LIVE TR: Val Thorens UCPA 1st to 8th April 2023

A snowHead

So the time has come. I'm in the cab en route to CWL, ready for KLM to take me to GVA, and Ben's Bus to VT.

Booked about 6 weeks ago, and from what I can see it looks as if I've been relatively lucky with the timing and the snow. My third trip of the season (i hope not my last), and my first with UCPA, booked in part because of recommendations on here: thanks, all, for your advice. I think I've even managed not to pack too many clothes.

Looking forward to reporting on the UCPA centre, the course (advanced off-piste) and of course the skiing. But first I have a long day ahead of me, probably with a substantial wait in GVA between arrival and the transfer departure.

A snowHead

I'd forgotten how much I like traveling from Cardiff Airport: through bag drop and security in seven minutes from getting out of the cab.

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

Hey, I just got here myself, see you soon I guess. This place is nuts, it's enormous! It's looking good out there too.

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Arrived shortly after 10pm. Reception was closed, with my keycard in an envelope telling me to check in properly in the morning. There was still a salad and cold meat buffet out for latecomers, which was much appreciated! Looking forward to getting onto the slopes tomorrow!

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After all it is free

So, a relatively light first day, after arriving shortly after 10pm (check in involved collecting a keycard in an envelope with my name on it; & there was a salad and cold meat/cheese buffet out for latecomers).

Glorious conditions this morning. Didn't get onto the slopes until 10am, as i was waiting for people who were a little slower to get kit. I was given Rossignol BlackOps Senders (178cm/104mm), which were beautiful off-piste, although didn't handle quite as responsively on-piste as the (admittedly narrower) QSTs I used in January.

Beautiful sunny morning to enjoy the fresh snow. Just a warm-up day, really, so took it fairly easy, and I acquiesced to going back to the Centre for what was for me a very early lunch at about 12:30. Conditions after lunch were less pleasant, as the cloud had come in: to say the vis was crap high up would be an understatement, and below the light was pretty flat. Over in Orelle there was a good deal less cloud, but the aspect meant that there was a good deal of slush. We mostly did laps of Cascades to make the most of the better vis lower down. By the time we got off the slopes it was snowing lightly: don't know if we'll have much more tomorrow, but what's off-piste now is still pretty dry and soft, higher up at least.

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Apologies: I've been pretty poor at updating this.

Monday started with harmonization for a couple of runs, then we spent the morning off-piste, mostly down from Cime Caran. Still lots of lovely, untracked snow. Afternoon was transceiver training: individual searches in a corridor, one or two burials each. A couple of us went for a ski afterwards, up Boismint and then down a little more quickly than we needed to be able to make it back to the UCPA Centre without a walk.

Tuesday (which happened to be my birthday) was quite something. Started with yet more fresh tracks down from Moutière and Boismint, then up Cime Caran and down to Plan de l'Eau via (and over) the (thawed) Lac de Lou. Over to Orelle in the afternoon, where the vis meant we couldn't do what was planned. Had the embarrassment of falling out of a chair (while getting on) on the way back, and I ducked out of the second run down past Lac de Lou with a very mild concussion from being hit on the helmet by the passing chair.

Free morning on Wednesday, mostly cruising down from Cime Caran before lunch, and enjoying the relatively empty pistes (also ducking off the side a fair amount). The afternoon was a surprisingly realistic rescue drill: we turned up to find our guide rôle-playing a clueless skier who'd lost an unknown ('there were maybe five of us') number of his group in an 'avalanche'. I think it was all of our first simulation (beyond just digging out a backpack): we (six of us) recovered the four bags (all containing transceivers) in 18 minutes, & I for one was remarkably invested in the survival of the fictitious bodies represented by the backpacks. Still managed to find some untracked very good snow afterwards, even though it's not snowed since Saturday.

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Today was quite something. Started by heading down to Les Ménuires: the plan was to do Point de la Masse, but reports were of poor snow so we went across to Méribel, where we found some lovely snow through the trees before the main event: over to Courchevel and a long run with some very pleasant spring snow down the Vallée des Avals before stopping for lunch (before polling/walking out). Then up Pyramides followed by a hike up the ridge (which on that side is mostly stones by now) before skiing down the shady side, where the snow is still very good: soft, dry and not overly tracked. Then home for dinner (mostly to the side of the pistes) via a couple of cocktails at Tango.

snow reports

Another fantastic day. Spent the morning in the Méribel Forest, for the sake of visibility more than snow quality, although we still found some good untracked lines, albeit through some fairly hard crust. It snowed pretty hard all morning, and brightened up at lunchtime as forecast (the forecast was for 5cm, and that felt pretty accurate, but I've not seen confirmation), so the morning was about a mixture of practice and survival; we seem to have passed.

By 2pm it had cleared up a good deal, & we did a couple of runs down in Méribel before returning via Côte Brune to a descent into VT via a few excursions through about 5cm of untracked fresh snow. It was good enough that I'd happily have gone up again had the lifts still been running, but they weren't, so we retired to Tango for a couple before returning to the Centre for a debrief and dinner (& drinks).

Bus leaves at 13:45 or so tomorrow, so a good deal of skiing to be had in the morning: and there's a lot of untracked fresh snow to be enjoyed.

A little over three hours' skiing this morning, including a fair amount of off-piste in Orelle (two boarders from the equivalent group to mine went off to redo a line they'd done with their instructor a couple of days ago, between the top of Bouchet and the Col de Thorens, but I wimped out as i wasn't comfortable doing it unseen without a guide, with people who'd only done it once before). Came back over to VT instead, and spent the rest of the morning doing a mixture of on- and off-piste in all directions, before returning to the UCPA centre to finish packing, clear up and have a quick lunch before the transfer left. Now queuing for check-in at GVA, after a very, very satisfying week. Will try to write up the experience as a whole later on: all being well I'll be in bed before midnight.

You know it makes sense.

People might be interested in your comments on the UCPA centre itself.

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

The Centre is quite something. Two huge round buildings connected by a bridge, a little way down from Val Thorens itself. Action Outdoors sell a Ben's Bus transfer, which stops just by the track to the Centre (about a five-minute walk), as do both Altibus and the regional bus to Moutiers (all three rocked up at the same time this afternoon, as well over fifty of us were trying to leave at about 13:30). So getting in and out was pretty easy.

I was in a four-person room, as was everyone else I spoke to. Functional, clean, big enough not to be cramped (including while all kitting up at the same time). En-suite loo and shower, which was a pleasant surprise. Earplugs definitely needed, as is a sense of humour and perspective, which one roommate seemed to lack (for example: although he snored far more loudly than anyone else in the room, he denied this and complained about others' snoring). The room also smelled pretty strongly, even though a couple of us did our best to air it regularly; four people's ski kit in a small space isn't the most pleasant. This not a complaint (it won't stop me going back either there or to another Centre) but you have to be able to deal with it.

Food was good. Not amazing, but good, and certainly better than most things I've had on that scale and at that price point. There were a few complaints from people who'd been earlier in the year that it had been a good deal better in January: apparently the kitchen team hasn't changed since then, so it's most likely a reflection of higher costs of ingredients; I'm expecting price rises next year. Quantity control and timing were a bit off: sometimes new dishes would arrive midway through a service, or run out more quickly than anticipated. None of this mattered a great deal, and the only complaints I heard were from the aforementioned perspective-lacking roommate, so take those with a pinch of salt. At the start of the week dishes were labelled with names and dietary restrictions; for some reason this stopped midway through the week. There was plenty for vegetarians, as far as I could tell there was enough for vegans to eat, and the one coeliac i spoke to reported that there were always plenty of gluten-free options if eating in, but that one needed to bring one's own bread (and/or plastic containers) if taking a picnic. I'm strictly (or indeed adventurously) omnivorous, and always found plenty of tasty things to eat.

Everything was pretty well organized. Not wanting to queue for hours for kit, I took my boots to the ski shop ten minutes before it opened at 8:30. By the time it did there were two or three people queuing, and even by the time we lefta shade before 9:30 the wait didn't look long. That said, by the time we came back for lunch people were queueing up the stairs and the wait looked a good deal longer.

Location is great: ski in, ski out, just off the piste below TSB Les Deux Lacs, and a nice simple run down to Moutière and Boismint. Easy to pop back for lunch if in VT (also easy to get delayed by doing so as the cheese board and even the ice cream freezer pose something of a temptation). Also very easy to get back to if stopping for a drink on the slopes or in town. I think some people got a cab into town for a meal out, but I didn't see the need to.

Our group gelled really well. 7 of us to start, reduced to 6 by a day-1 injury (a broken ankle on a jump at the end of the day). Late 20s to mid-50s, skewed towards the younger end (I'm in the middle of that, but was i think the second oldest). One French, two Belgian (the only two who knew one another in advance), one Kiwi, two Swedes (one of whom I was also rooming with) and me. Instruction (with consent of the Francophones) in English, with some individual conversations in French (plus the occasional comparison of words in Dutch, German, English, Swedish). Compatible standard (some tidier than others), and very friendly. I've said to them all that I'd happily ski with any of them again, and it looks as if a good number of us might book on a trip together again or self-organize something. Certainly i feel more warmly towards everyone in the group than has been the case on previous trips.

Great on-snow experience, and everyone made an effort to get along (or maybe some didn't have to). There are things that ideally I'd have done differently (e.g. I like a quick coffee stop at around 10:30/11, but no one else did, so i went without; and we certainly tended to lunch earlier (12:30–13:45/14:00 or so) than would be my norm, and for longer than i would if stopping before 14:00 or so). & I'm sure that's the case for everyone: the most important thing being that no one complained or argued. And we laughed a good deal, on and off the slopes.

Of course, it's easier to have fun when conditions are that good, and the skiing really was amazing (so much so that I'm reconsidering my plans for a late-April/May trip in case it can't hold a candle to this one). But everything was done in good humour: one of us grumbled a little at having to do a second avalanche drill on the Wednesday afternoon, but raved about it afterwards, because the scenario and the interaction was a real learning experience. And we got some good skiing in afterwards, too.

Between the ski group and those i was rooming with (& those they'd met on the bus or were skiing with) we formed a group of people who hung out together, skiing together in different constellations on the free mornings. Not a particularly tight group (well, i suppose we were quite tight when skiing back from Tango after three cocktails) but at most meals I sat with some people from that configuration. That meant there were huge numbers of people i didn't meet, possibly for want of effort on my part. There were a few groups: Parisians, Swedes (the Swedish booking agent creates a WhatsApp group for all participants), for example, but none seemed rigid or impregnable. I'm a little surprised i didn't get to use/practise my French more, but I could certainly have put more effort in (& in a group with more Francophones it would have been easier).

There was cake in the foyer on returning from the slopes, and the bar was generally busy, and served a good range of snacks (including charcuterie and cheese platters). Good range of bottled (& tolerable range of draught) beers, wine at around €20 a bottle, give or take. The organized activities were surprisingly fun. The two 30-minute yoga-like stretching sessions at 17:30 and 18:00 were pretty well-attended (and very helpful). As for the rest, there was no pressure to participate: I got an early night the first two or three nights, before having great fun making a tit of myself doing karaoke (i believe there's video evidence, but I really don't want to see it!).

So, yeah, i had a fantastic time, and would recommend it to anyone travelling alone or in a small group and looking for more company and willing to make friends, as long as you're willing to deal with negotiating other people in ski groups and dorms. That'll do for now: i might write more about VT if people are interested. Also happy to answer any questions anyone might have about the Centre or the course.

Travel update: we're about to push back from AMS en route to CWL, currently (touch wood) no sign of delay.

A snowHead

@jmr59, what a great report! Thank you.

A snowHead

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

I also meant to say it's beautifully written.

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Great report. Thanks!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@jmr59, thanks for taking the time to write your reports.
I'm a boarder who doesn't go to France (anymore), so probably won't go on a UCPA trip, but still found your notes really interesting.

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Thanks, all. *takes a bow*

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LIVE TR: Val Thorens UCPA 1st to 8th April 2023

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