 Poster: A snowHead
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oldmike - thanks for the query and thanks for your comment! Re goggles... tbh I never change the lense on my goggles ever... just the regular lense day in day out. The goggles themselves though are the top of the range Panda Optics goggles with photochromatic lense. Does the help?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Weather
Late last night I got a message from my morning clients saying that they wanted to give their kids the morning off so I was in luck and was offered the morning off... now that really does not happen very often... what a nice surprise!
To be honest the weather was pretty darn awful out there so I was quite happy to have it off. I dropped the kids on the school bus and then after Clare left for work I caught up on some bits at home. I managed to record the weekly TDC snow report too.
The wind was calm at lower altitude but at the top it was pretty bad by all accounts and the snow was coming down thick and fast. 15cm overnight was quick turning into 30cm during the morning and onwards.
I headed into town for the afternoon lesson and it was a nice young doctor who had only started skiing at the start of the week and had basically just skied around with his mates. Normally in situations like this it is an uphill battle trying to correct bad habits that have started forming, calming the student down from throwing themselves down black runs in the first week and all the rest of it but today was different. Not only was he not like that but he learnt very quickly and we ended up by the end of the session skiing pretty chopped up lumpy snow down to La Daille on more than one occasion. This was after we had lapped the Grand Pre lift a few times too... there was no one there literally, the wind was not too bad up there either and there was about 15cm of lovely snow on the piste. What a fun afternoon it turned out to be in pretty adverse weather conditions... awesome!
This evening Ben has come home feeling not too great and was sick just before going to bed... so he is sleeping in my bed tonight and I just hope he is OK to go to school in the morning! Meanwhile after Olivia was back from gymnastics Clare and her went through her homework which took an age but finally she is in bed now.
The weather meanwhile outside continues to rage massively and there will be a lot of snow to have fun in out there tomorrow.
TTFN
My friend in the Fornet Steph Patton snapped this photo this morning - lovely aint it
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Steve Angus wrote: |
| oldmike - thanks for the query and thanks for your comment! Re goggles... tbh I never change the lense on my goggles ever... just the regular lense day in day out. The goggles themselves though are the top of the range Panda Optics goggles with photochromatic lense. Does the help? |
Thanks Steve,
Hope Ben is OK overnight and for School,
Photochromatic is what I was thinking of don't want the faff of changing and if you’re using them then not some gimmick. Thank You.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Steve Angus, how quickly does your lens change? I need new goggles and am nervous of photo being too slow
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| holidayloverxx wrote: |
| @Steve Angus, how quickly does your lens change? I need new goggles and am nervous of photo being too slow |
To be honest I dont know. I just get on it with.... not trying to skip the question or be an idiot. Honestly even if I didnt have photo chromatic lease then I would not change the lease. Ive had dozens and dozens of pairs of goggles over the years and never bothered changing the lens ever I dont think. In general im not a 'fiddler' with kit and generally I think a lot of effort in the skiing world is put towards fiddling with gear or trying to get gear to solve issues on the mountain if you get my drift (not suggesting you are im just pointing out that I dont really notice but it cant be that bad otherwise I would probably notice it was really dark or not!). My understanding is that the lenses change very very quickly! Hope that sort of helps
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@holidayloverxx, I asked Gary that very question last week and he too said he didn't know, from which he inferred that the change was quick enough. I also can't be bothered with lens change faff: I use pink ones (as you know) which are great for flat light, and just cut out the worst of the glare when it's sunny.
I guess the photochromic technology must have improved over the years: the specs I used to wear to protect myself against dirt flying behind my contact lenses when I cycled a lot in London, regularly plunged me into dangerous darkness!
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Sunny but cold (and some wind)
I woke at a decent time this morning and as no booking had come in overnight it was a very chilled hour or so before getting the kids to Club. Clare was not working this morning either so we both had the house to ourselves for a couple of hours - how nice!
I enjoyed an admin morning before collecting the kids at lunchtime and getting them home. Of course watching some of the skiing on TV was good - have not watched the second run of the Womens GS yet so no spoilers yet please!
Clare was working this afternoon so she took the kids at 1400 for the pm lessons and I have had more free time.
I managed to fit in a live broadcast from the balcony too.
This evening has been a bit of play and chill time with the kids which has been nice!
At the moment I am once again NOT working in the morning so the plan will be a family chilled morning and then Olivia is skiing in the afternoon whilst I take Ben snowboarding I think!
Meanwhile in local news.... after that big dump of snow it has meant that people are taking pretty bit chances with the avalanche risk out there... also people are starting to just follow tracks and routes blindly as they always seem to do! Yesterday there were a handful of skiers that ended up in the couloir to nowhere (which is the couloir sort of at the base of the Bellevarde mountain overlooking the helipad area and above the avalanche path track (if you know where I mean). Anyway there was a group of 4 that needed rescuing by the pisteurs yesterday afternoon - and more followed but luckily bailed at the last minute!!!!
It wont be long until people need plucking from the Gorge du Malpasset (assuming its not passable yet which it might be by now after that last storm!) I bet you!
Also I saw an interesting article in the Telegraph (I dont read it but someone forwarded me it!) today re 'How dangerous skiing is becoming' - or something like that. To be honest much of it contains prejudice by the journalist (and a couple of others quoted in it) and poor assumptions. Much of the ski industry revolves around poor assumptions and beliefs and those that know me HATE the way the ski industry imposes itself on us via marketing and loose messages that benefit the manufacturers and 'message'. Its the ski manufacturers that have brainwashed into making people think they can 'only' ski off piste (for example) with an off piste ski and therefore they MUST have an off piste ski. Stuff like that has blinkered the industry into a position and this article is more examples of that. To be honest the head of Val ski patrol who is quoted extensively in the article makes sense. I just love the way he blows some of these assumptions out the water - e.g. that busy slopes in school hols lead to more incidents on the piste - he points out that it is NOT like that! Sensationist journalism is a dangerous thing designed to get people believing everything they read! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but the problem is the ski industry is made up of 99% experts and 1% beginners! Sorry rant over.
The article in case you want to have a read is in full below!
Ill be back tomorrow... maybe working in the am and maybe boarding with Ben in the pm but next week is a very busy one so back to the grindstone Monday am! There is an occupancy rate in the resort of 81.3% which is 9000 more bed nights than last week which is a decent chunk more and crucially 20,000 than the same week this time last year! Blimey thats quite a lot!
TTFN
The article in full:
"It was once the sport of the leisured elite. Now, with slopes overcrowded, the quest for speed trumping safety, hi-tech equipment outstripping ability and rookies taking to the piste when drunk, even the most experienced skiers are at risk...
... so, asks Matthew Bell, who’d go skiing today?
For many of us, it is the high point of winter – that moment when you find yourself on top of a mountain. The glare of sun on snow stings the naked eye and the snow itself is so crisp and deep that it’s tempting to roll in it like a terrier puppy.
Instead, you click into your boots and – swoosh! – off you go, slip-sliding away. The hassle and expense of getting to this point are finally worth it. It’s a moment of pure freedom and elation.
But for Edward Bunn, one day last season, the exhilaration was short-lived. Bunn, 62, the co-director of Hickstead showjumping ground in West Sussex, wasn’t even skiing when he was hit. He was at the foot of a run at Courchevel 1650, about to get on a chairlift, when a skier came so close at speed that it clipped his ski and knocked him over, causing him to land on his arm, fracturing the humerus. ‘He didn’t even stop or offer help,’ says Bunn. ‘I’ve been skiing for 50 years and that was my first injury. He just came from nowhere and should have been going a lot slower into a lift queue.’
This is just one of the more than 24,000 incidents that took place during the 2022-23 winter season in France – which many report was one of the worst yet. Not for conditions, but for the behaviour of others skiing recklessly on the slopes, even – some say, especially – on the nursery slopes. ‘There’s a lack of respect for other people’s space,’ says Bunn. ‘You see way too many people out of control and going too fast.’
There were more than 24,000 incidents involving skiers during the 2022-23 winter season in France
In many ways, Bunn was lucky. In January 2022, a five-year-old British girl was killed by an out-of-control skier ploughing into her in Flaine, Chamonix. The 40-year-old Frenchman was charged with manslaughter after he failed at speed to avoid the girl. Four days later, at La Rosiére, the French actor Gaspard Ulliel, who played Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising, lost his life aged 37 after colliding with someone on a blue run and hitting his head. The coroner ruled there were no adverse weather conditions, or rocks around, but noted Ulliel was not wearing a helmet. Four days after that, a 21-year-old cook at Val d’Isère died when he skied into a snow plough. Most recently, on 27 December, two Britons were killed in an avalanche in the Mont Blanc mountain range; reportedly set off by skiers higher up the slopes.
Then there are the accidents which, while not fatal, are costly. One thinks of Gwyneth Paltrow’s collision with retired optometrist Terry Sanderson on the slopes of Park City, Utah, in January 2016; a crash that led to Sanderson suing Paltrow for $300,000. Paltrow defended herself, and the jury at the trial last March acquitted her, finding holes in his claim that Paltrow was to blame for the ‘life-changing injuries’ he had sustained.
We’ll return to Paltrow shortly, but first, the data. It is accepted that skiing has an element of danger. But is it getting more dangerous? Yes, according to figures collected by the Système National d’Observation de la Sécurité en Montagne from 52 ski resorts, which show there has been an increase in collisions on French slopes. In the winter of 2017-18 there were 21,361 call-outs to accidents on the slopes, and 20,919 injuries. Last winter, the number of call-outs was up 14 per cent to 24,334 and the number of injuries rose 15 per cent to 24,132.
But the figures don’t tell the whole story, says Cédric Bonnevie, director of the slopes authority at Val d’Isère, who points out that most collisions go unreported. His team of ‘pisteurs’ are the people in red coats who come whizzing out to help in the event of an accident. ‘The work we have to do is more about the feeling of insecurity out there rather than really the number of rescues and in particular the number of collisions,’ he tells me. We’re sitting in rescue HQ at the foot of the Solaise ski area. A thick carpet of fresh snow stretches in every direction and the peaks of the mountains are shrouded in cloud. Six pisteurs have just set off on a rescue mission, though the lifts are mostly empty, the resort having only opened two days earlier.
Bonnevie, 45, is lean and tall with a slightly mischievous air, as if he needs answer to no one. It turns out that is the case: unlike most French resorts, the pisteurs at Val d’Isère are not run by a private company but are state-controlled, which he says gives them freedom to carry out their work independently. Bonnevie was formerly a ski instructor before taking on the job of heading up Val d’Isère’s army of pisteurs a decade ago. While he admits there is a problem with out-of-control skiers, he adopts a metaphorical Gallic shrug when it comes to what should be done about it. ‘Skiing is all about freedom,’ he says. ‘But it’s true something has changed – maybe that’s to do with the behaviour of people who have less respect. I think it’s true of society in general.’
‘I’ve skied for over 20 years and worked in the Alps–I’ve never seen it so bad’
It is a shift in attitude that many seasoned skiers have been complaining about lately. Take Lauren Polson, a wedding photographer from Aberdeenshire. ‘I’ve skied for more than 20 years and previously worked in the Alps, and never seen it so bad,’ she wrote on the Planet Ski website when it reported a rise in injuries last year. ‘We were in Val Thorens for a week last winter trying to learn to snowboard but half the battle was fighting for space on the green slopes and trying to avoid out-of-control skiers.’
For Lacey Dorn, 34, an actor from New York, normal life was altered after she was rammed on the slopes of Taos, New Mexico, in January 2023. She describes herself as an expert skier and spends every winter in the mountains. One day she was out with two male friends when one of them showed off, ended up losing control and smashed into her, causing Dorn to black out. ‘As it was happening, I thought I was going to die,’ she says now. ‘He slammed into me at the speed of a car. It was such a hard impact that I was shaking for four hours afterwards.’ Dorn has spent the past year in and out of hospital and, despite having health insurance, has spent a fortune on medical treatment. ‘My friends tell me I’m on a completely different planet. The awful thing is that this is quite normal for cases of concussion. I’m not a peculiar case.’
And it’s not just the crash victims who are struggling.
Gwyneth Paltrow in court in Utah last year
Dr Jean-Jacques Banihachemi, head of A&E at the Hôpital Sud in Grenoble, commented last March that his department was in a ‘catastrophic’ situation due to the volume of skiers being admitted, up to 100 per day. Speaking to the radio network FranceInfo, he noted an increase in femoral neck fractures, knee and leg fractures. ‘You have to pay attention to your speed, it is a very important factor in the cause of accidents,’ he said. ‘You have to know a minimum of the mountain code, how to ski and what priorities to give on the slopes.’
Historically, the majority of injuries caused by skiing had been to the lower body, according to research published by the National Library of Medicine, which analysed data compiled between 1985 and 2018. Knee injuries were most common at 32 per cent, while head and neck injuries accounted for just 13 per cent.
As Dr Banihachemi notes, one problem is that the question of ‘right of way’ is often overlooked. The ‘10 Rules of Good Conduct on the Slopes’ on the Val d’Isère website, which follows the guidance issued by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, state the uphill skier is responsible for avoiding those downhill. ‘Anyone below the skier has priority… The skier who’s further uphill [on the mountain side] has a position that lets them choose their trajectory. So they must make their choice in such a way as to ensure the safety of anyone who is further down the slope [on the valley side].’
But the question of who is to blame is rarely easy to prove. A Discovery+ documentary about the Gwyneth Paltrow incident,Gwyneth vs Terry: The Ski Crash Trial, showed how jurors were faced with a classic ‘he-said-she-said’ case as there was no footage of the incident, and only the testimony of two witnesses. Eric Christiansen, who was Paltrow’s son Moses Martin’s ski instructor, was one of the witnesses. He described her as a ‘strong intermediate skier’ who tended to stick to the right side of the slope so that faster skiers behind her could overtake.
Rosamund Pike recently appeared at the Golden Globes wearing a ‘protective veil’ after injuring her face in a skiing accident in December
‘Unless you’ve got GoPro footage, it’s incredibly difficult to prove blame in a ski crash,’ says the documentary’s director Marcus English. ‘This is the inherent risk of skiing, that you may get injured. That’s what made this case so interesting: you’ve got this little guy taking on a huge Hollywood star. It’s very rare for a civilian to successfully sue all the way to court. In the end the jury sided with Gwyneth but I genuinely felt that both sides had a compelling case and legal argument.’
According to Bonnevie, people often flee the scene of a ski collision. ‘I’m afraid we see that all the time,’ he says. Sanderson had accused Paltrow of skiing away after the incident, but Paltrow and Christiansen’s testimony claimed that it was Sanderson who crashed into Paltrow, and that the star was so affected by the incident that she stopped skiing for the day. ‘We’re called out to an incident and by the time we get there, one of them has gone,’ says Bonnevie.
Bonnevie’s main theory as to why ski crashes are on the rise is that modern skis have evolved too far to be used safely by beginners. ‘In the past, you had these big skis which were harder to turn, and so only skilled skiers could go on the black runs,’ he says. ‘Now, the material and design of the skis have evolved a lot, which makes them much easier to turn. This allows less competent skiers to go faster than their capacity, so you’ll see them zooming along the nursery slopes at much faster speeds than they should.’ Specifically the development of sharper edges has made skis easier to turn in the snow; sharper, lighter skis also allow a faster build up of speed.
Taking my life into my hands, I head out on to the slopes to see what’s really going on. The first skiers I speak to are a young couple from Chester, Cody Silvester, 31, and his girlfriend Rhian Mason, 27. ‘I was run into the very first time I went skiing,’ says Mason. ‘So I always wear a helmet. It could save your life.’ But Silvester, who has been skiing all his life, disagrees. ‘I never wear a helmet and never would. It just feels wrong; it makes you feel top-heavy. Yes, if I was doing extreme off-piste skiing, I’d consider it. But not here, doing just regular skiing.’ What, I wonder, would he do if French resorts made headgear compulsory? ‘I’d go elsewhere,’ he replies. ‘I don’t even like wearing a motorbike helmet.’
I stand in the middle of the piste and count how many people are wearing helmets. One in six are not. When I raise the subject with Bonnevie, expecting him to say they should be made mandatory, he suggests that helmets could be part of the problem. ‘They can make you feel invincible,’ he says. ‘I always make my children wear one, but equally it’s true that we notice among some skiers, when wearing a helmet, this feeling of being isolated and being able to hear less.’ This ties in with the notion that skiers sometimes listen to music or podcasts while they ski, about which there are no rules.
In fact, skiing is remarkably unregulated, especially in France. Last year, Italy’s far-Right government introduced new laws for skiers, including mandatory helmets for under-18s, zero tolerance for alcohol or drug use, and compulsory third-party insurance for all. In the US, there is regular supervision of the slopes, with spot-checks, breathalysing, and the ability of stewards to confiscate a ski pass of anyone skiing out of control. But in France no such rules exist. When I ask Bonnevie if helmets will ever be mandatory in France, there is more metaphorical shrugging of those shoulders. ‘If you had asked me that 10 years ago, I would have said yes,’ he says. ‘But now it’s not so clear. And if we were to introduce such a rule, how would you police it? That’s also very difficult.’
One reason why resorts may be reluctant to introduce tighter regulations is that they are already grappling with the consequences of climate change. Seasons are shorter and less reliable. At lower-altitude resorts (those below 1,600m), lack of snowfall is the problem, while at higher ones such as Tignes, next door to Val d’Isère, the melting of the glacier is to blame.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that Alpine glaciers will have all but vanished by the end of this century, having lost 94 per cent of their 2017 volume by 2100. With such a depressing future, who can blame French resorts for keeping the vin chaud flowing? Bonnevie says that if anything, the slopes have become less regulated. ‘There used to be ski patrollers with special outfits here on the slopes, but not any more. It didn’t really work.’
Out on the mountainside, people are taking their own precautions. ‘I’ve been skiing 20 years but I’ve always worn a helmet,’ says Andrew Steane, 62, from Skipton, Yorkshire. ‘I think it’s a generational thing. You get these older posh people who have never worn a helmet because it wasn’t what you did back then. But they’re the only people I would say who don’t wear one.’
‘In terms of behaviour on the slopes, it’s to do with where the bar is’
For Steane, choosing the right resort also makes a difference. ‘In terms of behaviour on the slopes, it’s all to do with where the [drinks] bar is,’ he says. ‘In Val d’Isère the bar’s at the bottom of the slope, so you’re fine, but in Ischgl in Austria the bar’s halfway up the slope. Once people have had a few they can be unsteady on their feet, let alone skis. I did hear talk of them introducing breathalysing on the slopes; that would have an effect because if you are found to be under the influence of alcohol it may invalidate your insurance.’
Dominique Bonnier, 65, is from Aix-en-Provence and has been skiing at Val d’Isère for 50 years. He agrees that behaviour depends on the resort. ‘Here, people are of a pretty high standard, and it’s mainly English people who are civilised skiers. Whereas the Italians are rude. At Courchevel, there are more green and blue runs and you’ll get people behaving badly. But you don’t get that here, it’s too hard, there are no easy runs.’
The onus should be on more experienced skiers to behave better, says Linsey Warren, 34, from London. ‘I think it’s the more experienced people who are the problem,’ she says. ‘They don’t realise that us beginners sometimes can’t stop when we want to.’ Her partner Neil Henderson, 38, agrees. ‘They’ll see a little gap and just slip through it. I think they should be more respectful to beginners.’
Dive into the world of online ski forums and the theories about worsening behaviour are myriad. Some blame resorts for not controlling crowd sizes. But Bonnevie queries this. ‘We actually find that during the school holidays, when the slopes are very crowded, we get fewer accidents, because people are being more careful,’ he explains. ‘It’s in between the holidays that we see more accidents, when the slopes are emptier’ and groups of friends may feel particularly free. He notes Wednesday is often the big day for accidents: once people have got their ‘ski legs’ back and start to take bigger risks.
So is there anything that can be done to make skiing safer? By the time I leave Bonnevie, he has warmed to this theme. ‘You know, that cook who died in Val d’Isère, he was using an app that monitored his performance,’ he says. ‘So it’s not just other people who cause accidents. People can push themselves too far and sometimes technology is to blame.’
There it is again, that resignation in his voice, as if to say, ‘What do you expect? Skiing is dangerous.’ He’s right, of course, it is. I leave him and step out into the cold, where it has started to snow. I’d half-thought of squeezing in a couple of runs after our interview, but I look up and see that all around us the mountains are shrouded in cloud – the weather is closing in. A shiver runs down my spine and I suddenly feel ready to return home."
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Steve Angus,
Cheers for the Torygraph article, Steve, made me laugh repeatedly - Flaine, Chamonix - when did it move? And especially Andrew Steane, 62, from Skipton 'you get these older posh people who have never worn a helmet' - you have to live in Yorkshire to get the irony of someone from Skipton accusing someone else of being posh.
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Wow! Try picking the (broken) bones out of that Daily Telegraph article.
It’s worth a snowHeads thread on its own. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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So many errors in that article!!
“The” bar in Val d’Isere is at the bottom!??
Err what about the Folie?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@HoneyBunny,
The Rosee Blanche is at the bottom of the slopes.
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Re "the big dump" delighted to read your comments @Steve Angus, I recall last season (perhaps every season) Henry HAT made precisely the same remark.
Too many people taking too many chances in dodgy conditions. Some of the older Val d'isere visitors may well recall the tragic events of the 5 or 6 British doctors getting killed. I think it is 30 years at the end of this month. (They were a guided/lead group I think)
We must all listen to our gut, if there is any doubt.....save that run for another day!
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You know it makes sense.
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Kenzie - yea its a load of rubbish based on their own ideals of what they think!
PeakyB - I considered it!
HoneyBunny / welshflyer - but its the gross generalisation thats the issue. Im sure both have 'bars' at top middle and bottom! Again a journalist plucking at straws to fit their narrative of what will work for their arguments (or not) as the case may be! Those who have read my blog for a while will often see me refer to 'theres ALWAYS an expert around every chalet table'... 99% advanced, experts and higher intermediates.... and all that! Read out of that in relation to the article what you like!!!!!
Rogerdodger - yes there is always the big dump at some point - it came! I can remember the doctors incident yes (and others over the years!). Pushing ahead in blind ignorance etc.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Steve Angus,
I hope you're feeling better this morning.
The hot chocolate in La Plage (the new Ouillette restaurant) is excellent value (€4.60?) in the bar area. However the Datcha hot chocolate is €7 in a paper cup and is a bit of a rip off.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| welshflyer wrote: |
@Steve Angus,
I hope you're feeling better this morning.
The hot chocolate in La Plage (the new Ouillette restaurant) is excellent value (€4.60?) in the bar area. However the Datcha hot chocolate is €7 in a paper cup and is a bit of a rip off. |
yes feeling better thanks - not 100% but OK.
Yes €4 is good value (a big one was €7) at La Place or whatever its now called! I agree the Datcha offering is a little OTT and expensive - agree!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Knackered
I went to bed really early last night but could I sleep for love nor money - no. Maybe it was a combination of being hungry but also feeling sick and achy - I dont know but I was in and out of consciousness for what seemed like hours on end. I must have slept a little but every time I seemed to fall asleep I was awake again!
About 0200 Clare kicked me out as I was having night sweats and nightmares of some sort so I slept on the sofa the rest of the night.
Breakfast time was a mix of getting the kids going but also easing myself back into the living world again! Could I work? Did I feel OK? etc.
Anyway I decided that despite feeling very washed out I could work so off I went. The kids headed to school and the day was on. I popped to Snowberry to collect off piste packs and met my team for the morning. A couple that knew Val well and had dabbled in off piste but not too much! Determined to get the technique just right! So off we went. I went Solaise way and found some nice snow in the Datcha snout as well as the bus stop and the inbounds side of Cugnai but Cugnai classic via the rock garden exit was average at best!
I certainly was not skiing particularly well and tried to put a brave face on and they got plenty out of the lesson but I could not wait to get home and the boots off.
So I have done that and will potter around the house as well as rest this afternoon before the family get back from work / school later!
The weather was OK this morning but we are scheduled more snow tonight and into tomorrow... lots more snow coming apparently!
TTFN
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Steve Angus, try to rest and not make yourself more ill by pushing yourself! Hope you're restored to full health soon.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Hurtle wrote: |
| @Steve Angus, try to rest and not make yourself more ill by pushing yourself! Hope you're restored to full health soon. |
Thank you will do!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@JP Wolf, nope, sorry
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@JP Wolf, The plan de la Daille car park has a 2m limit, but the barrier sags and has a bit of wriggle room if you have a passenger to hold it up with a ski pole.
I’ve no idea by how much as I just watch the antics from my window while eating my breakfast.
On a Saturday the police are out in force controlling parking and the many extra bus pick ups and drop offs.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Steve Angus, Hope your feeling slightly better and nobody else in the family come down with it, both Mr Muppet (he even missed a days skiing) and Miss Muppet had something similar about 10 days ago.
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| muppet wrote: |
@JP Wolf, The plan de la Daille car park has a 2m limit, but the barrier sags and has a bit of wriggle room if you have a passenger to hold it up with a ski pole.
I’ve no idea by how much as I just watch the antics from my window while eating my breakfast.
On a Saturday the police are out in force controlling parking and the many extra bus pick ups and drop offs. |
Thanks Steve - hope you're on the mend... looks like we might be paying another 'Val Tax' then 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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JP_Wolf - thank you. Yes on the mend now thanks! Try the parking at your appartment but otherwise as muppet suggests. Sorry not many options! You could try outside the old Fjord hotel just before you get to Le Garage if there is space there - normally some tolerance there!
muppet - great suggestion there. Yes all (touch wood) seem OK! Sorry to hear it inflicted your lot too! Mr Muppet miss skiing - blimey thats saying something!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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A pleasant return
Well I certainly slept pretty well last night and feel about 95% again this evening so it really was just a 24 hour bug thankfully!
Anyway the kids were on the bus and it was nice to see as I stepped out the door that there was 10-15cm of fresh on the ground - yippee!
With the sun coming out there was a lot of excited people at the meet point... the queue for the Olympic lift was quite long! Anyway I met my morning team of a young couple of girls in their early 20's who are having a short break from working on a super yacht somewhere to come for a ski holiday together (one of them worked in Val last year!). One had done some skiing before for the season as mentioned but the other only a week before so needed to tailor the lesson carefully. The one that had done the season had had a bad fall knocking her confidence late in the season so felt like she had taken a big backward step.
So I decided to start on the magic carpet and got them nicely going. With people like this of that age you can quickly get them off the carpet as they are more gung ho with their attitude to challenge. So we did a Madeleine which was in great nick with this nice soft fresh snow about... from there the girls kept improving and were full of energy so it made sense to do a Glacier run which went well although the narrow bit down to Datcha was (as always) a challenge with the lumps and bumps on it and the idiots that use it as a race track!!!! Anyway we got through it and the girls were rightly proud of themselves! So it was a super successful morning - bravo!
They have booked another lesson for later in the week so it will be nice to get them moving up another level again!
I took lunch under the Sun Bar and then met my pm lesson.
A nice lady from New York who now lives in Nice of all places. She had a really interesting story having been a ski instructor in Jackson Hole in Wyoming, USA for 10 years.... well that was until 6 years ago when she had some sort of accident - she really does not know what happened to her but it was a big enough crash that it sounded like it was touch and go for a while whilst she was in hospital! Blimey! Anyway it has taken 6 years of physical and mental rehab to get to the point of wanting to try skiing again and the accident changed her so much that she moved to France last year to set up a new life and here we were. Awesome, well done, go girl!
I think it was more the mental side of things that was the challenge but we eased into it and started with some laps on the Grand Pre before moving further afield and it was just nice for her to get back into the swing of things and skiing some green runs and trying to build up the confidence etc again! It was a really lovely afternoon and so nice to be the next step of her rehab. So I have another afternoon with her tomorrow and then there are 3 full days booked in with her and the plan as we have discussed will be to show her the whole resort as best and safely as I can... there is a lot of terrain to cover!
After work I popped to town to have a beer with an old mate of mine and his missus which was so nice... great to catch up and do apres which is rarity these days! Blue Note seemed pretty quiet though to be honest - shame it used to be so busy but seemed quite tonight - I dont get out often enough to understand whether this is normal or not though!
Meanwhile Olivia went for a sleepover with a friend for said friends birthday so she was very happy about that and Ben was doing his judo and Clare went for a school teacher / parent meeting with Bens teacher and the report was WONDERFUL for him - he got really good feedback! She thinks he's a little star and works so hard! Such a proud dad this evening!
Tomorrow evening we have a TDC meal / mid season social at the Taverne d'Alsace so not sure what time ill get my blog done - but we shall see!
The bookings are really looking busy the next couple of weeks so its going to be mega busy moving into the Feb HT hols!
Think thats all for now.
TTFN
P.S. Forgot to snap a pic today so have used this one from Radio Val - wasnt taken today but may as well have been!!!
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@JP Wolf, You may well be able to get a parking space outside the big blocks at La Daille. They are time limited, but the initial response is a polite notice rather than towing away.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Steve Angus,
The colourful clouds in your last photo are Nacreous Clouds according to one of my fellow astronomy club members who is actually there in Val.
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Poster: A snowHead
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welshflyer - indeed - i saw the chat on Facebook floating around about that last night! The clouds are made of frozen ice particles much like Alto-Stratus.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Steve Angus, It’s definitely not as busy as the stats lead us to believe.
This week is supposed to be 84% occupancy but we’ve never really waited at any lift.
Tommeuses queues for people heading back to Tignes around 1600 from the Folie always look large so shouldn’t be part of the equation.
I know there is a medic conference on at the moment so wonder how many have passes but don’t ski.
We also we got speaking with two Brazilian guys with their young sons on the Solaise bubble yesterday, they were staying at Club Med in Val, the wives and 2 Grandparents are here but aren’t skiing but guessing a pass is maybe included in the package.
Who knows how the tourist board works out the numbers 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Steve Angus, @muppet, do they include season passes in the figures?
With the price increase for 6/7 day passes, more people may be opting for a season pass now they have a lower 'break-even' point. If these are only used for 3 or 4 weeks of the season it could influence the sales figures without showing an increase in ridership.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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muppet & sno trax (both La Daille locals haha).... I think they are BOTH very very valid points and observations indeed. Not sure how figures calculated and also with the new turnstiles does this just mean they're more or less accurate figures but it's intriguing data non the less. Certainly in NA resorts season ticket sales are higher than daily / weekly (have you seen the prices thats why!). Hmmm intriguing.
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Not as late.... but we made up for it - blimey
Im pretty shattered this evening but for once it was because I skied a LOT rather than the mental side of teaching which is what is usually the tiring aspect of it all.
The sun had returned at breakfast time and Clare got Ben ready as Olivia had a morning out of boots ahead of her race tomorrow (and training this afternoon). I headed up with Ben in the morning sun to get him to club on time... the train rouge was RAMMED as there was a U16 SL race on the Face this morning.... what this means is arrogant U16 skiers (I have a beef about teaching my kids respect to other users of the mountain and them not thinking they own it!) with about 2-3 sets of skis each and massive kit bags - 10 them take up the space of 25 people and spread right out. I dont deny them but they need to contain themselves in as small an area as possible!
Anyway having dropped Ben off I managed to do a bit of social media stuff and then waited for my lady for the last day I have with her after several days. She was only about 30 mins late today!!!!
We got going and the pistes were deserted, the sun shining and conditions perfect (although plenty of the slopes were pretty firm and scrapped by the day end!).
So I thought it might as well outline the day as follows:
Solaise lift up
Madeleine lift up
Arcelle down
Manchet Express up
Ski over to Glacier Express
Glacier Express up
Up and over
Ski down to Signal
Signal lift up
Ski down alternative back to Signal
Toilet stop
Gondola up
Ski to Cascades Chair and up
Blue back to Cascades restaurant for another loo stop
Cascades chair up
Moraine red back to Cema chair
Cema Chair up
Ski to up and over
Up and over taken
skied blue all way down inc the L to bottom
Taversee Laisenant back to town centre
Double chairs up Bellevarde
Skied blue to Tommeuse
Tommeuse up
Piste Henri to Val Claret
Lanches chair up
Vanoise chair up
Lunch at self service in Panoramique which was great food and decent value
Cable car to top
Red all way back to Val Claret
Lanche back up
Genepy blue route around the back
Tuffs up
Crux and then red all way back to La Daille
PHEW what a day!
Meanwhile the kids had a ski and Clare taught the son of a friend.
We all got back and have been exhausted all round!
Olivia is off with Clare as support team to her race in La Rosiere in the morning so I need to be up early to drive them to the Rond Pont as the bus leaves from there at 0700 and the first train rouge is not from La Daille until 0700 which is really annoying!
Ben and I are going to have a dad and son day... maybe some homework of his, maybe a snowboard, lunch out, a swim - who knows!
TTFN
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@Steve Angus, It was a glorious day, still not warm enough at 2pm to eat lunch outside at Marmottes without the food getting cold.
I agree with the race clubs this morning, we were up very early as Miss Muppet has eventually gone back to uni after a month here, so watched the arrivals of the teams and barging to get on the bus, while drinking coffee and doing laundry.
@sno trax, I know our family (and daughters friends) have very, very slightly skewed the season pass figures this season.
Last season Tignes had an offer of a season pass for 600€ if you were under 25. Which was less than 2 individual weeks, I bought/collected 10 (and was reimbursed ) Daughter also forwarded the link to others.
Unfortunately no such offer this year 
I think Val reported in December that season pass sales were up from around 700 to 800 so I think you are correct about more people realising that its better value if you visit for more than 17 days a season.
How the new turnstiles are collating all this info ??
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@muppet, we always used to weigh up the difference between weekly, a la carte and season but this year was a much clearer choice. I think your comments on Club Med are valid, as an extra 400+ rooms with included passes but not all guests skiing will certainly reflect in figures.
Personally, we thought Christmas, New Year and the first week of January seemed busier than previous years.
The new turnstiles will ultimately give much more detailed data, crowd movement and usage information. However, on a basic level there would be no change as all base level access points have had gates and so have always known which passes were actively being used. It will be interesting to see how this data is used. Transport authorities already have and use similar data.
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A la carte seems like a 'no brainer' to me.
A six day pass is six times the price of a one day pass - no discount at all.
66 x 6
A la carte is currently 59 euro per day
And you protect yourself form the risk of a high wind day where the only thing open is a few beginner lifts in the village.
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FAQ
As it looks like the outdoor parking is height restricted at 2m 
