 Poster: A snowHead
|
Resort: Montgenevre
Country: France plus a bit of Italy
Domain: Monts de la Lune (Montgenevre plus Claviere)
Date: 14th-21st Feb 2015
Logistics: 2 adults, 2 kids (12 and 11). Premier Inn near Manchester Airport on Friday 13th, Jet Parks parking, Jet2 to Turin, private transfer to resort, staying in the 4* Hameau des Airelles via Peak Retreats. Lift passes booked direct only. Ditto skis via Skiset. Lessons for kids via Peak Retreats.
Cost: Approx £4.5k all in, excluding food whilst there.
Notes: Embarking on Friday 13th should have hinted at something. Private transfer company will remain anonymous at this stage.
Skiing: It snowed heavily the afternoon we arrived and then pretty solidly from the first afternoon through to some time in the small hours between second and third day. 8 inches of snow in the town at breakfast on day 2. Blue skies and pleasant warmth thereafter on well groomed pistes.  All pistes were challenging on the first two days due to there being shin high powder all over the place. Once groomed, most pistes were enjoyable rather than particularly challenging, which suits me. Mrs Snowplough was able to get more of a challenge skiing through trees etc with the kids. So all in all, something for everyone I'd say. One of the boarder cross courses and a nearby natural half pipe were on the decidedly hairy end of things if you picked up speed.
Lift system: Takes a bit of sussing out, particularly with kids in lessons with drop-off/pick-up points at different parts of town. Once sussed, however, it seems pretty good, with high speed 6-man chairs at key points, reasonably fast 4-man chairs elsewhere, with tactically deployed draglifts serving snowparks and boarder crosses.
Half term queues: Awful. No-one should ever contemplate MontyG at half term. Except in years when I'm not going back. 
Lessons: Both kids were in with general purpose ESF lessons. We took a punt that at half term there'd be some other English kids around, and so it proved, with one compatriot for each. Elder daughter was in "Mini Champion", which <<Proud_Parenting_Alert>> is what you do after the Gold Star <<End_Alert>>. This was only offered in the end of town where we weren't staying, so we had a short bus ride each morning. Younger daughter was in the Gold Star group. Both instructors spoke good English, one being almost fluent. Language difficulties arose solely from the Frenchies comprising 80% of each group, so much of the chatter was obviously in French, though tuition was done in both languages.
From what I saw whilst cruising in the mornings, Mini Champion appears to involve straightlining it down black runs or disappearing into power or trees. Not my thing, but Elder daughter had a blast!
<<Another_Proud_Parenting_Alert>> Despite failing the timed slalom test by a second or so, younger daughter's technique demo so impressed the instructors that she was awarded the coveted golden gong all the same.<<End_Alert>> Thanks to the Skiing Gods for such benevolence.
Drink and Victuals: There are two pricey supermarkets in town, which are just about adequate. Restaurants abound in the town. Where MontyG stands out is the number of establishments providing ready meals such as chickens cooked to order, lasagne, meatballs, paella etc. We only ate out once in the evening as a result, as one such establishment, the Cocquimarket, was about 30s walk from our boot room. As such, an evening meal for 4 inc. drinks and pudding could be had for 30 or so Euros instead of 60 or so eating out. The bakers about 30s further down the road was also a quality gaff, with standard setting levels of custard in the pains aux raisins.
Mountain restaurants on the French side of the mountain were limited in number and in product range. Quality was good and prices the typical 10% more than in town.
The Italian side was awash with restaurants covering a much greater range of meal types at better value. Sadly, due to the constraints of lesson pickups, we only got there on the last day. 
Apres Ski: Other than the Monty Exress luge (1.4k track; 5 Euros a ride for the kids) I can't comment as I'm an old git and like to "après" with a beer in my apartment and be in bed by 10pm. Our end of town (Obelisque) was funereally quite most evenings/nights.
Transport near disaster #1: Sadly, this one was entirely self-inflicted. A series of seemingly innocuous delays ended up with us arriving at Jet2 baggage drop in time (7:28 for 8:05 flight!) for the Jet2 folk to re-open the drop for our flight, chuck our bags down the standby conveyor belt, escort us to the front of security and advise us to run as fast as we could! This we did. I'd never appreciated just how f*cking big Duty Free is. It took an age to get through. How we didn't knock anyone over, I'll never know. Maybe we did.  We got to the gate, hyperventilating to extremes, but amazingly not the last to board the plane. We will never be able to thank the Jet2 folk enough for their help. I took the liberty of ordering a beer, and had downed it by 8:50am, which is a record, even accounting for my youth mis-spent as a student rower!
Transport potential disaster #2: Our return flight was at 12:05pm, and the trip from MontyG to Turin takes at least 75 minutes in good conditions. The transfer company website assures all punters that they will be dropped off at the start of checkin, which for us was 10:05am. We were thus somewhat perturbed to be told our pickup time was 9am, all the more so since snow was forecast. At our request, Peak Retreats contacted the transfer company and we were eventually given a guaranteed pick up time of 8:30am. We were unimpressed, though I have to confess, not entirely surprised, when the car arrived at 9:15am, with the driver reporting he'd already been to Turin from Briancon and the roads were fine. Quite where the 45 minute delay came from I'm not sure. I doubt it was from the driver hanging around on his first trip, as he saw nothing wrong in overtaking round blind corners, braking on the compacted slush in the middle of the road, driving at 120kmh in the snow on the first part of the motorway and 140kmh once the snow had dropped. I'm sure he'd have gone faster, but the car simply wouldn't give any more! Despite being scared witless pretty much the whole journey, we still only arrived just after 10:30am. Fortunately, everything worked OK from that point on, but I was less than impressed with the transfer company blaming half term and snow for the contingency-free schedule. It's not like half term comes as a surprise or snow in the mountains in February is unusual and the service wasn't exactly cheap.
Overall: Great holiday, notwithstanding transport issues. I feel sure we'll return to MontyG some time soon, though possibly having driven ourselves there!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
I'm going in a month with two children though booked with the ESI for lessons and staying in same appartments we have booked via Crystal.
A good write up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Don't worry, it gets better, there will come a time, when the children don't have to go in half term,
but they will want to bring their current partner with them so it never costs any less, you just get to ski in quieter times.
And then it gets worse again, they still want to come with you, but their children can only go in half term, then the cost goes through the roof.
Would I change it? Never. I love being able to ski three generations "en famille". These days this is one of the very few activities where all the generations can connect at the same level.
Having given up trying to keep up with my children, I'm looking forward to when my children give up trying to keep up with theirs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
We were once told that a family who skis together, stays together. We still have to ski in holiday times because of grandchildren, would we change it? Never
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| Quote: |
but they will want to bring their current partner with them so it never costs any less, you just get to ski in quieter times.
|
but not if their partner is a teacher. 
We have three generations of our family skiing together. 2 teachers, so never quiet time, but never half term either. Apart from the cost and the crowds, the two teachers are too knackered at half term to be much more ambitious than wanting a bit more time with the kids, a bit more sleep and at least a couple of solid says of marking and preparation. We find Christmas and Easter much preferable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've skied MG 7 or 8 previously and always liked how quiet the lifts were. Skied there last year with the family at half-term and it was mental.
The problem is the UK half-term is at the same time as French holidays.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When teachers go in half term we need a holiday when we get back. It's a killer going straight back to work (school)!! I'm glad i only work part time so don't go back till tomorrow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Just to emphasise, there were no queues to speak of, even at half term, so long as you avoided lifts/times relating to ski school schedules and lunchtime.
The kids already have the "stay together, ski together" thing sussed. They announced that they won't be coming on summer holiday with us much longer, but will keep coming skiing with us, so we can look after their kids when they have them. My lack of ability on skis is apparently offset by my ability carrying luggage and wielding the wallet at feeding time. We suggested that we will be expecting them to pay for us to go with them, which didn't go down well, though a dispute was headed off by suggesting a trip to the bakers for a cake, followed by a round of "Pass The Pigs". Happy days...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
He obviously hadn't ever used one before! Fortunately that driver went very slowly.
