 Poster: A snowHead
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Firstly the standard stuff!
Resort: Alpe D’Huez
Country: France
Domain: Grand Rousses
Author: Butterfly
Date: 30/1/10 to 6/2/10
Our party: 70 year old, her daughter & son-in-law (experienced skiers), me and another female friend in her 60s who was on her 2nd ski trip
Tour Op: SkiWorld. Very good.
Flight: Stansted - Chambery with Titan (through SkiWorld). 737-300 configured to have plenty of leg room. Delayed 1 hr on return due to fog in Stansted.
Airport accommodation: Harwood guest house in Dunmow - cannot recommend this highly enough. Helen & Ian are very attentive & the hotel is very pleasant. I left my car there and we were taken to/from the airport in a Galaxy by Ian who is also a licensed taxi driver. Cost of ensuite room for 3 single adults (2 singles pushed together as a massive double, plus 2 further full-sized singles in a tiny annexed room, inc packed breakfast for early flight, transfers & car parking for a week was £110.
Accommodation : We stayed at Chalet l'Escapade which is exclusively run by SkiWorld. (This is still marked on the town plan under its original name of L'Herpie). We were dropped at the Palais des Sportes and several members of staff helped to take luggage downhill to the chalet. Pickup was from the bottom of the hill and again staff assisted with luggage where necessary even at 6.30am. The accommodation is small, but that's made up for by the quality of the food and the fantastic attitude of the staff who couldn't do enough to help and were always cheerful, even the lad on night duty who nearly had heart failure when he walked into me trying to hunt down a cuppa at 6am - he reckoned he'd NEVER seen a skier surface that early before! He recovered and put the kettle on! The dining room is barely big enough and gets rather noisy. Tea & Coffee are available most of the time. It is ski in/out - there is a path running down from the top of the Bergers/Eclose lifts to the bottom of the Eclose lift and just over the footbridge is the bottom station of the Telecentre - the lobster pots that go through the town to the Rond Point des Pistes. The Bergers lift is a transport link across the bottom end of the resort.
Food in resort: Expensive. The Lac Blanc (near DMC) is counter service rather than waiter, and is reasonable for the area and very friendly.
The holiday!
We landed in Chambery at 11am, bang on time, after leaving Stansted a bit late and emerged to face the bear garden otherwise known as baggage reclaim with its two carousels. Everything, skis included comes out on these and at one point I saw my skis leaving on someone else's shoulder .. aaarrgh! There was no way I could get anywhere near the person and lost sight of them, but luckily they realised their error and they reappeared on the carousel where my friend grabbed them quickly!
We got to the chalet by about 3, checked in and while the others went off to get kit hire (Sport 2000), I sauntered off to find the couple of freebie lifts - there are 3 and they are the shortest, flattest nursery slopes - Rifnel 1, Poussins 1, Ecole 1. However this was enough to get the legs moving a bit and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Bergers chair which is a horizontal link to the Eclose area was also free. I took my courage in both hands and set off across it, having collared a friendly ESF instructor who reassured me that even with limited skiing ability, I would be comfortably able to ski back to our chalet. Having previously been rather wary of chairs, I felt pretty chuffed on skiing back to the door, although I got my ear bent by one of our party who told me I should NEVER ski ANYWHERE alone. Yes, sensible general advice, but 
Sunday
8.45 am saw Margaret & I set off up the lobster pots (Telecentre) to meet our instructors, though our lessons were to commence Monday. It was something like --15 out of the wind. Here are a couple of shots from the Telecentre.
 
They kindly pointed us to suitable terrain for Margaret and we had a pleasant day pottering around the easier greens, and there are plenty to choose from. When I knew she was happy enough, I left her on the Ecole and ventured off up the Les Jeux drag (long, fast and  cold), skiing down the Les Sagnes which feeds into L'Ecole at the bottom. (Yep, got lectured later for having split up!). Pics looking down and then up the Ecole green - you can see across to the Les Jeux drag which goes to the same point as the 1st stage of the DMC gondola.
 
This is another of the greens, Barbar. There are plenty to choose from. RifNel is a great starting point (no pic) and has a long series of gentle rollers beside it that are great fun to play on.
-End of part 1 !
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 7-02-10 19:01; edited 2 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Glad you enjoyed yourself. I was there the week before and had an excellent time. In fact I reckon I missed you by about half an hour - I stopped skiing at ~2:30pm on the Saturday (for a 3:05pm transfer coach!)
Which brings me onto this bit....
| Butterfly wrote: |
... I felt pretty chuffed on skiing back to the door, although I got my ear bent by one of our party who told me I should NEVER ski ANYWHERE alone. Yes, sensible general advice, but
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What utter rubbish. And what an unpleasant greeting for someone returning back chuffed with themselves. Sorry but that kind of thing really annoys me.
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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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Part 2
Monday & Tuesday
It stayed extremely cold but breathtakingly clear and sunny. I learned something new - that very cold snow is slow to ski on. I was amazed at the contrast when it warmed up and got faster.
Our instructors, Stuart & Mel (Masterclass) were excellent. There were 8 students in all and they split us into 3 groups as they were keen to ensure the right ability levels for the best teaching. Group 1 had 4 people including Margaret, Group 2 had 3 including me, and then the other guy got 1:1 at a separate time as he was so much more advanced. We worked on the two zones of green slopes which have a wide variety of terrain to offer, including areas that offer optional sections of blue gradient. Mel had us experimenting with different amounts of weight on the two skis while edging, initiating turns by weight transfer and then by rolling our knees. We then worked on these skills skiing at varying speeds on varying gradients. During the afternoons, I skied with Margaret, staying on the easier of the green slopes where she was gaining confidence, though on Tuesday her instructor suggested I take her around the one called "Chardon" which is usually deserted. So, off we went up the DMC gondola as she didn't fancy the drag and set off down the top of Les Sagnes, looking for the path leaving it. I was getting more than a bit anxious - I knew Sagnes has a couple of steeper gradient sections that she wouldn't like and I could see NO path! Tentatively approaching the first steeper bit, trying not to show her I was worried (!) I suddenly saw that if you take the shallower route around to the left you then find a path across, leading to the top of the Chardon. I simply had not noticed it when skiing down there previously. Breathing a sigh of relief off we went - all was fine until we got part way and there was a squeak from behind that this was the piste on which she'd had a tumble and didn't think she wanted to be there again . We stopped for a short while and watched a group of teens playing with their instructor in powder just off the piste side and after a while carried on just fine. The only downside of this lovely run is the long flat return across the bottom. You can go back up a drag and come down further over, but it is a little steeper and M felt enough was enough.
Wednesday
No lessons today and plans were afoot for an afternoon visit from folks over the valley in LDA. Our experienced friends decided to take us out for the morning - I was keen to experience the so called "scare chair", the Alpauris. Margaret had little experience of riding chairlifts, and it's possible to visit Auris without needing to ski except for on/off the chairs. That morning she successfully got on/off 6 chairs - a very successful confidence building outing. I skied the blue Col down into Auris with 2 of the friends while M and the other went down on the chair. M & I then had coffee while the others went to sort out a piste gremlin that had apparently caused a tumble the day before. When they returned, time was getting on, so we went back up the Auris Express and they skied back to the scare chair and I accompanied M via chairlift rather than leave her to do so alone. I have to say I have NO idea at all why this is branded the "scare" chair. I thought it a lovely trip with super views and chance to spot tons of animal tracks in the woods. Here's the start of the run from the AdH side and a pic part way down. I wish I'd had time to go back and ski more over there
 
Part 3 to follow later!
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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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Part 3
On Wednesday pm the intrepid travellers from LDA arrived and set off for a bit of a tour around with the 3 experienced skiers in our party. I took M over to practise on one of the greens. We all met up again briefly later on and had a bit of fun on the nursery slope rollers before waving them off again.
Thursday was yet another blue sky day, but it had warmed up and the snow was faster. Can anyone explain why very cold conditions make for slower skiing? Is it simply to do with the behaviour of the wax at different temperatures or is there a difference in the snow itself too? For our last lesson Mel took us first on Les Jeux for a warm up run, but during this he introduced us to some ideas that would be helpful if we found ourselves in powder (heavy snow had been forecast). He told us not to listen to the "easy - just lean back" advice that we might get. He asked us to ski the way we had been doing - trying to use our edges, BUT instead of having the weight mostly on the outside ski, to experiment with having it more evenly spread between the skis & varying our body position to achieve this. The logic was straightforward enough - if the snow's deep and you've too much weight on one ski, it can sink down too far and out the side door you go. We discussed the need for sufficient speed to cut through slightly deeper snow and the need to have smooth movements.
Following this he said we were off on a little excursion to a "lovely blue" - at last we were being let out of the green playpen - cue excitement laced with trepidation as we looked at the Signal chair apparently heading up a vertical wall of snow! At the top we went across to the Petit Prince, which indeed is a lovely blue, which is more than I can say for its draglift! "Just watch out getting on the lift", said Mel, "it can give a bit of a jolt". Yeah right - understatement time! My fellow student Sue braced herself for this as she took hold of the pole but it started moving gently instead and there being no jolt - she promptly fell over.  The liftie helped her get going but I couldn't see round him as she set off. "Right" I thought - "there's a slope down to the poles - get moving and grab a pole on the fly - should make things smoother" WRONG . The plan worked (or so I thought) and I was happily sliding, pole in position, when suddenly **YANK** as it engaged - my feet totally left the ground (Mel reckoned he was able to see clean underneath my skis). Luckily I landed on my feet securely and carried on uphill with a somewhat accelerated pulse, to say the least 
Anyway - at the top I thought we'd be going down that run again - not a bit of it - Mel led us over the far side saying we were going to the Slalom practice slope - the... the.... WHAAAT??? . He assured us it was a lovely slope, not much used as it's off to one side and lots of people don't see it. O....kay. Off we went and it was a bit steep so the turn technique reverted to plough starts. Mel didn't comment but at one point said to "wait there" so I stopped - BAD idea! Getting going again was not easy. Still I managed and made it to the bottom where he informed us it was a red run! It has no normal piste poles, being the practice Stade, so nothing to give the game away. I felt like jumping up and down and shouting it from the rooftops! After that the slope we ended the lesson on felt like a doddle and he even suggested I slowed down a bit  . I was glowing from the experience for the rest of the day! Meanwhile Margaret had a triumph too but didn't know it. Stuart her instructor told me she'd been on a blue, which was news to her! The red run is called Sarrasins - it's slightly triangular - in my pic its name stretches the width of it at the top. If you zoom in you can see the ants skiing down it!
That afternoon we decided to go off as pedestrians and take in the view from the Pic Blanc - well worth the trip. From the cable car you get a great view of the infamous Tunnel run and at its base station there is the ice grotto. There are notices all round it not to touch the sculptures - interestingly there is one of a topless lady and despite the notices two rather prominent areas of her anatomy have clearly been well polished!
     
Friday
It started snowing late Thursday evening and carried on, and on, and on. Right then - powder! I was well up for trying the new skills so off we went. We met up with the Mum & daughter who'd shared Margaret's lesson & decided to go on the higher of the two greens called Poussins as it has varying terrain and Margaret & the mum could choose a gentle route while the daughter & I opted for the steeper bits. Mel's tips helped, but I found that going fast enough to try them was very disorientating as the visibility was very poor and deteriorating. We did a second run and the snow got heavier and thicker - that together with growing feelings of "motion discomfort" made a coffee stop the more attractive option. After coffee the vis was even worse, so we decided to give it best. We headed back over the Bergers lift to the chalet and I was nominated "route finder" from it down to the chalet - easier said than done! I headed where I thought the path was and the snow was just getting thicker and thicker so had to veer leftwards a bit suddenly . On arriving back the bootroom was full of others who'd made a similar decision and reported similar difficulties identifying the path home!
So, what to do? We headed for the outdoor pool and in it had a fantastic time, goading each other into rolling in the snow before jumping back in and taking on a couple of French guys in a snowball fight while in the water . Yep, Butterfly IS certifiable! There is apparently a photo of me in the pool being emailed - if it is not too embarrassing I'll add it here but for now here's one of the pool taken earlier in the week.
So - that was AdH 2010. Now I am really warmed up ready for LDA on 20th March 
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Sun 7-02-10 19:06; edited 1 time in total
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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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Sounds like you had a fantastic trip Butterfly! Great pics too.
And as for skiing alone, I do it loads, can't see a problem with it. I've spent entire ski hols by myself in the past.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Butterfly, what a brilliant account and lovely pics. Can't wait to hear more about it when we meet up in March at L2A (only 40 days) 
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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 trip report... sounds like you had an awesome time 
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