 Poster: A snowHead
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Having enjoyed other's commentaries I'll give one a go. Off to La Rosiere tomorrow, staying in Les Eucherts in a Ski Beat chalet/apartment and joining friends from the UK that we met in Reberty 3 years ago.
As usual the night before departure finds me stressed, grumpy and with far too much to do. Work didn't finally ease its talons from round my neck until about an hour ago, despite needing to collect mini_mg from her swimming training mid evening, and I got home to the pile of washing up I didn't do yesterday. Cue grouchy, stroppy Dad...never good. On the plus side, mini_mg's shiny new skis are now prepped and ready (with binding trauma resolved), all the kit is laid out and packing will commence tomorrow only half a day late. On the downside, half the films I've ripped to while away the journey are corrupt and won't play so I've got to redo them tonight. To add to the fun, it's snowing (shock, horror, snow in Sweden?! - actually not so common in Gothenburg) so I'm anticipating minor chaos on the way to the airport and I'll have to clear my share of the pavement outside in the morning.
Once we're packed tomorrow, we fly to Zurich then on to Geneva, pick up a hire car (Swiss side, so winter tyres+chains included, fingers crossed) and drive to Albertville to overnight in the Fasthotel there. That leaves a short journey in on Saturday. Have to admit I'm a tad nervous about getting there - not the driving, possible snow or anything, just never having driven into the mountains at peak time I don't fancy the traffic. Hopefully we'll be ahead of the Paris contingent but time will tell.
I'll leave it there for now. Next update probably from Landvetter airport when we've negotiated check in, which is normally the point I start to relax.
Bring on the snow (in France)  
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| mgrolf wrote: |
As usual the night before departure finds me stressed, grumpy and with far too much to do. Work didn't finally ease its talons from round my neck until about an hour ago, despite needing to collect mini_mg from her swimming training mid evening, and I got home to the pile of washing up I didn't do yesterday. Cue grouchy, stroppy Dad...never good. On the plus side, mini_mg's shiny new skis are now prepped and ready (with binding trauma resolved), all the kit is laid out and packing will commence tomorrow only half a day late. On the downside, half the films I've ripped to while away the journey are corrupt and won't play so I've got to redo them tonight. To add to the fun, it's snowing (shock, horror, snow in Sweden?! - actually not so common in Gothenburg) so I'm anticipating minor chaos on the way to the airport and I'll have to clear my share of the pavement outside in the morning.
Once we're packed tomorrow, we fly to Zurich then on to Geneva, pick up a hire car (Swiss side, so winter tyres+chains included, fingers crossed) and drive to Albertville to overnight in the Fasthotel there. That leaves a short journey in on Saturday. Have to admit I'm a tad nervous about getting there - not the driving, possible snow or anything, just never having driven into the mountains at peak time I don't fancy the traffic. Hopefully we'll be ahead of the Paris contingent but time will tell.
I'll leave it there for now. Next update probably from Landvetter airport when we've negotiated check in, which is normally the point I start to relax.
Bring on the snow (in France) |
Looking forward to the report. I've had the stress of work, things not quite coming together, worry. Stay positive, it'll all be worth it once you're in situ 
Never been to La Ros so will be interested to hear how it pans out.
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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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@mgrolf, it’s relatively mild in the western alps at the moment, so hopefully the drive will be trouble free.
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@mgrolf, The traffic shouldn't be too bad early on a Saturday morning setting off from Albertville, it will be more busy going the other way towards Albertville from the resorts. The roads are clear of snow at the moment with no major snow forecast.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
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A brief interlude at Zurich. Concrete and glass airport from yesteryear with endless travelators, tinged with the dread of baggage going astray. Oh the joys of indirect flights.
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@mgrolf, I remember having a really short time between flights at Zurich, sitting in my seat on the second plane and looking out of the window at a truck drive up to the cargo bay with just my bag on it.
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Good stuff - love these Live TRs
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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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Oh it was all going so smoothly, something had to go wrong. Mini_mg losing a tooth as we take off from Zurich is nothing. A minor delay into Geneva doesn't count. We get off the plane quickly, no passport control to hold us up (nice one, Schengen) so straight to the baggage reclaim. Miraculously, bags from Zurich start appearing almost immediately on the belt, and even the 20+ young French football players crowding round the end couldn't stop me grabbing our bags. Skis take a little longer, but appear and we're off. Through the exit, to be faced by a seething mass of humanity seemingly held back only by a glowing red line on the floor. There's no way through, we just have to head for them and hope someone moves. Arrivals chicken anyone? It took some skill to manouevre a trolley with 2 large cases and a double ski bag through this crowd, but we managed. Simple from here: turn right, head for the Jazz cafe and @Admin sorts it from here...except this isn't a bash. Pass the Jazz cafe, do not collect a beer, head for car rental.
Car rental. What could possibly go wrong?
Apparently in Switzerland, it's illegal to fit chains on a four wheel drive. I'm no legal expert, but something doesn't quite ring true there. I point out I'm going into the French Alps, and M. Gendarme may require me to fit chains. Now they can give me chains, but they won't fit, and if I use them and the car is damaged, I pay for the damages. I stand my ground, the rental agreement specifies chains. Next up, they have no chains. No good for me. Finally (after much argument) we settle on a 2wd estate with chains and winter tyres, and hit the road. A minor detour (or two) in Geneva later, and a 90 minute drive gets us to the Fasthotel in Albertville.
Park up, check in, unload car. Hang on a minute, that's a Volvo next to us...with a Swedish plate. Turns out the next people to arrive have driven 18 hours from Malmö. It's a small world.
Tomorrow, to the mountains and hopefully some snow.
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Raining in Albertville. But the weather forecast has the snow line at 1800. Onwards and upwards...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm enjoying your TR, Mike. Strange, you didn't feel like driving yourself to the Alps? 
Best regards to mini_mg and yourself, hope you have a great trip!
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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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Thanks @tomj, I have a good feeling about this one .
I'll keep this one short(ish). Rained most of the way on, but turned to snow as we reached La Rosiere. Traffic was fine, barely any queues. Cars going out were stuck from 5km away from Bourg, to Aime.
Arrived at 10:30, met by our host who helped us in, and had already cleaned our room. Cake on the table, and snow. No, change that, SNOW! Banks at the sides of the road at least 2m high, same on roofs. Lunch, then skiing .
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So, first day report. The chalet (Papillon 1, Ski Beat) is pretty standard. Reasonable size room but as usual a lack of places to store things, hooks, drying space. Hard to judge the view as it's been snowing all day but probably not fantastic. Chalet host seems organised, and resort manager too.
Mini_mg and I hit the slopes after lunch. The conditions are best described as wet white-out, with more white and less wet as we went up. Two runs were enough for mini_mg - skiing legs working, happy with new skis and not liking the vis. So she stopped and I carried on. I skiied Fontaine Froid on the recommendation of our host, beautiful run and totally empty, but it ends with the longest slowest chair ever. With the snow falling more heavily, staying low was the order of the day. So on to the main events. First fall from a chair lift since I darksided 20 years ago. Shuffle forwards, greet the pisteur with a cheery "bonjour", wait for her to flip the seat down. Which she doesn't. Cue panicked attempt to pull it down with sodden hands as the chair bangs into my calves, which fails. So I took the safe option, skated forward and dropped ignominiously off the end of the platform to dodge the chair. The pisteur was mortified; I was too busy laughing to care. Then, skiing back down, I had a bit of a problem with up and down. I was turning hard right, and balancing nicely when the ground came up to meet me, quickly. I was, of course, standing still 
So, good start, and now everyone else is arriving.
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You know it makes sense.
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@mgrolf, Fontaine froide is one of my favourite runs in the alps. Just wondered if there is still a lovely café at the bottom of it..I remember the welcoming aroma of woodsmoke and an enjoyable coffee and gauffre. Glad you were able to move out of the way of the chairlift in time!
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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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Glad it's going well, but am I the only one who doesn't quite understand what went on with the chairlift? What bits are you pulling down?
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Poster: A snowHead
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@endoman, I think they flip up the seats on some of them when it is snowing to stop them getting covered in snow. Not all chairlifts do this though.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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never knowingly seen a chair lift with a flip up seat. Seen lifties with brushes when it's snowing,
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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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@Hells Bells, yep. About half the seats were flipped up. Hardly anyone on the lifts and the lifties were mostly sheltering inside.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Love that run down through the trees .
Try the black (called Ecudets) next time if fresh snow , tends to get less traffic than FF although they join up halfway down .
The little cafe is still there for a quick warm up.
I quite like the slow chair back up , a very peaceful and scenic lift (if the weather is nice!)
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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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@mgrolf, What's for dinner tonight?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
never knowingly seen a chair lift with a flip up seat
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I've seen lots!
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Just back from a week in La Rosiere. We had two great days in the middle of the week. Managed to get over to Italy and loved it over there.- the blue 26 run over is terribly flat in parts and calling it a run is debatable. Once we got over there was a great choice of runs and very quiet over there. I really enjoyed the Fort area in La Ros. The red FF through the trees was a life saver when the visibility was bad which was a reasonably regular occurrence. Had one day where we went up - done the run down and called it a day. All in all it was a very good week skiing
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@red 27, Canapes, tomato tart, beef casserole with savoy cabbage and bacon (yummy), chocolate mousse. Very palatable, and plenty.
Skiing this morning started in a white out, so a timely reminder of all of my basic technique flaws (get forward!) with comedy falls thrown in. Having dispatched various kids to ski school we headed back to Fontaine froid, which sadly wasn't clear this morning. A sedate run down, back up and looping round Roches Noire a couple of times took us to end of lesson time, and lunch.
The clouds are in and out, with a few flakes of snow and occasion glimpses of mountains in the distance. When it clears, it will be stunning, I think.
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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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Strange events on
Turns out that @ronaldothefrog is staying in the same chalet. I know him by another name...
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Whereas @mgrolf insists on being called that at all times....
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
Canapes, tomato tart, beef casserole with savoy cabbage and bacon (yummy), chocolate mousse
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Yummy
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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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Afternoon: laps of Fort, in variable light but some blue sky. Lovely snow and remarkably quiet until late in the afternoon. Plenty of amusement with kids in boot deep powder. First hot chocolate of the week too. Now waiting for dinner.
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@mgrolf, Are you planning a trip to Italy?
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You know it makes sense.
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All sounding good!
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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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@red 27, yes, mid week. Got a day when my daughter doesn't have lessons, and another where she has a full day (going to Italy!) So one or both of those.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Monday is sun day . Woke this morning, feeling a bit rough (nothing to do with the vin de table, haven't touched a drop here) to hear the welcome words from the lounge, "that's more like it". Forced down some porridge and got mini_mg off with the Evo2 bus (to be fair, I didn't do anything except wave) then headed up on nearly the first lift from Les Eucherts. A couple of warm up runs got us to the top of the Fort Express, and with 90 minutes before lesson pick up that gave us time to head into Italy. Bouquetin was fun, if a little chaotic, and then there was Bellecombe. If it was cold, it would be brutal, but in the sunshine it wasn't bad. There's so much snow we could almost touch the cable in places. There was time for a blast down Liaisons and a couple of laps of Longet. Heaven. Very quiet, perfect snow, and bright sunshine . All too soon it was time to head back to La Rosiere to pick up mini_mg, who'd been off-piste skiers left of Lac, all the way down to Le Vaz with her lesson.
Lunch was at the restaurant below the Eucherts Express (typically overpriced and disappointing French mountain food) followed by a chase round the mountain to catch up with friends. We eventually found them on Fontaine Froide (top half lovely poor man's powder, bottom half scrapey hardpack). Rest of the afternoon went up, down, up, down around Fort and Plan de Repos with obligatory chocolate stop. Clouds are just beginning to gather, so maybe snow again tomorrow.
What's amazing is how quiet it is. We've barely had a lift queue longer than 5 minutes, and most of the time we're near enough straight on. I was expecting half term chaos and it's nothing like that.
Tomorrow will be a lazy start, I think, as I've booked on the intro to touring session that starts at 17:00. I fully expect to be broken tomorrow night!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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A lazy start today, walked over to La Rosiere centre with my (non-skiing due to recent back op) wife. It was snowing lightly with the most amazingly perfect small 6 point star snowflakes. Presumably something to do with cold, dry and calm air? Very disappointed with the choice of cafes though, we wanted to have a coffee overlooking the slopes but that didn't seem possible.
I got out just in time to collect mini_mg and her friend from their lesson, then we skiied back to the chalet for lunch (burgers from the Burger Bar in Les Eucherts, pretty good for 10 euros) via the funcross course (baby snow cross) under Plan Repos - very good. This afternoon was more kiddie chaos, in the small snow park, with an early finish for most due to the snow and flat light. It was noticeably colder today too. I stayed out and headed down the black Marcasins below Les Eucherts which turned out to be a mistake. Refrozen scraped hardpack garnished with ice. Not my finest descent but I made it down unscathed. I didn't enjoy the couple skiing right behind me, close enough that I had to keep changing my line mid turn to avoid cutting across in front of them. We were the only 3 on the piste from top to bottom, and it's not exactly narrow, so why follow me so closely? Grrr...
This evening i joined the "intro to touring" session. 25 euros including kit hire and 1.5 hours of instruction seemed like a good way to do something I've been toying with trying for a year or so. I picked up my boots and skis (dynafit somethings, rossignol seek 7s with Look bindings which I think are radical ft2s rebranded). I joined about 25 others (as the sole mad brit) as we flailed around fitting skins, climbed 100m up next to the drag lift and skiied back down. Given my 25 year hiatus since I've done any French, it was lucky I've been around SHs with these funny pin binding things but to be fair the instructors did summarise stuff in english for me when I asked. I suspect I missed some of the extra colour though. Aside from skinning straight up, we had a go at kick turns which provided some light relief for most. The (young) instructor who was leading at this point worked her way through a demo, showing pole position, downhill ski, turn uphill ski, reposition poles, bring new uphill ski round parallel with a kick...except she got something wrong, overbalanced and toppled gently downhill, ejecting from one binding. Somewhat flustered, she got up and demonstrated again, but hadn't clicked back in properly so this time she left the ski behind as she kicked. Poor girl. Sadly we didn't get a chance to try skinning up anything steep enough to need to do turns. With 25 of us and 3 instructors, there was a lot of faff and hanging around but it was well worth doing. Rockered lightweight touring boots were a revelation compared to my heavy alpine boots, and skinning up was hard but not ridiculous. I can't see me doing multi day tours, but a couple of hours to get to somewhere off the beaten track is very possible. More kit needed! 
Dinner...tartiflette. Perfect after an energetic afternoon/evening.
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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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Great report @mgrolf, !!
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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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@mgrolf, jealous re Tartiflette. Never got round to having any last week! Not jealous re touring - lifts were designed for a reason.
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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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@The Flying Snowplough, tartiflette is good skiing fuel
Wednesday was also sun day, and with no lesson it was time to head for Italy. Up Eucherts Express, down Myrtilles (gorgeous corduroy first thing), up Plan du Repos, down Belette, up Fort Express, down Bouquetin and onto Bellecombe. One word: brutal. We missed the signs at the Fort, but apparently the temperature was -14. Add a bit of a northerly breeze, and freeze. Getting off at the top involved un-freezing stuck limbs so we could let go of the buttons. The rest of the morning (along to the Fourclaz Express, up and down to Les Suches) was pretty much ruined by the cold start and after a warming drink at La Foyer(?) halfway up the Chaz Dura express, we headed back to the chalet to warm up.
This afternoon we stayed in and around La Rosiere in the sun, doing a bit of filming, before an early finish for mini_mg. I stayed out to do Marmottes top to bottom (not bad as long as you remember to use the edges of the piste where the snow gets piled up late on), and finished with a couple of laps of the Eucherts express. A decent finish given the morning's disappointment.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| mgrolf wrote: |
| @The Flying Snowplough, tartiflette is good skiing fuel |
I got served my bodyweight in Tartiflette for lunch on the last day during our trip to Vars four years ago. After a respectable period for digestion, I was skiing like a cross between Franz Klammar and Hermann Maier in the afternoon. Or maybe it was a cross between Franz Ferdinand and Hermann Munster, Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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Today, Italy (reloaded). An extra layer and mitts rather than gloves banished the cold, despite bonus extra wind at the top of Fort, leaving me free to enjoy the runs. Black 23 in the Piccolo San Bernardo area was gorgeous, and then the runs down into La Thuile town delivered, aside from red 7 (bottom half was flat, flat and more flat). Visibility gradually got worse through the day, so I headed back to La Rosiere early afternoon. La Ros was windswept, with all the snow blown off the runs around Fort and Eucherts. Marmottes down to Le Vaz was nice though.
Mini_mg had a full day lesson today, which involved hiking up above Bellecombe 2, over the top of Mont Belvedere and then descending down into La Thuile to eventually join the bottom of red 6. Before lunch. To even things up, they then did the blacks into La Thuile in the afternoon including the world cup run (icy, but fun was the verdict).
All in all, a pretty good day
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Penultimate day, and an epiphany (but more on that later). The forecast for Friday was light snow all day, so it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to sunshine and mostly clear skies. Yesterday a pair of Blizzard Brahmas took me for a ride round Italy, before I wrested back control by swapping them for Kendos. I still had the Kendos this morning, so I headed to Ecudets to try the two blacks down there in the hope of finding some challenging snow. Ecureil had been freshly pisted so was somewhat easier than expected. Ecudets was better (or worse): unpisted, hard and a little bumpy in places. The Kendos gobbled it all up and asked for more. So, back to the shop, and swap onto another pair they recommended (a Canadian make, Raccoon?) before collecting mini_mg from her final lesson. The Raccoons were planks. Stable, yes, but heavy and unresponsive. So, we headed home for lunch and another ski swap.
After lunch, we went out with the various hordes from the chalet. It had been windy in the morning but it got windier this afternoon, making the tops of the lifts pretty unpleasant and the pistes mostly scoured. We lapped Eucherts trying to stay out of the wind as much as possible. People gradually peeled away to head home as the wind took its toll, eventually leaving just 4 of us: mini_mg, me, and two other Dads. And so to the epiphany: mini_mg is clearly a better skier than me, at least on hardpack and ice. It's been coming for a couple of years but I can deny it no longer. Now I just try to keep up.
I still have the edge in variable snow and off piste, but that won't last either. My work here is nearly done.
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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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@mgrolf, how old is mini_mg?
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@Layne, 13. I don't stand a chance!
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FAQ
