 Poster: A snowHead
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never thought i be grateful to a volcano, but after the ash stopped me getting out to chamonix , i hastily re-booked flights for two weeks later, and after some quick research came up with two high snow sure resorts, val thorens or tignes, and as it seems there was some strange snow convention happening in VT all week,i settled on tignes.
then set about finding somewhere to stay etc. came across snoworks , and booked up for an all mountain course with hotel lift pass and transfer included.
flights and transfers all went well , and arrived in resort at 23.30, and meet all the other members of the course for a night cap, seemed like a good mix, with three newbies and six snoworks veterans, who had me a bit in awe with their tales of skiing in south america and japan and all other ski destinations around the globe.
was up bright and early on sat am and off for a warm up run, off the areoski bubble, where we were met by our instructors emma(former uk no 1 and olympic skier) and lee , who split us into two groups , so the three newbies set off with emma to have our abilities assessed.
the whole morning went by in a flash and after picking up the basics of the snowork i-skiing method , we were soon off in search of some off piste , but the high temps made most off the stuff lower down a bit sketchy . after a short stop for lunch we were introduced to the bumps off the tsd tommeuss chair. after a couple of very dodgy descents , something clicked and now i love moguls of all shapes and sizes.the day was finished off at the end of season party at the fornet, followed by a dash for the last chair and a blast down to town with a bit of water skiing right at the bottom.
after dinner at the hotel, a couple of us headed of in search of a night cap , didn’t have to go far , as we were next door to the alpaka !!!!!!
we woke up the next day full of expectation of exploring all the grande motte had to offer, but were to be greeted by warm temps and an avi warning of 4/5 , so the days plans were changed to carving practice in the morning and bumps in the afternoon. we spent most of the day over the val d’isere side as it was closing that day, had a really good day with emma in the morning and lee in the afternoon, just after lunch it started to snow and we were told if the temps dropped over night we could be in for a treat the next day.
back to the alpaka again that night, but not to late in anticipation of what tomorrow might bring.
woke up to a cold sunny monday morning, to be met by lee and his boss phil smith and off up to the glacier asap with the rest of tignes , or so it seemed in the first cable car up !!!
but when we got off and out on to the glacier the crowds disappeared down the piste and we were left on our own to find fresh tracks which we did in spades off champagny and vanoise and rosolin , even on our second and third laps we were finding untracked powder.
after a very quick stop for lunch we taken by phil for a master class in how to ski variable terrain from off piste to cruddy piste to slush using only the required amount of effort, this was enforced by a challenge of skiing from top to bottom non stop whilst already being knackered, we were up to the challenge and in fact did a couple more laps of the aeroski with phil as the day was coming to an end. then it was a quick change and into the mini bus to gva and home for 23.00.
i have tried a couple of weekend trips before, but nothing could compare to the amount of skiing we got in over the three days in tignes, including a powder day in may !!!!!!!!!!
i can’t sing the praises of the snoworks team enough with emma’s ability to transform the way i skied in only one and a half days and lee’s technical ability all finished off by phil’s passion for his simple approach to all mountain skiing left me gagging for more.
so thanks again to Eyjafjallajökull 
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