The view from............ Val d'Isere and the Espace Killy

A snowHead

MarcFSki - guess best way to answer that question is what sort of budget are you thinking and / or what sort of food are you like as you can get anything from decent value etc nice noodles on a dash all the way through to Michelin star a la carte options!?

A very decent amount of snow

It was one of those VERY rare things today a PROPER Blue Bird powder day - they dont have very often. It started snowing heavily at sundown yesterday and by breakfast time this morning it had finished and the skies were clearing leaving us about 35cm in some places and lovely dry powder at that. The temps had also dropped somewhat too!

The outlook for the next week is lots more snow so it will be quite a week coming up I think.

Anyway I headed off into town early as I needed to record my weekly snow report and it takes quite a while to record it actually by the time you have done a few takes or something like a piste basher comes by beeping like crazy (as happened this morning!). Anyway it took ages this morning to get it right but I think I got there - well its certainly been published by now - haha!

Being a Friday everyone was dead keen to make the most of the snow as well as many peoples last day and since it has been a while since the last snowstorm there were a LOT of people ready to rock and roll out there.

However it was very ashamed by how badly organised things are on a day like this... Val d'Isere / Europe or whomever all seem to let themselves down badly on a morning like this.... free for all queuing / public lines / ski school lines / esf priority over other ski school lines / kids esf groups priority over all the above lines / race groups priority over all the above lines and then there is just bad management in general of the queuing process and lack of information galore.... its all just embarrassing. The thing is no one seems to understand how much better it could be - come on sort it out folks!

Anyway with all 3 of the kids I knew when we got up there I had to work smart to stop us having to stand in life line after lift line as well as make the most of the easily accessible nice snow for the kids to ski up Solaise but we made the most of it and despite the cold and hectic attitude frenzy of everyone it was a lot of fun, most importantly the kids had a whale of a time! Little legs in all that deep snow - they loved it.

After a hot choc break at the Lounge we headed over towards the Fruitiere where lunch was booked and by this time things were getting very chopped up indeed but we got there in the end. We passed one of Olivias school friends and her family who were out having a ski altogether which was nice to see.

Talking of the kids - Olivia did some skiing in the morning and this afternoon she was in the leisure centre doing some physical training and meanwhile Ben was back at the Aiglons kids club which he loves!

Anyway back to the day; luckily we had a table booked inside so that was good in the cold. It was a good lunch but rather hectic as usual.

The weather stayed good all day and I dont think anyone was caught in any sliding action out there thankfully but I know for sure there were quite a few skier triggered slides about - if nothing I could see several of them. Strangely the various sources for the generalised avalanche risk today had it anything between 3 and 4 - I think it was more a 4 day than a 3 day but still it was pretty high risk out there today on anything at the critical gradient risk but that did not stop some people skiing outrageous lines!

Anyway after lunch I did a little more skiing with the kids and the dads joined in before we called it a day! Last day with them tomorrow until they are back for half term. A nice day on the mountain.

For those on the roads tomorrow - well hopefully you know what to expect - good luck it will be carnage!

TTFN

Pisteurs priviledge - getting to put fresh tracks in down the Face having blasted it beforehand!

A snowHead

@Steve Angus, Well done Olivia and nothing wrong with a large tin of moisturiser in the dry mountain environment.

I had the chance to enjoy Pisteurs Privilege yesterday morning Very Happy

It was a 0800 meet at the Olympic with coffee, orange juice and pastries with a quick chat, then on the lift with the
choice of either going down Face or Diebold.

Noticed today that at Solaise they had closed the single rider line.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Decided to leave a day early straight after the required vet visit. Now back home in snowy Surrey but without views of Val.

Hopefully back in March when I'm all fixed. Very Happy

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Cold

I had a rather unwelcome wake up from my sleep last night as somehow we had a middle of the night power cut! Not quite sure how but all I know is that I was being woken up by Clare and made my way to the fuse cabinet to get it all sorted. Unfortunately after all that and sorting things out I could not get back to sleep which all in all meant by this morning I was shattered - doh

So this morning it was busy with all 4 of us needing to be out the door with the kids skiing and Clare and I working!

Alas we were sorted and then with quiet slopes I took the middle of the aged 2 younger ones for their lesson along with the dad.

We had a fun if not cold morning working on technique on deserted slopes before having a hot choc at the Cascades and ultimately it was time for a nice lunch at the l' Etincelle to finish the day off.

After skiing it was time to run around like a mad thing getting things together as we had a very old friend and his family around for kids tea and a catch up from 1700. It was not until about 2100 that we were sorted and cleared up hence this is a super quick update this evening as im totally shattered and need to get to bed!

The snowfall has returned this evening and it should be another powder day tomorrow although im not on skis tomorrow and neither are the kids.

TTFN

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

First day in Tignes tomorrow. Planning on parking at Les Brevieres. Please can someone help me with a guide as to where I need to be at closing time to ensure I can ski back to the car. That’s assuming the runs down to Les Brevs are open at this time? Wouldn’t want to get stuck anywhere. Thanks!

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Someone with much better local knowledge than me will know which lifts shut by when, but I’d have thought if you were anywhere in the Tignes bowl at closure you can always jump on the shuttle bus back to Brev?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Great to know that shuttle bus is the back up plan. Would always prefer to click skis off at the car but will take a free bus over an expensive taxi any day of the week. Thanks for sharing!

So, from the Tignes 2100 bowl, you can’t ski back to Les Brevs? Assume that means I’ll have to make the last Chaudannes lift to be able to ski to the car? Thanks for any info!

After all it is free

@wdl92, the Chaudannes chairlift closes at 16:30 and you can ski to Brev from there. The runs down are currently open. The alternate would be the Eye of the Needle which closes at 16:15, but you need another lift to access that.

@wdl92, To ski back, you'll need to be at either the top of Chaudannes, or the top of Aguile Percee before the ski patrol shut the lifts. There is a bar at the top of Chaudannes, (which you can also get to from Aguille Percee) called Lo Soli. The rozzers normally throw you out of there at about 16:45. If you're going all the way down to Brev, then if you're the weakest skiier, they will probably follow you on a ski-doo, although there is/was often a patroller with an Alsatian dog that likes the exercise running down behind you Very Happy

If you're a worrier, get yourselves up Chaudannes for mid afternoon, and then just ski the bowl under Aguille Rouge / Marais till the lifties won't let you on the lifts anymore.

By bus you can get to Boisses/1800/The Dam from the bus station in the centre of Le Lac till quite late. I don't think you can get all the way to Brev though - you'll have to ski down (closed) runs from Boisses to Brev, or download in the gondola if it's still running. ISTR the gondola runs till late to allow access between Brev and Boisses.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Perfect - just what I needed. Thanks for your help!!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

^^^ think the exchanges above have run their course - have a good ski tomorrow!

Time out of ski boots

I slept pretty well last night and woke at a decent time without the use of an alarm clock which is a real result!

The temperatures have certainly gone up and it was pretty clear out there with a little freshen up snow-wise that had fallen. I suspect that for most peoples first day out there it was wonderful - a good start to their weeks!

So with only Clare out there working it was a chilled household with the usual special Sunday breaks all round. The kids watched some TV and I did some chores. Watching the ski racing was the highlight of the morning but I also got in the good books by taking down the Christmas tree and decorations as well as getting the kids to write some thank you letters!

A very rare relaxing morning when both kids were at home and not dashing out skiing!

Lunchtime we used up some leftovers as Clare got back from her mornings teaching. As we moved into the afternoon I had the job of taking Ben up to the far end of town as he had a birthday party to go to but apart from that I did not leave the house all day! His actual party sounds like a real hoot as they were making igloo's with shovels and all sorts and the friends Dad had been starting them off for a few days in advance so Ben had a great time with his friends mucking about in all the snow.

My main job this afternoon was to put up some of our new clothes peg things for the entrance area as I had virtually non up so far and the ones we ordered finally arrived just before Christmas but this was the first chance I had had to do it. In theory it should have been a fast and simple process but ended up taking quite a long time in the end. Oh well they are up now and look ace so it was worth it.

Clare got back from picking Ben up from the party and he was soaked from all the rolling around in the snow so there was a lot of drying to be done - haha. And then whilst the kids were having a bath etc Clare asked me where Bens skis were as they were not in the ski locker where they should have been.... oh dear I suddenly remembered that I had left them outside the shop last night when I popped in to collect a few things... I frantically headed over the road and luckily for me (my bacon was on the line!) the shop staff had taken them inside when they closed up last night - phew!

So it has been the usual Sunday evening getting the kids sorted for Monday and back to school this evening and now im chilling before what could be a very tiring day tomorrow as I think I have 3 beginner children for a full days session... I am working with a colleage for this one off full days booking so who knows what tomorrow will bring! haha!

The weather this next few days will be very up and down and we are still expecting quite a lot of snow... this passage of weather could totally transform things again!

Also one thing I have forgotten to mention the past couple of weeks and have been meaning to do is the subject of the new bus station... for those that dont know the old bus station which was in the centre of town near the Garage is no more - well nothing has yet been built on it but the actual location buses come into is now down here in La Daille near where the old mechanics garage used to be / car park bottom of the funicular. Aside from the fact that tourists now need to get off the bus in La Daille and reload onto a train rouge the whole thing is a disaster.... its not a great look for people arriving into Val and having to go through all that faff to get to their accommodation.... even for tour op buses its a disaster. Needless to say with the train rouges coming and going no-one really has a clue what is happening there and which way buses are going. That is all before we even consider the building that is not complete! Doh. Yesterday I was in the bus and it crawled down the road as there was dozens of people dragging their suitcases down the main road to get to the bus station. All a complete disaster and as usual not very well thought and planned out.

So I think that is about it for today.

TTFN

PS forgot to snap a pic today - Radio Val to the rescue again!

snow reports

As always a welcome read for me in a very wet part of England today. The news about the bus station chaos means that for the first time ever I am glad not to be visiting Val this winter.

You really do see it all

Back to school today for our two and blooming typical that today of all days getting them out of bed was really tough! Arghhh! Anyway we finally got them sorted and out the door they went. It was pretty warm and cloudy out there so certainly did not feel like a back to school day in early January. Haha

Anyway all sorted and ready to rock and roll.

I was coming back from dropping the kids at the bus and in the reception area of this building I was surprised to see a colleague from Mountain Masters getting ready at 0800 to start his multi week GAP ski program training to become Level 1 instructors - blimey nothing like being ultra keen and organised eh!

Anyway Clare headed out to work and I followed shortly after but I was on a chalet meet... so I met my colleague Kim at the bottom of the hill opposite the main locals creche (just down from the school actually!) and we started up the path past the Gellinote chalet which is now in the final phases of being turned into a luxury set of apartments... the developers are taking big financial hits daily as they are still doing some work on the apartments as they need to complete and sell them off!

Back to the story... so getting up the road was treacherous .... there was a decent melt freeze cycle in play last night and it was very much the freeze part this morning at that time there.... at one point my colleague was on all fours clambering along! It didnt finish there.... after meeting the clients and the first van full going off we got ready to head off and we clambered in our minivan to the slopes which would have been great if the road was not so slippery that we slid into a bank of snow and then were stuck - my colleague and I ended up having to help dig the van out... help the clients down the road, and pushing the van into the correct place so it could move again! All very funny (well we didnt let the clients see that we thought it was funny!).

Anyway we ultimately got going and were off!

I had a team of 3 ladies (one 18 and other two in their 40's) and bar one of them they were all new to skiing! So off we went up the Solaise.

The session was great fun and the ladies did really well although it ALWAYS makes me giggle when people think they are beginners and 'want to start at the beginning' even when they have skied say for a week 30 years ago - you are not a beginner anymore. For this one person it was a recap on everything they can do already but they were happy with that. For the other two they progressed well.

Apart from a coffee break at midday we went all the way through before having to get the team via a download on the Solaise Gondola, then a minivan ride to La Daille and finally upload on the LA Daille gondola, to the Folie for lunch! The booking was later at 1430 so everyone was hungry when we arrived.

So the two families together are some of the most powerful families by all accounts in the country they come from and quite extravagant shall we say. Really nice but full of energy and a zest for life.... they obviously like a party and a drink! So when we arrived at the restaurant it was only a matter of seconds until they were downing double whiskys and then ordering (im serious) a €700 bottle of 6L rose between them! They were very much in party mode!

So my colleague and I had a nice lunch and tried to let the crazyness at the other end of the day play its way out as we knew we were still on duty to get this lot down ... my colleague opted to take the teens that could ski down whilst I hearded the rest finally out of the place at 1630 (having a late lunch reservation was good news in that the frolics could not take that long before it was day end!).

I was rather glad to get home.

The kids had had a good day and when we finally got them into bed I was able to inspect the works that the electrician had managed to do in the flat today when he came around - some nice things done actually. The snagging list is getting smaller slowly but surely!

So I have the same clients tomorrow morning and then another regular client of mine in the afternoon so a different sort of day tomorrow.

TTFN

Yours truly digging the van out!

That is a VERY large bottle of wine!

A rather grey day but the Xmas tree still looks nice!

You know it makes sense.

Jehu

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Not your average Brit then! Quite a story.

(Disclosure: as far as I am concerned rose wine is a waste of perfectly good grapes, I would resent paying £7).

A snowHead

@j b, I reckon that after a double whiskey any wine will taste the same, but that bottle surely made a great impression on their Instagram
@Steve Angus, can you recommend them a big enough Moet bubbly for tomorrow's lunch?
Folie Douce is the right place for those things...
I feel bad to tell that this December I bought twice a lovely bottle of local Pinot Noir in Zermat's Coop (close to the train station) for 7 measly CHF.
Nah, I am actually content.
You had a special day today, nice to read about it

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I'm sure the 6 litres of Rose was considerably better than the 2.5l of Rose pish they sell at Coco Rico's Embarassed

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j b - they werent British! All I will say is that at this time of the year we (resort) get a lot of Australian, Kiwi, South African and Brazillians... in fact different weeks of the season have noticeable 'types' of persons in town and you can often tell which week it is... for example in Parisian half term week lots of jeans being worn on the slopes by him whilst she is wearing Prada! Haha! And then there is Scandi week when there are hundreds of blond swedish students bopping around!
drporat - there was certainly a lot of Insta action going on yes!
Frosty the Snowman - oh really - as a family man even getting somewhere like Coco's for a knees up is a pipe dream! A cold beer in front of the TV and an early night on a Friday are my hedonistic heights!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

More normal

I ended up going to bed way too late last night and didnt sleep too well for some reason so am shattered this evening and all on the first day that I taught 'normally' for both am and pm!

Anyway there was much more snow out there than anyone anticipated - about 10cm but they did not need to do any PIDA - not quite that much! So I got the kids off on school bus and not needing to start until 0915 at the meeting point I had a while to sort myself out quite calmly which was nice! The weather was a combo of clouds, sun, fog and (as we were to find out) quite a lot of wind!

The clients finally arrived about 0945 and we headed off up to the small magic carpet! It was the same lot as all day yesterday and I was expecting some exceptionally hung over people but they seemed OK! So one thing you learn quite quickly in this profession is how to deal with a split... that is when you have people of different abilities / goals / fitness levels etc etc in the same session! Sometimes people put themselves together not knowing the splits / not being aware of differences in needs when it comes to fitness and a whole host of other reasons. In this case they thought that someone 'getting down' the easiest of green runs being paired up with someone who has never done it before makes them all beginners would be a good idea and paired with someone who 'wants to start again at the beginning'. These are things you see quite often as a beginner is ONLY someone is ever once on the first day they ever ski... well in 99.9% of cases ..... for everyone else it needs tailoring!

So anyway today we have the situation of one person who is very nervous and needs the instructor staying close to them (but also with sore feet), a teen progressing much faster (the age means fear, fitness etc is NOT a concern) and another who has skied a lot before and now realises that they aren't a beginner after all - all together!

It was a tricky session but as I say you can only advise and suggest stuff to clients and sometimes clients think they know better OR more often than not have other ideas e.g. the fun of staying together or feeling too polite to make a suggestion to other members of the group! So today I was stuck with one lady not wanting to leave the short carpet and one who definately needed to and ultimately a third wanting a coffee break... I cant be in 3 places at once!

Anyway the session worked out sort of OK with two of them doing the long carpet with me and third deciding to sit out the session... so I have asked them all to have a think about how they would like to structure the session tomorrow but perhaps the 'party' style of a holiday will take over once again!

One interesting thing that did happen for the worse was that someone had managed to drop a glove whilst on one of the long magic carpets this morning and it had gotten stuck in the machinery at the side so as a result only one carpet moving which meant the queue was absolutely HUGE - doh!

At lunchtime I tried to warm up (it was a fair bit colder today but not today!) under the Sun Bar so eating there was the first time this season - all very strange that I have gotten to this stage in the season before having my lunch there! Anyway after lunch I headed out to meet my pm - so first time all season I have been at the meeting point in the afternoon and about the only time I have been to the meet point all season - weird!

So it was regular once a year client of mine for the session this pm with her brother in law for a session working on piste technique in general.... having not really left the nursery slopes for 2 days now it took a while to get my head into conditions out there. Needless to say it was pretty windy and cold up top and with the choppy fresh snow about that had fallen it took a while to get orientated into what and where would be best for their skiing! So we mainly lapped Tommeuse working on short turns and I identified a few things that needed attention.

It was a good (but cold) afternoon.

This evening has been rather chilled as Ben was a judo and Olivia got on with her homework whilst Clare got dinner sorted and I did some bits.

So the weather is once again changing this evening and we could have some fresh snow by tomorrow and talking about tomorrow it will be pretty busy as I have exactly the same set up for lessons in both morning and afternoon AND then after skiing I should be heading to get my SAF heli training ticked off for another year and then Ben and Clare will be back from Bourg and we will have a car full of food to unload - yikes!

Anyway TTFN

The town council meeting noted yesterday that the councillors are getting quite annoyed with the number of minivans coming to the slopes to drop people off. Like this morning as well as the train rouge etc there were about 5 vans at any one moment dropping people off - carnage!

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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

On that subject, yesterday I was chatting with a friend who was waiting to use the launderette. Up pulls a chauffeured Porsche Cayenne badged Hotel Yule (5*). A very well dressed couple emerge holding a small bag of washing. When told there was a queue for machines they got back into the car and drove off. The Yule is 3 minutes walk away, through the picturesque old town, and it was a sunny afternoon but they still commandeered private transport for their mission. And why didn’t they just use the in-house service, seeing as they are already paying €€€€€ to stay at the Yule? I despair of people sometimes.

After all it is free

sno trax - totally, agree!
Dr John - it does beggar belief doesn't it! Grrrr.... talking of which have a read below!

Needy

It was a later start than normal today as Ben was having a ski with Clare and Olivia was skiing with club from 0930 (it got changed to indoor sport instead as it was basically raining!) so apart from me no-one needed to get out the door early early doors! Looking out the window it was rather unappealing with light rain falling and lots of cloud around! There was a good 10cm that had fallen overnight but it was rather damp snow thats for sure!

I headed to the meet point and unsurprisingly they were late. Now there is only so much you can do to guide and persuade people from a position of experience and knowledge and I successfully 'won' my pitch to get them up the mountain the carpet for the lesson instead of standing in the rain at the bottom! Win! The Village lift has a technical problem at the moment so it was a case of either go up into the cloud and snow or stick at the bottom where we could see but we would get wet AND stand in a long queue all the time as the Savonnette would be the only option! So anyway we headed up the mountain and it was quite busy up there. The snow was nice and soft and the vis was not too bad - it was really good snow for learning.

The issue is that people dont really know what is what in the skiing world and trying to explain that the conditions were good for learning on the carpet and it wasnt actually that cold etc often falls on deaf ears! It also does not help when well meaning friends and family come to watch... they just dont get that where they stand on the slopes to film is a blooming stupid place to stand and beginners need a lot of space to turn etc... they just dont get the potential trajectory as they are not instructors and like so many slope users rather blind to spacial awareness and understanding of line and speed etc etc. Anyway plenty of hand holding went on and trying to explain to them that skiing to lunch at Maison Louly would not be possible 'but its a green run' our friends say.... yes but trying to explain to people that have no idea that colouring of runs is quite arbitrary etc.... there are SOOO many things to explain to people sometimes that really are quite blind.

They decided they wanted to warm up with a proper drink at the Ouillette so we headed there and that took a long time - well if you really want table service and to waste lesson time what do you expect! Alas no sooner had we finished that than they decided they had had enough so we downloaded (the weather by this point had improved massively) and they headed back in their private van to get shoes on to head to lunch!

I ate under the Sun Bar before arranging an earlier start time for the pm lesson given the fact that spending 2 hours between lessons was a waste of time and since I needed to shoot straight after skiing to SAF heli training!

Unfortunately there was a technical problem with the Olympic at lunchtime so I had to head up the two chairs to meet my clients who headed across from Tignes for the session which was a pain as that takes a while. Anyway we got there and by this afternoon the weather was pretty nice but the snow was lumpy and bumpy.

We had a really good moguls session all afternoon so that was a good use of time and we had loads of fun.... some great improvements too folks - well done!

I dashed home after work and changed to get a lift with a colleague down to the SAF heli training in Boisses which was cool.... it was SUPER quick the training this year which made a change. TBH the training neednt take too long as it often is in previous years - yawn. So this year it was super quick and done and dusted in record time and I got back home in perfect time to help Clare unload the shopping that she had collected from Bourg as she was down there taking Ben to speech and language assistant! Gosh that all take a while!

By the time the kids were in bed I was / am shattered with a long list of admin to get done tonight - eek!

Tomorrow I am off piste in the morning and potentially have the afternoon out of boots but the snow with the melt freeze we have had and the freezing level for the off piste could be interesing! Hmm we shall see.

TTFN

Sun came out for a while this aftenroon

Leamings leap in full swing!

The team this morning before they called it quits!

@Steve Angus, do they teach you to keep a straight face in front of those outfits as part of BASI 4 tech?

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@Steve Angus, do they teach you to keep a straight face in front of those outfits as part of BASI 4 tech?

(how do I delete a duplicate post?)

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Very entertaining read for last two days. Thanks Steve.

snow reports

@Steve Angus, I think you've got the patience of a saint!

@Steve Angus,
Seems things haven't changed since back in the day - doing seasons in the snow would be great but for the f*****g punters!
That said, I'm sure locals probably thought the same about me when travelling round the world/trans-african/silk road. snowHead

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Steve Angus,

I don't know how you cope with the lateness and other behaviours, you are a better man than me. I have a 20 minute maximum lateness in my job, too many other people to see who will play by the rules. I wonder if they try it at the check in counter at the airport when they are late there, or are they on a private jet?

A snowHead

@endoman, the plane analogy is apt. A scheduled flight won’t wait for them, a private will because they have paid for the time. They still pay for the time even If they don’t use it all. Same as instruction. A scheduled group lesson won’t wait very long, private instructor will because they get paid for the morning/afternoon, not per minute instructing. That’s not to say it isn’t frustrating for Steve and his colleagues.

A snowHead

A huge challenge trying to get the most effective instruction out of a session where the client appears to want to sabotage it. It’s possible that their desire is to just have a good time while having someone to guide and teach them at their convenience - but that sort of mind reading and judgement must make it very difficult for you Steve.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Dr John - I can deal with anything unless people turn up in fancy dress - god forbid! Oh and nice analysis of the comparisons to the airport etc!
Jehu - thanks - just trying to report it as I see it!
KSH - sometimes its through gritted teeth!
Kenzie - I think its mainly the fact that (without sounding funny) I do know a fair bit to help them out and offer advice and expertise etc but they dont seem to register that. There is so much you want to help them with and say you just cant because you know its a waste of time unfortunately!
holidayloverxx - available somewhere im sure for a small remortgage of your house!
endoman - haha thanks. Yes private jet for sure!
motyl - dont get my wrong I understand where people come from but sometimes its so very misguided and blind!

Anyway think can draw a line under it all now!

Snowy, snowy, snowy

At first light this morning there was not a huge amount of fresh snow out there but it was pretty thick cloud and quite humid. Anyway as I needed to get to Snowberry to collect packs for my morning session and get to the meeting point Clare took the kids down to the bus!

Anyway I had been awake early thinking through my options with these clients as I knew they were strong skiers so I was more than ready to get going when I got on the bus. Its funny how sometimes you think things through a million times before a lesson like in this case and sometimes not at all in advance.

So when I got to the rond pont (rather early it turned out) I sheltered as much as I could as it was rather wet snow falling. Anyway the lesson got going and it was 3 guys in the early 50's and really quite upbeat so it was quite a fun start to the day... after getting the avalanche gear handed out I had to make a call as to whether we went high or low to find decent snow and decided to give altitude a go.... and it paid off as the vis was OK up there and better still the snow was pretty light and deep... it had dried out a lot overnight thankfully!

When we have days like this it becomes a game to know how to find the goods but not go places that easily get tracked out... so without giving too much away we lapped Fontaine Froid and it was darn nice snow but there are still some rock sharks about. There was definitely some soft slab about too so I needed to keep it flat! Anyway the weather came in and out a little here and there but by the time we had exhausted options and headed to Grand Pre it was really closing in. Anyway the snow over there was the best of the morning and great when we could see it.

I was first in under pylon 6 and we found some great snow in there but it was DEEP and the angle to flat which was annoying! Doh!

Finishing on the pitches off Verte was again good but too flat and we couldnt really see anything so we canned it and skied piste for the rest of the session before finishing up.

This afternoon I have done some admin and bits and pieces and also headed into town to take the packs back, go to the bank etc!

So tomorrow weather wise will be very similar to what is was today. Over the weekend the weather will finally change and we will get sun and colder temps not until we have had a lot of snow this week!

TTFN

Lights,camera, crash!!! haha! It wasnt the only once of the day

From the bottom of the mountain it was rather nasty looking up there but we got a window and milked it!

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Lead, follow, teach, you decide, I decide, who's coming or not, lesson or company?

There was another decent top up of snow overnight and luckily temperatures meant it was falling as snow and not rain! There was a lot of PIDA blasting work to be done but they seemed to get it done in good time as Olympic and Solaise seemed to open on time from what I could see.

I headed to the meet point and on the way there got a message to say the client would be slightly late. Anyway the dad turned out to only be about 10 minutes late so not too bad. He wanted to get in a blast warm up lap before the rest of the family (mum and two grown up kids) arrived and therefore we popped up the Bellevarde Express to ski the lower Face. Now I would say it was the BEST decent of the Face I have ever done it was incredible! There was about 10cm of fresh on a nice soft base... so it skied like piste but with grip and the odd turn where it felt like powder skiing! The other incredible thing was that there really was no other person anywhere on the Face and this was at 0920 or so - incredible!

I think many people probably looked out the curtains this mornings and thought sod it not again and rolled over!

Anyway after that incredible lap that is when things got interesting as when the rest of the family arrived I sort of became a passenger in my own session it felt like! Normally (and being quite experienced at these things now) I work out what people want from the session, how to run it, where to go, speed, type of runs to do and all the rest of it. So firstly the dad announced before I really had a chance to thrash out the above that we should go up and ski the Face. In situations like that I partly have to go with it and be led by someone who skis with the others all the time that it would be the right thing to do.... anyway in all fairness it worked out OK but by the time we were coming up again and with the dad very very keen to push on and 'no stopping' I sort of lost sight of what my role was... I still dont know if I was supposed to be giving tips, making decisions where we go or anything... it was a weird session!

Alas later in the session we decided that heading over to Tignes would be a nice thing to do so off we went and it was great although they wanted to go up the Motte which I did say would not be great in my opinion given the vis and wind but they still thought it was a good idea so off we went! It took an age to get up there as the funi is only going once every 20 minutes! Doh! By this time we were already a little tight for time and luckily I persuaded them to ski to the bottom before they took a coffee break otherwise I would still be over there. By this time I must have given out about 2 tips out and followed the other skiers about whilst the wife followed my tracks for her confidence all the way - no worries with that. All a bit weird!

Anyway the wind and snow was intense and I skied back to La Daille only really stopping for lifts and then recording the weekly snow report!

I spent the afternoon at home doing bits including more work on fixing my Dads chair - its getting there - little by little. Clare was out working so got plenty of jobs done thankfully. Later in the day 'G' and 'Mrs G' popped around for a cuppa about the time the kids got back from school.

So the weather for the tomorrow will be slightly better then it was today but by Sunday will be much more settled after we have had a huge amount of snow. The roads will be interesting tomorrow I should think so the usual rules apply about arriving / leaving very early or late!

Im with the same family again in the morning so not sure what that will bring and then in the afternoon im off piste.

TTFN

A perfect and deserted Face first thing.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Fascinating insight of weird family dynamics there Steve. A young instructor friend of mine had a couple of Mosad agents the other day. Instructor was shattered by the end of the lesson.....

You'll need to Register first of course.

Sounds like Dad should have a had a full lesson on his own. Why spend a big wedge of cash on an instructor and then plan the lesson yourself.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@Steve Angus, That was indeed a strange session.

Any time I have had an instructor for the first time - and they ask "Is there anything in particular you would like to work on" - I would usually reply, "Let's start with you watching me ski and then work on areas which are weak".

Once that has happened, then the lesson usually evolves in a helpful way, with me highlighting other areas which I think need improvement (like Moguls!). If there has been fresh snow, then some Off Piste could be on the cards.

However, where we go is completely up to the instructor, as he knows the resort (crowds and snow quality) and knows which terrain is best to work on a particular aspect of my skiing.

On the occasions where I have had a lesson with Lady F - as we are at slightly different levels - how the lesson progresses is completely determined by the Instructor. Anything else makes no sense to me.

After all it is free

Rogerdodger - quite!!! knackering!
Frosty the Snowman - yea I know. You really do see it all you really do.
Old Fartbag - yea quite - what you describe is the norm! But it wasnt like that yesterday

Thats better.... well in some ways

There was PIDA this morning so that was an exciting way to start the day as we all ate breakfast and heard / watched etc the blasting going on out there. With us all to get ready for the slopes (Clare was later starter so not too stressful) it was pretty crazy! Anyway we headed out there and I dropped the kids off at club whilst checking the weather. It was teasing us with a mix of sun and cloud but generally looked like game on compared with what is has been!

Anyway the family I had yesterday obviously decided that it would be better to have it more like a 'normal' session so only the mum showed up this morning which suited me just fine - haha! So we headed up Bellevarde to work on building on the confidence as the flat light of yesterday knocked it a little! So we worked hard and built it back up in ideal conditions with great piste snow and no-one about (Saturday).

I did have something that I rarely have happen today in that the lady asked if I could ski faster... normally it is caution that comes with the territory of teaching the vast majority of people but to be asked to ski faster was a rarity! So I obliged!

I had a frantic lunch hour as needed to get to the office to collect some packs for the afternoon as well as eat lunch. Phew made it!

After lunch I noted that the weather was moving in once again but should not affect us too much! My team was a couple of guys about my age who wanted to give off piste a go so we geared up and set off up the Bellevarde! Well one thing of note is that after the wonderful snow to have fallen the last couple of days was largely buggered up overnight with some strong winds. It hasn't blown it away - rather it has compacted it leaving stiff soft slab galore off piste which is a shame. The conditions are still very good but it was a shame as tricky finding nice skiable snow this afternoon. Anyway the boys enjoyed it and we had fun with just a few funny falls to boot. Noodles around my usual haunts up Bellevarde produced some nice turns so it was worth it. However by abut 1500 the weather was really moving in again so we spent some time on piste before calling it a day!

After taking the packs back to the office I headed to the meet point to collect a tired Ben and we headed home. Olivia had had a ski race this morning - well it was club kids only timing and she did suitably well. Meanwhile Ben skied in the morning before lunch with a friend and then more skiing in the afternoon.

This evening has been pretty chilled as I am not skiing tomorrow, Ben neither although the two of us might go for a ski together. Olivia and Clare are skiing though. I had a very rare chilled one with a nice relaxing bath and a cold beer!

However not much else to report. The sun should finally after what seems like an age, make a return from tomorrow. Yay.

TTFN

This was about as good as the weather got today!

Steve, I read that two Estonians have died today in an avalanche off the back of Cugnai https://www.ledauphine.com/faits-divers-justice/2025/01/12/deux-morts-dans-une-avalanche-sur-un-secteur-hors-piste. I hope you and yours stay safe.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

RIP. But... 4/5 avi risk and no transceivers? Whatever must they have been thinking? Shocked

Be careful out there folks.

Help!!

The view from............ Val d'Isere and the Espace Killy

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