 Poster: A snowHead
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Steve Angus, How does the snow generally compare on the Joseray piste with the Face. I know they're right next to each other, but I guess the Face gets a hell of a lot more traffic due to its name. Is the Joseray a better ski later in the day I guess is what I'm asking?
2 weeks to go before we're out in Val 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Gonna be a strange one this.... writing this in the early hours of Saturday morning about Friday before heading on a monster transfer day..... apologies if it sounds little weird being written in the past tense!
Some say it was cold, but personally I was lovely and warm
So the kids made it in the morning..... they made it onto their first chairlift (the Village) and we managed to fit in 5 laps of the lift in the lesson which was great! They loved every single second of it although they were not overly happy about having to go up on chairs with 'foreigners' - basically they all wanted to ride the lift with me which is fine but not possible!
Anyway they have booked one more session for Saturday morning which Clare is coincidentally taking..... she may (if the weather is OK and all things are equal) take them up to the Lac / Terrace lifts at the top of the Solaise - we shall see!
I treated myself to a lovely Tartine lunch (which for those that don't know Val is just down from the English Medical Centre and the Grand Marnier bar..... it is a counter in the wall that does lots of yummy things from sandwiches to sausage rolls to cookies etc - yummy grub and very reasonably priced too!
The afternoon Henry was ready to go to the top of the Solaise and he loved every single second of it - especially the cable car ride down at the end which he was fascinated by..... bravo Henry!
It was a fun evening as we had TDC curry night down the valley in Seez and what a feast everyone chipped in to make..... about 25 of us (including WAGS etc) tucked into about 10 differing types of curries etc and this morning I am feeling a little full still shall we say! We also (about 10 of us) went night sledging down the lower slopes of the La Rosiere slopes down through the forest...... it was great fun, if not a little scary in the dark!
The only thing that was particaulry interesting yesterday was seeing 2 people climbing up the ridge face (lookers left of the up and over lift as you look from the Solaise side to the Fornet side). They were climbing up in the heat of the afternoon about 2-3pm...... TOTALLY stupid and recklass as the pisteurs had to close the blue piste below for fear of a slide coming down onto the piste.... a classic case of consequential action in the mountains were the perpetrators have no idea of the affect they have on others - it happens ALL THE TIME - but usually with things like fast skiing etc etc! Anyway nothing did slide so all was well that ends well!
So it is going to be a monster transfer day today with 32,000 cars going and 37,000 cars coming back up the valley between Albertville and Moutiers - eek... so am leaving an extra long time - wish me luck!
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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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Steve Angus, Good luck!
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Transfer day over and it was a long one. I hit the road at 6.30 and already the traffic was starting to build up. It was cold and grey but was not snowing (as I left). It ended up taking nearly 5 hours to get to the airport and looking back on it I am not really sure why as I did not really think the traffic was bad in any particular location - just heavy the whole way there!
Geneva was predictably busy and I later heard that it took well over an hour to do the bag drop alone for Easyjet!
Anyway I had a very long wait for the incoming flights but we eventually left about 4pm which I new was very late to be leaving but there was no other option.
It was interesting to see that the 'Securitas' people were controlling a couple of the commercial transfer companies at the arrivals hall. I do not know what jurisdiction they have but there you go.
So we made really good time from Geneva as far as Albertville but I knew that it was going to be chaos from then on in so I decided to take the back roads as much as possible. No sooner had we started on the back roads but we saw tail light after tail light for mile on mile all the way towards Moutiers.... I was happy that I was on the back roads along with all the other locals even though I was in a UK reg car!
THEN IT HAPPENED THE STING IN THE TAIL.
I think the local police have caught on to the fact that some of the 'usual' back roads are being used and have started to put in traffic lights in some pretty stupid places..... Aigueblanche just outside of Moutiers is where is all went wrong! Anyway after that it was plain sailing again and we ended up taking 5 hours to get back which (in the grand scheme of things) was not too bad!
The guests picked up a drive thru McDonalds on the way through Bourg but I resisted!
By the time we got half way up the hill it was snowing very hard but my car with its 4wd and snow tires powered on no probs! Indeed it has continued to snow pretty hard all day today.... and lots more is forecast for the next few days.
So it was the end of a VERY long day and I was shattered by the time I got to bed.
I have had a very lazy day today watching tv and recovering after not only transfer day but also the last couple of weeks..... phew!!!!!!
LOCAL NEWS as the photo from Radio Val d'Isere shows the water levels in the dam are now VERY low and the old bridge is VERY visible. The works on the dam are expected to last until June. Virtually all the water will be out within the next couple of weeks so I am hoping to be able to see the old Tignes village ruins at the bottom when that occurs - we shall see.
We have another French lesson this evening and then I think it will be an early night!
....Red Bull corporate trip and their lessons should be fun from tomorrow onwards!!!!
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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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That's really interesting about the dam, what are they doing? I'd love to see the remains of the old village.
Great pics from Radio Val d'Isere, incredible to see the water level so low!
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Well that was a very nice and relaxing day.... watching the snow flakes fall outside.
This evening was mainly spent practising our French as Clare and I (as I think I have mentioned previously) are on a mission to improve our French in the next year or so..... the lessons we are taking are helping a lot which is always good news.
Not much else to say apart from the fact that it is pretty cold in town this evening and the snow that is forecast to come in heavily tonight is yet to materialise and it may be too cold to snow as it is -15 out there at the moment so we could end up with no new snow.
Right folks im turning in early now as I think the Red Bull thing could be quite draining tomorrow.
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Piccadilly - sorry missed your post. They are doing structural work on the dam wall - just routine maintenance but the dam needs to be under minimal stress to do the work so thats why the water is being emptied out!
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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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as it seems transfer day on a saturday is quite manic, is it much quieter on sunday.
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compostcorner, On the roads - yes - on the pistes the opposite!
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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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Steve Angus, you need to update this on your website:
"Clare Richards (also Co-Owner of Fresh Chalets) is also a qualified ski and snowboard instructor. She is our chalet girl since she is still completing the lengthy process to becoming an instructor in France." she is now all fully "Frenchly" qualified, is she not?!
(btw the reason I was looking is that I was idly investigating how much a lesson with TDC is, in case I book one next time I'm in Val)
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Steve Angus, full marks for still putting in time on the French, at such a busy time of year. 
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You know it makes sense.
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If you're looking for a decent French program to watch to improve your language skills I thoroughly recommend Engrenages (aka Spiral for its English audience), though some of the vocabulary would I hope not be too useful to you as an instructor!
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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That's amazing how empty the dam lake is in the 2nd pic there. Very cool.
Have you skiied the sache lately Steve? Could.ting the days til we're out in val now and it's one run I look forward to skiing this year after not managing to last year due to the injury I picked up.
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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 I have booked to return to Val on March 17th, YAY! I cannot wait.
Those clients must have had some serious wedge to afford the VIP area of the Folie. Looking forward to going back there 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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shoogly - no not been down there fore a while sorry.
Piccadilly - hmm yes indeed. How exciting your coming back to Val....
Well a change in the days weather.... it started nice and clear and sunny and progressively clouded over until now it is snowing quite hard. It is quite local snow along the Italian border so I am not even sure somewhere like Tignes is getting the snow!
In the morning I had a couple of couples who knew Val d'Isere well and we worked on their bumps skiing but by the time we had finished with the S bumps they were pretty tired but all in all they did very well!
In the afternoon I had my seasonnaires and boy they are coming on well (even if I do say so myself). They were able to ski some tricky reds and even ski the tough blue mangard at the end of the day back down into Le Fornet - well done folks! Todays trick of the day was 180's and they started to get the hang of that by the end of the day!
Due to all the high pressure weather we have had recently they have issued a pollution warming in the valleys around here - so the air pollution means that staying high up in ski resort is the best course of action for the time being!
And talking of local news there is a 20 year old British man that went missing in town last night (well to be more precise he never returned home) - so there is an alert around town for him.... I am sure and hoping that he turns up safe and sound!
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According Radio Val - he is OK - here is the transcript, copied only for the polite way they described his state!
Un ressortissant britannique avait disparu avant hier soir, Il avait été vu pour la dernière fois à l'arrêt de bus du Fornet où il loge. Ses amis l'ont attendu en vain au Saloon et ont donné le lendemain l'alerte auprès des services de gendarmerie et de police municipal. Le jeune anglais de 20 ans a été finalement retrouvé au Fornet. Il avait visiblement perdu tout sens de l'orientation se retrouvant dans un chalet où il n'habitait pas, laissant de surcroît de jolis et odorants souvenirs d'une personne visiblement incommodée au niveau de l'estomac.
I can only imagine the UK redtops way of describing this 
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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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chocksaway,  I'm laughing at the description. The behaviour is ghastly. Why do so many people think a holiday is incomplete unless they're legless for a fair proportion of the time? How much money does it cost to get ratarsed in Val D'Isere? A candidate for a Darwin Award if he'd fallen in a ditch somewhere, then we'd all have been RIPing all over the place. :twisted:The plod used to throw the drunk and disorderly into a cell. Some ski resorts could do with a few dingy dungeons.
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| pam w wrote: |
| Some ski resorts could do with a few dingy dungeons. |
could always put him on the bus to Tignes
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This is how it translates: A British national was missing until last night, he was seen for the last time at the bus stop Fornet where he lives. His friends waited in vain for the Saloon and gave the following warning with gendarmerie and the municipal police. The young Englishman of 20 years was finally found in Fornet. He had obviously lost all sense of direction finding himself in a cottage where he lived not, leaving extra pretty and fragrant memories of someone obviously inconvenienced at the stomach
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Rossignolbloke, that reads like google translate on a bad day. 
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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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pam w, it's very entertaining, though, especially the last bit.
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Last year in Val there were some army lads staying in the same hotel (as part of an organised trip with a young officer in charge) and though they didn't cause us any fuss particularly (barring the inevitable fire alarm one night) they obviously let off some steam on the last night and a couple who had managed to find somewhere else to sleep very nearly missed their very early morning transfers while their mates searched all over for them.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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"pretty and fragrant memories" LOL!!
What an @rse. There's really no point in getting that p*ssed.
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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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Newbie here, first post.....
Just had a great lesson with Steve Angus from TDC in Val D'Isere this morning. He taught me so much! We had a dump of fresh snow last night so the first part of the lesson quickly adapted to a powder turn tutorial. A few tumbles and tank slappers later and I understood the principles. Great!! Then onto all the other techniques I needed to get the hang of, facing downhill, weight forwards depending on gradient, and scrubbing speed by getting the skis as far across to 180 as possible.
A fantastic morning on the pistes. Learnt loads, wrote it down like he told me to, and two more days to put it into practice!!
I was so chuffed, I spent the late afternoon celebrating in the Follie Douce!!
If anyone is out in Val and wants a lesson and some tips to take away and improve on then I can't recommend Steve highly enough. It was worth every penny!!!
Thanks Steve, see you next year 
Dan
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...well at least all's well that ends well ehh!
MORE SNOW
Well there was a good 10cm of snow on the ground down here in town this morning but it was still overcast.
This morning I had a fellow SH who made some real breakthroughs.... we headed up Solaise and the original plan had been to work purely on blue / red run technique but fortunately with the fresh snow I taught him how to ski powder and although he found it tiring he really learnt how to deal with it well despite a couple of spectacular splats!
Late on we worked on red run technique and he really made some break throughs!
It was surprisingly windy with the Foehn wind blowing hard and some of the lifts having to remain closed but all in all the weather was on the up as the day progressed.
In the afternoon I took my seasonnaires for their weekly session and it was a solid off piste afternoon. We did a variation down the Super S and then headed over the back of Cugnai. I thought the snow in there would be good but boy it was really good - there was the best part of a foot of fresh snow in places. The good news was that with the poor weather and wind etc that not many people had need in there.
The seasonnaire team enjoying the Tour du Cugnai!
They loved it and we stopped by the little hut half way down and chatted to the lady in there and bought a drink.
It was getting late by the time we got back to the top of the Solaise but we had time to do a variation of the S couloir. There was some soft wind slab around but nevertheless some good skiing to be had. I got a little annoyed as once again a group of people followed us into the area and I waited to let them overtake.... if you don't know where you are going then DO NOT FOLLOW as you are a liability to others. Anyway they did not understand my beckonings to overtake us so I had no choice but to proceed into the couloir.... within about 30 seconds they were above us on a convex slope and set off some surface slab that came down towards us. Fortunately I had pre-empted this happening so I had positioned my group on the other side of the colouir and no damage / danger resulted but I did give them a shouting at! But people are OBLIVIOUS to their responsibilities and (just like on the pistes) ski with blinkers on. There are people in prison on manslaughter charges in France for causing death through misadventures such as this (as in the people setting the slide off from above!). Rant over!
Had a quick drink with Colin from TDC who leaves for New Zealand where his young family are residing at the moment - he wont be back until November - bonne voyage!
Back on the corporate group tomorrow - fun fun fun!
P.S. Forgot to mention - the seasonnaires are loving the off piste so much that I now have to organise a heli-drop for them! YIPPEE should be fun!
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You know it makes sense.
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END OF ANOTHER WEEK
So it was another early meeting to sort out the corporate group at the Gourmandine this morning. The first thing that struck me this morning was that it was not only a little overcast but it was also pretty windy!
As it turns out there was a lot of fresh snow that had accumulated up at the Fornet - apparently right along the border up there there was about 50cm of fresh snow in places - incredible.... in other parts of the resort over Tignes way they had not received anything - just goes to show how big the area is that the weather can be totally different one end of the resort to the other!
So I lucked out and had the top group.... the boarders group as I was the only person booked on the corporate group that could teach both so it was deemed that I could give a tip or two even though I personally was on my skis! Anyway a jolly nice bunch they were.
They were all rather hungover but we got going pretty quickly. I had planned to head the Fornet direction but I think a technical problem and wind put paid to that idea.... after a bit of a queue we got on the Olympic.... within 30 seconds of leaving the lift station on the team had let his board slip out of his fingers and it cracked the (think he was russian) elderly gentlemen next to me slap bang in the middle of the forehead and drew blood. After a combination of apologising from Nick in my group towards him and a lot of swearing - just generally - not confrontational towards Nick, it calmed down but as we left the lift the guy was still wiping a little blood from his brow and muttering profanities under his breath - not a great start!
So we continued over towards the Grand Motte...
.... where we had a quick drink stop and the continued down to Val Claret, 'around the world' as we call it (Tichot, Grattalu, Grand Huit and Aigee Percee) and down into Brevieries. Even though the water level in the Lac Chevril is VERY low you still (as far as I could see anyway) can NOT yet see the remains of the original Tignes Village!
A YUMMY lunch at L'Armailly (never disappoints there) and everyone was back on track.... the hangovers were a fading memory and everyone was now thinking towards the afternoons frolics at the Folie!
A quick trip through the Val Park where we watched Paddy Graham doing so training and it was on to the Folie.... like Tuesday champagne and alcohol was free flowing! Anyway I made my excuses at about 4pm before it got too messy and before we had to help them down the mountain - they knew that taking the lift was always going to be the best option!
Have just had a nice takeaway lasagne from Val Traiteur for dinner which was lovely and my thoughts are now fixed on the drive tomorrow. 35,000 coming and 32,000 going - it will be another busy week on the roads.... as always leave early or very late tomorrow!
So we are expecting another warm few days coming up... Spring surely now has sprung!
Thank you to 'The Danno' for your kind words - very kind of you (and no - I did not put him up to saying those things!).
In local news - last night they had to totally replace the drive motor of the Olympique lift - by all accounts it took most of the night but you would never have known about the work that went on last night by 9am this morning - bravo to the STVI for a seamless change there...... I am guessing it was just routine!
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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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Quicker than planned
Well the transfer day yesterday worked out quite nicely in the end. Quicker than planned coming back (strange) but longer than planned going (again surprised me) but overall 10 hours drive time not too bad!
I was very lucky when we arrived at Geneva as I decided to put the car straight in the short term parking and would you believe it as I arrived a space opened up in front of me - amazing!
The guests I was picking up had opted for a VERY early flight so they had LANDED at Geneva by just after 8am so had been up since 1am! By the time we got back to Val and they had done their ski hire etc it will have been after 7pm - a VERY long day for all involved!
Anyway spring really has sprung and it was a lovely drive there and back with the sun shining for the most part - beautiful!
Am being brief this morning as Clare and I are planning a trip from the top of Mickeys Ears all the way down to the Lac and across the old (normally underwater) bridge and back on a taxi to Val, this afternoon!
I forgot to take a picture yesterday so this shows the general chaos you see around town on transfer day with people coming and going.
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Poster: A snowHead
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....ps thanks to Radio Val for that picture!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Steve Angus, as a matter of interest, what was the traffic situation on the way down to Geneva? Not surprised you were surprised about delays as you must have left very early in the morning to get to Geneva for 8 am. Maybe a lot of people had the same idea. Today's trip sounds interesting.
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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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Steve Angus, I'm coming out to Val this Saturday, I'm looking for some off piste instruction or guiding.
Do you have any suggestions? I'm out with my wife, baby boy and Grandma so looking for a couple of half days or something, happy to join a group or pay as a private.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Hi sparkzter - well our school runs off piste clinics (www.tdcski.com) for (usually) 3 half days or we can do private sessions. If we cannot help then Alpine Experience would be another choice or perhaps Top Ski.
[b][/pam wb] - no I did not leave THAT early but early enough..... I left at 7am from Val.... it was backed up for about 30-45 mins on the way into Moutiers - after that it was fine.... yea lots of people had the same idea. More on todays FAB trip in a second.
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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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Steve Angus, fabulous photos!
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Russeh, The remnants of the old village are there - I saw them last time the lake was emptied around the millennium. However, don't expect too much - just the outlines of the walls - think Time Team rather than Renovation Nightmares (or whatever its called) as the village was destroyed after the evacuation to ensure the reluctant villagers didn't go back - as now they don't much about with tree huggers once The Republic has made a decision!
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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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chocksaway, that would make a lot of sense, the actual roumor that went arround was that you could see the old church spire when it was low
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Steve Angus, Thanks for that, I'll check out your school! Maybe see you about.
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FAQ
