so today looks a better day Very Happy

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Today was great if very cold up on the glacier , more had opened on solaise which helped .
Belvard was a nice morning warm up too.

Headed over to tignes this afternoon and the weather closed in as we started down from the top of the Funi

Was one of my least pleasant runs in a long times as we could not even see from 1 marker to the next for the first part .

snow reports

Well it is Winter after all

It was all rather chaotic this morning - it will only get worse when there are 2 of us getting ready for ski work in the mornings. Anyway kids packed off to school and I headed off to work... it was weather like it had been the last couple of days - namely cloudy and some snowfall lurking about (by the way we are expecting a large dump this coming weekend!). So I headed to the meeting point (ohhhhh this is novel!) and did something I have not done for a very long time - an Instagram live... felt somewhat weird to be back doing it after 623 days but hey ho!

Long standing clients who live in Luxembourg were first up for this season. As I knew the snow was good up the Bellevarde side from the other day I decided that heading up there would probably be the best way forward. So off we headed... it was so much quieter than Saturday that is for sure. Multiple laps of the Marmottes (well that was the only option up there today) suited us fine as the Verte and Diebold etc were in excellent condition for us all to find our feet. It was a really nice session but boy was it cold.... the stiff breeze was the worst thing about it and not being able to glimpse any sun didnt help either! Oh well a coffee half way through always helps doesn't it.

At lunchtime I headed home and changed / had some lunch and sorted a few chores out before heading off for an afternoon of work for Mountain Rooms and the long list of maintenance that needs covering for Paul and Debbie (their staff still haven't arrived in town yet). So that was a few hours work before the clock ticked around to needing to collect Olivia from her gymnastics practice at 1800 and then get her home. After such a long day Olivia particularly was knackered so played up somewhat before bed and Ben always plays off the back of her silliness which all in all meant it was a stressful evening.

Anyway kids all tucked up in bed now and I'm catching up on a long list of admin that I need to do.

A few pics of the day to finish with.

TTFN

Yes lots of smiles all around as we finally get back to do what we do best (by the way our new uniforms are probably going to arrive next week). Yippee

Unusual to see someone without a helmet these days!

You know it makes sense.

The BBC has just run the difficulties facing skiers going to Switzerland, story, but the video was of the Solaise Express Chairlift! It would appear Val can travel both in geographically and in time. snowHead

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

A snowHead

Hi All, I am going to be in Val d'isere in a few weeks and want to buy some snowboard boots... I realise that its probably not the ideal place to buy boots price wise but i dont have much option as I live in Africa at the moment (very limited ski shop options here) and I would like to try them on before I buy them... Any advice on shops to go to would be really appreciated? Do any of the shops allow you to use them for an hour or so to see if you like them?
Any help massively appreciated.
Cheers

A snowHead

chocksaway - really - unbelievable.... and it was only yesterday morning that they interviewed live on BBC breakfast the director of Val tourism. Doh sloppy journalism. But then again it happens all the time doesnt it.
tfmoss87 - Some shops allow you to test certain boots yes but these sorts of things normally only relate to skis and boards. Anyway there are a few places you can try that have a decent selection such as Intersport (Pitte and also Boraso) as well as Killy - both have good selection. If you want good advice before buying then perhaps pop into Snowberry as they have so many rental boots you might get a flavour for what you like there and can rent them for a day to try them out before then buying elsewhere! Hope that helps!

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

Bad news comes in 3's

The day started with some eye watering cold temps (-18 down here in La Daille) but crucially the sun was obviously going to shine - yay! It was a normal start to the day with the usual rush to get the kids sorted and packed off to school and then I did a quick bin run and then that is when it all started to go slightly wrong....

Firstly the bus door would not close so we had to swap buses which meant it took 10 mins to leave La Daille which meant the bus was not only rammed but late... oh well we made it in the end.

Secondly we decided to ski on the Solaise side and as I took my ski off to join the very small ski queue I slipped on it, ending up on my butt - doh! A little red faced.

Thirdly we got through the turnstile to the Solaise and as we approached the next cabin the lift stopped.... as usual with these things we waited for a few minutes and a few false starts but it was evident there was a big problem... so plan b and off we went up the Bellevarde instead... oh well tomorrow it is for a Solaise trip instead!

Once we actually got up the mountain it was evident the snow was still perfect and with the sun shining it was time for maximum number of turns (despite the cold). Unfortunately the only thing still open lift wise up Bellevarde is the Marmottes which is a shame but we have it on good authority that the Tignes / Val link will open on Thursday which will be good. That should also mean that things like the Fontaine Froide etc can open then too - hmm we shall see.

Anyway we had a really good session exploring the steering elements of skiing and it was a really nice to see some changes going on. Yay.

After warming up at home and taking in some lunch I headed into town to do some more maintenance man work... first thing was to try and re-attach the oven door to a fancy oven thing in a very nice apartment... it was huge bespoke made oven and it took 2 of us about 20 mins to get the thing back in such were the tight springs involved!

After that I packed up and moved my tool kit to La Daille as I just happen to be working just down the corridor from our flat here, and made a start.

It was nice hearing the kids news and seeing their energies when they got home from school but by the time they got into bed I was totally shattered - doh!

So tomorrow there is more cloud about but the main even we are looking forward to is a big snow dump this coming weekend which will be very welcome as hopefully skiing to the bottom of the mountain will be on from next week onwards hopefully!

In other news thank goodness the issues with Geneva Airport (in particular) and transitting to France seem to have been overcome as that was a massive issue! Phew. The next kink in the road will no doubt be down the road but for now we live to fight another day. Yay!

A few nice pics to finish off with.... can you spot the new restaurant in the photo!

TTFN

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@Steve Angus, nice to chat today.
Bellevarde snow conditions were better than Solaise today so maybe it was for the best.
We noticed Tommeuses was being tested this afternoon so hopefully in the next few days.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@Steve Angus, Unless we have another flight cancelled we’re leaving Thursday night instead of tomorrow morning, but back in a weeks time. Very Happy

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

After all it is free

@Steve Angus, enjoying your updates again! Is the new restaurant the one in the distance by the Grand Pre lift - I think I heard there was one going in there.

A question you might be able to answer prompted by your first pic...the set of steps down immediately to the left of the Olympique exit, where do they go? Are they a potential route down onto Collet/Verte etc. that a more nervous skier could use rather than pitch into the sometimes carnage in front of the Funival?

@dunc999, the steps in the fist picture lead down to the track in the second, which is the exit track of Loyes chairlift. It does lead to Vert, but by a traverse across the pitch you described above. So on the one hand it avoids going down the pitch, on the other it requires crossing it while keeping an eye out uphill.

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@Dr John, Thanks thought that might be the case. Could be useful to avoid that pitch then for a nervous skier who doesn't like that sort of thing!

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Update on the pass sanitaire requirements from Saturday. Summary; PS required to buy a lift pass from aged 12 upwards, then random checks at main lift stations. No mention of season passes already sold, I'm assuming they assume seasonairres will already have PS's.

https://www.radiovaldisere.com/index.php?p=infos&id=8999

snow reports

@Dr John, Will it stop people buying lift passes online ?
I keep blank passes for friends and family to activate when they arrive instead of going to the pass office and just picked up some yesterday.

Great to see Dave Ryding up Bellevarde this morning

@muppet, don’t know. I’d have thought so but, as we say, this is France.

You know it makes sense.

dunc999 - yes what Dr John says. It is good those steps but getting across can be a challenge. I have in a couple of cases walked people across to the deck area of the Bellevarde restaurant from the bottom of those steps and then from there walked around the back of the Bellevarde restaurant and then finally clip skis on by the start of the Verte - not ideal but it is an option and yes the new restaurant is at the bottom of the Grand Pre as you say.

muppet - didnt do Dave was up the Bellevarde skiing today - assume free skiing! Anyway I think re passes and PS - yes I think there will be a fair amount of checking of PS for all and over time I think ultimately they will all get checked so wherever the pass comes from the ps of the holder will be checked sooner or later.

What a glorious day

Being a Wednesday and the kids not going to school the day started a little slower than normal but Clare was planning on taking them out for a ski so they still needed to be booted and suited up.

The sun was shining once again and it was a somewhat warmer than yesterday - much warmer actually but thankfully just below zero! We got our wish of being able to head up the Solaise and ski up there. It was SO quiet up there - suppose it helps when at the moment you can only go from Fornet to Solaise on the up and over and not the other way so no one really coming over unless happy to ski back towards time and vice-a-versa! Anyway the Madelaine, Datcha and Glacier are all open and most of the slopes up there and boy have I never seen conditions as good as now... empty slopes, great snow and the sun shining - a real treat. So we had a really good session working on short turns. I had even dug my video camera out so that was nice to get going again for the clients.

Clare and the kids were all up there too skiing around and it looked like they had fun!

At lunchtime we all headed home and the main deadline was for Ben to get to a birthday party at 1400 so after Clare and Ben got out the house Olivia and I chilled at home for a wee while and even fitted in a game of chess - the dad / daughter thing we are trying to do. She is getting there with her learning bless her. By about 1500 Olivia and I headed up to town for a rendezvous with an old friend of mine for a beer and nibbles at the Blue Note.... the Note was not busy at all. Anyway it was a really lovely couple of hours in there before the kids obviously got overly tired so it was time to head home.

By the time we all got home it was clear that it was dinner and bed time for the kids asap. Thankfully that was done quite easily.

However on the plus side the weather has steadily moved in more and more as the afternoon has progressed and it is now really dumping down and has been for a few hours.... there is a decent accumulation of snow already and if this continues overnight we could have a serious accumulation by the morning... in fact a lot of snow is forecast over the next few days!

On the plus side with the improving conditions they are getting more and more open... so for example skiing to La Daille is now possible and so is down the front of Solaise I am led to believe. The link to Tignes should open either tomorrow or Friday too.

Finally I thought people might be interested in the following extract from Radio Val from this morning (I have used Google translate for you but the original is obviously on Radio Val from today for you to see if so like):

"As promised yesterday morning, here is a complete update on the installation of the sanitary pass in the ski lifts from Saturday. The pass will be requested from anyone over 12 years of age from the purchase of the pass, and random checks will take place on large aircraft providing access at altitude. Note that ski lift staff are subject to the same obligation.

Similar subject, the procedure concerning the various tests in the station is now known. If you have Covid symptoms, are in contact with or live with a person who has tested positive, the procedure does not change; you must isolate yourself and contact the medical center of your choice: the Center's office or Médival. If you have no symptoms, that you are not vaccinated and that you need a test "of comfort" or imposed for a trip, you can make an appointment by email to centrecovid@valdisere.fr then go to the center located in front of Médival. Finally, people vaccinated outside the European Union can obtain a standardized health pass from the Solaise pharmacy.

Lighter subject, with the figures of frequentation on the ski area of this opening weekend. 7137 people hit the slopes last Saturday and Sunday. The most used lift was the Marmotte chairlift, which welcomed 13,000 people daily, which is almost the record for frequentation of the device, set at 15,000. "

Which mountain is 'missing'

Literally as busy as it got up there today!

TTFN

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

A snowHead

@Steve Angus Many thanks for the updates and the photos. It looks fantastic. You lucky peeps.

A snowHead

@Steve Angus,
It would sum everything up if the opening of the links were to be delayed due to too much snow. Confused

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

Steve love the updates thank you.
Any guidance of the type of face mask/ snood that needs to be worn when using the ski lifts?

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Hi Steve

Hope it’s ok to post this here- have had a recommendation to do so on another SN thread - great reading this thread and loving the val updates!

Hi All

Looking for anyone at Geneva on Thursday 9th December to share a transfer or for me to hop onto an existing shared transfer to share costs. Flight lands at 5.45pm.

Appreciate any sh help.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Mont Blanc has a big hat in answer to the missing mountain, is such a big hat mountain lore for bad weather coming?

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@TOOTIE,

To be honest the mask wearing is pretty lapse.
As long as your nose and mouth are covered it seems fine , though that's just been my experience this week.

The tignes Funi today they were making sure people had covered mouth and nose however there seemed to be certain groups who annoyingly pulled them down once anyone official was out of sight.

I have the buff that takes the filters , and my honest opinion is its pretty rubbish as the paper filter gets soggy fairly quickly and does little .

We have just used but nose and mouth cover and proper masks for buses , shops and restaurants and bars.

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

Dr John - yes of course.... sorry stevew you are correct with the meteorological musing but unfortunately its the Grand Motte thats missing (it is helps MB was partially obscured too!
Subseaeng - my pleasure.
Kenzie - dont joke!!! Haha... but on the plus side the link to Tignes opened today - yippee
TOOTIE - thank you. To be honest and as harvsurrey says its (currently) not too hotly enforced... there are some people blatantly ignoring the rules here and there but for the most part it is being pretty well observed even though the 'quality' of some masks is somewhat open to interpretation shall we say!
AbiWood2 - good luck finding something.

Impressive

The day started nice and calmly today with the kids behaving and on form... yay.

The weather had cleared up somewhat but there was definitely some snow forecast later in the day once again (yes it has moved in once again - yay). I met my team and we headed up the Bellevarde as I had it on good authority that the link to Tignes would open today (INDEED THE LINK IS NOW OPEN). The sun was shining but there were thick bands of clouds moving in and out and it was certainly colder than yesterday again!.

The snow that had fallen last night was quite plentiful - about 15-20cm so just off the sides of the pistes was awesome - but it helped knowing where the underlying grassy slopes as opposed to rocky ones were located!

We took a ride on the Mont Blanc whilst we waited for the Tommeuse to open up and boy it was jolly nice snow just off the sides of the piste - awesome! You did have to be a little careful as there are still the odd bit of grass sticking through though!

After a quick lap there we hopped on the Tommeuse and spent a few laps working on some long radius turns up there. The snow was jolly good but unfortunately being the first day of the link being open it was busy with people coming / going to / from Tignes and Val. It didnt help when one of my team had a misload getting on the lift which knocked her confidence a little but we soon got over that!

We stopped for a hot choc at the Folie and WOW has the insides of that totally changed and improved.... you walk in and up the few steps to the sitting area and it has totally changed... on Twitter today I posted a little walk around vid but lots of photos below so you can see the general vibe of it - nice and SO much bigger than it used to be insides!

Some nice changes had been made since the start of the lesson so it was a good session all in all!

After coming home and having lunch etc I headed to finish work on a couple of the Mountain Rooms properties at the bottom of the long list I have had.... shower seals, dodgy chairs to fix.... you name it really. It was good to get the list all ticked off as has been a multi week ongoing job list!

The evening was the usual mix of hearing the kids news from the day, helping them with homework, giving them a shower and now working my way through my evening to do list.

Tomorrow is the same in the morning with the same team and then the afternoon I am delivering one of my avalanche safety talks to the VIP (the tour op staff).... it will be go, go, go tomorrow.

Ill leave you with some photos from today especially of the insides of the Folie and in the mean time we are expecting another nice top up of snow.

TTFN

Not the most flattering pics of me ever!

On top of the world

After all it is free

Looks expensive ^^^^

@AbiWood2,

Snow Drone do shared transfers.

Worth your while to check to see if they have anything suitable for you.

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@russ_e, was it ever cheap : Eh oh!

Help!!

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

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