 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from a family week in Courchevel, so as a form of withdrawal therapy, I thought a brief report would be in order...
Participants
Yours truly, Mrs Snowplough, Elder Little Miss (6) and Younger Little Miss (5 whilst out there).
Logistics
Ski Esprit to Courchevel 1300 (La Praz).
Little Misses booked into Sprite Improvers and Lunch Club
Weather and snow conditions
Sunny for the first five days, then snowtastic on the last day.
A tad warmer than ideal whilst sunny (a couple of degrees above zero at 1850 in the afternoon), so at lower altitudes, the snow was softer than ideal, but basically perfect for on-piste work high up (without kids) and for pleasant afternoon family outings.
Highlights
By a long way, the highlight was seeing the improvement made by the Little Misses. Elder Little Miss was onto blues and easier reds by the end of the week and was attempting parallel turns. Younger Little Miss was into high speed snowploughing on all the greens mid week, and happily tackling the devations off piste through the trees throughfully pointed out by the instructors!
One morning, around 10:30am, we arrived at the top of the Combe de Saulire and it was completely empty! I skied down one side, whilst Mrs Snowlough skied down the other. The only sound was that of ones own skis on the snow. Every other time we did this run, it was quite busy (although still perfectly skiable.)
On a much lower level, I made a few improvements, although this may be due to the skis I had. They were shortish, wide and very stiff and it felt like I was on rails on blue runs!
As always, watching Mrs Snowplough in action was a delight. She's a great mover, and makes it all look so easy.
Lowlights
On the first day, we were on the guided tour with the Esprit rep when one of our number failed to reach the rendevous. We went round again and found him by the side of an innocuous section of a blue run being loaded into the blood wagon with one less functional ACR than he'd had at the start of the day. He was quite philosophical about it, but even so, it was not a good start to the week.
Although not directly relevant to us, some of the kids in the Little Misses' ski lessons seemed to get rather a rough deal. They had the full Esprit childcare package, and whenever we saw them as we returned for afternoon cakes, they did not look happy, particularly as they knew the Little Misses (and a few others) were skiing with their parents in the afternoon. On one occasion, I was walking past the Esprit organised snowman building session with Younger Little Miss after we'd finished for the afternoon as one of their Dads was also walking past. He was pounced on and the anguished pleas of "Please can we go skiing with you in the afternoon like she does?" were clearly audible. It didn't do any good, as the established routine continued. This seems a bit harsh to me. To be in childcare from 12pm (after lessons) until around 5pm knowing your parents are off having fun and other kids are off with their parents just doesn't seem right to me, but maybe I'm a big softy.
Thoughts on ski area
We only has Courchevel passes, as with needing to get back for the afternoon session with the Little Misses, there didn't seem much point having the full 3V pass. As it was, the Courchevel area on its own was fantastic. The run down from the top of the Combe de Saulire through 1850 and then down to La Praz (vertical drop of ~1400m) certainly gave the legs something to think about! The reds from the top of the Chanrosa chair and "Roc Mugnier" were my other favourites. The latter had a steep icy bit in the middle, and it felt good to be able to ski dynamically (if not entirely stylishly) past the piles of bodies that always seemed to accumalte on this section!
The only lift queue encountered all week was out of 1650 when all lifts bar a weedy draglift were shut due to high winds. Other than this, we basically skied straight onto the next available chair. Other than the two-man chairs, we never went up in a full chair all week.
The greens from the top of the Verdons and Jardin Alpin gondolas were perfect for the Little Misses as well. It's hard to overstate the benefits of being able to get so high and have such choice of green runs without needing a chair or drag.
Thoughts on La Praz
If you want somewhere quiet but pleasant with access to the 3V and can stay high all day then this is the place to be! The only noise after around 10pm was the sound of the piste bashers!
For us, it was not ideal with the Little Misses in lunch club. We had to trek across town to collect them from the Esprit "bunker" and then trek back up, and then onto the ESF building to collect kit before walking up to the lifts at 1850. (Younger Little Miss would not ski down from the ESF place to the lifts just below, despite much cajoling!) We dealt with this as much as possible by ditching lunch club and collecting the Little Misses straight after their lessons. At the end of the day, there was also a lot of faffing around involved, and I often ended up walking from the ESF building to the goldola station to get down with a tired Little Miss on my shoulders, in my ski boots, carrying my skis! (I did lose weight on the holiday and the Little Miss did enjoy herself, so it wasn't so bad!!)
For families with much younger kids who had no option but to be in childcare all day, it would be OK.
Thoughts on Ski Esprit
We weren't as impressed as the previous year, largely due to the fact that we'd probably outgrown the need for the majority of their services. We could have booked lessons direct with ESF, so the only service Esprit provided was to collect the kids in the morning and take them to the ESF building and get them "booted up". (This was no trivial service though, as we discovered on the final lesson-free day!)
The chalet host was also not as acquainted with hygiene as we would have liked. His dishcloth would have provided great interest to David Attenborough, and there was no obvious sign of cleaning products in the chalet. Still, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... He was a good cook though, particularly his cakes, and a very pleasant lad to boot.
There were probably too many childcare bods, so at the supervised childrens' tea, the three or four on duty would gravitate towards talking to each other rather than supervising the children. They were all very pleasant though and the Little Misses took a real shine to a couple of them.
Our favourite was a man called James Hewitt. We took to referring to him as "The Major" (or even the "Galloping Major" after a few glasses of wine!) but the Esprit mob were all too young to have heard much about his namesake's dalliance (alleged or otherwise) with the Peoples' Princess so this remained an "in chalet" joke!
Overall
Top holiday. Want to go back a.s.a.p!
Next year, we will seriously consider the independent option. We've done a lot of independent travel previously, so I don't think it will be beyond our collective wit to arrange transport, accommodation and lessons with English speaking in instructors ourselves. The Little Misses would rebel if we suggested they went back into childcare at the expense of time skiing with us, so childcare isn't something we need to arrange again!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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He was pounced on and the anguished pleas of "Please can we go skiing with you in the afternoon like she does?" were clearly audible.
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How sad! You do wonder why some people have kids.
Great report - you must be delighted with the Little Misses skiing. Sounds like you'd have no problem at all with an independent holiday which could be a lot cheaper. But an "ordinary" catered chalet would probably also be a good bet, with some company for all ages.
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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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The Flying Snowplough, we have used this company in La Tania for many years. I book flights independently, and they pick us up from wherever we want! The best thing about them is their flexibility. This year we will put our kids in lunch club after ski lessons, but then FFS have said they will take the kids back up the gondola from La Tania and meet us there for an afternoon family ski. It's this kind of flexibility which makes us go back year on year....Previously when they were much younger they bus'd them to 1800 and back for the lessons....
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