 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi folks, I've taken the bold step and booked flights to Grenoble (Ryanair £70 return pp Liverpool - great deal), we are staying at the MMV Club Bergers which we stumbled upon in a desperate search for a hotel that does double rooms for myself and girlfriend and a mate and his girlfriend.
Can anyone post advice/experience for this resort? - especially the hotel - we have managed to get full board for £440 ski in/out.
any help appreciated as always. Hoping the snow conditions improve for y'all whereever you may go!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Pedro del torro, There are masses of varied runs there, even over this Xmas the skiing was fine. Do go up the Marmotts gondolas which are near Les Bergers & then take the new cable car to the glacier, some really good skiing up there with fantastic views. Henri sports in Les Bergers centre are really friendly & offer a good service. If you want some insturction you could do a lot worse than speak to British Masterclass who are really good. Have a great time. 
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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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Not much help, but my son had a great week there over New Year, good snow, fresh powder and some good runs. Obviously, he hasn't much of a clue where he went, but he enjoyed it a lot.
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Some great skiing down to oz en oisans. One of the mountain side restaurants does an evening menu and you get up there by piste basher. Lovely food-sorry can't remember the name o the restaurant  Its the one at teh first stage of the three stage bubble up to the top.
Take the scare chair. This is the skiing "over the valley". Couple of great red runs to have a blast down.
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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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Great resort. Make sure you get over to Oz and Vaujauny - great skiing there.Also, make sure you ski the longest black run in the world -think it's called La Sarenne. Not that difficult after the first steep bit. I think it's graded black due to length rather than incline.
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Was there last year, just to echo what others have said.....give the Sarenne a go, not too hard at all and nice to say you've done the longest black. Also the 'scare chair' as Dan100 calls it, good to get over to the other side of the valley plus and an interesting little ride to say the least.
Also, would thoroughly recommend Masterclass. Out of our group about 10 of us (of different levels) had lessons with them and all thought they were great.
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Excellent responses as always folks, yep pretty much lookin forward to it now. Three weeks and i'm there. Looks like the best resort for what i'm lookin for, girlfriend is caustious intermediate and we have a newbie in the group apart from that myself and my mate will have a crack at most runs, braved morzine last year in tough conditions soooo this should be easier looking at the maps. But yeah, will definately take a one on one lesson. Looks like a dusting of snow is predicted for tomorrow, so another substantial dump will be great. Can't complain at moment as most of europe is struggling.
Unsure about hotel at the moment - seems to be mainly aimed at the French which could be a good thing I suppose.
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I really enjoyed ADH on the 2 consecutive visits our group paid (2004,2005). I think its an underrated resort. Great terrain and loads os slopes to discover. Sarrenn is not hard but should be done as it is in good conditions very enjoyable. Be careful with the tunnel run as that is a bit fiesty.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Been twice. Good black runs and 2 reds called La Balme and Le Canyon which should be black. Sarenne Gorge and Le Tunnell are fab. If you want a good lesson try Mastercalss Ski School. British instructors and excellent. Few years since I've been but the underground was always the best for apres. Monutain retaurants are ok - typical french big resort, general ESF instruction was awful (reported from members of our group with 3 different instructors - they just want to teach french kids to ski fast).
Advice - get your skiing done early. Much of the resort is south facing and gets slushy later onif its warm.
All in all a good resort with varied terrain and some serious lift served challenges as long as you don't mind pushing with the most ignorant of french kids for the lifts, particularly on the bottom lifts. Just stick your pole between their skis and your elbow in their nose and they soon stop pushing 
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Was there over Christmas and enjoyed it very much. Make sure everyone goes up to Pic Blanc to see the views! We were on half board in the Royal Ours Blanc so can't recommend much in the way of restaurants except that one night we went out to Lounge 21 for a change and we had a fantastic meal. With more food than we could possibly eat and quite a bit of drink, it cost 135 euros plus tip for the 4 of us. On the other hand, if you want a really cheap but good pizza you can't go wrong at Pizza Roll on Avenue des Jeux (opposite the ice rink).
There's a bar at the Bergers centre (just opposite Man Sports) and the guy there is quite a character. Wear your favourite football shirt there and see what happens!
Husband, daughter and myself (beginners, sadly) were lucky to have a really enthusiastic & conscienscious ESF ski instructor called Stephane C. I can still hear him saying "I show you" before we tried anything new. And he brought up a picnic of wine, cheese, meats & bread for lunch one day. Really good guy. Son was happy enough with his Class 2 instructor, though didn't feel challenged enough. He probably should have gone for Class 3 but ESF put him with a group of teenagers and he liked them all so didn't want to change. We got daughter & son a private snowboarding lesson at lunchtime on the last day and they thought that was really helpful.
And yes, mind out for the kids in the lift queues, but if you challenge them politely they'll step back!
Most of all, enjoy the 21 hairpins up and down, they take about 35 minutes each way 
Sandra
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Just back from Alpe d'Huez, only my second week skiing, but I was with a mixed ability group.
Glad you are not going out there today, as the rain on Thursday has ruined a lot of the lower runs; anything below 2100 is really suffering.
It did come down as snow, just about, above that level (ie above DMC 1), but unfortunately both the DMC and the Marmottes Gondolas were shut nearly all day yesterday due to high winds; we did manage one trip up to Marmottes level 1 at about 4pm, and, as hardly anyone had been up there, the snow was OK.
Unfortunately it is so mild there that they can't even use the snow canons most nights, and the runs down into the resort were more suited to water skiing than anything else by yesterday afternoon. A lot of the longer runs (the resort proudly boasts 4 runs that total over 8000m vertical drop) are obviously not open at the moment, I think the Sarenne was shut all week. Our instructor took us as low as 1350 one morning (down to Oz en Oisans as recommended above), but it involved a red run with a drop of 700m that was slush the entire way down, and until the temperatures start to drop dramatically the chance to create new snow, especially at the lower levels, is somewhat limited.
Assuming the wind isn't a problem though, you can get up onto the glacier, which provides a variety of runs from blues to blacks.
With regard to ESF, myself and one other had morning lessons (Class 1 I think, but I can't be sure as I didn't book it!), which, whilst very enjoyable as our instructor (David G) was keen to get us out and about the mountain, I was a little surprised by a group size of 12 or so for a second year skier, compared to the 3-5 in the beginner group I had last year in Courchevel. While I was glad that he had us skiing reds by the middle of the week, a couple of the less confident skiers asked to be moved down a class as they felt a little out of their depth.
The tunnel is a real challenge (according to my mates), but again it wasn't open for much of the week. There are plenty of other challenges for lesser skiers too; I left happy after skiing Poutran (only a red, but not the easiest red in the resort) really well yesterday afternoon in my last run of the week, after making a real hash of it in ski school earlier in the week.
I think the resort has a lot to offer most skiers, but, like most places, is not really at its best at the moment.
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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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i love adh but i find it very very expensive compared to serre chevalier.
I was there on thurs and had a great days riding mainly in a white out and ended the day cracking my ribs but it was oh so worth it.
I'm sure you'll have a great time
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i syaed at MMV Club Bergerslast year
you wont get anything closer to slopes there
basically you can ski in/out from there
gotta go to Oz and Vaujauny
take the scare chair over the other side
theres alot of good runs over there and try to take the 2 seat chair back up(be careful as it nearly spits everyone off!!) 
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You know it makes sense.
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To snowangel... France is expensive full stop. Try Austria or Italy which both offer much better VFM!!!
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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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ADH..........just 300 days to go...............wishing the year away!!!!!!!!!
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Poster: A snowHead
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nigel b, what was the food/accomodation like in the MMV Nigel?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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excellent -only thing I need to know is if our hotel is good for food, we have got full board
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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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We ate out every night. We stayed in the Quartier des Bergers apartments.
Lounge 21, good but seemed expensive. Ate there 2 nights
Smithys - Good grub as well
they are both beside each other up in the middle of the town somewhere.
Ate in the Pizzeria 2 nights as well, food was dead on and it was just across the road basically from our apartments.
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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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Some buddies of mine are heading over shortly and....... they have a spare bed in a double room. They've booked a package, which I tried to get onto but couldn't as the flight was full. So looked into making my own way over.
I can get flights to Geneva, then rent a car, and head on up. My only worry is would the drive a complete nightmare?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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bananaskin, If you can get flights into Lyon, Grenoble or Chambrey it will make it much easier for you. Geneva is quite a long drive to ADH. From Lyon and Grenoble you also have the option of the local transfer buses which run everyday and are reasonably priced. What date are you looking to come out - if it is Saturday to Saturday there are plenty of TO transfer buses that will also be heading up to the resort that you may be able to get onto?
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| Quote: |
We stayed in the Quartier des Bergers apartments.
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What were they like? I have them booked for New year. Hope they are spot on!!!
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Flight dates for Dublin Lyon don't suit. I'd be heading Dublin - Heathrow - Lyon or similar. Is that worth the trade-off on the car journey?
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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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| Quote: |
Quote:
We stayed in the Quartier des Bergers apartments.
What were they like? I have them booked for New year. Hope they are spot on!!!
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Yeah they were spot on, our group had 5 rooms which held 4 people and one which held 6. 4 room had a bunk bed in a sort of side room and in the kitchen/lounge area had a sofa bed with a pull out bed below it. If you kept the pull out bed up it was fairly tight for space in the area. The 6 man room had a bunk bed in side room, a double bed in another room then the main louncge are which had sofa bed and pull out bed.
All rooms had kictchen with small cooker, coffee maker, dishwasher and plenty of plates, glasses cuterly etc.
I heard no complaints from any of our group
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cheers for that!!!!!!!!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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anyone else going to adh on the 3rd feb! i cant wait!!
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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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| Pedro del torro wrote: |
| nigel b, what was the food/accomodation like in the MMV Nigel? |
the accomodation is spot on
i think they done some food but not at the times to suit us
whenever i go back there i will try to stay there again
always went out to try different places for food
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You know it makes sense.
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I'm out to ADH on 24th as well. There is a day in Les Deux Alps included in the skipass and a coach company does the run on Weds and Thurs for 6 Euros.
I have heard that its possible to go by helicopter for around 60 euros. Truth or urban myth anyone?
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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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I'm in Le Grave on the 23rd for a week
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Poster: A snowHead
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sproggski, Truth. It goes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and is 59 Euros return. Make sure you book early as it is very popular!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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SnowGod, a bit of a generalisation don't you think? Snowangel lives in France, in Serre Chevalier, so is unlikely to go to Austria or Italy to ski on her day off.
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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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JT, I'm jealous (as long as it keeps snowing for you). I climbed La Meije 15 years ago, long before trying skiing, so the thought of skiing down to the Lautaret road is romantic in the extreme.
I know the Refuge de Chantel itinerary is reddish in difficulty but what about the line that follows the gondola more closely (under the Rateau glacier and above the large icefalls)?
If its not too treacherous, I guess its an alternative to a day a LDA.
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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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sproggski,
I'm hoping the big storm in the east coast of the US will hit the alpes next week.
Should make a day over in ADH and L2A. I have neved been to La Meije so will get to see those routes and some..I hope
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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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So, are any Snowheads going to be in ADH the week after next?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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YES YES YES !!!!
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FAQ
