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

A snowHead

@Steve Angus, another great read. Thanks for the time and energy you put into it, at your busiest time of the season.

A snowHead

@Steve Angus, Ta, I think we are going to try and head off on Friday!

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@Steve Angus, 200 pages. Cool

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Well done on 200 pages, Steve Shocked

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We aren't arriving this coming weekend but the weekend after that on the Saturday. Unfortunately, we could not find a booking that avoided arriving on Sat this year. Hence your advice on arrival times is very helpful. We'll try for early breakfast and stay near the resort on Fri night.

Can you say what sort of time of day we should aim to arrive in the resort? In other words how early is VERY early?

After all it is free

3.5 weeks until we are there, booked my ski pass and starting to get excited! This holiday has been booked since August last year Shocked

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We arrive Sat 5th, stopping in BSM the night before and aiming to be up in Val for 9am. I'm hoping it's not too busy, we are trundling down for 2 days int eh car, meeting my son and wife in Bourg who are flying to GVA on the Friday and getting train to Bourg,

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GeorgeVII - wow yes it is - good spot
Kenzie - thanks and 1000000000% yes it is
bolderz[b] - thanks. Aim to be through Chambery area by 1000 at very latest and Albertville 1030 very latest and Moutiers 1100 at very latest and you should be OK id should think!
[b]HoneyBunny - getting real close now - yay!
moosepig - thanks so much - try my best
endoman - its getting close now...... in Val for 0900 - you'll be fine.
thelem - sure is. Good comparison. I just keep plodding along - glad you enjoy!
j b - thats good to know - again thanks!

You know it makes sense.

Tired

Sorry this is gonna be the quickest update ever. Ben had a bad nights sleep last night so was tired even before I put my snowboard boots on today!

Anyway weather was nice.... had a pretty chilled day boarding about the Bellevarde side of things.... took lunch at the Folie (inside). Spent the day cruising greens and blues mainly! After skiing it was rush, rush, rush getting the kids sorted out before the baby sitter arrived. Anyway we have just been into town for dinner with the clients at their hotel which was very nice indeed!

Tomorrow the weather continues and it is the last day on this booking before a change of scenery!

TTFN

Ready, steady, go this morning

Spot the mechanic up the pylon fixing something as the lift was running!

ERMMMMMM im NOT saying anything - honestly!

Navigating the mass of ski kit as we left folie at lunchtime (inside was jolly calm I must say!)

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

A snowHead

A snowHead

I really need an early night

Last night I was somewhat brief with my update but I still had a bad nights sleep... I dont know if I ate something weird but my stomach is grumbling thats for sure! Not sick or anything just uncomfortable!

Anyway when it was time to get up this morning I was not exactly ready and full of the joys of Spring I'm afraid! Anyway its business and at this time of the year its gotta be 'grin and bear it'.

The kids luckily were on form which meant it was easy enough this morning. I took the kids to Village and that was after they had dressed themselves (wow) and then when they got there they happily went off and got sorted all by themselves - amazing!

I got to the hotel nice and early and it was a nice chance to sit in the sun and relax and watch the fuss of lots of families and groups sorting themselves out to head out. Anyway being the last day of the family holiday it is now traditional each year to head all the way down to Brevieries for lunch at the Armailly. With C deciding to snowboard his way there it was going to be a slightly slower route / day than normal. Anyway we inched our way there via round the world and got to Brev slightly ahead of schedule....... with the route back from Brev being slightly slower at the moment with the Marais chair removed before they redo the lift system there I was worried it would be a real bottleneck on the way back - it didnt turn out that way in the end thankfully!

My stomach was OK for most of the day thankfully but I think a nice early night will do me the world of good!

With the P family gone for another year I have a one off all day off piste session tomorrow so really need a decent sleep tonight.

So I will say TTFN

P.S. Roads this weekend are looking pretty bad again so you know what to do timings wise dont you?

Last time (unless the dates get pushed back!) I will be in front of these 'gates' until the redevelopment

Thats a large queue - Tichot this morning!

There are SOOOOO many of these piste basher winch points dotted about the place if you look carefully - this is one atop the Toviere mountain by the restaurant to serve the red run that comes down below the pisteurs hut up there!

Thought this was rather cute - the Paw Patrol cape on this little one having a lesson!

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

That Tichot picture... is that how Parisians always get on a 6-pack when there's a queue? And all at one end of the chair too...

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Fantastic intervention from the pisteurs and medical staff and SAF a couple of weeks ago. Skier in cardiac arrest on the Madeleine. Defibbed. Resuscitated and air lifted to hospital.

https://fb.watch/borJFxUSwD/

The Story Of Pisteurs Eh oh!

:
We are on Sunday, February 13, 2022, in this helicopter a man was a victim of severe heart disease. It is 15h47 on the Solaise massif, on the landing of the Madeleine Telecommunication, a man does not get down from the seat, these friends are asking for help, they are already online with the CTA (Savoie call treatment center) to ask for help , their college presents a sickness since the middle of the boardline of the Telesiege, it shows no sign of life Eh oh!

.... Meanwhile, Pascal (deputy chief of sector on the Massif) is on patrol and is a few meters from the top of the rise.... In this very minute he intervenes and identifies that the victim has no signs of life, she is in cardiovascular Stop Eh oh!

, he immediately asks for strength⏳ ⏱, in staff and resuscitation material (defibrillator, ox material ygenotherapy, MID etc.. ) as well as a request for absolute emergency medical treatment, he immediately initiates emergency gestures (thoracic compressions). The Ascension has been stopped, a lot of you will be stuck for almost an hour Eh oh!

..... but it's for a good cause... Less than 2 minutes later ⏱⏳ The reinforcement team is on site, the DSA (defibrillator) is down, the resuscitation continues with all the equipment being set up... the next minute the defibrillator will deliver a shock, then a second... 15h55... there are signs of life... Spontaneous recovery of breathing... a chicken is present Eh oh!

.... A new report is underway by the first responders at the scene.
6:02 the helicopter medical team is safe in the places... for thirty minutes the doctor and first responders are preparing the victim for his transport to a suitable hospital center...
4:35pm The helicopter takes off for the hospital Eh oh!

After several hours of a coma, this man will wake up without sequences, with many exams and a follow-up but alive... Eh oh!

.
We wish the victim a speedy and excellent recovery.
Well done to all the teams for this magnificent makeover Eh oh!

, an opportunity for us to remind ourselves the importance of training for #gestesquisuvent, the practice of emergency gestures (thoracic compressions, pose of a defibrillator) and so on an early call to rescue services promotes care for a victim of cardiac arrest.
Eh oh!

Have a nice weekend everyone...

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As for not filling up seats on chairs - dont get me started on that!

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GeorgeVII - yes I saw that too - thanks for posting that.... quite incredible. However it is also worth noting that pretty much an identical incident happened (same lift / heart attack / outcome) a few years back - sure I will have posted about it at the time. Lightning and twice springs to mind!

After all it is free

Quite a day

I finally had a good nights sleep and felt about 95% this morning so that was good news. Clare was supposed to start at 0900 but got a call saying the little girl she was supposed to be teaching was still asleep at 0830 so could it be pushed back to 1000 so she obliged! I took the kids to Village and like yesterday they were straight in without looking back... they love it in there and all the staff. For those coming on holiday here it is at the Rond Pont des Piste next to Cocoricos. Whilst it is great it is not always to British tastes shall we say especially with most of the staff not speaking too much English but they are nice there and the kids do some awesome activities!

Anyway after dropping the kids off I jumped on the Olympic lift as it opened. The resort seemed a little slow off the mark this morning as it appeared to the naked eye that it was going to be a horrible day up there... with a little research and reading the weather reports from up the mountain etc it was snowing quite hard but the vis was generally OK apart from the very peaks where it was thick cloud!

I got to the meet up point with todays one off booking clients and we got kitted up. The plan was for a days off pisting and a 'maximum turns type of day' was planned! Boy did we do that. So it went something like:

Cairn - into the trees at the bottom
Danaides into L'Avancher
Super S into S Prime b4 cutting out
L
Tete Arrollay into L x 2 varying rotations
Grand Vallon
Super Spatule
Famillial

Im knackered now. Apart from a couple of short stops etc and looking for one lost ski (oh and one of my skis pre-released at one point too) we barely stopped!

After work I took the kit bags back and headed home. I was starving and boy I burnt the calories today. Anyway I treated the family to a takeaway pizza and now I am chilling in front of the TV. Clare is out babysitting for a friend so I am home alone and the kids went to bed easily - they too are tired, especially as Ben went to his swimming lesson after Village too!

Tomorrow Clare is working all day so I am in charge. If the weather is good / I have the energy and the kids up for it then I may take them for a ski - over to The Corner cafe in Val Claret for lunch and home again - hmmm we shall see!

In other news the kids go back to school Monday / tomorrow is a very busy day on the roads / Parisians are still in town next week so it will remain busy - its all systems go.

Finally in some other sad news it looks like (we saw the ambulance out the window here last night!) in this building last night that a 19 year old lad choked to death (apparently) on a sweet. Blimey. I did think the ambulance was here for a very long time last night.

TTFN

Bless my daughter - we are not shying away from telling her what is going on and she was keen to show her support.

The weather got better and better as the day progressed - we had little wind and probably about 20cm of snow fell in total so it was a great top up of snow

Time for some pow and couloirs today!

Daddy day (1)

I slept pretty darn well last night and it was a jolly lazy start to the day.... even had a naughty eggs on toast (normal Sunday am treat but have missed out the last couple of weeks) as the kids chilled on the sofa with a couple of cartoons they like. Clare headed off out to work at a very sensible hour for once so it was a very relaxing start to the day. Some ski racing on tv to boot too - yes the Ski World Cup is still going on after the Olympics break.

Anyway it looked like it would be a really warm day as the sun was shining but my spies and sources suggested there was a stiffish breeze at altitude! Anyway I finally hatched a plan to take the kids to Tignes for a day out and we were off. Yes it was a little cold at altitude but nothing too bad! Of course being a Saturday there were next to no queues or anything and we had a nice few hours but the highlight was heading (downloaded on the Toviere gondola) to the Loop for lunch in Tignes Le Lac. The kids were in heaven at the selection of food and it showed with the amount they put away! We headed back and a trip in the park to do the jumps (Olivia hit the medium jump - she likes that!) and then a couple of laps through crocodile alley went down well before we headed to the 'Village Perdu' and finally home.

Clare was home soon after that and the evening has been pretty relaxed again! With the kids in bed I am going to chill and catch up on some catch up tv I have way behind on.

Tomorrow Clare is working all day again / the weather should be good but I think after another lazy start I will take the kids for a swim and then in the afternoon - well who knows will work that out tomorrow but it can't be too energetic as term starts again on Monday for them!

Today saw another busy day on the roads and in actual fact it looks like a LOT of Parisians have chosen to come this coming week as it will be slightly busier than last week was even. Of course southern France is also on half term as well which adds to the numbers as well!

TTFN

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Clare was supposed to start at 0900 but got a call saying the little girl she was supposed to be teaching was still asleep at 0830 so could it be pushed back to 1000 so she obliged!

OMG, how times have changed. My jaw has just hit the floor

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Frosty the Snowman / VolklAttivaS5 - indeed. But you would be surprised how often this sort of thing happens!

Family day no 2

I had a really good sleep last night and the kids (clever bugs but they allowed us to sleep an extra half hour in doing so) managed to creep into the sitting room and put Netflix on silently so it meant for a calm start to the day. Clare was off out the door early doors for her all day lesson whilst I had the kids. I treated myself to a second day in a row of eggs on toast and the kids had their normal Sunday am nutella on baguette.

Once that was sorted I got the kids ready and we headed to the swimming pool (boy it was rammed in there much to my surprise - with the weather good I thought everyone would be on the slopes today!) and had a lovely time. First time I have swum with the kids for a while and Ben has improved so much with his lessons - was a proud Dad and Olivia is a good little swimmer now too! Anyway that moved onto the soft play area upstairs at the pool (thankfully all you need to do now is buy a soft drink) and then we headed home for lunch at 1300. The afternoon consisted of watching the end of the mens slalom (wow what an awesome result for Dave Ryding.... he is really doing amazing stuff that boy.... congrats! It helped that TGD his coach set the 2nd run but nothing like home advantage so to speak eh!) and then putting on a couple of kid friendly funny films!

Clare got home at 1700 and we got the kids into bed nice and early. Yay!

So tomorrow is the start of a new week and it is a really mixed week with literally virtually every session with someone new which is quite unique and also quite a lot of off piste thrown in aswell!

Not much else to say.... I forgot to get any pics today so here is one from Radio Val instead.

TTFN

A day of 2 halves

It was an early start as the kids were back at school today.... sorting them out and getting them out the front door was the first task of the day and we sorted that out with some bleary eyes about that was for sure! Phew first job of the day done. As soon as the kids were out the door I headed to town and was surprised that more people were not on the bus already as this week is supposed to be the busiest week of the season so far! Anyway I jumped off to check the post boxes (need to do that every week or so) and then walked the last bit to the meeting point.

It was a very unique morning as everyone seemed to be at the meeting point this morning including a couple of colleagues who are normally in the UK but are out for a few weeks work... so it was like a little bit of a reunion!

Anyway I met up with this ams lesson which (like a few of my colleagues) composed of some Portuguese people. I had a nice lady who spoke decent English with her sisters two teenage kids who didnt speak English... the main issue was that the kids were of a much higher standard than her which meant it was tricky! She told me she was basically a beginner and very nervous so we decided to start on the magic carpet and got warmed up! After a few laps we moved onto the Madelaine and later onto the Glacier Express. It was a chilly morning but pretty standard for this time of the year and it was strange that one of the kids was cold whereas the other very hot! The main issue though was that the terrain was not really challenging the kids so I worked (via the lady translating for me) on teaching them to backwards ski etc. However I could tell they were really bored so it was a tough session. They have another couple of sessions later in the week so I have informed my colleague who is taking that booking over.

At lunchtime I headed to the office to collect off piste packs and then went back to the meeting point and by this time it was getting warmer. I met up with my team for the afternoon - the 3 of them including 2 on skis / 1 on board for an introduction to off piste. The usual safety chat and getting the kit sorted was sorted in the sun and then we were off. A variation of the Datcha run (as I call it) and then the bus stop followed by Tete Arrollay into the L and finally the Grand Vallon were all on the agenda. We found some really nice strips of snow and some dry winter powder in places but that was interspersed with chop and heavy pow and chalk - basically a little bit of everything really! Apart from the girl knocking her knee and deciding to head off home early we had a perfect session.

I headed home after dropping the packs off and collected Ben off the bus whilst Clare got Olivia after her gymnastics! Both the kids were TOTALLY knackered and Olivia in particular hardly ate anything so she was shipped off to bed with some toast and jam and she was asleep within seconds so hopefully she will not be ill or anything tomorrow! Ben meanwhile was still full of beans as he always is.

Anyway I am sure tomorrow will be another good day as the sun will be shining. I am on piste all tomorrow but later in the week it will be LOTS of off piste.

The pistes will remain busy, the sun will continue to shine and the temps remain about seasonally normal as we enter Spring tomorrow.

The big news locally was that someone dropped a cigarette butt into one of the cardboard recycling huts down here in La Daille last night (the one by the Toviere hotel!) and by 0200 there was a large fire but the fire crews managed to contain it thankfully!

Tomorrow evenings update could be late as we are taking the kids to see Clement Noels home coming party thing tomorrow evening which should be good so not sure what time I will get sorted tomorrow evening.

TTFN

Off piste packs ready to go.

"Now where is the ski lift did you say?"

You know it makes sense.

And repeat

It was another sunny morning and I made sure I didnt make the same mistake as I had made with the layering yesterday so went down a layer. I got the kids on the bus this morning then headed to the meeting point but by about 0910 I was still standing their on my tod.... it turned out that the people that I was teaching had had their lessons booked by a seasonnaire friend but he had forgotten to tell them where to meet. Anyway we finally managed to sort it out and met up. With a big queue for the Olympic we did the 2 chairs option. Anyway we got going and found the green Borsat piste served by the Borsat lift was in awesome condition so worked on some technique on there before deciding to do another lap however unfortunately one of the team missed the lift on the second lap and headed up Marmottes instead so we needed to change tact a little. Anyway we had a really decent rest of lesson before downloading for lunchtime. I have them again tomorrow morning so it will be onwards and upwards!

At lunchtime I sat in the sun at the bottom of the Olympic watching them as they assembled the tents and stuff all ready for the torchlit event tonight for Clement Noels home coming!

Anyway the afternoon was spent with a nice couple of guys from London who had done a few weeks skiing but really were hoping to make the breakthrough to the next level! It is always refreshing when you get people who realise that to get good at skiing you have to really perfect the nuts and bolts that make it up... so become an expert on green and blue runs before throwing yourself down red and black runs! So anyway once again we headed up Bellevarde and did some laps of Borsat and Grand Pre - what an awesome afternoon of development it turned out to be - some really good progress was made - nice!

We finished by downloading to La Daille where they are staying!

It has been a frantic evening as I got the kids from the bus, then got them changed and a snack in them before Clare and Olivia headed into town so she could prepare for the start of the event and I followed with Ben a little later. All the club kids made a guard of honour at the bottom of the Face and before that it was just chaos in the main hall as Clement was greeted like a superhero and there was lots of autograph hunting! Victor Muffet Jeandet was there too. So the hall was rather chaotic before the main event started and they all lined up.

Outside there was a massive descent by the ESF (there turn (of course) this week) and fireworks and they even relit the 1992 Olympic flame near the base of the Face too! Clement was in 2nd place behind the director of the ESF in the snake down and then when he got to the bottom he jumped on stage and along with the mayor etc there was some speeches! Ben enjoyed watching all the fireworks too. Luckily I got away with Ben but he didnt want to leave thats for sure and we got the bus home and then got him to bed before Clare and Olivia got home a short time later and did the same with her.

Tomorrow I have the same team as this am in the morning and then I have the final session with one of my seasonnaires groups in the afternoon - off piste.

TTFN

The Olympic flame lit on the Face again!

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

Kids

It was a slog of a day to be honest with you.

Being a Wednesday there is no school so I took the kids up to Val Loisir which is basically kids club at the school. However being a Wednesday Olivia needs to have her ski stuff with her which is a bit of a pain to carry along with all my ski stuff and kids rucksacks with packed lunches etc in. I was sweating almost straight away I can tell you.

Anyway I got to the meet point quite early in the end and saw to some admin I needed to do. Sounds strange but that sort of 15 mins and then a short time at lunchtime (if I dont have to go to the office and collect off piste packs as I did today!) is some of the rare moments in the day I actually get on top of any emails and messages so I quite like standing in the sun and catching up! Reading the morning news on the phone etc.

Alas I caught up on some things before the team arrived. The plan was to work on developing technique on green runs into blue runs which is what we did.... it didnt help as they had totally ignored some of my suggestions about where to ski or not yesterday afternoon so a couple of them had had their confidence knocked a little but hey ho we got over that quickly! Anyway we had a really successful morning and developed lots of good things and challenged them nicely. Nice fun team - well done.

At lunchtime I had to dash to the office to to collect packs which is a real pain trying to carry 5 sets of gear and my own gear to the meet point but I got there in the end. Phew.

I sat in the sun and got in a few mins of catch up time before my seasonnaires arrived! It was the last session with my seasonnaires so wanted to show em a really good last day of off piste and we were rewarded with some lovely chalk to ski - awesome! Initially we headed up Cugnai and dropped off the back and were rewarded with some really lovely chalk all the way down. It was super awesome actually - a really nice little outing and good ambiance - they were most impressed even though I was not aiming for powder or anything like that! With legs refreshed I then dropped onto the Danaides Wall and then into the L'Avancher Couloir. There was a thin veil of clouds which meant the definition was a little off but nothing too serious! Again the wall was awesome and lovely chalk and the couloir in excellent condition too - they loved it. I always use it as a good way of testing people before taking them on the 1/2 day Chevril heli trip as it has parallels to the descent down to the pick up point!

After skiing I returned the necessary packs to the office and then had to head to our flat we rent out as (to be quite frank) the tenants in there are acting like little kids and can't seem to sort their rubbish and bickering out and it is getting a little ugly shall we say! So I needed to go and sit them down and try and knock their heads together! So by the time I got home at 1800 I was / am cream crackered.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a slightly less stressful day and it really should be - I am on an all day off piste booking so should be good!

TTFN

Getting my seasonnaires into the L'Avancher couloir

Clement inspiring the next generation last night

He can snowplough too!

Spot Clare in this photo!!!!!

A snowHead

What a day

My darling little boy was up at the crack of dawn this morning so I was awake somewhat earlier than planned - oh well! Anyway getting the kids sorted this morning was somewhat stressful as I think the kids are just tired at the moment (again!).

Anyway as soon as they were locked and loaded I headed to the meeting point and I was on an all day private booking for a couple of guys.... one of which is an instructor in his own right and also now works as an ambassador for the CARV app / technology. His friend was a pretty decent skier too. Anyway after getting geared up we headed off in the lovely sun - today really did feel like the start of Spring! Anyway we fitted a lot in with a quick coffee stop and an (amazing - haven't been there for a couple of years and was REALLY pleasantly surprised by the quality and price!) lunch at Datcha - somewhat late but that was the shape of the day!

Datcha variation
Cugnai
Danaides / L'Avancher (amazing chalk now)
Cairn
S Prime
Super L
Grand Vallon

Just a flavour of what we did and we found everything from chalk to old Winter pow and even the first Spring turns of the Winter.... a bit of everything and was such a good day for ambiance. Amazing really.

I finished and rushed home as needed to make sure I was home for when the kids got off the bus as Clare was working late today so it was a rushed end to the day. The next couple of hours was the usual mix of battling with the kids / getting ready for tomorrow / sorting the jobs needed to do for the evening and showering and changing as we had a ski school meal this evening and the first time we had gotten together socially for quite some time. We headed to La Source and it has been a really fun evening.... lots of amazing food eaten and some colleagues probably a drink too many but hey ho time to let our hair down! I had an amazing Onion Soup and Pizza - totally yummy!

The resort has published the attendance figures for last week and updated figures going forward today. Finally the week by week figures showed a +ve territory week compared to the 18-19 season figure - so up 2.5% which means finally the overall numbers decline is starting to reverse. There were 85543 skier days last week with over 1,000,000 ski lift rides - the busiest lift / day was Marmotte registering 16,000 ascents on Thursday! So overall we now stand at -16% but it is slowly catching up and hopefully the 'within 10% of the 18/19 season mark will be reached - we shall see!

Tomorrow I am once again off piste all day so must get some kip now.

TTFN

A snowHead

Ill be needing a day off then!

The kids were pretty naughty this morning so it wasnt the most calm start to the day... it all started with Ben getting up at the most ridiculously early hour of the day. Anyway we got there in the end and then I lugged all the off piste gear I needed for the day along with myself up to the meeting point!

My am crew were early so we started a little early and headed up Olympic. A father and his two teenage sons from Belgium was the am session and they wanted an off piste adventure. They had done a lot of skiing over the years and were very strong. They spoke amazing English too!

Anyway we started off with a warm up on the Fontaine Froid piste and it was dreamily good snow! But hey it was off piste we were after so we divided straight into the Spatule and I almost went as far as Super Spatule but the snow was not quite as good as I had hoped but they loved the adventure! Next up was an amazing Cairn which was in good condition and even the south facing aspects in there were starting to turn a little.

I was hopeful that the way some clouds were building up on the Italian border that the Retour might be happening... I was optimistic for a while but the clouds never really good going and in actual fact by day end it was a blank cloud as the weather 'system' - a very week one at that, to the west is battling and took over!

Anyway for the most part today it was glorious weather!

After the Cairn we did an amazing Danaides and l'avancher (like yesterday) and finished a busy and tiring morning in the S! I was shattered at lunchtime. I was also hot and sweaty and the sun was pretty intense. I took lunch in the shade under the Sun Bar.

The afternoon I had my last session with my seasonnaires and I put on a show for them with Cugnai and once again Danaides into L'Avancher (twice in a day eh!). The chalk on that wall really is something else at the moment so well worth it!

I finished the day with a drink with my clients from yesterday and one of the guys is a rep for Carv - in fact he is head tester for them and has packs of the things and links all across the ski industry! Anyway he has left me with a few sets to use and explore and see how I can augment what it does into normal ski lessons - should be quite interesting! So anyway I've got cables and charging going on all over the place at the moment! Tomorrow I might be going for a ski with Ben whist Clare is working and Olivia is at club so might see if I can get it sorted out and set up! If you have never seen Carv before (I knew about it but had never really looked into it in detail but it should be interesting!) then check it out on the internet!

If you are on the road tomorrow then you know the score re arrive / leave early! It'll be busy going down the hill and reasonable coming up (hopefully!)

Right bed time - shattered

Happy faces in the couloir

Clouds rolling in.... tomorrow could be a little grey and dull!

TTFN

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

Has resting truly made me feel more rested!

I predictably fell asleep in front of the tv last night but managed to get into bed for real at a decent time non the less and BOY I had a good nights sleep! Even better it was still a lovely deep sleep and slow wake up as the kids slept in too - yay! Anyway Clare was in some pain as she managed to stub her toe badly last night so was hobbling about the place somewhat this morning still whilst getting ready to head off to work. It seems as if being in a ski boot is actually good for her toe as it keeps it totally still and she managed to teach this morning no problems at all!

Anyway Clare took Olivia to club (she was off to a friends for lunch so it would not be until the evening until I would see her again!) and it was just Ben and I so we had a couple of chilled hours before we headed off for a ski and met up with Bens buddy! I also wanted to try out the Carv system I am working on and see what it could and couldn't do and how it would react and data feed it would get! Even though it was sunny it was pretty chilly up there so I am glad we had waited a little while to get going.

Anyway the Carv system was pretty cool giving me tips in my ear and data on where my pressure was and all sorts of things.... pretty cool stuff really.

The only bummer was on the way home one of my EarPods (I had one in and occasionally a voice would pop up!) dropped out and I lost it - doh!

Part of the reason for heading up Solaise was after my amazing experience at the Datcha restaurant the other day with the chicken nuggets etc I decided to head back there as I knew that Ben would LOVE some chicken nuggets as a treat for his lunch and I was not disappointed (or let down by him) - we had a yummy lunch with all 4 of us (Ben, his friend and mummy and I) having chicken nuggets and chips.... in a standard portion you literally get about 2 breasts of breaded chicken and amazing fries - totally yummy! So that was a nice way to spend lunchtime.

The afternoon was spent chilling at home and then Clare and Ben went into town to join Olivia as the club des sports had a sort of after ski social get together with all the mums etc bringing in cakes etc..... so I had a couple of chilled hours at home to myself - bliss!

In other news the weather should remain slightly chilly but sunny for the next few days but no real snow is on the horizon yet a while. This will not stop the hoards of people from coming this week though as the resort is still going to be over 80% full up (as opposed to 90% last week) so all in all it will be another busy week on the slopes coming up.

TTFN

I really think the equivalent of 2 whole solid breasts of chicken breaded with some yummy chips for €15 up a mountain is not bad value - not cheap and cheerful chicken nuggets these things! Totally yummy!

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Not a lot to report really

Another good nights sleep and this morning Clare once again had to get out the door for work. The plan was for a really chilled day - officially for the kids after a manic few weeks and now back to school relentlessly until the Spring - but I wasnt complaining either.

We enjoyed our family breakfast off nutella and baguette for the kids and eggs on baguette for yours truly! Then the kids spent the morning mixing some playing / a little tv but plenty of ski racing on. I had a LONG list of domestic duties to get through ranging from laundry to some batch cooking and some hoovering too. You name it really.

Despite the sun shining out there Clare messaged me to say it was rather baltic up there. Its like March and January weather has swapped over this year so far - weird!

Anyway I got some lunch down the kids before getting Olivia up to club for the afternoon. Ben obviously had to come with me as Clare was working all day and after dropping her off we slowly walked to our rental flat as needed to stick my head in the door on the way past to drop something off and also check the post box. After doing that we walked past the Spar so I gave into Ben and his pleading for a treat (well it was sunny and he had walked a long way already) so we had an ice - cream - yes I know it is March but as long as he walked the rest of the way back to La Daille - he duly obliged!

Ben helped me do some cooking for dinner and before we knew it Clare was back with Olivia from club!

A family meal followed by the normal Sunday evening bedtime routine and here I am once again! So another week of work starts tomorrow although it is not mega, mega busy it should be a little up and down but this really is the only week for about the remainder of the season when there is a little space!

TTFN

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The long awaited Val d’Isere Hors Piste was released today. Le Garage is full of the great and the good from Val, collecting copies, having chats and just catching up with old friends. Great atmosphere.

Got my copy but didn’t bring my bloody glasses out so can’t read a thing Eh oh!

Not that there is much fun to be had beyond the piste markers at the moment. Great book though, amazing attention to detail.

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We missed that and it was on our list. An afternoon on the tables at the folie was responsible. Will hopefully pick up a copy later in the week

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Chalky goodness again

Getting the kids out the door on a Monday morning is either stressful or rushes - today was rushed as (typically) they are like teenagers trying to get out of their beds on a Monday morning but they finally got on the bus and as I was starting in La Daille today it was a fairly easy walk across the road! It was a little warmer today and I certainly over did the layers so note to self to drop a layer tomorrow - haha!

Anyway I met my team a father and his 3 grown up kids for a good intro to off piste. Given the weather and conditions we could certainly push the limits a lot more than on a normal intro session. Anyway we did a warm up after running through the kit side of things at the bottom of the funi and then did a warm up off the Verte... then we dropped over into the Cairn... this is exactly the sort of thing that you could never use for an intro session normally.

Anyway some old pow from Datcha which was really nice actually and then the bus stop before the main event of Grand Vallon with the little mini couloir at the bottom to finish - they loved it although were pretty tired by the end.

A really successful morning and I think they might want more punishment later in the week! I came home for lunch and spent the afternoon doing some admin before then getting Ben off the school bus and then headed into town partly to collect Olivia from gymnastics and partly to get my book at the Garage! And of course what follows is getting the kids sorted for bed etc before finding myself sitting here once again typing away!

In local news there are a few things....

Firstly a speed flyer seems to have died in the Manchet yesterday.... it was late in the evening before a worried family contacted the authorities to say he was missing.... the heli came in with heat seeking kit and a body was identified in the valley about 2130 last night... no other details but what an accident. EVERY year there seems to be a death or serious accident involving speed flyers in Val. So sad!

Secondly there seems to have been a small fire (endoman knows way more than me) in the Skadi block in town last night so it ended up being a VERY disturbed night for the residents there!

Finally it is another week of the ClassicaVal event now so some light entertainment if you are in town this week beckons!

Anyway I am back to have a good flick through the guide book now... I note that one of my colleagues is co-author in the book, another friend one of the pisteurs is a contributor and also the dad of one of my little boys friends and fellow La Daille resident who I see every day is another author so a BIG collaboration thats for sure!

TTFN

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We forgot about the book release today even after walking past Garage rolling eyes

I was distracted and impressed by the new bin chalet next to our building in La Daille. We left 6 days ago and it was a burnt out mess and we now have a new one and they even managed to save the scribed plaque, I don’t think that would have happened as quickly in the UK. Lets hope no one puts fire ash in this one.
Fire seems to have been an issue in Val d’Isere lately. 2 bins, sabotage attempts of lifts, chimneys !

Help!!

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

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