 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
I know it can be really hard to find a ski buddy who is as good as he says he is when it comes to getting on the snow, rather than being in the bar...
I just finished an avalanche awareness course in Val d'Isere, which cost peanuts considering we were out with a private guide, learning about the mountain and doing some great skiing (75 euros for a four hour morning - except that Henry did about six hours with us because the conditions were good)
You get to ski off-piste the whole time, learn avalanche safety and ski with like-minded people.
I totally recommend it - and it does not use up the whole week so you can still go out with the Ski Club of Great Britain!
Also you can join Top Ski or Alpine Experience on other days for 52 euros a morning - or thereabouts - and ski in a small group off-piste. Top Ski might have a younger crowd - I know Alpine have a lot of older folks - so if you are an older skier you might try them.
Henry's site is here:
http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/
And for his blog with info and pics - check out 11th to 13th March deep powder - that was a couple of the people on the course during the avalanche safety course!
http://www.getoffpiste.com/
Enjoy!
Shelley
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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you can do much the same in 2Alpes for free. 
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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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ShelleyVernon, Welcome to snowheads Shelley, first time posters who may appear to be promoting commercial services often get flamed on snowheads.
For my pennyworth I would like to second your recommendation- Henry has been running these courses and his famous "talks" for a long time and they are spot on. His approach to avalanche safety is to instil good judgement into people, and hopefully avoid them being caught in the first place.
This IMHO is much the most effective route to go down rather than a reliance on "kit".
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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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What are the list of prices for then? 
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Hi there - yep it's a genuine recommendation from my part.
And I thought it would make a change for solo skiers to just skiing around.
I live in resort every winter and I used to often not have people to ski with, but now I've got buddies to go out with. However if one of my buddies moves out of town or something then I'll know where to come to advertise for people to share the lifts and the slopes with!
Shelley
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Hi ABC Freerider,
I paid 75 euros for the mornings and 25 euros for the beeper training afternoon sessions. There were five of us including Henry, so small group. I don't think he goes over six skiers plus guide anyway. Then there are a couple of talks in the evening with slides and film - they are 7.50 each.
If you want cheaper guided skiing like I said before there's Top Ski and Alpine Experience who are about 50 euros for the morning. Top Ski has a telemarking specialist dude called Didier Morot. Alpine has Wayne Watson who wrote a book on off-piste skiing in Val d'Isere - he's an old dog (ski-wise!) Then at Alpine there's Henry and Andreas - those two would be my top pick from Alpine but it's just personal - thing is Wayne and the other wise men bollock you if your tracks aren't perfectly together and I'm not sure I can GUARANTEE absolutely that mine will be!
Anyway before anyone accuses me of doing an ad I can tell you that my husband is a ski instructor here in a DIFFERENT ski school to Top Ski or Alpine  and I haven't even mentioned him!
Shelley
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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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abc, those are the lift pass prices.
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ShelleyVernon, go on give him a plug...who is he? 
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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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Thanks for starting this thread!
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Lizzard, me, Swirly and co went along to a few of these, they rarley ran in english and didn't offer the next day guide unless you went to the French version. I'm not sure if the others have been back just to sit through the french version for the free guide but we were tempted!
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You know it makes sense.
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I went to the English version of the Free Respect Avalanche awareness talk in LDA last year. It was very interesting and well worth a couple of hours of my time. I just went to the talk though not the "practical" the next day.
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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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Colin B, the free talk is definatley worth the time, also good to get to know a bit more about the piste patrol and where they are on the mountain. They did encourage you to go and talk to them if you fancied doing particular routes and to talk about snow conditions which could be useful.
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Poster: A snowHead
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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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admin, cynical? Little Moi?
One wonders why someone in Japan thinks it is a good thing a thread about instruction in Val d'Isere was started. I know, I know, people are nice, and ac17, in Niseko, was very concerned for the avalanche safety of those in the Tarantaise. 
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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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I noticed that the OP was 'plugging' - if she was plugging - not one but three organisations in her first post and that ac17 was in Japan, so didn't think either of them had commercial intent. Can we not give people the benefit of a reasonable doubt when they are newbies or near-newbies, or at least give them not more than a gentle hint as abc did? It's so incredibly unwelcoming to jump down people's throats from the off. 
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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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| Hurtle wrote: |
| ........... Can we not give people the benefit of a reasonable doubt when they are newbies or near-newbies, or at least give them not more than a gentle hint as abc did? ..... |
Gentle lady, you may do as you wish - as can I 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| CEM wrote: |
| ShelleyVernon, go on give him a plug...who is he? |
Just ran the following query on the MI6 database
mysql> Select from relations r, risk l, target t where r.name LIKE shelley vernon AND l.id = r.rid AND t.id = r.tid
and it lists amongst other connections the following entry
Name | Employment | Company | Location | Risk
Bernard Chesneau | Ski Instructor | Ski Mastery | Val d'Isere, FR | Low
Of course the database has been known to be wrong, it is based on a spider that that indexes social network and other websites.
BTW I don't work for MI6, I got the full risks database of ebay on a 2DVD set.
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davidof, eek. Is no-one safe from your prying eyes? 
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| davidof wrote: |
| Bernard Chesneau |
Does he also do a bit of bootfitting? I think I might have heard him talk about footbeds or something similar a few years ago.
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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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The reason is simple - I have just finished 8 years full time at uni and I`m damned if I`m going to get a REAL (9-5) job, now!
I am currently travelling and I am open to ALL possibilites.
I am currently in Japan, yes. But in a few months from now, I could be ANYWHERE...
Selling something? HUH 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| Bernard Chesneau |
Does he also do a bit of bootfitting? I think I might have heard him talk about footbeds or something similar a few years ago. |
He changed his name to "Condon" a few years back, after the mysterious dissapearance of a Romanian ski tourer.
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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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WRT the Free Respect course here, the problem is that hardly any english speakers go the the lecture night, so with the best will in the world they're not going to run the full day thing in english. However it might be an idea for one of the native english speakers to do it (they're all fluent in French) so that they could be bi-lingual. It's organised by the Tourist Board though rather than the lift company. As usual, our tourist board doesn't seem very switched on about publicity! 
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