 Poster: A snowHead
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Courchevel Rocks.... now, there's a thing. It does indeed rock. It is also getting pretty rocky!
Just back from an excellent, no... Great, week staying at the hotel Crystal 2000 at the top end of Courchevel 1850 right bang on the Pralong chair lift.
We had a week of blue skies, with some stunning sunsets later in the week as the clouds started rolling in on the final two days. It was as good a ski holiday as i can remember, apart from the lack of fresh snow.
Having said that, i'm glad we were staying so high as runs below 1850 were slushy by mid-day. We did make it down to La Tania centre on Monday but much below around 1600m wasn't much fun. There were also pitches of very very icy runs all over resort throughout the week. This made for some interesting skiing and honing of skills. There was still some great snow available though, both on and off piste and as long as you were careful where you skied, then slush and ice could be avoided. Sometimes it couldn't, and by the end of the week more and more stones were coming through and bare patches were becoming more obvious.
Thanks go to the excellend piste bashing work that went on through the night.
I had lessons with Ski New Gen on two days and had some great tuition on steep and bumpy skiing. I can honestly say i left as a better skier than i went.
Esprit were phenomenal. I've never experienced anything like the levels of service they offered, especially towards the children. Even having stayed in 5 star resorts in some pretty far flung places, i can honestly say i've never met a more helpful, attentive and genuinely happy team of people. The hotel was fine for what it was and it's a shame it'll be demolished following next season to make way for yet another 5 star mega chalet!
As got people who complain about Courchevel being too expensive... well, the most we paid for a pasta meal (and very nice all the food was too) was 14 Euro, 2.5 Euro for a beer most days and generally less on other days. Obviously there's places that will sting you massively, but we didn't have to work too hard to find affordable eateries.
So, all in all, a great great holiday, with many happy memories of skiing some very challenging slopes and conditions, getting to witness my wife's first ever parallel turn and playing in the snow with our 2 year old who had a great time in the pool and had skis on her feet for a few minutes on 3 or 4 of the days.
Courchevel is a great ski area and anyone who says they're not going because they don't agree or like the reputation of the place are missing out on some amazing terrain.
Anyway, a few pictures and i'll upload more as i process them.
The view of the couloirs from our hotel room balcony.
A Porsche 928 being driven enthusiastically up the road behind our hotel. This shows how the snow is struggling in certain places.
The Visselle (sp?) bumps that i spent a fair amount of time on during and outwith my lessons. Excellent terrain and great fun. Snow here was great most days.
A stunning sunset on the Friday night as a party of people went sledging in the dusk.
View over the southern French alps from one of the Val Thorens glaciers. Good snow up there, but also some bad ice in places due to the numbers of people heading there to get away from the slush lower down. Courchevel was much quieter in comparison.
Entering the top of the Grand Couloir. The day we went up the entrance was horrible ice, but once in the couloir there was quite nice snow with some more solid bumps further down.
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At the top of La Tania. Butcher's Couloir??? Saw a couple of folk skiing it, but i didn't fancy the hour walk up and the high avalanche risk. We saw a couple of avalanches during the week, more than capable of taking someone. Once happened just after a group had skinned along a traverse.
Our daughter enjoying the snow.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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shoogly, Looks great. Thanks for the report.
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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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shoogly, Nice, thanks for posting. 
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oh... and our daughter's face had been painted in that pic, just in case anyone is wondering whey she has orange skin! 
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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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shoogly, glad you had a good time Are Esprit running the hotel next year? Might give it a go, would be a better position than their Meribel one for my daughter and easyish pistes.
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shoogly, nice TR, the little lady looks happy enough, she'll be on big girl skis next season Thanks for posting!
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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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great pics
what camera? settings?
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czl, cheers.
The good pics are from my Pentax K20d with a mix of lenses, filters, settings. Couple are from our wee Ixus 75 which is surprisingly good sometimes.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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shoogly, Really nice cours on your pics! I use a K10D with Sigma 17-70mm. What lenses/filters were you using?
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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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shoogly, fab photos 
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I use Pentax 18-55 mk2 and 50-200 SMC and a few old Pentax lenses from around 20 years ago. Filters are all Hoya mix of UV, Polarising and ND. All from the Pro range. Make sure that your images are set to capture in SRGB rather than Adobe RGB as this has a big impact on colour coming from even raw files. Also, when you save your final file, make sure the colour profile is also set to SRGB or you'll lose the colour impact.
Great cameras.
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You know it makes sense.
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| shoogly wrote: |
As got people who complain about Courchevel being too expensive... well, the most we paid for a pasta meal (and very nice all the food was too) was 14 Euro, 2.5 Euro for a beer most days and generally less on other days. Obviously there's places that will sting you massively, but we didn't have to work too hard to find affordable eateries.
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i have to say i'm in the above group. not so much complain, more that i just dont even look at the place when seeing whats available.
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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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mugen, shame. It's a great place. We'll return on a good snow year to explore the areas we missed. Especially down into La Tania as the skiing there was brilliant.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| shoogly wrote: |
| mugen, shame. It's a great place. We'll return on a good snow year to explore the areas we missed. Especially down into La Tania as the skiing there was brilliant. |
however i'm assured that you see women that you didn't know they were made like that in real life.
your the first person i've heard not say it was eye wateringly expensive, the follks i knew that did go there stopped primarily due to the cost.
it's the only place i wouldn't even consider going, apart from possill in glasgow of course:)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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As a family, we took around 400 euro as spending money for our week. When we got to the airport, we still had 160 of that left. That included eating out every lunch time and evening beers. Most expensive place we were all weekend was Geneva airport!!
Anyway, back to what is important... the skiing was great and everyone we met was friendly and welcoming.
ps. you won't see women like that if you go to Possill - unless they're plying their trade of course 
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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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shoogly, shh, don't tell anyone .....remember it's always crowded, expensive and poor skiing......
Did you ski much offpiste, like Vallee Des Avals with the walk out?
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kitenski, all of the off piste i did was lift served. I actually had a look at the entrance to Vallee Des Avals, but witnessed an avalanche so didn't take the risk. There were others skiing it but i was with an inexperienced skier so didn't take the risk.
Did a fair bit around the top end of 1850 and La Tania though and it was all good
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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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mugen,
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your the first person i've heard not say it was eye wateringly expensive,
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Surely not. There are plenty of people on here, me included, that know it's possible to have a top time in the 3V without bankrupting yourself.
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When your kid can ski take her down the Indians run, it's a great place for her to learn to ski next year or the year after, the gondola with multiple stops from 1800 was perfect for us and our kids after a morning lesson as they wanted to try on their own....
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shoogly, what a great report and good to see a positive write up for Courchevel. Your photos are lovely and it looked like a great holiday for the whole family.
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Hurtle, and me. Granted the towns are soulless with few decent bars (Meribel, despite it's detractors, is the pick of the bunch), but as a skiing area 3V difficult to beat.
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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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| Dr John wrote: |
| Hurtle, and me. Granted the towns are soulless with few decent bars (Meribel, despite it's detractors, is the pick of the bunch), but as a skiing area 3V difficult to beat. |
And me, twice in the last year and would go again.
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| Hurtle wrote: |
mugen,
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your the first person i've heard not say it was eye wateringly expensive,
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Surely not. There are plenty of people on here, me included, that know it's possible to have a top time in the 3V without bankrupting yourself. |
maybe i should have clarified that.. i meant real people.. it's the first post i read with cour in the heading.. i usually ignore them as well.
i appreciate not exactly fair, but c'est la vie
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Cracking photos
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>> View heading off piste off the back end of Pyramides in 1650
Was that where you saw the avalanche?
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You know it makes sense.
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| kitenski wrote: |
>> View heading off piste off the back end of Pyramides in 1650
Was that where you saw the avalanche? |
Avalanche was on the Roc Merlet mountain's north face where the skinning tracks traverse.
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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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| stevew wrote: |
| shoogly, glad you had a good time Are Esprit running the hotel next year? Might give it a go, would be a better position than their Meribel one for my daughter and easyish pistes. |
I would assume so as it was new to them this season. However why on earth is it being demolished.
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Poster: A snowHead
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it's being replaced with a 5 star chalet because courchevel doesn't have enough of them!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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However presumebly not with Esprit. They have only just taken on that property as well.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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NickyJ, some contrast isn't it! Wouldn't have liked to be on the free bus into 1850 with snow on the road... the driver was mental! It was probably the most endangered i felt in the whole week there and that includes standing on the side of some pretty steep icy sides of mountains!
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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.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Brilliant photos shoogly, I LOVED Courchevel when I went there and I'd definitely go back. The 3Vs is such a vast ski area with fast lifts, you can never be bored.
I'd be kind of tempted to give the Grand Couloir a try, although the traverse to it looks pretty scary! Which is the least formidable of the three?
That sunset photo is stunning.
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Piccadilly, the entrance is the most intimidating part of the Grand Couloir. Your first turn into the couloir proper is also a bit like that as well, but that was maybe because of the massive bumps that were there. Would really love to ski in in good snow. There's 5 couloirs at the top of Saulire, not three. There's also better skiing to be had not too far from the Grand Couloir, but it's made a name for itself and is seen as a trophy by some. Next time we're there, i won't make a big effort to ski it. Butcher's Couloir at the top of La Tania holds much more attraction for me next time i'm there.
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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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| shoogly wrote: |
| Piccadilly, the entrance is the most intimidating part of the Grand Couloir. Your first turn into the couloir proper is also a bit like that as well, but that was maybe because of the massive bumps that were there. Would really love to ski in in good snow. There's 5 couloirs at the top of Saulire, not three. There's also better skiing to be had not too far from the Grand Couloir, but it's made a name for itself and is seen as a trophy by some. Next time we're there, i won't make a big effort to ski it. Butcher's Couloir at the top of La Tania holds much more attraction for me next time i'm there. |
Judging by your photo, that one looks WAY beyond my talents!
Maybe I'll give GC a go next time I'm there, which will hopefully be in December 2012. I need to do more steep stuff and build my confidence.
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FAQ
I gather that it is an interesting traverse to the top. Weather and visibility were great and most of the snow high up was excellent. We skied to St Martin on Monday but I doubt that it would have been much fun/feasible at the end of the week. Prices were pretty high but some reasonable bargains to be had.
