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

A snowHead

ElzP - thanks for commenting and reading. You go! Thanks!
Dougie - coolio

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

Ps an 11th one:

Beware of well meaning friends and family. Often thinking they'll know where's best for your development or how to teach someone or where theres 'an easy slope because it's graded a green' etc. For example Monday morning I ALWAYS see friends bringing scared s**tless friends and family down the Verte; teaching them. I can assure you / them that they'd be MUCH better off on the magic carpet and definitely not on the Verte. Theyre probably not only been knocked backwards but in some cases their weeks skiing will be destroyed and confidence so badly knocked they often won't want to ski anymore.... Yes it does happen.

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Proud Dad

The day started as you can see bright and beautiful but it changed slowly and steadily all day until this evening it is trying to snow and we should see quite a deterioration overnight into tomorrow!

It was also cold so I went up a layer and as the kids got ready for skiing I was able to get on with getting ready myself as Clare is not teaching much this week so took charge of the kids! I got a message to say the client was going to be a little late but I wanted to get up to the meet point and see Olivia off on her race whilst Ben was skiing with his coach too.

Anyway we set off when the client arrived and it was a husband and wife and a grown up daughter and they had been to Val a few times before but want the confidence of skiing with an instructor so I was basically the guide and instructor for the day! My colleague Dave was taking the grown up son.

Off we went and combined some teaching with guiding and getting the daughter some confidence back from a fall she had a few years back!

So apart from it being a little chilly and the wind was quite punchy we had a nice morning and then had lunch at the Folie and it was nice to meet up with the son and my colleague! I was also keeping one eye on the race results coming through and updates from Clare as to what was going on in La Daille at Olivias race!

After lunch we did an around the world over in Tignes and with the light fading, the breeze stiffening and weather moving in we eventually called it a day about 1600.

So what happened with the race.... well there was once girl who came from nowhere and was on the podium more than once today and meanwhile one girl that had been there or thereabouts last few races dropped back a bit... HOWEVER Olivia managed in the three separate runs, 2 x 2nd place and 1 x 3rd place... so by the time they extrapolate the results across and add up the times she came 2nd overall girl in the whole upper Tarantaise valley for her year and (including the boys) 7th out of 115 entrants! (2nd girl out of 50). So she has a new rival in Alice who was getting the 1st place in the run!

When it came to calculate the winning team (top 5 including one of the opposite sex per resort) there was Alice and Olivia on the podium with 3 boys from Val... amazing! Queue lots of sweets and celebrations.

After skiing and as I made my way back Olivia had her friend (who was the third fastest girl in actual fact) and her brother (also Bens best friend) all to our place for a short playdate so it was a couple of hours of chaos at home.

Finally with them off home, kids watered and fed and me eaten its time to put my feet up.

Tomorrow the weather will be interested I think but to be honest with such great results today I dont care as im a happy Dad.

TTFN

Not my photo but it looks like the Gorge du Malpasset is STILL not passable yet - incredible!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Steve Angus, There’s hints of a retour d’est forming in the next couple of days, the first this season IIRC. That should help fill the gorge (or start to anyway).

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"Allez Olivia" snowHead

After all it is free

franga - well thank you!
Frosty the Snowman - thank you too!

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Improving or getting worse?

Well Olivia was made up this morning seeing her name on the Radio Val website this morning - go girl!

Anyway there had been some fresh snow overnight - about 5cm of it in town and the weather was 'ok' - could have been a lot worse but it was warmer so that was one thing. The vis on the other hand was not very inspiring!

Clare was in charge of getting the kids to club and I made my way to the meet point for day two with this family. To be honest since I could not sleep last night I was not feeling that inspired first thing but rallied myself.

It was nice seeing some of my colleagues as I really have not seen many of them for a few weeks what with half term etc. With the clients running a little late once again I enjoyed a chilled while at the meet point until they arrived!

We hatched a rough plan for the day and headed up Solaise - I was certainly surprised that it was NOT mega packed so not sure where this 85% occupancy of the resort has gone too! Maybe it was the weather!

So up top it was not too cold, there was some lovely fresh snow on a perfectly soft existing snow surface from the last snowfall and not too many people but it was the fact that you could not see too much made it challenging! After a couple of warm up laps on the Madeleine where we could not see too much at all we then headed for the glacier express and did some more work up there. Skiing when you cant see too much is certainly challenging on the brain so we needed a much deserved choc stop and by this time it was starting to lighten a little which was good news! There was not too much enthusiasm to take the up and over (one of the team had done it before and found it a bit too scary!) so we tried to work out how we could get over to the Signal for lunch and finally I agreed that if she kept her eyes shut and I sat next to her then we could do the up and over and I would let her know when we got to lifting the bar up time at the end of the lift when it would no longer be scary for her! Solution found.

So we eventually had lunch at Signal which was good as usual and tried to head to the glacier but it was socked in weather wise (retour maybe!) so headed back to Solaise and low and behold the sun was trying to come out and it was MUCH better up there... yay! So we could enjoy a couple of lovely hours of vis!

This evening has been hectic as ive had phone calls to make, kids bath time to sort, Clare not feeling 100% so taking an early night, and all sorts to sort! Eeek!

Shattered so off to bed. Tomorrow will be much of the same as today weather wise but probably worse.

TTFN

NOTHING to do with skiing or Val but I saw this today and thought it was quite funny - often feel this! Haha

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Weather - doh

Although I slept well, Clare too I seemed to wake way too early. The kids looked a little tired too but anyway we got ready nonetheless. There had been a few cm's of snow in town and the temps were hovering around zero. There was NO wind whatsoever.... perfect!

I headed to the meet point with the kids and they headed off for their days ski race training. Meanwhile I got a phone call from the clients to query the weather and what was it like? After chatting it was decided to see if it was better or worse up there than yesterday! I headed up top with my colleague who WAS taking the son for an off piste ski day and we were off!

Atop the conditions were not too bad... as we are experiencing a Retour d'Est weather system at the moment it looked very socked in towards Fornet and Solaise but the more you looked over towards Tignes the brighter it looked! However we chatted on the phone and decided that it was marginal for their expectations and ability to enjoy the skiing... so they decided to rain check the morning and we would have a further decision making process at lunchtime. I had a couple of hours to myself so skied some very nice powder on the piste - gosh its rare to ski for myself but this morning was it! The weather did really move in after we made the decision to bin the morning so it was a good decision. Given the conditions there was no-one about.

The vis was awful it really was - in fact I witnessed a man out the corner of my eye ski off a little ledge whilst I was going up the Mont Blanc chair - I looped around to peer over the side of the piste (as the many was on his own) to see a sheepish man walking / clambering back towards the piste - he told me he was not injured but wow that was a rude awakening for him!

Anyway I grabbed a sandwich for lunch and then headed to meet the team as they were meeting with my colleague and their son for lunch in town. By the time lunch was over we looked outside and decided that it was getting much better out there so everyone booted up and we headed up the Bellevarde as it was looking brighter than the Solaise direction as it had been in the morning. However by the time we got to the top of the mountain it was apparent that it was not that much better than this morning so one of the team turned straight around and headed back down so I was down to just 1 for the afternoon and we had a pretty decent go of it before quitting late afternoon as once again (as it still is) the weather really closed in and has continued to dump all day - tomorrow will be an amazing pow day -lets hope there is enough vis for people to see!

Talking of tomorrow Olivia has a practice flèche race so go my girl - aiming for as close to the gold time as possible - hmmmm we shall see!

This evening I have been flying solo as Clare is really feeling grotty this evening despite having a down day of her own so ive been flat out - lets hope she is better tomorrow.

TTFN

A few plonkers walking / sliding down the middle of the slope towards the restaurant - why dont people use a little common sense and not do that in the middle of the piste! I swear peoples common sense is left behind when they go on ski holidays sometimes... health and safety priorities go out the window! There was a group of people walking down the slopes trying to get to the folie after it closed last night whilst piste bashers were on the slopes apparently! Yet these are the same people who will stop below ridges on pistes and then moan pistes aren't bashed properly at night or something and are dangerous or stuff like!

Olivia and her group under the Marmottes lift today practising some GS

Hmmm nice views!

Some celebrity or other in The Corner this morning!

snow reports

Off piste report: rubbish. If you enjoy muscling through half set concrete then please do carry on. Bailed. I’m saving my legs/knees for another day.

9.50 for a bacon sandwich??!!!

You know it makes sense.

@Canuck, close, 11.30 bacon and sausage baguette at La Cantina

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

Dr John - yes got a little warm today BUT at altitude I hear there was some decent snow certainly in the morning (above 3000m or so). Getting a lot colder tonight so that should dry the snow out somewhat!

A snowHead

Weather got better and pistes predictably got worse!

It was looking much better out this morning and it showed with the numbers of people trying to get on the bus! Watching the PIDA first thing it was obvious that not a lot was moving even though there was a decent amount of snow that had fallen during the day yesterday and overnight! By the time I got to the meet point the pisteurs were already down the Face so they had basically finished for the morning!

The kids headed off on club with Olivia doing a practice GS race this morning (she ended up skiing well and getting her Vermeil time again - she's half way through the pack on Vermeil times and looking at the vid of her skiing I think her starts are where she is losing some time!) and Ben skiing with the year older group today!

My team arrived and we headed off to do a trip towards Tignes les Brev with the target of lunch down there. It took a while to get going as there was a lot of people wanting to get up the mountain as you can imagine! With the light semi OK and only that and with the fresh snow for piste dwellers it was a challenging start to the day. Anyway we headed off towards Tignes and it was jolly slow going initially with the light as it was unfortunately! But it was nice snow thats for sure - lovely and soft! We did take the usual route via Tommeuse etc and it was busy and thus bumpy out there.... one of the downsides of fresh snow!

Ultimately the weather did improve visibility wise and we sped up but it was a nice trip and by the time we were heading to Brev and it was lunchtime the slopes down there were deserted - jolly nice skiing too!

We had a great later lunch in the sun and then headed back to Val and of course by later in the afternoon the slopes such as Edelweiss were total mogul fields - totally!

I got home and have had a couple of hours sorting bits but the main even this evening was a ski school online meeting we have every few weeks so that took a few hours! All done now and Clare, having had another chilled day as she is still not feeling 100%, took another early night!

Fornet way still looking socked in - a lot of snow falling that way still!

Awesome looking valley clouds eh!

There were some interesting things I had forgotten to mention in my musings of recent that popped to mind today...

Like why is that people can only walk slowly in ski boots and when you are walking behind them to get somewhere you cant get past them because they are walking slowly... yet those same people will be flying around at 1000mph on the brink of control - when a ski takes THEM for the ride they are happy to let em run away with them but take them off and they become bamby on ice!

Also today Olivia who weighs say 30kg at age of nearly 10, can ski very fast, fast enough that she beat persons weighing perhaps twice her weight (perhaps more)... how can that be? This is not by the way a dig at anyone more a reflection on the fact that someone who basically only has lessons, that she can develop the skills to ski faster than potentially someone who has actually skied a LOT LOT more than she has! In my head I reckon she has done about 30+ weeks of skiing now in her life (typically 5 weeks a season) now so a 'couple of seasons' skiing but all the time has been in lessons.... interesting when potentially up against persons who have actually done perhaps several seasons equivalent of skiing... so what is the difference - well probably lesson time I guess mainly and constant input into her skiing i.e. coaching / lessons!

Today I bet there were way fewer injuries on the slopes - why might that be... well I suggest that it could be down to the soft snow... no not that the soft snow makes falling softer but because it leads to more churned up / mogulled snow... this separates the mice from the men in that to ski churned up snow is more difficult (it doesnt stop some people from thinking they are skiing it well by using brute force and 'blasting' their way down the slopes though!) thus quite simply you have to try and ski it better / properly and therefore people will inevitably slow down to achieve that - not that speed is neccessarily linked to more injuries but slowing down allows better technique!

Its also true as I often say to people that 'if you can ski in this (poor weather), then you can ski in anything'. What that means is whilst its nicer heading out only on the blue skies days, doing so is partly massaging the ego of skiing in those conditions and actually skiing in poor weather will force you to work harder and get better so when the sun does come out you will be skiing way better!

Ski lifts.... totally understandably everyone wants value for money and a knackered and old ski lift network is not appealing at all! Investing in new lifts and upgrading them is good and welcome and needed BUT consider the fact that faster lifts with bigger capacities simply spill more bodies onto the slopes every minute making the slopes busier. Furthermore consider the fact that people need periods of rest and thus sitting on a ski lift for just a few mins means you are less rested when you do come to descend a slope.... multiplied over a whole day and you have had much less rest time! So all these 'apparent' and 'obvious' benefits are not always as rosey as you might think. There are lots of assumptions out there... e.g. the buzz word of 'carving' everything... by trying to carve everything it just encourages much faster skiing - not necessarily any better skiing - carving in itself is not a sign of quality of skiing thus quality and technique and ability become blurred!

And finally it did make me laugh (well sort of anyway if I hadn't been rolling my eyes upon hearing this)... a couple of skiers going at slowish speeds on the verte this morning bumped into each other (I hate phrases such as 'taken out' / 'smashed into' etc as they conjure massive exaggerations of what happen often!) / crashed - whatever you want to call it. It was enough to incur a potential injury for both of them BUT what annoyed me was (as I stopped to check they were OK and help them up) one saying to the other 'its OK I dont know how to ski - thank goodness I had a helmet on'.... the other agreed and said 'me too'. Well you know what sherlock this sums up for me what is wrong with this industry that attitude and how using the rationale of the helmet as a safety blanket to mask 'giving it a go' - so frustrating. I bet they would have thought twice about just giving it a go, if it were it not for their 'safety blanket' wrapped on their bonce! Grrrr rant over!

TTFN

A snowHead

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

Kenzie - no idea - some woman who snuck in for a bacon sandwich at The Corner! Smile

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Controlled

There was a little more fresh snow this morning but the temperatures were once again warm. The clouds were (as they have been on and off the last couple of days) to decide if they either want to clear or cloud over. We got sorted and I took the kids up to ski club.

My team were a little late as is the norm and when they arrived there were some sore boot complaints but I think the main issue for them is that they are fatigued at the end of the week. The weather, choppy snow etc all combine to make it a tough and tiring week and when yours truly is working them hard its not surprising its tricky, not surprising they are tired!

Anyway we got going and headed up Solaise... it was choice for them.... either have visibility (well better anyway) but busier and more bumpy pistes towards Bellevarde and Tignes direction OR head Solaise and possibly Fornet way for quieter slopes, less churned up but probably worse vis... you cant have it all! Anyway they chose Solaise and off we went.

A few warm ups on an amazing Madeleine in awesome condition before heading down Arcelle which was also in the VERY best possible condition - ever... it was ace. It was so good I looped around for a second time.

It was then, half way down Arcelle, that it happened... I got controlled. For those who dont know, when teaching in France you are on public land and much like a routine police stop on a UK road and you are asked for your driving license etc by the Police, the French police (well the French Ministry of Sport) have the authority to stop you and ask to see your instructing license! You can be arrested and fined if you cant prove you are licensed by the state with the correct qualifications, authorisation to work and insurance etc. I seem to be the luckiest person ever as today was only the second time 17 years I have been controlled and the last time was back in 2010 I think it was or possibly 2009! Others have been controlled many many times. Anyway so they skied up to me whilst I was teaching, showed their authority ID and asked me some questions, checked my qualifications against their electronic database - which of checked out of course and commented the snow was nice today.

Off they went, all very easy. Quite exciting really all in all!

Anyway we took coffee at the Ouillette which had a problem with their loo's so ended up also having to go to the Lounge to use the facilities there before working on some carving on the Glacier run and taking linch at Datcha. BLIMEY the portions at Datcha were HUGE! I mean MASSIVE. I had spaghetti with meatballs which was lovely and the amount of parmesan cheese on top was eye watering! I mistakenly also took a cheesecake for pudding which I could barely finish but having taken it really had too - yummy too.

The afternoon we tried heading to the up and over direction and found some nice snow heading in the bowl under the gondola but the vis was very changeable! After a couple of hours in there the legs were too tired so we called it a day and headed home!

This evening has been the usual sorting the kids out. Olivia had a nice day (although had a run in with a friend and her parents - whoops) as they all went down to Breviere for a 'free-ski' day out and I think it was nice for them just to be friends who ski! Lucky kids had a yummy lunch down there in the L'Armailly too. Back to the A game tomorrow as they have a slalom race (Chamois) tomorrow and then on Saturday it is over to Tignes for the Super G on the stade - go Olivia go!

Ben enjoyed his ski with friends too. They went to the park and did lots of jumps apparently - he loved it!

So tomorrow I am working (last day) with this booking in the morning and then in the afternoon probably am off and have some meetings and also need to video my weekly snow report too!

The weather tomorrow will once again be mixed.

Im shattered so off to bed.

TTFN

My little champion! She's very proud of having the Val d'Isere eagle on her helmet! Pity she didnt smile in the photo though!

Meanwhile in Val the weather was different to over in Tignes!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

A bit of a bonus

I didnt sleep that well last night for some strange reason but another work day is another work day! Looking out the window it was so uninspiring it really was. The clouds were REALLY thick and there was no way you could see the top of the mountains - yes over the road but that was about it.

The kids were gotten ready for skiing, I got myself ready and then we all headed to the meeting point. I had a sneaking suspicion that they might not want to ski today given the weather - the whole week has not been the best for them in terms of the weather therefore it would not surprise me! Alas about 0830 my phone beeped to say 'lets check the weather but for now we aint coming out'... so at the meeting point I wasnt really waiting for anyone in particular but it was nice to have chats and catch up with people. After the meeting point cleared out, all the kids were off skiing and it was just a few of us left I headed up into the murk, recorded my weekly TDC snow report and then recorded for the clients what the weather was really like up there and sent it to them as I knew it would be the nail in the coffin as far as their decision was concerned. No surprise they decided a massage and some shopping would be a better and more enjoyable morning for them!

I had a short (but slow as you really could not see anything whatsoever) ski down to La Daille and called it a day!

Clare was collecting the kids from ski club (Olivia is having a rest afternoon back here with a friend from Club) and being the taxi driver. Ben is having a fun day with Club im sure and tomorrow Olivia has a Super G race on the Stade in Tignes and having come 2nd last year she is hoping to go one better this year... we shall see.

Ill be collecting Ben from club shortly and im hoping to settle down to a nice evening catching up on TV / watching the GS race in Aspen on TV and maybe enjoying a cold beer as a Friday night treat.

The weather forecast for next week is once again looking very spicy indeed... Sunday could bring a LOT of new snow and intense winds and then whole week could bounce around just like this week - time will tell.

TTFN

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That's the nature of these things

It felt like a normal work day today as Clare, myself and the kids were all up as we were all heading to Tignes as Olivia had a race there. Clare and Olivia had to get out the door first as the rendezvous was at Club at 0845 so as soon as they were off Ben and I saddled up and headed towards Tignes via the La Daille gondola.

The weather was nice and sunny and it was a lovely and quiet on the slopes and Ben and I had a fun ski over to Tignes... Ben skied incredibly well and it was a pleasure skiing with him. We did jumps off the sides of the piste and went through the fun run into Val Claret!

We arrived at the top of the Tignes stade by Merles lift and the kids were doing course inspection but nevertheless it was nice and quiet to have a chat with other parents and enjoy the general excitement of the race. Val d'Isere were drawn last of the clubs unfortunately and therefore with approx 50 sec between each kid departure times and Olivia at bib number 87 it was a long wait until she was to go. So St Foy were first off closely followed by Tignes and even by the time Tignes were going the weather was changing and clouding over and the wind really getting up - a head wind!

Anyway we did a run of lissage and watched Olivias first run and then it was back to the top for the second run in reverse order of course. Once Val had finished their run we all headed to Val Claret and took refuge in the UCPA as one of the parents works there. Simples!

The awards ceremony then took place and there was a lot of controversy as the conditions changed so much in the first 30 mins of the first run that the results were all over the place and all the coaches from all the clubs APART from St Foy were arguing that the times from the second run would be a better way of working out the winning team but since St Foy were set to win with these squeewed results from run 1 they insisted the pre approved format should stand! So ultimately Team Val d'Isere came 2nd - they have won every single competition apart from that in the last 2 years or so so it was about time someone else had a chance!

When the individual results came out the first run results showed some weird things... like virtually all the fastest out of 115 kids were from St Foy - like 70% of the top 20 or something! Normally they have one or two. The other thing was the kid (one from Val) - a boy who normally wins most of the races was down in about 15th position on run 1... anyway I think we can put Olivias 32 place (something like 9th girl or something!) to one side. The second run however was better as she was 2nd girl overall and the fastest Val girl and came 11th out of those 115 kids so much better.

To be honest by the time prize giving was over it was nice to zoom home and Ben had been such a good boy throughout the day playing with a friend at the race even though he was not racing himself! Bless him! So Ben and I on the way home zoomed through some trees and jumps etc and had a nice time although the weather was really failing by the end of the day!

The weather has continued this evening to get worse and worse and the wind picked up and the snow is falling thick and fast. There are lots of weather warnings in place for tomorrow and it will be interesting to say the least. I am teaching in the morning and possibly in the afternoon but it hasn't been confirmed yet! We shall see.

This evening we had a nice family takeaway from Jami delivery over the road which was amazing as always and it will be bed time soon.

TTFN

Harold, Olivias coach gives her skis the last brush up before she races

If ever a Retour d'est was delivering the goods that is evidence of it!

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Rock and roll!

Well as predicted its been one of those day when you are glad to be indoors.

The night however was rather interesting according to Clare as she got up to go to the loo at 0445 and found Ben in front of the TV!!! I vaguely remember hearing Ben and her having an argument along the lines of 'get into bed its the middle of the night'. Anyway I was up as normal at 0700 getting ready for my lesson at 0900 and it was very uninviting out there... I had had my Sunday treat breakfast of eggs on toast all by myself in total calmness (bliss) and even finished my tea before Clare and Olivia (no need for them to get up this morning!) got up about 0800. Ben obviously did go back to sleep thankfully (he really needs a good sleep before going back to school tomorrow!) as it was 0915 before he re-appeared! Wow!!!!

Anyway my am client pulled the plug on the session long before I had even got as far as getting my ski boots out the locker so it was a real treat to have a total family chilled am!

There was some homework by the kids done, Clare cooked up a family favourite of lasagne for lunch and there was also the Ladies Super G race to watch on the tv. A very chilled am.

Outside the weather warnings have continued to build... a lot of snow and wind with avalanche danger building into a 4 day and on the frontier between France and Italy up to a 5. There is a lot of snow falling out there - the vis is non existent and there are limited openings - basically only the lower slopes and they decided to keep (as the winds and snowfall up that side is more significant) the Solaise and Fornet / Pissaillas area totally shut today! With the storm set to intensify tonight before clearing about breakfast time I suspect there will be a LOT of avalanche control work that needs carrying out and a delayed opening. At the same time there will be a lot of people with the sunshine and the first full day of their holidays very excited to get up there!

At lunchtime Ben and Olivias (like them they are also brother and sister) best friends respectively came around for a play... we've just demolished the lasagne and they are now playing Nintendo Sports on the Switch and Ben is off to a birthday party with his friend this afternoon and the girls are taking a swim!

And then this evening it will be full hands on deck to get the kids ready for being back at school tomorrow. Yes even the local school holidays have now finished and we are in for a few calm weeks of early Spring and then before we know it Easter will be on the horizon! In fact I only have 6 weeks left of the season before I put my ski gear away and my mind turns to the building works upcoming.

Anyway as you can imagine it is carnage with a double playdate going on in our small flat at the moment. Ill be back tomorrow for an update.

TTFN

After all it is free

I am seeing photos of the blizzard conditions this evening in Val d'isere.

A real "retour d'est'.

Send some over here to Les arcs would you Toofy Grin

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welshflyer - it sure is - a big one!
belette - sorry were keeping it!!!!

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https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1142940810302195&set=a.718930706036543

Slide in Le Fornet area.

snow reports

GeorgeVII - bonkers eh!

Wowsers

Well day 1 of getting the kids back to school and it was always going to be a bit hectic readjusting to getting up and out of bed for them, breakfast eaten, dressed etc and out the door but despite it being a 0640 alarm call it was OK in the end and they were off back to school. Yay!

Meanwhile the clouds were parting and there was a lot of snow about.... up to 1.2m of snow up at Fornet and even here in La Daille about 40cm... its incredible the retour d'est as there was next to no snow fall in Les Arcs apparently. But basically Val was turning sunny and there was a LOT of snow about! Game on.

I got ready and headed into town knowing it was going to be one of those mornings when it was playing the 'what will open first' and knowing how to read the mountain and conditions etc and what was moving avalanche wise and where etc. So the meeting area was hectic with no cabins on the Olympic (so it would take a while until that opened!) and knowing that even though the Solaise cabins were on it would be VERY limited openings up that side which would not be suitable for my intermediate lesson. With the millions of people at the base area in the town centre the best option would be to head to La Daille so we did that and got up the La Daille gondola pretty much straight away and onwards to the Tommeuse and a warm up run towards a currently closed Marmottes. The Edelweiss piste was somewhat bumpy already with all this fresh snow.

Anyway I was pretty chuffed with myself as I knew the Marmottes lift would be about to open and open in front of us it did... so we headed up and got a few laps on the various pistes from the top of Marmottes lift back down again. Perfect. Lovely groomed slopes and not lumpy yet. Of course later in the lesson it did get churned up!

I took lunch under the Sun Bar (blimey it seems like ages since I was last eating there!) and then my pm lesson was a guy who wanted to work on more challenging conditions such as (handily) either narrow / ice / bumpy etc pistes... perfect afternoon for it.

So by now the Olympic was open so we headed up there and did more variations on the Marmottes / Fontaine Froid etc - perfect afternoon! With all the people and fresh snow the pistes were as lumpy and bumpy as you could possibly imagine. We downloaded on La Daille gondola to finish.

This evening has been a return to getting the kids to do their homework and getting them showered etc and into bed - ah back to that old routine!

Anyway I still cant believe there was 120cm of fresh snow up towards Fornet today - insane amounts. They didnt get much open Solaise and certainly Fornet / Pisssailllas way at all today - a LOT of sorting / avalanche clearance / lift digging out etc to be done! Things were made worse with a large slide coming down from above the Mangard piste, stripping out a large swathe of trees down past the Edelweiss restaurant and towards the bottom of the Mangard piste - blimey!

With the amount of snowfall we have had EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE was trying to get out there today. Bearing in mind its still school holidays and more people came UP from the valley (e.g. people from Les Arcs etc) to ski our slopes today AND only about 50% of Val opened today it was RAMMED and I mean RAMMED up there today. It was definitely the busiest day of the season given what could open e.g. Marmottes and Borsat (when it finally opened late am!) had stupid long queues. See photos!

Not much to report from the town council meeting today BUT IF YOU DO ONE THING TODAY HAVE A LOOK AT MY INSTAGRAM STORY FROM TODAY - @STEVEANGUSNOW - AND CHECK OUT THE VIDEO OF THE HELIBOMBING RESULTS ON THE RIDGE ABOVE CUGNAI TODAY - HOLY SH*T. Incredible!

Anyway folks TTFN - weather tomorrow should be OK before more snow coming back in later tomorrow - eeek!

HOW many people are trying to get on the bus from down here in La Daille this afternoon - blimey!

You could put a new piste in now off the sides of Mangard piste after todays slide!

See what I mean!

This was the biggest queue ever seen at Borsat - also notice how bumpy all the pistes were this afternoon too!

You know it makes sense.

That slide photo prompted me to have a look at the piste map - I see Mangard has been upgraded to red on this year’s map, anyone know why?

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

A snowHead

It was crazy busy out there today(even over lunchtime) not just the slopes and lifts but also in town.
Bonus was the challenging conditions meant the vast majority of skiers controlled their speed.

A snowHead

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Very sobering. When a car hits an established tree, sometimes a bit of bark comes off the tree. A whole swathe of established and tightly packed woodland has been completely obliterated.

The forces involved must have been huge, and chances of survival if anyone had been caught in it.....zero.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Frosty the Snowman, indeed, very sobering and immense natural forces on display. Even being caught by the falling woodland debris could cause serious injury or fatality.

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Aitchotee - dont think it will have taken you a whole evening as there is not that many changes! Toofy Grin

Frosty the Snowman / sno trax - totally. I always remind people that slides can look quite benign BUT... imagine an area of snow the size of a squash court a metre deep sliding. A cubic metre of dense avalanche snow weighs 1000kg (its water basically isnt it!). So that squash court area moving weights circa 50 tonnes im gonna say.... thats an articulated lorry of weight coming at you!!!! Moving at 1mph could break a leg or whatever but moving at 50mph and even a tree probably hasn't got a chance.... A football pitch area is expentionally more powerful if it gets up momentum - hey presto. Have you seen my instagram post of the PIDA slide next to Cugnai chair yesterday - WOW just WOW!

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

What's the weather doing

It was looking very sunny and nice out there first thing this morning and getting the kids off to school was certainly easier than it was yesterday - phew!

I headed to the meeting point to meet my group. I dont often run proper 'groups' these days but today I had a group of 5 people who mainly did not know each other. Thats our offering at group lessons as a ski school! Anyway I am running the mornings this week a 'Discovery' group so basically OK on blue pistes when in good knick and onwards!

A diverse group of men and women including an Irishman as well as a guy from Spain. Anyway after establishing what their goals and abilities etc were we set off up Bellevarde and the weather was looking OK - a mix of sun but also a band of cloud floating about - could not decided what it wanted to do!

The pistes had been amazingly well groomed overnight so it was game on as we set off for a lap of the green triangle and worked through some of the fundamentals that the group needed to polish up! Apart from the Borsat piste not being pisted overnight it was amazing up there and the group made some nice changes! There is quite a split (as always happens in groups being self selecting!) and have person including someone who has done some BASI training stuff before through to someone very very new to skiing. We had a mix of sore feet and someone dropped out of the session half way through but generally it was a positive session and one guy has actually booked an additional private lesson with me on the back of it on Friday after the group finishes on Thursday! The weather meanwhile played ball more or less!

This afternoon I have been doing admin at home and watched the weather move in more and more. There is a fireworks show / kids torchlit descent and general snow front event down here on (for some reason) the Star Wars theme this evening. Meanwhile I am about to head into town for a beer with a friend of mine I used to mentor through his ski instructor exams and then ill be home maybe in time to see the show (if the weather doesnt spoil it as is threatening at the moment as it is now snowing hard once again!) and get the kids into bed. Ben has judo this evening so Clare will be with Olivia trying to get her to do her homework whilst im out!

Tomorrow the weather should be OK once again the morning before closing in once again in the evening. Clare is taking Olivia to Bourg to see the orthodontist so ill be on house husband duty and she is also collecting a large food shop so not sure when ill get tomorrows blog done!

TTFN

There were moments when could not see a lot this morning!

Ive put this photo in to demonstrate how using your eyes is important! On the right looking there was a small skier triggered slide you can see... today people have chosen to ski the same line (lookers left in this photo) and moved a bigger slide next to the chair on the left of this photo! Lucky people! Be careful people!

Loading up the Solaise gondola with supplies for the Refuge!

After all it is free

Any Snowhead stuck on the Mont Blanc chair late on Monday evening? I see 64 passengers had to be lowered down by a team of 33 STVI and STGM climbers. It took 1 hr and 40 mins which is a sobering thought given it’s a low chair with not that many folks on it. Just imagine a full Tommeuses late in the afternoon (especially just after Folly chucking out time!). One of the reasons I carry a space blanket.

There was once we got very wet in Les Contamines (one of those days) and this oldish chair stopped for about 5 minutes. Our kids were quite young at the time and it is was quite worrying!

We've all seen the movie right Shocked

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