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

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Lynday Von putting practicing putting chains on Tiger('s) Wood?

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So it stopped snowing later last night... certainly had more or less stopped by 11pm but for a good 4 - 5 hours it was an intense snow storm and we got about 20cm or so here in town in that period of time. The road never did get any better last night and I have heard that many people were stuck down in Bourg, to complete their journey this morning..... even the family of the kid I was teaching this afternoon said their taxi driver was talking about 'turning back' and dropping them in Bourg for them to work their own way out how to get up this morning! It was certainly a short, sharp and intense snow storm that took many people by surprise - especially those on the road!

Anyway we woke to a largely clear day with a few clouds (thin ones) around! More on todays action in a moment...

HoneyBunny - not a tank or supercar - good guess - you are probably the closest out of everyone.
Timbobaggins - no - the 'Vonn has gone’ and no not look a like either!
halfhand - ummmmm no - brave them if it were true!
rogg - nooooooo!

WAIT FOR IT.........

It was a LONDON BLACK CAB!!!!!

YES I KNOW - bizarre. I really only got a few seconds look at it - it was parking up - one person in the back and did not look laden - and I was pulling out the car park. It was certainly not a brand new one but was hardly an antique - the 'taxi' light bit was there but not lit...... did not see if it had UK or French plates on it. Looked 100% the real deal..... can't believe someone took a cab from London!!!!!!

Markymark29 - that sucks..... but yes unfortunately Grenoble and Chambery airports are both prone to bad weather - that is why we use Geneva - that and the fact that competition means there are more flights and some very good priced flights to there makes it a no brainer for us. Thanks for the comment re my wheels - no it is not 4WD unfortunately - Ford don't do a 4WD version unfortunately - the comparable VW Caravelle in a 4WD would be about £15000 more!

Anyway back to today.

In that second photo I partly took it as I was in a little bit of disbelief as the ESF were doing their class split RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PISTE - right in the centre of the photo you can see several groups of people being split up to ski with their various instructors.... and if you know this piste you will know that this location is right in the middle AND just under the brow of a ridge...... pretty blooming stupid........ TBH if you were skiing down that piste right now you would struggle to get through all those people and continue your descent! Anyway nice pow just off the sides of the pistes there!

I had a lovely couple of teenage girls this morning - very sweet and just wanted to have a little confidence building and some fun... think they loved it - nice to put a smile on people faces. HOWEVER it was certainly colder this morning and I was glad of the extra layer I put on. This afternoon I had a little boy I have taught several times before (he is just 5)..... he has a really dominant left leg so keeps turning right but no matter what I do it is proving difficult to get his right leg to work........ more work on that tomorrow.

OK folks - we have all heard and seen the warnings about how dangerous it is out there at the moment..... however I managed to get the following photo taken from the top of Solaise over towards the East face of the Charvet. THERE WAS A COUPLE OF VERY LUCKY PEOPLE UP THERE TODAY

So here is what happened. Based on accounts I heard from a colleague who saw it happen.

1) top black line is the main traverse in from the top of the Grand Pre chairlift..... guided group come on to the East Face of the Charvet one at a time..... ski and take the vertical black line pow one at a time and stop in a safe place at the bottom (just out of sight).
2) 5 mins later a n other person (two of them) follow on their own, the groups traverse line..... however they obviously thought the snow towards where the top red arrow points looks better so carry on the traverse..... first person goes onto that area in the shade - makes some turns and exits on the right hand (as you look) red arrow at the SAME TIME the second person is skiing the line.....
3) slab avalanche starts and second person is JUST able to ski out back toward the 'down black arrow' area marked by the left hand (as you look) red arrow.
4) everyone is safe as slab avalanche continues down to where the original guided group have just exited (thankfully).

The guided group leader (a mountain guide) would have known not to go around that extra little bit into the shaded area as that change in orientation is where the wind loading is...... you can clearly see the change in orientation in this picture........ THAT FOLKS is the danger of following tracks!

Anyway educational over!

Finally - just heard about the Schumacher thing - ohhhhh lordy perhaps more mass hysteria about skiing / helmets and off-piste safety!!!!!! The BBC were just saying that he fell over a 'stone' - blimey whatever next....... a pile of powder snow causes a danger! I wish him a full and speedy recovery. If he were off piste (with or without his 14 year old son) then I wonder if he was wearing transceiver etc............ hmmm interesting!

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

WOOPS

Forgot my camera (aka phone) this morning so my effort of a picture was taken on my way out this evening....

Has been non stop today so feeling pretty shattered so it will be a short one this evening....

Nice snowboarding lesson this morning with a 11 year old girl (have another 4 sessions with her this week) - she did well for her first lesson and despite the bumps and bruises a good first session.

At lunchtime I had to swap into my ski boots (in the car park) - they were freezing to get on! It was a lot colder in town today but the sun made it nicer!

My afternoon was spent with little Henry and he did so well getting up to the Terrasse and Lac runs but sure was tired when we finished up.

A quick change, French lesson, dinner and now this before bed...... pretty hectic.

Shall be heading to friends for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate the New Year and then I can't believe we will be in to 2014!

Happy New Years eve eve!

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loving all the updates and pics steve. always a pleasure to read!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Fantastic blogs as ever Steve and really enjoying them. Happy New Year. Very Happy

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Happy New Year to you Steve Angus, and thank you for the blogs - I so look forward to them each day snowHead

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

RachelQ, +1

HNY Steve

After all it is free

Happy New Year to you Steve - and Clare and mini-bump!

Thanks for all the updates, I love reading them every day Very Happy

All the best for 2014, and exciting times becoming parents.

I love this thread - keep it coming please Steve Angus, some great photos to make us very jealous!

Can't wait to get out in Jan, snow at night and blue skies by day please!

Happy New Year to you & Clare

Jason & Sally

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Steve Angus,

Dunno why you're so surprised about the black cab - what do you think a cabby drives when he goes on holiday?

Happy New Year and please keep up the great updates...

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HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL

Thanks for the kind comments and hope everyone has a great New Year. Yes 2014 will be exciting for us!!!!!!

Anyway I must be quick as I need to shower and change and then we are heading to friends for a dinner party then a couple of drinks before bed!

So another lovely day in the EK and it was a little warmer then it was yesterday which was nice although is still unseasonably warm!!!!!

The sun was shining and the views spectacular - you always have to pinch yourself about how lucky we are to live and work in the mountains when you get views like this...

Which lift was I on when I took this photo then?????

I took the kids of some very regular clients of TDC out this morning - 10 and 15 are the ages of the kids and there is pretty much nothing I wouldn't do with them....... we did some freestyle - hitting the medium kicker in the park, moguls, ollies of the side of the piste into the powder, backwards parallel - pretty much everything I could think of... the only thing that did stump them was the co-ordination required to do tic-tacs which is like a dance move on the piste as you hop one leg in then the other then out again and then repeat on the other side!!!!

By lunchtime I was ready for a rest as much as they were!!!!!

In the afternoon I was back with little Henry and he was pretty tired today but we soldiered on and again he had a good ski. However Clare has been teaching his younger (4 years old) friend and today it was time to bring them together and see whether it will now work having them together in the same lesson at the same time so we did a little team teaching and follow the leader and they both did very well although Henry (being a little older and better) had a little grump but it all worked out well in the end! So tomorrow when I have them both on my own it will hopefully continue to work out OK!

Have just had a quick drink at Blue Note with pretty much everyone we know in resort and as said before now need to shower and head out!

P.S. bertie bassett - I just assumed that black cab drivers have other cars that they use for personal stuff.... would not think long distance in one of them is either very good fuel or comfort wise!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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All the best to you Steve Angus, and Clare too Very Happy

Thanks for the updates, makes us very jealous Very Happy

best wishes to Clare & yourself for 2014.

Congratulations on your baby news....what fun you have to look forward to..... Toofy Grin

Have a great New Years Eve.

You know it makes sense.

Steve Angus, Lift??? Laisinant? Happy New Year to you and Clare. Spotted you over on Grand Pre last week but didn't interrupt as you were teaching. Very Happy

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

Steve Angus, Happy New Year to you both Very Happy

Manchet Express?

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Fontaine Froide Puzzled

Seasons best to one and all Very Happy

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Happy New Year to you and yours Steve. And a massive thanks for all your posts...keeps us sane in the off weeks!

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

beeryletcher

..... you got it right. Clue is in the middle (vertically) and slightly right hand side middle where you can see the Tete de Solaise restaurant.

A GREAT DAY....

It was a lot warmer this morning than yesterday but I thought I would put the same number of clothes on as I new I would be lapping (in the shade for much of it) on the Village lift all day.

I had the same snowboarding girl again this morning and we made some good progress. She is almost at the point that she can start to learn turns.

There were not many of us at lunch as everyone had (sensibly perhaps) taken the day off!

The afternoon was always going to be interesting as I had the two little ones together after they had been in separate lessons for the last few days. However I was totally blown away about how well the two of them (4 and 5 year old friends) worked together and what a giggle we all had...... we played some pretty childish games and lapped around on the Village gaining more and more confidence as the day went on. If it weren't for the bad weather forecast tomorrow then I may take them up the Solaise to the Lac lift..... we shall see.

After a quick beer it was time for the torchlite descent (the last of my community service for this year). It was fairly easy although there are some very large patches of blue ice (from the World Cup) all over the place which made it a little slippy in places.

Feeling pretty shattered again this evening so I shall finish with some pictures of my day....

Thousands of ESF groups starting their day under the Village lift!

My view (and my board) from the top of the Village lift today!... the clouds never did roll in this afternoon!

Sunset at the top of the Bellevarde and just before we left the departure point at the top of the wall for the torchlite....

Lots of snow is forecast for the foreseeable future.

TTFN

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Happy New Year Steve and Clare. Still loving the daily updates. Out in the 3V at the moment (and yes it's warm here too) but looking forward to being back in VdI at the begining of Feb!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

A mixed bag of weather from where I was standing.

It was a weird day weather wise....... quickly this morning it clouded over and started snowing.... then stopped and the sun was almost back out.... by lunchtime it was puking it down again and then it stopped quickly and now there is hardly a cloud about....... but over the course of the day we received a good 10cm of the fresh stuff down here in town which will have been more higher up but like yesterday I did not get off the nursery slopes!

Typical conditions today if you averaged it out!!!!!

First thing this morning I was all ready for my snowboarding lesson.... when I got the message that the young girl I was teaching was rather under the weather so we would not be starting until nearer 10am and would it be OK if she skied instead as she is accomplished at that already apparently! So I went about changing before another text came through saying that she wanted to snowboard after all....... oh well it kept me on my toes. So I was standing at the meeting point and I was observing a very interesting DIY lesson going on - I think they were Russian from what I could hear.

So with my back to the walkway up to the Olympique lift and looking towards the Rond Pont des Pistes and the slope that you ski down from the bus stop to the lifts it was quite a sight. The man, with his SNOWBOARD off was giving directions to his wife / girlfriend / daughter who was so far out of her depth it was not true. For a start he was getting her to put her skis on in the fall line so would start moving immediately the binding clicked on..... then there was the issue that there was LOTS and LOTS of people in that area at both the top and bottom of that little slope darting all over the place. She had obviously never skied before and she was like a lose cannon careering down the slope narrowly avoiding people. Being on skis and on a slope that was WAY too steep for a first timer and WAY too LONG she was petrified and you can see in the picture below how much she was in the back seat....

In this shot she randomly 'threw' her skis around the turn so was just about in control of her direction...

Anyway I never did see the end of her 'initiation by death' although I almost said to her when she got within earshot of me that if she was not careful she will seriously damage her knees.

The other thing that struck me this morning was seeing all the ESF and other kids groups lessons queuing up for the kiddies lane on the Solaise Express..... that will have been a long wait!!!!

So when my snowboarding session this morning finally got underway it became apparent that the poor kid really was ill and off colour so we took it really gentle and to be fair she did really well!

After lunch I had the 4 and 5 year olds again and with the snow falling and perhaps 7cm that was already on the ground it was going to be tough with motivation levels and also the technical abilities required for their little legs..... but quite literally they battled through it and despite a few falls they did really really well. I was always going to take it easy on their little legs this pm - apparently the 4 year old was asleep by 6pm last night. Tomorrow is their final day so (if the weather is good) we will really go for it but today was a little more relaxed and they were happy when I said that we could fit in two Kinder Egg breaks...... when you think about it soft snow which quickly turns into lumps and bumps is VERY hard on their little legs and the fresh snow has to be snowploughed out the way - tiring and hungry / thirsty work!

Anyway Clare and I are having a quiet evening (seems like ages since we had an evening without any commitments) and watching a film as Clares' mum arrives for a week tomorrow night to stay with us which will be nice (especially for Clare).

LOTS MORE SNOW FORECAST OVER THE NEXT 48 HOURS SO WATCH THIS SPACE!

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Weird weather again but it is currently snowing and should continue through the night

So once again I am going to have to quick as I am heading down the valley with Clare in a moment to Bourg train station to collect Clares mum off the train - Clare is rather excited! And as soon as I get back up I will be heading to bed as the alarm is set for silly o'clock as have to be walking out the front door at about 4.15am! The actual transfer down tomorrow (BARRING THE EFFECTS OF THE SNOW) should be OK as we will be well ahead of the traffic but for those who are driving down tomorrow then leave before 7am if I were you!!!!! For those coming up then prepare to put snow chains on as it could snow non-stop for the next 24 hours possibly!

Anyway today was another weird day snow wise - one moment it was really closing in and then by lunchtime there were glimpses of blue sky but it moved in again! And as I said above it is currently snowing hard and has been for a few hours now!

I spent the morning in the Village lift and my girl got the hang of snowboard turns pretty well by the end even though she still has the lurgy - go girl! I 'handed' her over to a colleague from another snowboard school who took her for the afternoon and although she was close she did not quite make it up the hill!

However in the afternoon when I had the little ones again and with the weather still looking OK I made the call to take them up the Solaise and boy it was tough work as they needed a lot of pushing along the flat bits..... not that I have not done that stuff before but the air temperature was quite warm so I was sweating bucket loads! Anyway a quick cool down at the Ouilette and we continued. They did so well but they were tired once again. We had a longer 'kinder' (egg) stop which they certainly appreciated! Whilst I was sitting there in the Cabane cafe at the bottom of the Savonnettees lift (beginner poma near the Village lift) I saw one heck of a sight!!!!!

A virtually bald guy with a go pro on strap stuck to his forehead on the most nursery of nursery slopes!

Whilst I am blogging thought I should mention that never let it be said that food on the hill is ridiculously expensive in Val (YES in some places it is). But anyway at the Cabane you can get burger and chips for about €8 or equivalent type foods!!!!!! OK it may have a very snack and simple 'fried' menu but still (especially with kids) it is a great value place!

Got some annoying news from a un-named laundry service in town that they were unable to get our washing to us today, even though they had had it for a week already.... basically they outsource the service to someone in Bourg and they had been let down...... I was fuming as we needed the laundry for changeover day tomorrow for our new guests..... anyway the manager who I know very well sorted us out some of their own laundry so we could make the beds for our incomers tomorrow - cheers and crisis averted! Clare was not a happy bunny when she heard but was happy when I came home half an hour ago with bag of fresh linen in hand!

Finally two things - one happy and one bad / sad:

The good: Congratulations to a snowboarding (Brit) colleague in town on the birth of their (first) baby son (back in the UK) today - almost two weeks late.... well done Roddy and Emma!!!!

The bad: Police are looking for witnesses to the serious assault (he is in a serious condition) of a 17 year old man on New Years Eve in Tignes! He is in hospital in Annecy - hope he makes a full recovery soon.

That's all folks - must dash!

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Steve Angus, good luck with your transfer day. I get the impression that a lot of people are leaving tonight. that was the case with my French ski-lesson colleague, to whom I've been giving lifts this week - their group had decided to leave after dinner tonight and there has been a lot of packing and "goodbyes" going on, and more parking space now than there have been for a while. And these are all French people - they seem to be getting the message that all coming and going together at exactly the same time is maybe not such a good idea as they'd always thought. So there will probably be a good trickle of traffic down the valleys tonight.

I am awaiting visitors who are driving themselves from Gva - they are so late that I am in danger of having polished off a fair amount of the Rioja before they arrive.

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Good for you PAM W enjoy Very Happy

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Steve Angus, My daughter Katie thinks you caught Gru from Despicable Me on the Village lift with the GoPro on his head.

Thanks for the daily updates looking forward to the 2nd of our 3 trips to EK in less than 5 weeks Very Happy

Steve Angus, I think he's definitely a Russki!
pam w, how's your head this morning?!

You know it makes sense.

Yes I know I am very late in posting yesterdays blog.... sorry.

After getting up to resort pretty late on Friday night with Clares mum through driving snow, having a socialable welcome drink with her and getting into bed at about 11am it was...

....a VERY VERY long day on Saturday 4th. I was up at 3am..... had to make sure that I was up in case I thought that chains would be needed to get down the hill. As it turned out it had snowed quite hard all night but for some strange reason there was not too much snow that had actually collected on the ground. So I walked through town at just after 4.15am and got a couple of nice shots from around town.

Anyway we finally left at 5am and were ahead of the traffic by about 2 hours. If we had been leaving closer to 7am then I would have thought we would have had a pretty sizeable delay and later still it would have been a horrendous journey! Even at 5am the traffic was building!

It rained pretty hard all the way to Geneva and we made it in pretty good time in the end..... however as soon as we got in the terminal it became apparent that the queue to check in was huge so our outgoing guests had one heck of a long queue.

Most of the flights in and out (with UK destinations on the other end) were affected in some way....... the incoming flight was delayed by an hour so I ended up having nearly 3 hours wait at the airport - could have been worse!

I did a really silly thing and managed to pay for the parking to leave but then managed to misplace the ticket between paying and getting back to our car - grrrr. So ended up having to pay twice.

The journey back was pretty painless in the end but the driving rain was horrendous. We made it in good time to Bourg for a massive food shop and the guests who are Australian and staying for two weeks, did an even bigger food shop! By the time we got back up the hill there was a fair amount of snow that was settling on the road but the road was in pretty good condition all things considered.

To our horror there was hundreds of students from UK universities that had just arrived and were trying to figure out which apartments they were all supposed to be staying in....... I hope they weren't (and continue not to be) too loud and noisy in the block and surrounding blocks to where our little place is that we rent out! No complaints so far from our chalet guests - long may it continue!

I got back in about 7pm in the end...... it was a quick dinner then I was in bed by 9pm as I was shattered!

Clare and I enjoyed a real proper lie in this morning - only Clare was teaching this afternoon. Clares mum also had a lie in and then we had a nice spot of brunch, watched a film, took down the Xmas tree and did some odd jobs around the house and I have just realised that it is the evening and I still had not done yesterdays blog - naughty me!

So another transfer day down! As we have a fair few people who are self drivers, getting the train to Bourg Saint Maurice or are staying for two weeks I have just counted that I only need to go to Geneva Airport another 8 times this Winter - yippee!

Anyway folks take care..... we are off out for a nice meal tonight thanks to Clares mum and to be honest todays blog will be very boring...... back to the slopes tomorrow for me and again the posts will hopefully make a little more interesting reading!

P.s. pam w - yes I agree I think a lot of people left on Friday evening when they say a) the forecast and b) they new what the road would be like on the Saturday night - it was pretty busy going down on Friday evening!

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

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Rioja, in France?! Is there some crisis in the French wine industry we haven't heard about?

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Sunday 5th

Blimey I really am behind schedule aren't I!!!!!

Well there really was not much to talk about yesterday I am afraid........ was very lazy all day but apparently the snow up top was awesome and it also brightened up in the afternoon.

In the evening Clare, her mother and I went to the L'Arbe de Vie (the 'under new owners' and repainted etc restaurant that used to be called Bistrot des Cimes) for dinner - we had a wonderful meal there - I would highly recommend it as it was yummy.

After a few beers and glasses of wine I once again had an early night!

And that about it for Sunday.

Todays report late on.

P.S. Todays photo was taken by a friend of their friends ice skating yesterday afternoon on the ice rink in the centre of town....

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

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Quiet and perfectly groomed (NB not necessarily the groomed piste in the picture above though!!!!!)

Well the crowds have gone and the fresh snow has made it 100% perfect piste conditions...

It was a little warmer in town.... indeed it is still unseasonably warm and should continue to be warmer than normal for the rest of the week. I had a really nice management consultant from London this morning.... he is in his early 30's and uniquely for someone of his age and sex actually under-estimated his ability - more often than not that is the remit of females! Anyway he was a little stronger than he suggested on paper and we lapped around and around on the Arcelle run working on his short turns. Essentially his biggest problem was not standing on the outside ski with his weight centred positively enough and secondly using too much edge so he was gaining too much speed and not rotating his feet which meant speed control was lacking a little. Technically he had a lot of good things going on so he was pretty easy to 'change' and rise to the challenge he did.

It was so lovely and quiet on the run and indeed the whole resort is so much quieter this week. I am fairly open this week still so I shall be enjoying some time off when I get the opportunity! Like this afternoon when Clare, her mum and I took a walk around the shops, chatted and had a very civilised time!

I was a little worried a wee while ago when I saw the PGHM chopper flying in low over the resort but I have not heard of any bad incidents on the grapevine so hopefully it was nothing serious and or a training run - who knows!

So no snow forecast over the next few days but some cracking conditions to enjoy!

Take care everyone.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Warm and way too many layers

The heatwave continues and I should have listened to my readings of the various forecasts and not put too many layers on...... I was shedding layers pretty early on this morning and luckily Clares mum came to lunch and was able to take excess layers from Clare and I home for the afternoon.

So I had the same guy this morning ad yesterday and we worked on bumps - he did pretty well although (by his own admission) he was not the fittest person so there was a few bouts of panting and plenty of sweating but he battled through well!

In the afternoon I had a lovely lady who had her BASI Level 2 yet had narrowly missed her Level 3 technical in November in Zermatt. She too wanted to work on moguls so we spent the afternoon bashing up and down the Tommeuse bumps which was great. The bumps on there really are in perfect nick... soft, rounded and not too bottomed out..... perfect. Again by the end all concerned were tired but content!

The Folie (as you can see above) was really going off this afternoon in the heat and the students in town were loving it having little parties all over the slopes!

I have just been around to our chalet to sort out a couple of little problems, later Clare and I will be heading to the Fall Line for our second instalment of the seasonnaires sign up session.... fingers crossed we get a lot of interest to add on to the dozens already signed up. I am also looking forward to tomorrow evening as I am meeting up with a girl (who was 18 at the time) that I used to work with when we sold ski holidays to Australians when we worked in Sydney back in 2001. Anyway she is here on holiday for the first time with her husband and it will be nice to catch up after nearly 13 years.

Not much else to report this end. More warm weather but with the outside chance of snow at the end of the week - fingers crossed!

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It had better snow, coz i'll be heading out on Saturday and have booked two mornings private off piste lessons with TDC in Tignes Very Happy

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Neville, you might be much more advanced than I am, but when I've had private off piste lessons we've spent a good half the time ON the piste, with me learning to do the necessary. wink

And "off piste" doesn't mean powder - I guess learning to cope with all the crud and crap is also good for one's soul. Little Angel

After all it is free

A pretty good day but a scary event for someone!

ALQ - some town pics for you as requested.

Neville - some snow forecast for early next week you will be pleased to hear.
pam w - yes you don't always get powder on off piste sessions unfortunately!

Anyway today was an interesting day. Had a nice guy this morning who had smooth and rounded turns but needed some tweaking to get the same effect on the steeper runs..... anyway some positive changes were made.

At lunch I was the only person but half my lunchtime was spent changing from ski to snowboard gear.

The afternoon was spent with a sweet 11 year Aussie girl. There are a lot of Australians in town at the mount being their school holidays still. She had done a little bit of riding before and was linking on green runs in the zone tranquil before the end of the session - good on you girl.

More on my afternoon session in a moment...

After skiing I was back home for a quick change before meeting up with my old colleague from 13 years ago - it was lovely to catch up and meet her husband and catch up on the years!!!!!

I have just had my French lesson and then Clares mum made a nice dinner and I shall shortly be in bed!

Anyway the 'interesting' activity that I observed this afternoon was actually quite horrifying!

Moniteurs Couloir if you know where I mean has a rather interesting entrance to it. As you head up the Grand Pre chairlift on the immediate left half way up there is a short little couloir that is very obvious from the chairlift (Pisteurs Couloir is much further down (and longer (and accessed after the hike from the top of the chair))). Anyway (and I have done it a few times before) getting in requires a traverse between bands of rocks along a very exposed ridge line above cliffs before dropping in.

Anyway it would appear as if someone FELL (or possible intentionally tried to huck it) on the traverse in. There was a definite 'splat' crater in the snow at the bottom and below that there had obviously been a lot of people (pisteurs) that had walked up and down..... but the time I was passing on the chairlift there was at least a dozen pisteurs trying to work on the person. About 20 minutes later as we swung by for a second time I could see that the person had been taken a little lower down to the flat area of the club des sports piste and a pisteur was preparing to call in the chopper........ it MUST have been REALLY serious as the PGHM chopper from Albertville / Moutier came in from that direction, landed then flew up to a 'perch' near the Fontaine Froide lift and shut off its rotars and then 15 mins later came back down and took the doctor that was previously dropped off and casualty off to hospital!!!!!!! I have not hard any more but will keep my ears open!!!!!! Best of luck to him or her and whatever their nationality!

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Ouch, that looks nasty. So he basically tumbled down all those rocks and landed in a heap, how awful.

The idea of being anywhere near that kind terrain terrifies me.

Hope he gets through OK.

Really enjoying the daily updates Steve, I will hopefully book this season's trip to Val very soon.

Help!!

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

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