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

A snowHead

[quote="welshflyer"]@philhitch,

It really does. It’s what I do all the time. Like I say, put them 30m apart mixed with everybody else’s skis in the racks and no one is going to pair them up easily.

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

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

Clouds and sunshine - make your mind up

There was a smattering of snow around but nothing to write home about this morning. Well nothing to write home about but certainly enough to freshen up the surface of the slopes! The kids were amazing getting ready this morning which made life easier HOWEVER I had a very interesting nights sleep... I was rudely awoken by falling out of bed onto my face!!!! Well thats not the whole story as Clare had gotten so frustrated with my snoring at 0400 that she (as she often does) kicked me but this time so hard I was pushed out of bed. So waking up flat on my face was an interesting start to the day! However I felt shattered from the start today.

I met my same team and we set off. I had a full 3 hours with the teen today so was able to do things like the Johann Clarey piste which was basically in the best condition I could remember - super stuff!

The interesting thing was that the clouds were coming and going (slowly as there was no wind) all day and one minute you thought it was going to totally clear up and the next thought it was going to be a complete stinker of a day!

Anyway we did some really good technique development and even managed a lap through the park. I know the lift queues would be stupidly long so decided a ski to La Daille and bus into town would probably be the best way of getting back! Hot choc stop at The Corner was popular too!

I treated myself to lunch at Tartine and the food is decent value there... so for €15 I got a sandwich american (which is basically a burger and chips in a sandwich!) and a can of pop... I dont think that is too bad really!

After that I met the same american as I had yesterday pm and his girlfriend (full credit to her too actually!) had literally just flown overnight (landed at 0700!) from the states, taken a transfer up to town, sorted her ski hire and lift pass all in time for 1300! Anyway we headed up top on the Solaise and broke through into glorious sunshine pretty much immediately! After a few laps of the magic carpet and getting on form where we finished up yesterday we headed up Madeleine. In this job when you make the leap from the magic carpet to the madeleine you need to be sure the person is ready for it AND the slope is ready for the person if you get my drift..... Well I had some reservations today but I neednt have as he took to it well in the end! In fact all in all it went very well and I ended up taking him across to the Glacier Express too! It was jolly successful actually although the thick cloud that rolled in later in the pm made it tricky!

I did notice as had been briefed that they have managed to get the 3000 drag lift and run open as of today although crucially the tunnel is NOT open yet a while as there is not enough snow on the Fornet side of things yet a while apparently!

After work I had to collect my new uniform, run some errands in town so it was quite later before I made it home this evening! Meanwhile Olivia was race training all day and Ben had a test too... a little race which he did well in and he also had his short radius turns assessed as well. His arms were a little 'flappy' though which his coach did not like so he was a little upset at days end poor thing!

If you are on the roads this weekend then the forecast is for about 70k cars coming up the valley so expect slow downs - you are warned!

Im teaching in the morning and Clare all day.

TTFN

Couldnt agree more!

Yes I am ashamed to say this was Clares photo at 1150 bottom of the Fontaine Froid today - because the Epaule and Santons are both closed!

There were moments when it was pretty grim vis too!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Not quite as hectic thankfully

It was a pretty chilled start to the day as the kids were quite happy getting ready to go to their skiing - always make life easier. Clare dropped them off and I was to collect at 1200. So I headed over the road to meet the clients and we set off towards Tignes once again.

It was nice to see the slopes so much quieter than they have been during the week but thats is because most of those skiers were on the roads today as previously mentioned.

The pistes were in excellent shape and the only 'bad' thing is that there did seem to be a sniff of lack of staff across the resort in the fact that a couple of lifts like the Grand Huit were shut... oh and Fontaine Froid had technical issues at one point too! I just get a sense that the whole resort is short a few members of staff whether its on the lifts or maintenance teams etc!

Anyway we got over to Tignes and worked on a combination of 'dealing with narrower slopes' as well as introducing pole planting! Given the weather and the pretty quiet slopes it was glorious!

It was a rather frantic end to the lesson as I needed to finish up at the bottom of the Palafour lift with them on their request and then rush back to the centre of Val to collect the kids from their club. I just about made it thankfully but it was a hectic hour or so.

Having gotten the kids home, fed them and then gotten Olivia back for her pm session it was time to spend a little time with Ben and we headed downstairs to do some shovelling in the snow which he just loves! A few other errands but generally a pretty chilled afternoon and into the evening!

As Clare was working all day I have been on duty this evening!

There had been a couple of cm's of fresh snow overnight but once again no game changer. Shame. Meanwhile the temps dropped a few degrees and it is just about seasonally normal at night and perhaps a little warm during the day but nothing too bad!

The roads were indeed exceedingly busy out there so hopefully everyone has made it to town now! It is going to be a busy week and they are expecting an occupancy rate (bear in mind many second home owners WONT come in school holidays!) of 88.1% or 111,580 night stays this week which is a VERY high number.... it is going to be mighty busy on the slopes this week! eeek!

I start a totally full diary of bookings this week again tomorrow whilst the kids head to ski club / kids club!

Talking of racing - Olivia had a slalom race today and did very well - getting the silver time which is an incredible achievement. In fact I know she beat some teenage racers out there too. Go girl!

Anyway not much else to report today.

TTFN

You'll need to Register first of course.

Lovely to hear about Olivia's and Ben's achievements and joys on snow. I still marvel at how you and Clare have the energy! Hope you all have a great season.

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

We spent over an hour snow clearing this evening, how long are Ben’s school holidays and what is his hourly rate Very Happy

While on the terrace we paused to watch as a bride in a full white cinderella ballgown walked from the Funival towards La Daille complete with ski helmet and goggles, the groom was equally well dressed in a lovely tweed suit.

After all it is free

@muppet, I would have loved to have seen that...the bride and groom, not you shovelling

@Steve Angus, ha, who will drop instructor carrer to drive Olivia to all the WC races Wink

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

motyl - I dont know how I have the energy either. Thanks - hope you have a nice season too!
muppet - ill act as his agent so you can pay me!
mooney058 - yea I know - im dreading and looking forward to in equal measures if she ever gets that far!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Colder and snowier as the blizzard arrives

It really is the school holidays when all you really want to do on New Years Eve is have an early night!!! haha! Ill probably do my usual and fall asleep about 1000 in front of the tv and wake up to the fireworks at 0001! Suits me fine!

Anyway this morning was quite easy getting the kids out the door mainly as they were both going to kids club at the Village des Enfants. Just needed to get breakfast down them etc and no ski clothes as such to put on or boots - simples!

So I headed to town and had only been there for a few minutes when I got a message through to say my am clients had arrived so late into town last night that they were still to even collect kit hire this morning... poor things ended up being about 45 mins late!

So a 12 year old girl and her 9 year old brother, new to Val but with family friends who come here every year. It was time to head up Olympic to do the green triangle as they were both relatively new to skiing. It was obviously quite windy up there as you could hear the wind heading up but it was strange as the actual air temps today were warmer than they have been and just about +ve in town... but the wind and cloud cover made it feel a lot colder than that!

The roads yesterday really did play havoc with the transfers and people getting in at a decent time... the train problems on the Eurotunnel didnt help either! This evening as I type there is a blizzard raging outside and the road up from Bourg is pretty bad again... blimey what a transfer weekend it is turning out to be!

Anyway we had an enjoyable morning and since we started late I thought it probably best not to stop for a hot choc break but push on through! I was expecting it all to be swamped out there but it really was not too bad at all... there was barely any queues (not really for school hols) for lifts. I guess the poor weather and people arriving late yesterday and trying to get sorted probably delayed people getting up there and if they did they might have headed back down having seen the wind and worsening vis!

I took lunch under the Sun Bar and did a lap on Rogoney so I could fit in a live Insta vid.

For those that dont then please follow me on Instagram by looking for @SteveAngusSnow as well as on Twitter. I generally only repost stuff on Twitter but its Insta im making a much bigger push on after a few years of drifting through numbers wise. Uploading tips and lots of videos as well as live broadcasts as often as I can! Its time consuming this social media stuff! Im also putting stuff on the TDC Insta feed too mainly through the weekly snow / weather forecasts as well! Tune in but LIKE AND SHARE and post to your timelines and stories if you can. Im also (actually did a very small sample week of posting last year too) going to try and get TikTok going soon too! That will be another social media to learn!

The afternoon was with a dad and his two grown up sons and they wanted to work on short turns as well as some carving so we headed up Solaise - had options on the Mattis / Arcelle as well as Plan M red runs that way and the Glacier Express run for some carving work too! We had only been up there for a short period of time when the weather really moved in and the snow started coming down thick. One of the issues when you have had a morning of OK vis followed by an afternoon when it goes belly up vis wise is that the terrain is even more lumpy and bumpy and scraped off in places than would be expected! It was certainly a tricky afternoon teaching when its like that and you have two strong skiers - doh!

We did take a lap down Arcelle at one point too and that was some of the most scrapped I have seen it down there and in that light was not pleasant! TBH much of the resort is slowly but surely getting scrapped so we can really do with a fresh canvas so the snow this evening and tonight will hopefully sort that out nicely!

At least again this afternoon it was not too busy out there! With the blizzard intensifying it was an interesting afternoon thats for sure.

I was quite glad to finish the session off and get back down to town level as being blown away in a blizzard made for a tough afternoon!

Interestingly at one point this afternoon we got onto the subject of 'good skiers' and 'perception' and we concluded that for about 99% of skiers the good and perception boundaries are too blurred... in fact by the time the perception of excellence occurs the performer knows excellence is not them! In other words observing skiing excellence on the slopes is extremely limited compared to self analysis of excellence!

So getting the kids and heading home and sorting the evenings duties out has as predicted made me ready for my bed. For those heading out for NYE parties or staying in then Happy New Year.

TTFN

The snow hath come! And its raging storm out there now!

Quite flat light and windy all day!

snow reports

I have been told this is early 80's. But look how sparse the town looks; our block in La Daille has yet to be built, the Rue de La Balme looks very 'open', the school is yet to be built.... but the very centre of town looks similar'ish!

This photo was taken on 1/1/2023.... and this one

today - strikingly similar eh!

A mere 10cm of the fresh stuff but enough to freshen it up nicely!

Although it didnt snow a lot it certainly makes it look lovely out there!

Colder but lovely

Well a little snow goes a long way! It might have only snowed about 10cm overnight but it was enough to make a massive difference. In the morning it made for amazing corduroy and piste skiing and in the afternoon for lumpy bumpy stuff everywhere and one the steeper slopes interspersed with the underlying ice still!

However the thermometer had dropped a lot and it was -14 on the Pisaillas!

However the weather of last night made the roads a disaster and it was taking 3 hours between Bourg and Val last night after a number of accidents, idiots putting chains on in the middle of the road etc etc! This morning it was similar for a while - dear oh dear!

The NYE celebrations were popular around town... the fireworks in La Daille didnt wake me up but someone setting crackers off on the balcony a couple down woke Olivia up - grrr! So she was in a bad mood at breakfast time! In town they reconned 8,500 partygoers made it to the snow front for midnight and the celebrations and cabaret! Quite incredible numbers if true!

Anyway we made it so Happy New Year everyone!

Clare was not starting until 1000 so plenty of time to get the kids out the door. For Ben it was an all day at the Village which he quite loves and Olivia was doing that in the morning followed by an afternoon race training!

At the meeting point it was predictably quiet but my team turned up with a slight substitute to the younger brother! We set off towards the Solaise and really enjoyed our morning up there... a little powder turns for the kids on piste, a few games, hot choc break and a few fun falls - a fun morning!

I took lunch at the normal place before meeting the pm session.

It was a long standing TDC clients girlfriend and daughter! Learning how to improve skiing in the 'chop' snow etc was the go of the afternoon. Once again I headed Solaise way and we took in a few options to improve technique but it was the descent down the Arcelle that really made the difference to their skiing - bravo! They did get hungry half way through the lesson so a quick pit stop at the Datcha for a refuel before continuing to with an ultimate descent down the Plan M which was full of carnage as you can imagine! But I think they enjoyed their skiing somewhat and made changes thats for sure!

I collected Ben from Village whilst Olivia made her own way home. The kids were a nightmare this evening so it was a hard evening getting them into bed but all done now!

Another day of carnage tomorrow me thinks on the slopes as the school hols continue! eeek.

TTFN

You see the same thing, week in, week out

It was quite grey out there this morning but otherwise quite still. The kids were on form but Ben still had us up way too early! Doh!

Even though it was cloudy we could see a bit thankfully and with wind only at higher altitudes it was not too bad really! Certainly the weather put many people off venturing up the slopes but all in all it was perfectly fine it really was!

Anyway I had the same team as yesterday morning and decided to head Bellevarde way. It all worked pretty well and we managed to fit in some fun laps especially on the Grand Pre and developed the technique nicely! The kids especially enjoyed the hot chocs at the Emprienette restaurant at break time too and the cookies!

However I wish (like the majority of people out there) there was less focus and it being the be all and end all of run colour as being an indicator of performance. For example because said kids had experienced part of the bottom of a red run yesterday pm they suddenly think they should ski red pistes all the time! Well no, it'll make your skiing WORSE not better... If only the industry could move away from a) thinking the number of falls in a day or whatever is a sign of proficiency and b) the colour of runs is anything other than (in general) its steepness and not how hard it is and finally c) that speed is anything other than a reflection of confidence rather than anything else! Doh!

Anyway the title of todays update is you see the same thing week in week out... and today reminded me why; have a go heros with massive helmet cams skiing like idiots, people failing to understand that beginners need space and lots of it, clumping together on the magic carpets leads to it stopping or worse still banging into nervous beginners when you get off it..... the list goes on!

So anyway I was happy at lunchtime to shelter under the Sun Bar away from the -9 temps. Even though the snow held away for most of the day it really closed in as forecast later in the afternoon and since mid afternoon has been snowing hard! Bring on the powder day tomorrow!

In local news the road was once again carnage last night - it really does only take one plonker to snarl it all up! Plonkers elsewhere late yesterday afternoon following tracks down into the Gorge du Malpasset and finding there is not enough snow to get out (you need to exit via the Grand Torsai at moment!) so the PGHM in Courcheval come to the rescue and winch them out - after dark at that! 3 people sharing a large rescue bill there!

And finally the Darwin award goes to some persons who decided it would be a good idea to sledge down the Plan M late yesterday evening - I mean really. As if it were not bad enough that people seem to think that even sledging on the bottom of the nursery slopes is a good idea this takes it to a whole new level!

So there we are folks a couple of photos from today.

TTFN

You know it makes sense.

The top of the Orange where the British Army Infantry Champs start.... to be honest it pretty cringeworthy as well as lethal! You have grown men that basically cant ski in cat suits throwing themselves down the race course... and when they are outside the race area they are skiing open slopes on skis WAY too long and they cant control them but basically straightlining everything - its a bad accident waiting to happen. If I were in charge of PR for the Army I would not be having it quite the way it is happening thats for sure!

There were little plaques popping out all over the place.... you see the skier tracks top of the ridge that came down and around the corner and cut back to the piste - set that little one off!

Lots of avalanche activity on show!

There was a pretty heavy wind sweeping across the slopes today!

As eager skiers wait for the Olympic to open you can tell it wont be long til the lift opens as (look closely) the pisteurs have done the privilege of opening the Face after blasting is complete!

Some powder

The kids were not great this morning making it tricky getting us all out the door but we got there in the end! Also I seem to have insomnia and keep on waking far too early!

Anyway as the sun was shining there was always going to be a lot of anticipation and the hordes were always going to be bitting to get up and in the powder as soon as possible. I had only been at the meet point for a few mins when I got the message through from my clients dad to say that they were going to be about 20 mins late - hangovers and all sorts it turned out to be. Now of course this does not matter as such HOWEVER the issue is when you are late on a day like today then you really are at the back of the line... especially as (as they ended up doing) you then come after 0930 when all the mass ESF lessons have started - doh! So by the time (we CANT use the ski school lines at bottom Solaise / Olympic unless in a kids group lesson unfortunately!) we got up the Olympic is was basically 1000. Bit of a waste of their time but ce la vie! BE EARLY or be on time at the latest on a school holiday day especially when it has been snowing!

So we skied around but boy was it windy up there... nothing bad enough to shut lifts but just a really punchy and continual wind - mainly come from the west but later swinging around more from the south! Weird.

The boys really loved the games I had to play with them today, sticky legs, shopping bag game... you name it! We took hot choc break at Marmottes which was heaving as it was a pretty chilly am!

Anyway it was a fun morning and I headed down on the Olympic having dropped them with their dad at the top slightly early as needed to get to the office to collect off piste packs!

So yea always a stressful hour when needing to collect packs... rush to the office, grab packs, back to the meet point, eat lunch, prepare for the pm etc.

The afternoon was a mix of friends / family (all grown up) who mainly had purchased the slot for their friend. So one member of the team had done a few seasons as a nanny in Val many years back, had actually done her BASI 2 and had skied a lot off piste over the years! One other was a former GB Mens hockey player, another a Commonwealth Games GB 400m hurdler.... quite a talented bunch! Anyway we started in lovely sun and did a warm up off Verte (pity they have expended the kids run there now so much encroaching on the off piste there so much) before a Jardins de Borsat Sud, under Pisteurs as well as (with failing light as the snow storm swept in) my favoured variation of Jardins Borsat east.

It was a really fun afternoon with some good crashes and some good turns. The snow however was very tricky as so very wind affected. The pistes amazing yes, the off piste very varied but certainly decent snow to be found it just complicated shall we say!

Getting Ben, the kit back to the office etc has rather fried my brain but on the flip side the kids were great this evening. I think the photos above sum up today nicely.

TTFN

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

@Steve Angus, sounds like you and your colleagues could be giving technique lessons to the army racers.
Or maybe leave that to ESF?

A snowHead

The army races are part of the army selection process. The recruits have never skied before but are told to ski to the bottom of the mountain.

I believe "Darwin" had an expression for this process. Blush

A snowHead

Sounds crazy. Would skiing be useful in modern defence and warfare? Even if it would, maybe best to leave to the Alpine countries?

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

@PeakyB,

In the past armed forces on skis would probably have been used.

Nowadays, with modern technology, that type of warfare would be of limited use.

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

Great to be back in Val despite the crowds. Only for a week on this visit.
Lunchtime was perfect as the entire resort were in restaurants but long lift queues until then.
I was here for the week before the women’s WC but the weather was grim. So lovely to ski in the sun today.
Looking forward to being here for the whole of March.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Part of the training of a soldier is learn how to deal with stressful situations and deliberately putting yourself in harms way. Adventurous activities like rock climbing and ski racing serve this purpose. Standing at the start of a modest downhill course for a relatively inexperienced skier definitely fits that criteria. It may be “cringe worthy” to some but these young men and women have a long proud history of putting their lives on the line for us.
Travel and adventure is why many sign up, and chance to do something many of them would never normally get the opportunity to do.
Skiing has also played a part in rehabilitation of seriously injured soldiers. Having watched a double amputee race an Army downhill on a sit ski I have nothing but admiration for their courage.
Training on a public piste is not a good idea and suggests poor discipline or thoughtless behaviour. I would have thought a word to the organisers would sought it out quickly.

You'll need to Register first of course.

@BertieG, This really is Steve's blog - Army skiing can be found here https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=166956 Shocked

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

I have the utmost respect for our service personnel. If they are willing to put their lives on the line for us then they deserve some "perks". They have as much right to be skiing on the same slopes as anyone else.

I was privileged to have been in a team who took one of our winter paralympians on his first ever skiing course. He was in the Royal Navy, after leaving the Navy he was badly injured in an accident and paralysed from the chest down. He went on to become European champion in the GS (sit ski). He is one of the few person I would love to ski with again. If you want to see an inspirational person search on Youtube for Talan Skeels-Piggins.

Steve A - I apologise that I didn't post my comment on the "Army Skiing" thread. I had to respond to the last posting by Frosty having read some of the Army Skiing thread.

After all it is free

PeakyB / welshflyer / BertieG / Frosty the Snowman - firstly I really dont mind as I mentioned it in the first place... however I have no issues with them coming to learn etc and all that comes with it - thats the good thing but not when they are out of control missiles on open pistes and really large well built men on DH skis on runs that are well beyond their capabilities is probably a step too far from a 'sensible' side of things! However reaping the benefits from the jobs they do is cool by me but not when it can impact on the safety of others!

Action!

Gosh my eyes are still struggling to stay open and for Clare it was her turn to have a really bad nights sleep... so this evening we are both somewhat tired!

Anyway the day start by checking the house was still there as the winds last night were ferocious - about 150km/h winds were registered on the Pisaillas overnight. However it had also snowed hard! By day break the clouds were clearing / the winds were dying off it was action stations (along with EVERYONE else in town).

Im privedged living where I live in being able to watch the pisteurs work from their CATEX hut above the Folie... doing the morning blasting. Today was no different. Often when there are 4 blasts you know there is a lot of clearing to be done! Today was no exception. The light was not quite good enough to see today (the other day it was!) what moved but you can see the light on in their cabin above the Folie if you look closely... that is the indication I always look for that they are 'at work' before the blasts take place.

Look at the little hut above the electricity pylon in central of the photo and you can just about see (its clearer with the naked eye!) the light on!

So I headed to the meet point and it was rammed up there - with the weather everyone was keen beans! I started with a slightly different team today and we were off slightly earlier than yesterday thankfully so the queues were not too bad!

We were lucky enough (despite it being chilly) to be in the right place as they opened the link down the Collet piste to the Grand Pre which was perfect. I knew that it would be a while until they could get the Borsat chair open due to blasting that would need doing thus the Marmottes area would be more than rammed it would be madness in that area! However that did not detract as we had the Grand Pre totally to ourselves bar a handful of other knowledgeable instructors etc in the same area. It would take about 45 mins before we had any sort of a queue at the lift... amazing.

So we lapped around doing some games and fun stuff! The kids loved it.

However we were taking hot choc break in the Empreiente (they do kids hot chocs inside with cream and marshmallows for only €4) and I looked out the window (having lapped the Grand Pre a few times and knowing how tempting it looks!) and saw that a skier had released the slope above as they cut in to ski the bowl below moniteurs / pisteurs... Now if you know that slope area then you will know that it is super easy to get in there below pylon 6 on the Grand Pre lift - in fact I did it yesterday afternoon. Anyway someone had below triggered (within a couple of minutes of us being in there as it wasnt like that the last time we rode the lift!) quite a big slide....

... so I got the camera out to snap the shot (above) and as that happened I noticed many pisteurs rushing across from above to get to the scene... one of them came in a really high line through the rocks (you can see in the photo above before they dropped in!) and as they dropped in they triggered a secondary slide (see area in the red circle!)

You can see the onlookers on the ridge just below the slide!

Anyway this was pretty serious!

After hot choc we rode the lift again and you can see in the photo below the skier lines coming in and coming out the other side (previous people) and it must have been the highest line person that triggered the slide...

... anyway it looked like one person was injured (I have no more news) in the slide as the chopper came shortly after this shot was taken and plucked them away from the scene.

.... so wow that was excitement for a short while.

On the very next lap of the lift I noticed some tracks (and bearing in mind this slide above was on north / north east facing) on the flatter part (as I skied yesterday afternoon) of the Jardins Borsat BUT also 3 people standing atop the steepest part of the Jardins.... I literally turned to speak to my kids and looked back and the whole slope had slid... now I think by some miracle the skiers got out as there was no pisteur / heli activity in the area after it happened but still that was a HUGE slide.

That is the Genepy piste below which comes from the top of Borsat to the Grand Pre.... and you can also see the tracks (lookers right) on the flatter part of this area of the Jardins too.

Anyway by lunchtime it had been a busy morning already!

Talking of lunchtime I managed to video the weekly TDC snow report at the top of Bellevarde and then rushed to get some lunch in me before the afternoon session. Eeek all go.

The afternoon I had the same lady as a couple of afternoons ago and she did really well... she made it on the Madeleine - awesome well done!

With kids now in bed it has been a long day. Im only working tomorrow am so can hopefully get some admin done in the afternoon.

TTFN

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Account of the slide / incident here. https://alpineexperience.com/en/blog-val-d-isere-off-piste-daily-news/

snow reports

@ManiaMuse,

I agree with you and Steve A that the Army or any other group shouldn't be racing etc on open pistes they get part of the piste roped off for what they are doing.

I do not agree with the suggestion in another thread that the Army shouldn't be skiing in an "expensive ski resort".

Mrs Sno Trax saw a couple of teenagers trigger a large slide in the area to the left of the Col de Madeleine piste.

He was lucky to get out the other side of it and had no safety kit.

Mrs ST provided stern verbal abuse when he failed to accept the seriousness of the event as he tried to to make light of it.

You know it makes sense.

@sno trax

She is lucky not to have received a stream of real abuse back! Teenagers seem very reluctant to accept responsibility for their actions!!

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

@sno trax

She is lucky not to have received a stream of real abuse back! Teenagers seem very reluctant to accept responsibility for their actions!!

A snowHead

endoman - I must have written but not posted after doing the blog last night that I had found the Alpine write up about the slide. I read Waynes blog daily too and read it after writing mine and thought I would tell people about it but forgot to post what I wrote obviously! So thanks for posting.

ManiaMuse / welshflyer - to be clear - (like many others not just the Army), they were not 'training' on open and normal pistes but just skiing on those pistes as if they were training - i.e. flying down out of control etc. It was not official or anything they just dont know when it is not really the done thing... as I say giving people that are pretty new to the sport a pair of DH skis that they would struggle to turn in normal circumstances on a closed piste and using their 'mentality' shall we say is a lethal cocktail when trying to keep up with the Jones on an open piste if you get me! However ignorance is bliss!

sno trax - good on Mrs ST... things like that need pointing out. Again ignorance is bliss. Its amazing isnt it. That same slide talked about yesterday.... the kid I was teaching casually said - "what that - can bury you" to which I said it could kill you..... ignorance is bliss!

A snowHead

Snowing again

At daybreak it was overcast but not really much new snow had fallen but the weather was foreboding !

I headed to the meeting point and met my team for the final day of their holiday and hatched a plan! For a change of scenery I wanted to go to the Fornet and head head first into the weather. Up top it was relatively snowy but vis was OK and wind was OK... so we headed for some laps on deserted pistes and eventually taking the up and over towards the Fornet... by the time we got up there it was certainly windier and snowier than it had been.

Even after we came out of hot choc break at a deserted Cascades the place was totally socked in with snow... there was about 20cm of fresh snow that had fallen since pisting the previous night - the pistes were awesome all the way back to the bus in Fornet - amazing!

So that was the morning really.... the snow in town was coming down really thick and fast - see all my Instagram postings today!

I took the afternoon off and apart from grabbing some lunch on the way home and checking the post box I have been in all afternoon. Such fun jobs as taking down and putting away all the Xmas decorations and fixing a tear in my ski gloves (good old gaffer tape to the rescue etc).

Anyway Olivia had another race - this time a slalom and in those conditions she did so incredibly well getting the silver time.

Clare collected Ben from Village and we had a pretty chilled evening before getting a takeaway from Jami deliveries over the road here in La Daille. Well worth checking them out as the food is great, prices good, they deliver all over town AND (the best thing IMO) they have a really varied menu - burgers, pizza's as well as curries and all sorts - awesome. I had the pulled pork burger which was awesome!

Im working in the morning so hopefully the links to Tignes open on time as its a Tignes booking but the snow is still coming down hard and for those on the road tomorrow - eeeeek is all I can say.... gonna be a bad one I feel! 70k cars leaving and 41k coming the other way!

Reading up the report on Radio Val this morning of all the slides about yesterday - it was a busy one.... the (he was ultimately uninjured) boarder on the Grand Pre one as talked about above, a slide on the Tour du Charvet and then another on the Cairn. Thankfully no one was badly injured - phew!

Anyway some photos to finish.

TTFN

By time got my camera out he was further away than I would have liked but it says 'Caution Sh*t Skier' - quite funny I guess!

I think this was taken from the Glacier lift - cant remember now!

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

Flat

It had snowed a little overnight but was certainly not snowmageddon out there this morning when I opened the curtains. Basically Clare took charge of the kids as they were both skiing and I sorted myself out.

I actually was skiing over in Tignes this morning so headed to the bottom of the La Daille gondola for opening time along with the hundreds of British Army who had their slalom on the Raye this morning! It opened on time despite a lot of apparent rimming on the cable so that was a good start and set off into the fog. Fog is about the only way to describe it today - really thick fog!

Skiing (the first) down the Johann Clarey piste was a combination of luck as it was totally lovely (I thought there would be powder on piste but there wasnt - I think they had pisted it quite late overnight unfortunately) and a nightmare as could not see a thing until really the last wall!

So my lesson was an enthustiatic teen and we set off into the fog to work on making her more dynamic and up the energy levels in her skiing. Much work on pressing and rebounding the ski and laterally making the pole plant more effective was the order but boy navigating was the biggest challenge as not a lot could be seen. Thankfully knowing the runs off the back of my hands really helped. We did take a lap down to La Daille but the lesson turned into a moguls lesson for a run when doing that.

Anyway was a productive morning thats for sure! I headed home for lunch and as I was coming in the door Clare was about to get the kids out the front door for their afternoon with club - a mad house!

I enjoyed a whole couple of hours (Clare had some chores to do in town after dropping the kids off) to myself after lunch and just watched the men and womens ski races on the tv which was a nice treat!

I did collect the kids from Club at the end of the day and they were both pretty cold as the temps have really dropped in the last 24 hours.

The kids have eaten well and like me falling asleep as I type this evening, have gone to sleep.

Sorry folks really shattered this evening so gonna be a short one.

TTFN

Borrowed this photo from Mich Goodlife the pisteur but quite liked it - he might have the fuse wire wrapped around his ankle though unfortunately - no damage caused!

This was the typical view all morning! - Not a lot!

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

Dad of enthusiastic teen here. Did one run with her after Steve’s lesson and saw big improvement. We then went for lunch and she knocked off as stuff she planned to do. Then went skiing on my own and after a few runs disaster struck. I didn’t see a lip from piste to a path went down hard on my shoulder. Knew straight away not good. Managed to “ski” down and arranged with my son to met me. His boss kindly drove him over and off to medi centre that confirmed a fracture to the top of left arm. bugs up 2 if not 3 trips that I had planned. While I might be fit by Easter I was intending to ride mt eldest in a sit ski. Likely as I can cancel prior to. 9th feb I won’t risk it. bug bug and other much less pleasant swear words.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@dan100, ah booger, what a bummer Crying or Very sad

You'll need to Register first of course.

dan100 - glad you could see an improvement. But what a bummer for your ongoing ski trips here to see your son. All I can say is get well soon! Glad you got some good skiing in prior though!

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

After all it is free

Lazy one

Ive enjoyed a rare and complete day out of ski boots today before being back to the grindstone tomorrow.

As hard as tried with two young kids and the body clock well and truly on Winter alarm clock mode with a fatigued body battling my corner but losing I barely got a lie in this morning. In fact it was the usual pre 0700 when I opened my eyes. I also knew both kids were out the door for things like skiing this morning so could not lie in too long. So basically the day started early but I still managed to fit in my eggs on toast weekend treat before getting the kids out the door.

It was supposed to be a big race morning for Olivia where 3 whole years of the Val ski club were supposed to be doing a GS race on the Raye so they (the coaches) could see how they were all getting on in relation to each other. So with Olivia in the middle of those 3 year groups and about 50 kids slated to take part we / she was hoping for at least the top 15 (bearing in mind boys and girls all racing together!). As it turned out there was too much fresh snow, would take too long to clear the piste and during the warm up one of the girls in the year above hurt herself so the race was scrapped in favour of a free ski in powder!

Ben ended up going to a friends house for a couple of hours.

Officially there was 10cm or so of snow up there but not only have I heard reports of a lot more up there but it has been snowing steadily all afternoon (well most of the day actually). I suspect it will be a nice powder day tomorrow / this week especially with the colder temps. Luckily there doesnt seem to be much in the way of wind. Yay!

I spent the morning watching the various ski races on tv and then during lunch time it all got crazy busy once again! Firstly we had Olivia coming back for lunch with one of her friends and then we needed to get them both to the afternoons club stuff which took the form of some fitness testing at the sports centre. Meanwhile Ben came back and needed to get into his ski stuff as he had a skiing birthday party to go to... eeek all go!

So since 1400 it has been lovely and quiet at home - have managed to get some bits and pieces done but I will need to really get stuck into the main to do list when the kids are in bed tonight as I have mainly tried to catch my breath today!

The weather forecast for this week revolves around snow and sun with relatively cold temps but being off piste this week hopefully the snow will be ace! I am going to attempt to get some videoing done for my ski tips this week too for my social media!

Having not been outside today I dont really have any photos but this photo from yesterday I am sure summarises what it looks like it was out there all day today - snowy / blizzard / powder / flat line fun and games!

TTFN

P.S. Liked this photo from Radio Val today too...

The lightest driest....

Ben had a sore tooth last night so Clare took pity on him and kicked me out and Ben had my nice warm bed instead.... yours truly was on the sofa and slept reasonably well!

Being the first day back at school it was a hectic start to the day getting the kids out the door after breakfast etc... we'll get back in the swing of things soon hopefully!

Anyway as soon as the kids were out the front door I headed into town myself - mainly as I needed to get to the office to collect off piste packs. So I waddled with all the gear (im not a fan of having our office in Snowberry Streetside I must say as its a real pain of a location when you need to collect packs or worse still at lunchtime as you lose half your lunch break). Anyway I collected packs and at the meet point met my team.

I have 2 guys in their late 40's - one knows Val very well. A lady who knows the resort well as well as the girlfriend of one of my colleagues too! It always takes a while getting the safety gear handed out, running through the chat etc on the first morning but finally (albeit a little chilly) we were off at about 0930.

We warmed up with some turns off Verte and immediately knew the snow was boot deep (15cm or so had fallen overnight!) and super dry and just perfect. The vis was OK so it was a perfect day for starting to learn to ski off piste - good on them!

A few variations off the side of the Borsat piste in some of my favourite and hidden bowls followed and the team put some nice turns in ... getting the hang of it.

Finally finishing with a classic Jardins du Borsat to Grand Pre - a nice morning!

I had planned on heading home for an admin afternoon but that didnt happen as firstly I got some filming in and that all took longer than planned and then my colleague Paul called to ask (since I was not booked to work) if I wanted to ski some powder this afternoon and also practice with our transceivers - so I ultimately ended up doing that. We blasted out some multi burial practices each as well as a great run through the Tour du Charvet and despite some adventures crossing the river at the bottom (the second time of crossing it I lost a ski that clipped off too which didnt help!) we had fun. Practice transceiver searches not only take the energy out of you but take quite some time too!.

I got home and this evening has been the usual blend of getting the kids sorted as well as planning and preparing for tomorrow.

The weather tomorrow should be similar to today so thats good news... it will be like that until later in the week when it will finally clear up and become sunny and get a little warmer too!

TTFN

Remember this chat about the army above.... well this is a classic one to illustrate my point... walking up and totally blocking the whole piste... little lack of common sense or rather not being told you should always walk up the side of the piste and instead the focus on charging down a race piste rather than teaching them some of the basic fundamentals and 'rules' of the slopes! Doh

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

At least it's not very busy there. It's not like it's the spot where all the pistes funnel into one rolling eyes

Help!!

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

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Snow Reports - weather - snow conditions