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

A snowHead

Datcha?

A snowHead

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

I'd have said the Aguille Rouge chair but haven't been that way in a long time so could be way off. Snow looks lovely.

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Loyes??

Please thank Kieran and Kim for last week. Must admit my legs were sore when I arrived in resort and some hard ski-ing the day before our sessions with Kieran meant I did ski like a true Muppet.
Would highly recommend La Toviere hotel in La Daille and the meals we had were excellent and good value at 28€ for 4 courses.

Back in April to collect the 3 ski boots we accidentally left at the hotel Embarassed

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Muppet - you win... yes it is the Loyes Express - the second chairlift up the Face...... as some of the longer term visitors to Val may remember that before the Olympique was built about 13/14 years ago (the Bellevarde Cable Car never was much cop being in a very inaccessible place!) the two chairs (Bellevarde Express and Loyes Express) was the only way up the mountain! The queues used to be pretty terrible at the bottom! Still to this day the loading at the Loyes is a little 'fast' and catches you unaware at the best of times!

Yes I will pass on your thanks to them (Kieran and Kim).

The Toviere is a good hotel - super friendly owners (Fabrice and the family) and very good value for money..... the hotel is building a very loyal customer base (for good reasons already). If you don't care to be in the thick of the action but instead want to be a stroll away from the Funi to get up there (without the queues) early in morning then this is the place to be!

THE BEST DAY OF THE SEASON SO FAR FOR SNOW QUALITY - PROBABLY!

So I met back at the hotel..... it did just remind me of how close the Christiana is to Dicks T-bar when I was waiting in the lobby and how guests on 'that' side of the hotel sometimes have disturbed nights sleep!

Anyway we jumped straight on a Scott Dunn minibus up to Fornet to get away from the crowds! There was not a sign of a queue and before we new it we were up on the Val glacier. It was already a pretty warm day and the sun was shining.... I wanted to make the most of the snow before everyone tracked it out so the little bits around and about the pistes were enticing.... it was also one of the first times that the boys had ever sampled powder so I decided to make the most of it! The snow was pretty much knee deep and very light (I read on another thread that the powder was heavy - well not up on the Val glacier - perhaps lower and / or in Tignes it might have been!) and we lapped around to our hearts content utilising all the little hidden bits here and there that I new would have some freshies available to us!

The boys had a great time and with a little bit of technical input they were putting in some good turns!

The plan had been for me to take one of the adults out for a session as she had lost some confidence in the weather yesterday..... however a late and alcoholic night and with some fasting going on and with a missed breakfast today all the odds were stacked against her..... Being diabetic and coming up to the highest point of the resort the writing was on the wall - it was just too much so after some tears she decided to turn straight back around and head home....... so I was left with the boys and I to play in the snow and we made the most of it.

After some lunch we were recharged for much of the same in the afternoon.

By the afternoon it was getting rather warm and there was some signs of point releases going on which for me is one of the first indicators of a warm Winter day - it will not be long until Spring starts to show its head.... in fact I spotted some great touring tracks heading off into the distance - how I would dearly liked to have been touring today!

At about 4 we decided to head home and I did think and say that the Plan M red down the front of Solaise would be a jolly tough red to finish the day off with but everyone was up for it so we battled our way down with the hordes of people and bumps galore..... we just about survived with some tired legs.

I got home and was a little annoyed as my lovingly cleared path from this morning had been half refilled by some little darlings using the bank of snow as a slide and 20 mins later it was re-established. Without being too much of a scrooge I think I might put a little sign up tomorrow as they are staying in the flats above ours and did something similar to us yesterday - grrrrrr!

More sunny weather forecast for tomorrow by the looks of things before some clouds and possible snow moving in in the evening.

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Looks absolutely stunning Steve, I would have loved to be out there today!

I must say, I really don't like that red off Solaise. The top is really steep for a red, and then it's really crowded and bumpy at the bottom. I usually cut off right and do the black which is no harder but never has anyone on it!

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After all it is free

Gaza, Yes it was. It was great to meet another Snowhead at the end of a great day. Loved the way Katie and Oscar skied down together avoiding the fallout from the Follie. She was concerned that he might not make it back in time for tea but we assured her take-away pizza would be a good option. Glad your first "boys" trip went well.

Steve Angus, Our kids introduced us to the Bellevarde Express/Loyes route last year after lessons with Clare Very Happy

They hate waiting for the Olympic if it has a queue and don't like taking skis off and carrying them rolling eyes

muppet

Slightly cloudy but still great conditions on the pistes

As forecast we woke yesterday morning to slightly overcast conditions but not disastrous by any means!

I set off the boys with instructions to work on their geographical knowledge as they have their common entrance exams coming up when they get back home after this holiday so whenever possible I was asking them questions about capitals, flags, mountains, rivers and all other things geography related! We bussed it to the funicular and headed up.... my plan was to go to the Grand Motte.... as long as the weather allowed.

Initially there was a stiff breeze up top and I thought we could have problems with wind on the cable car but by the time we got to the top of the Tignes funi the wind was calmer!

The piste conditions from the top of the cable car down to Val Claret were awesome.... however half way down a cloud did come through and we lost orientation for a wee while but apart from that it was awesome conditions top to bottom.

We headed for a nice lunch at Loop and the boys loved being able to see some Olympics on the TV as we ate! They cheered on the replays of all the sports whenever a Brit(s) were featured!

With the weather likely to move in for a day or so I wanted to try and take the boys down Le Face but I new one of them would be more confident than the other.... however with a little bit of follow the leader and taking it nice and steadily they both made it down with big smiles on their face..... one of them admitted that a couple of years back their father had taken them down Le Face and he had screamed and been pretty scared / upset all the way down....... anyway not this time - he felt as if he conquered the mountain!

As the boys were going to be revising in the evening I was asked to get them back for 3.30 so they could relax for an hour before getting on with their work.... it meant I was back very early so I could do some prep work for the dinner party we hosted last night as Clare finished her day off nannying!

It was a really nice dinner party with three of our colleagues coming round and Clare made a fine Lasagne!!!!

..... and then went to bed and totally forgot about my blog yesterday.... whoops!

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Gaza, very true. Santons and Piste L (when they're actually open) are horrible. They probably would be blue if they weren't so permanently icy and littered with terrified beginners. I think I've only skied Santons twice, and both times it was horrible.

I've never tried Epaule du Charvet as an alternative though, it looks too scary.

You know it makes sense.

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

A snowHead

Agree that Santons isn't great but I quite like Piste L. In fact it's one of favourite runs but a bit of a thigh burner though Toofy Grin

A snowHead

^ I like both of them....

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

Yes folks I think most people agree that the gradings of lots of runs in Val is certainly on the tricky (optimistic) side of things....... gradings of runs (anywhere really) can only be done based on the steepest part of the slope as that is the only thing that is constant.... moguls / ice etc are circumstantial and may / may not affect one person over another - likewise with width..... so the steepest part of a run is used to gauge its colour and the very colouring grading is local to the resort in question. So looking at gradient the Rhone Alpes down the front of Solaise is steeper than the top part of the solaise (Plan M!)..... however I agree that often it is nicer to ski than all the way to the bottom of the mountain down the red! The other thing that must be remembered globally is that the colouring grading system of runs is mainly a marketing tool used by resorts (primarily)..... if a resort had no black runs you'd have no more advanced skiers coming (and they are often the ones that make decisions on where whole groups / families etc go).... so the resort would loose loads of business........ likewise if a resort had no green runs then you would have fewer beginners etc and they would never become au fait with the resort in question and if they are kids learning then they would possibly grow up more acquainted with a rival resort..... so on that point a resort decides that x angle of slope will be a green etc etc..... so for that reason I make sure I find out where people have skied before and what colour of slope they felt comfortable on there........ I can totally change a lesson plan based on this feedback..... a double black diamond in somewhere like the east coast of the USA and ill be VERY conservative and so forth! Val d'Isere especially is tough on its gradings. Santons and Piste L are very tough gradings - certainly on the red side of blue it has to be said but the narrowness makes things tougher. One final point that people don't often understand is that legally a resort must have intermediate graded terrain accessible from the top of the mountains so that if winds close lifts there are routes people can take down..... if NOT then there has to be pretty major signage at the base informing people that 'this mountain is for advanced / experts only'..... again a marketing game! The rule of thumb for me in Val is EVERY SINGLE piste that comes back down the valley - whether the La Daille or Fornet end, skis one level above how it is actually graded...... you can always take lifts down! Tight runs (and steeper runs) often get scrapped off / bumped up to a much larger degree which only compounds the problems but it comes with the territory!

Anyway back to todays report!

Misty, grey and miserable..... sums it up.

It was snowing hard at breakfast time and there was thick clouds and low visibility over much the resort..... no chance of breaking through the top of the clouds so it was going to be a struggle today!

The boys (as always) were keen as mustard so we set off and I knew that those that were braving the elements would probably loop around to La Daille and it would likely be bedlam down that end of town.... so I went the complete opposite way and headed toward Solaise and heading down the Manchet Valley / Mattis to Laisenant / Fornet tree runs etc..... we worked on some good rotational sep as well as working on getting them a little more forward and on there outside ski! I took them down the Foret run as I really wanted to push them even more today and they responded well despite some pretty large bumps (as usual) down there. A good refuel at Les Crozets followed by a ski back towards town and the day was over (it really rushed by today). I think feeling our way through the clouds meant the day rushed by as I was so focused on that task most of the time.

By this evening the clouds were clearing, the temperatures increasing, the snow was virtually drizzle BUT it was really starting to come to a halt and tomorrow the forecast is for sun which will be a nice way for the week to end (for the family I am teaching) as they are off home on Friday!

Clare is out this evening babysitting for the little girl she is nannying for this week and I had a very enjoyable French lesson and have just about finally caught up on lots of Sky+ viewing. Some great Winter Olympics action today ehhhh - I love watching it all - from the skiing in the morning right through to the last events in the evening - such good action!

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Adding my appreciation to an epic thread, thanks Steve Angus. I'll be in the EK for a fortnight from 16 March, and actually doing a course with tdc the first week. Great shot down Forêt there, a good pre-lunch challenge.

On the subject of the runs down Solaise, completely agree, the black is always a good bet, much less busy and about the same challenge. I particularly like the last narrowish stretch through the trees (think it's Combe Martin at that point).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

FANTASTIC DAY ALL ROUND

Thanks fingerbib... I do my best and perhaps see you in a few weeks time!

Anyway back to today!!!!!!! It was a wonderful day out there.... the skies blue and not a cloud in sight!

It was also the last day with my half term family... I took one of the wives out who had had a complete meltdown earlier in the week.... her technique was strong enough but she just had very little self belief and was very anxious. The aim of the morning was really to get her liking skiing again so that she would actually want to come again next year! After confidence building skiing back on the nursery slopes it was time to get her back up top..... it is never easy to build peoples confidence back up when it is so busy on the slopes and people insist on taking such direct paths down the slopes but she did OK.

In fact she made it to the Folie for lunch with smiles much to applause from the rest of the family...

Lunch was wonderful on the decking at the Fruitiere - they have changed up the menu a little this year but there was still some lovely food to be had!

After lunch I had the boys for one last blast before they leave tomorrow and they wanted to head up the Tignes glacier so that is where we went...

The views at the top of the Tignes glacier were awesome as always and the ski down was great.... however as you can imagine on a day like this and with the poorer weather forecast for tomorrow everyone was trying to get their maximum ski fix in today!!!

The boys had a go at skiing (and turning) on one ski and there were some amusing falls but they did well..... where they really excelled though was in learning to do kick turns and they seemed to really enjoy practicing those!

To finish the week off I suggested we have a ski down Le Face (second time for them this week) and they both agreed. I knew the conditions on there would be pretty tough this afternoon - the sheer numbers of people and soft snow and blue skies meant it would be a tougher descent than the other day..... however they both rose to the occasion very nicely! The Face was predictably pretty tricky and as usual there were far too many people who should not be there. As an instructor you can see person after person after person with not nearly enough skills to handle the various things The Face throws at you... namely poor posture leading to poor dynamic balance, lack of flexing and extending so poor ability to absorb bumps and erratic edge control to handle slicker parts! Anyway apart from observing a few domestic arguments, crying children with parents egging them down and some trembling legs as people stand and stare down 'the wall' and to top it all off a 'whipper' (when someone slides on chalky snow a long way without being able to arrete their fall) we got down in one piece!

A nice drink with the family back at their hotel and that was the end of another great week with them for another year.... see you next year folks!

I enjoyed making a nice carbonara for dinner and Clare had a nice warm bath but has a really sore back / lower pelvis area, this evening so has turned in early!

Some more fantastic Olympic events and medals today too! Brilliant work by the curlers - more of the same tomorrow.

P.S. Mini gripe.... had a (Brit it turned out to be) guy clip my skis (I was going pretty slow pace)... as I made my way down from the Village to the Olympique lift this am.... nothing serious I did not fall over or anything but it was a collision non the less.... under the FIS code you are duty bound to stop and check everyone was OK... there was no way he could know I was OK as he did not even look over his shoulder. He was probably around about his early forties I would guess so not a young whipper snapper or anything! 50 metres later he had stopped to take his skis off to go up to the Olympique so I just said to him to be careful and look where he was going - his reply to me was the same that I should look where I was going. Well the ignorance in not knowing that as the skier down the slope I had right of way and how on earth can I look behind me every turn I make..... the rules are simple folks - when travelling down the slope (not when you set off when you should up and give way to skiers already travelling down the slope) everyone downslope has right of way - you must do everything in your power to adhere to that rule - there is no grey area although people seem to think the rules don't apply to them. Little incidents like that can put some nervous people off skiing for life! It makes my blood boil. I know it was an accident and all that and it was not malicious but then again few collisions on the slopes are!!!!! .... and I was just making a comment that was all but the 'I'm alright Jack' attitude is not alright on the slopes!

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Scampi Dellahanti + 1 (actually +100 on that point!!!)

What an interesting day...... some fresh snow out there if you were willing to hang around for the skies to clear!

The day started with a call from an ill colleague saying that he was not going to be able to join me on the all day booking we were both booked onto.... however someone who had blocked the afternoon off agreed to work so it just meant one half day less than they had booked!

Anyway the booking is 4 families comprising of 8 adults and 6 kids and they are all staying in different places so took quite a lot of organising on their part getting everyone together and as it turned out 1 of the 3 kids I was due to take in the am was nearly 45 mins late so it was getting on for 10am before we were ready to rock and roll. The main problem at that point came the technical shut down of the Solaise Express lift - the queue was MASSIVE just as they shut it down. (It did open up later on but for an hour or so it was a bit of a nightmare as everyone (well most people anyway) headed for the Olympique! Anyway we got up pretty quickly as we are able to use the kids line for the Olympique and off we went.

The weather had started a little overcast but nothing too bad...

The weather really moved in and got VERY snowy and a little windy at times but the snow was coming thick and fast...... ANYONE that complained of ice today or at all this week needs their understanding what ice is adjusted!!!

The boys did well and we worked on some good technique work - taking it easy as there had been a bug floating around the families! They enjoyed their run through the park too!

At lunchtime the instructions were to take the boys to the Folie for lunch (where we met the parents and we (kids and I (now joined by Rich my colleague)) all tucked into lunch). The parents then headed to the Fruitiere for a very long and (as I was to find out) boozy lunch whilst we headed out into the elements! I had the same three kids and they were a little more boisterous than they had been in the morning but they loved skiing through the La Daille trees..... we stopped for a drink at Les Marmottes and then we headed back to meet up with the parents at the Fruitiere.

They had been eating and drinking for the best part of three hours so were rather 'jolly' when I got there but they seemed happy to see the kids.

I ended up taking one of the dads and the strongest of the three kids down the Face to finish off and BOY was he a little ripper! I was so impressed with how he skied I really was!

The best part of that last hour was (almost as soon as it had come in) the clouds parting, the snow stopping and the sun coming out..... it meant deserted pistes as 90% of people had headed home early but WONDERFUL 15cm of light pow all over the place..... just us to enjoy it as we made our way to Le Face!

Clouds parting and....

no-one around.......... this was taken outside the Marmottes restaurant and on a normal sunny afternoon in HT it would be bedlam here and the pistes (Diebold and Verte are in this shot) would be heaving!

Anyway that is the end of half term week.... just a few more French school holiday weeks to go and it will be quieter once again!

I have a long day tomorrow as for some reasons our incoming guests misread the guidance notes and booked a 5pm flight arrival time so I will be leaving early to avoid the traffic madness but not getting home until very late so may not blog until after my lesson on Sunday - so fear not I will be back!

In local news!

1)A lorry tipped over (no one hurt - just inconvenience for the other motorists as the road was single file for a while) on the road to Bourg at lunchtime today - not sure how or why but quite impressive!

2)A private company are testing free wifi for the next 15 days at the top of the Olympique, Solaise and Col d'Iseran areas - they may try and get it free all over the lift accessed areas of the resort if this trial goes well which would be pretty cool!

TTFN and good luck if you are travelling either way tomorrow!

After all it is free

As usual a lovely write up of what was an interesting day. We were over at Le Fornet with driving snow but great piste conditions then worked across to Tignes where we had sunshine and powder. We came back to Marmotte at 16.45 to see deserted pistes but to be honest it has been quiet all week. We are skiing tomorrow so hoping for sun before driving down.

Our French issue has been the desire to open the bar on the chair 20m or more before the end. We had an argument with one youth who thought that a 20m drop was a good place to open the bar despite my 8 year old sitting next to him. They do have great mountains though as this thread proves time and again!

Conditions looked brilliant at the end of today, the slopes resembled early December.

The mention of free WiFi and Cameron's ears have twitched!! Kids seem to have a built in free WiFi radar.

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AndrewBailey, I was told a few years ago by a pistie that it's Brits that tend to raise the bar earlier than most, but it can be scary.

It's much worse in Colorado, they don't even bother putting the bar down on lift's, even with very young kids on the chair. But they do ski with Stenson's so must be invincible!

Steve Angus, Hope Clare is not in too much pain. You've reminded me of the problems Cam caused while I was carrying him Confused

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Well it was an awfully long day yesterday..... I set off at 6am for Geneva and already by just after 8am the traffic lights on the N90 before Moutiers were turned on as you can see in the second photo above... The actual traffic going to the airport in our direction was OK and I was jolly glad to be ahead of the worst of it which would mean that I would have a long wait in Geneva as opposed to be stuck in traffic! The route I take to Geneva is always a really scenic route and this old bridge is the highlight of the journey for me (see top picture).

Anyway I stopped for some food en-route and then was able to use my phone to watch via an app the Olympics which was good and well done to Dave Ryding. I also have a mains power plug in our car so could plug the laptop in and watch a movie as well as edit the video of last weeks skiing with the boys!

Our swedish guests were through by 6.30 and we made good time getting back towards the Tarentaise Valley. I was hoping (and I was correct) that the worse of the traffic would already have been through Moutiers and Bourg so it was just the weather that was the final hurdle! It was chucking it down with rain in Bourg so I knew that the road up would at some point get snowy.... however thanks goodness that the road was not too bad as I really was not in the mood for putting chains on in the dark at that time of the night!

Anyway with the guests settled in I finally made it to bed after an 18 hour transfer day at about 11pm!!!!!

Phew!!!!!

Todays report coming up in a second!

snow reports

What a surprisingly wonderful day.

I have to admit that I was still quite tired this morning after such a long day yesterday but I was rostered to teach this am and it turned into a wonderfully great mornings skiing! So I had a really nice mum and 11 year old daughter from Toronto who are spending a year living in Florence as the husband is on a years business there.

Anyway they had never skied anywhere outside of Canada and the USA so wanted a combination of being shown around coupled with a few tips here and there. The sky was clear, the pistes were always going to be relatively quiet (being a Sunday) and there was about 15cm of fresh snow on the ground - Val d'Isere was helping me make a showpiece of it!!!!

Anyway we skied the Solaise and some of the Fornet slopes not skiing the same run twice and both mum and daughter were more than capable of skiing most of the red run terrain the EK will have to throw at it - I have another two sessions with them this week so by the end of Wednesday I am hoping they will have skied to the top of the Grand Motte as well as all the way down to Les Brev!!!!!

The photo at the top is of the two of them with smiles on their faces at the bottom of the top part of Piste L from the Datcha lift - there was fresh snow on the groomed piste and we made the first three tracks down the slope! How lucky!!!!

Anyway we finished back in town and by now the sun was gaining in intensity!

I met Clare for an 'all day breakfast' at the Moris and it was YUMMY..... we were able to sit outside in the sun - it was glorious..... perhaps the very first hint of Spring is in the air! I said 'hint' there no more than that!

Anyway on the way back down through town Clare popped into Chevallot to pick us up a goodie for desert (it has been a calorific day to say the least!)..... the centre of town looked stunning!!!!

It has been a fairly relaxing afternoon and I have just put the finishing touches to the video edit from last weeks skiing with the boys.... each year they get a video and I am excited as they have promised me that they are going to get me a video from the footage they took from their Go-Pro so I shall post that when I can!

http://youtube.com/v/Y3v-sbMujv8

Glorious up there

It definitely felt like the first day of Spring today... we woke to clear blue skies and of course it was cold (minus 10 at breakfast) but I knew it would get warm pretty quickly and I was proved right!

I waited patently for my late running (pretty common on the first day of the week as people find their way around and get timings (to dress and catch the bus) right) morning clients this morning and watched the queues grow. Welcome to the second (and busier) Parisian school holidays week.... now the Brits have gone back to school the French come in hoards!

Anyway the guests arrived and we quickly worked out how we were going to run things as one had skied for a coupe of weeks, another about 4 weeks and another about 7 weeks so there was a slight range in standards.... however we agreed to start on the Savonette nursery poma lift and take it from there as the last thing you want to do is throw people in the deep end too much and scare people. The first run was OK, so we went higher, that was OK...... but then the ESF groups all started and it was like chucking out time at a football stadium as we were swallowed up left, right and centre by kids galore..... so the third and final time we went to the top of the Savonettees.... so far so good. The Village lift was not a problem (although the kids single line went back nearly 100 yards!). Next stop was the Solaise Express and the ski school line was not too bad actually and the STVI were organising people into 4's to go up (I LOVE it when the French actually sort chaos out - they should do it on all lifts all the time if you ask me - just look at the efficiency in other countries when they do that!)

Anyway (I could have anticipated this) when we got to the top of the Solaise the unload area was carnage as kids just stop right in the middle of the wrong place every time - agh bless them! The Tete de Solaise rope lift had stopped as too many people tried to squeeze on the lift - SPACE YOURSELF OUT FOLKS AS IT SAYS AND IT WONT HAPPEN! So we headed to the Terrase poma lift and the queue was not too bad for that!

Anyway I and giving a blow by blow account here aren't I..... needless to say it was lovely and sunny up there by now and we spent the next couple of hours lapping around and finally made it onto the Madelaine lift so they have some good terrain they can practice on until I see them tomorrow!

We downloaded and then I headed home as (unusual for a Monday) I had the afternoon off.... most of the rest of the week is fully booked up so it was not that bad news! I have chilled this afternoon and caught up on lots of Sky+.

Meanwhile Clare has been helping a friend who runs a physio practice in town with her accounts all day so she has enjoyed a change of scenery on that front!

I will be getting dressed back in my ski school gear in a moment as there is the final torchlite descent of the Winter this evening and whilst I have done my community hours for this season, as a school we are slightly down due to the injuries etc so I have agreed to do an extra 'shift' - hey its quite fun so not the end of the world!

More sunny weather is forecast tomorrow before a possible storm moving in late tomorrow night.... looking even further through the week they are possibly calling for a very large dump of snow at the end of the week - hmmmm who knows if that will ever come!

More tomorrow.

You know it makes sense.

ANOTHER LOVELY DAY and empty pistes if you knew where to go!

It was a repeat weather wise of yesterday and I had the Canadian gig once again! We took the two chairlifts up the Face as there was a big queue for the Olympic (and Solaise Express actually). The plan was to head to the Motte and make the most of the weather before the snow arrives tonight and into tomorrow..... actually on that front I have just checked the forecast once again and one of the forecasts is calling for up to 30cm to fall on the mountain in the next 24 hours - hmmm we shall see if that happens or not!

Anyway via Tommeuse, Funi and the Cable car we made it to the top of the Motte and were greater by some very special views.... I noticed that the Descente black run had been pisted last night (it is only ever pisted every few days) so I took the decision to ski it and wow what a decision that turned out to be as we were the only people on it and the snow was some of the best snow I have experienced on piste this season.... it was stunning as the photo at the top shows!

The whole of the run down to Val Claret was great. We headed back to Val via the other trick (Bollin followed by Tufs) that I like to do to avoid long queues and then skied all the way to La Daille. As with the other day I threw in a few pieces of technical feedback and tips but much of the focus was on guiding them around the resort.

I jumped off the bus at the Rond Pont as they continued up to Fornet as they had lunch booked at Le Signal.

In the afternoon I had the same three Irish as I had had the other day and we built upon what we learnt before. In fact I was very impressed with how they had knuckled down yesterday afternoon and this morning and practiced what we had worked on. I was able to take them on blue runs and all the way over to the Fornet and almost had time to head up the glacier but just ran out of time.

As it got later in the afternoon the clouds were moving in and the light was a little flat but nothing too serious! They decided (sensibly) that they would take the lift (cable car) back down to Fornet where they are staying and I took the bus home.

Clares dad is back in town so we are about to head out to dinner with him so must rush!

So watch this space as there could be some nice powder shots tomorrow if this promised snow arrives!

PS Forgot to say that the torchlite descent last night was a pretty good one.... not too many people did it but it was nice.... watching the sun set was awesome as this photo shows.

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

A mixed day on all fronts

It was not to bad a start to the day weather wise as I headed off for one final blast with the Canadians...

We headed up and I was glad to see that not only was the vis OK but there was not too much wind (in general). Tommeuse was open and no sign of the wind picking up so we headed to Le Lac..... we found some nice snow on the Combe Folie piste down towards Trolles - some nice accumulations of say 5cm of snow - better than nothing!

Anyway getting to Brev was pleasant enough and they loved the story about the old town before the damn was built..... and for the record I don't think the damn is anywhere near empty - in fact it looks like the normal seasonal low to me before the Spring melt happens!

We were greeted with pretty long queues down in Les Brev (everyone has the same idea when the weather is anything other than perfect!).

My fears of their opinions of skiing in Europe were confirmed as they commented on how unbelievably bad the queuing system was and then they saw an (un-named but have a wild guess (from which school they came from)) instructor having a fag in the lift queue and then continue to smoke it whilst sitting on the lift with his young charge!

Anyway they thought everything else in the EK was great - just could not believe some of these things that they take for granted over the pond..... I have to agree it gets my goat. Having taught in Whistler for a couple of seasons years and years ago I do understand where we go wrong here in the EK and probably in much of Europe!

We made good time when we managed to get up and out the Brev valley..... we made a bee-line to the Vallee Perdue as the little girl had really wanted to do that after I mentioned it to her on the first day!

They thought it was rather cool down there although we did not have time to do the complete descent as we were a little short on time!

There was a rather long queue for the bus back from La Daille but I eventually made it to lunch at about 12.30.

In the afternoon the weather still had not moved in and I had a nice lady who had worked for a tour op out here a few years back but was now after some technical input on her piste skiing as well as venturing into the off piste. She was one of those classic ladies who had very strong technique but a couple of little adjustments here and there and it made such a difference to her skiing. By mid afternoon the weather was really starting to move in and there was a couple of snowflakes around but nothing serious at all!

We did amongst other descents a long run through some variable snow in Piste L and it was rather pleasant!

I have been back in now for a couple of hours and in that time I have showered and changed and caught up with some french homework and have been up to the chalet to change a tap which was very easy in the end although thought it would take longer.

However it is now snowing VERY VERY hard out there and already about 5cm has fallen in an hour or so - so if it carries on like this all night we could have a great day tomorrow.

OK must dash as have my French lesson in a moment and then Clares dad is coming around for dinner after that!

A snowHead

BUSY DAY but good day

Well it had snowed about 10cm down here in town overnight and as I was to find out a lot more up the mountain! It was a lovely sunny start to the day and I was meeting at the Funi in La Daille which meant that I could get the bus going the quieter way out of town rather than squeeze into the bus!

I was with Clares Dad and his friend whom I have skied with a lot over the years and they were in an off piste adventure group of mine earlier in the season so we have done a lot of off piste together.

As a well known mountain guide around town says it was a 'Maximum turn morning'..... we headed straight for the Jardin du Borsat and immediately found some lovely snow. Skiers right was wonderful although as usual people follow not knowing where they are going and pressure you from behind (what is wrong with people!). Anyway after a good 30 turns we crossed to skiers left and again found some lovely snow. I tested a southerly little exposure so see how cooked the snow was and indeed it was rather cooked from the last few days of sun. Anyway we headed up the Grand Pre and took in the views before diving under the ropes towards the Tour du Charvet! The meadows was pretty good but the steeper pitch was always going to be tricky! It was dust on crust as we call it as the pitch was (as usual) heavily sun affected...... chattering teeth galore!

Anyway we made it to the bottom and I crossed to the other side of the river as it was always going to be better on that side..... as we waited at the bottom I observed some pretty shoddy group management by uninitiated off posters - all skiing the steep pitch together and stopping in pretty silly place right in the middle and bottom of the steep!

Anyway we continued and about 5 mins later we were stopping to catch our breath and a french family of a good 7 people came past... NON of them had a backpack on and I assumed therefore that non had a transceiver on..... so I put my tran into receive mode and hey presto not one signal came back as positive! However quell surprise between them they all had top of the range helmets, go-pro's etc galore..... why do people not prioritise what they spend their cash on better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually Clares father (who is fluent in French) did point this fact out to them! Blank faces!!!!!

More people heading 'hors piste' without gear - well one pack between them!

Admiring our fresh tracks in the Jardin du Borsat! - just as they were about to be destroyed by the masses following the tracks!

Anyway next up was to get to the Cugnai. The Cugnai had (predictably) only opened about 30 mins beforehand so there was surely some fresh tracks to be had! The top pitch was absolutely wonderful with light powder that was more than knee deep..... fantastic! The lower we got the more the snow thinned out.... in fact altitude, orientation and angle to the sun were key factors in determining snow quality today!

It really was a wonderful descent in the Cugnai.

I know I have mentioned about members of the public being kit-less above but even a well known ski school can be guilty as this photo shows!

Clares dad also making some tracks on the left of the picture!

Anyway bumped into a couple of friends who teach for another outfit down there so it was a nice outing all in all!

Even by lunchtime there was a cloud or two appearing on the horizon.

After lunch I had one of my seasonnaires groups - it has been several weeks since I last saw them due to the half term break! It was nice to see them all. We worked on moguls all afternoon and I was really really impressed with them - they really applied themselves and despite a couple of runs on the Tommeuse when the light went flat(er) they came on leaps and bounds. This group are still all keen to keep developing their skills and hopefully go heliskiing in a few weeks time and I really think they will make it! I was even more impressed with them as there were several instructor training groups (Basecamp and ICE to name but a couple) up there running the bumps so it was rather intimidating for them.... but they certainly did not let the side down!

After skiing there was enough time to change and then head to Chevallot for a very civilised cup of tea and cake with Clare and her father and friend which was all rather civilised! YUMMY

So there was several interesting pieces of local news today!

Firstly as I mentioned yesterday - there are lots of people following tracks aimlessly off piste that it really caught up with a couple of young 20 something lads from the UK today!!!!!! They ventured down the super spatule but kept going towards the couloir to nowhere. They ended up needing to be airlifted out.... that will be an expensive bill as I very much doubt they will be covered by any sort of insurance!

Meanwhile over in Tignes a light aircraft (seeing student snow pilots taking off and landing is quite common in and around both the altisurface in Val and Tignes) crashed upon take off up on the Grand Motte altisurface.... apparently it flipped over and the pilot had to be taken via helicopter to hospital in Bourg suffering from neck and spine injuries so lets hope he / she makes a full recover. Anyway the plane became lodged upside down on the tongue of the glacier - quite impressive!

Also the local council is having a real moan about people who ignore signs to put chains etc on to go up or down the road..... last night when the heavy snowfall arrived less than 10% of people followed the instructions to put chains on and as a result there were HUGE traffic jams both up and down as people got stuck including this lorry!

The Frostgun freestyle event is being held tonight after not much happened last night due to the weather but it is a beast of a jump at 12m high and 20m wide - you would NOT want to come up short on that jump!

FINALLY - told you there was a lot to get through today! It has been snowing hard since early evening and there is already about 10cm of snow out there this evening. It is supposed to carry on all night and then on and off for the next 24 hours - so who knows what tomorrow shall bring. I am really hoping that it stops before Saturday am as this is supposed to be the busiest Saturday of the season on the roads as the local schools break up for their holidays - some 38000 cars on the road.... coupled with snow and an early start it could be a disastrous Saturday - eek!

WOW that is me signing off for this evening - tired!

A snowHead

Very interesting reports - I wonder what will happen to the helicopter bill for those idiots who needed airlifting out?

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

pam w - thanks!

SNOW ALERT - another 10cm + down here in town and looks like glimpses of blue skies up there before clouding over and snowing again later on / tonight! Ploughs are out this morning!

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

That airplane shot hanging over the edge of the glacier is real cartoon material. Amazing it didn't just topple over.

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MORE POWDER AND BLUE SKIES

ArseCaptain - yes basically if the PGHM rescue you - often when you are ski touring (a long way from the resort) for example or when it is too dangerous / a very serious injury for the 'normal' rescue to fly it is free as it is a public service - like UK coastguard for example..... however in a case like this where a simple winch up close to 'home' when the weather was good then that is a private service and will need to be paid for.... so it is common all over the alps by my understanding. So in some ways if the PGHM chopper comes in then you know it is serious but likely to cheaper / free for person involved!

Well I have to say in all my years of snowsports teaching I don't think I have ever had a day quite like today. Firstly we have had not one but TWO bluebird powder days in a row. Officially a bluebird is blue skies after a dump the night before..... getting one in a season is always nice..... especially when you are teaching off piste that day!!!!!!!!...... but two in a row with good skiers - how very lucky!

Anyway yes it was once again sunny in the morning and the forecast was for possible clouds and snow to come in as the morning went on (which was better than forecast at that). I headed to La Daille for round two...

You don't get too many queues down at the Funi at that time in the morning!

Anyway we opened with a 'taster' coupled with warm up run off the Collet run in the glades. A very positive test as the sun crust from a few days back was now covered nicely and after Thursday pm cloud had stayed fresh. With the new snow on top it was in the best nick I have seen for quite a while! In fact it was so good we lapped around on the Fontaine Froide for a Super Santons which was stunning...

Clares did in the foreground with John further back and my tracks - leaving our signature on the hillside! - WONDERFUL

Next up was a trip into Spatule..... I left it a little while (now about 9.40) as I knew other folk would have 'kindly' cut the track on the first face above Marmottes for us without going right around the corner (YET!). So yes.... apart from having to wait for a few people to leave the face we were trying to cut across - for their own safety - including some snowplough turners in knee deep powder (!!!!!!!!) we made it around the corner to the start of the Spatule. There were a couple of tracks in there but WOW the best snow of the season so far I would say. Almost thigh deep in places and face shots galore!!!!

It was truly a WONDERFUL descent and by going a little further around the corner (without going into the Super Spatule) to my little stash - we had the place virtually to ourselves - for 15 mins at least!

Coming back on the Funi we all had grins on our faces and the legs were already feeling it..... There were signs of the clouds rolling in but it was holding off enough.... for now!

I decided for a complete change of scenery after the boys turned down the 5 min hike to Borsat North option a miss and instead went for Campanules bowl which I don't ski too often as it is west facing.... however again we were rewarded with some good snow. We finished with a traditional (and totally skied out by now but still a nice little outing) Familiale which was lovely.

Clare came with some goodies to the Blue Note at lunchtime for us all (chocolate rice crispy cakes!!! - thanks!) and everyone was quite excited as TDC training in the afternoon was down to be snowboarding led by yours truly! As a school we do ongoing professional development and each session (every few weeks) always has a different theme..... it is voluntary the training but most people attend a handful of sessions each season.

The point of this session was not only for a 'change of scenery' for my colleagues but also to develop awareness of the similarities (of which there are huge numbers of) between skiing and snowboarding. Another benefit was to learn some snowboarding terminology, do some tricks as well as to experience slight anxiousness at not being able to do something 100% without fear! Many of my colleagues have snowboarding as a second discipline / are qualified to a level to teach it but many don't or don't want to teach it if qualified.

There were a couple of whom had only done a few hours previously so we took it easy! It was jolly good fun but some of my colleagues got some amused looks by our resort colleagues who were not used to seeing them snowboard! Everyone had a great time and we stayed on the Village lift to accommodate all levels and especially as the weather had and was continuing to move in inch by inch as the day wore on and I did not want to got up into flat light! Everyone even nailed a few nose and tail presses and some ollies so well down folks!

Unfortunately we did have to help a poor young English girl who had fallen and obviously broken her wrist - poor thing on her last day of her ski holiday.

About 3.30 we all 'quit' and headed to the Blue Note for some more giggles and a few drinks. BN was very quiet for some reason but we ended up staying for so long that we went to the Taverne d'Alsace for dinner at 7 straight from the pub and had a REALLY nice meal..... such great food and good value in there and different from 'normal' Val d'Isere restaurants! I had lamb and mushroom shepherds pie which was delicious.

Everyone went out afterwards but I retired as this could be a very long and tough transfer day.... it was snowing VERY lightly (and still is as I write this on Saturday am before leaving for the transfer) outside and there are some 38000 cars expected coming up the hill today as the local / regional french school go on holiday from today so things will be busy!

The good news is that our incoming guests are arriving early so I should be able to leave the airport by about 11/11.30 today so hopefully be back up in town before about 5pm - we shall see how this snow treats us!

Anyway folks wish me luck!

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

Steve Angus, much luck! Great reports as always

After all it is free

SLOW BUT STEADY

I was up at 4 as I was not 100% sure how much snow had fallen overnight and as you can see when I saw that not a huge amount I took the time to write Fridays blog.

When I actually left the apartment I noted that although there was not a huge amount of snow on the ground it was very slidy!!!! Ohh no I thought have I left enough time to get chains on if needed after all!

Anyway I went for a 'drive' down to La Daille - mainly to check out the handling on the road but also to see what the dot matrix sign at the end of the road said about special equipment being mandatory or recommended...... I have 4 very good snow tyres on so it was only if it said mandatory that I was going to put them on I decided...... as it turned out it was recommended and I felt the handling was really solid so I opted for no chains. The guests were in a mixed state of readiness with the father having got most of the bags out in the corridor before I arrived so I was able to start loading early. However when the majority of the mags were in I soon discovered that one of the teenage sons was not even out of bed yet and when he did he could not find his watch so he waded through his (loaded in car already) bag to locate it!!! Oh well we were only 5 mins late leaving in the end so not so bad!

Pretty much as soon as we got to the dam it became apartment that the road was noir as so many people had left early for fear of the awful traffic coupled the fresh snow. It meant that those who had scrabbled around to put chains on were now pulling in in silly places to take them off again - or in the middle of the road!

The 10cm of fresh snow on the mountain I am led to believe lay pretty much untouched all day as a heavy band of fog was hanging over the resort most of the day and there were odd top ups of snow here and there so I was not going to be missing too much on the mountain today!

Anyway for me, used to driving the route to GVA every weekend (mostly) there are 4 very key points the journey that makes or breaks it in terms of how long it takes. The first point is when the Tignes and Val roads come together...... with fresh snow on the ground it can get a little 'heavy' on the traffic side making it busy! However it really on comes to a point when the Les Arcs traffic joins in Bourg.... that gives you an idea of how busy it will be. Today it was OK so I was starting to perk up. Next 'point' is when the La Plagne traffic joins at Aime - again that can muck things up but once again all looked pretty good there.... then we have the lights at the Sioux tunnel (see photo below to see what it looked like coming the other way later in the afternoon - taken by Radio Val d'Isere) where it all comes to a head. Finally when the traffic joins at Moutiers from the 3 vallees it can be busy once again..... if all those 'checkpoints' go cleanly then it should be OK through Annecy and all the way to the airport - but if it snarls up at one of the points then by the time you get to Annecy it is chaos!

Anyway all in all we made it in a little over 3.5 hours which was OK.

I have a very quick turnaround and sandwich and drink before hitting the road back with our new guests who had taken a VERY early flight in and were already waiting.

As predicted all went OK until we got to Albertville where we were faced with 16km of nose to tail traffic. The police were on a massive offensive all the way along the N90 stopping people leave the motorway to take back roads or people that were already on back roads being forced back onto the motorway. I was happy to just sit and bide our time and watch lots of angry motorists weave in and out trying to gain a metre here and there etc as well as cut down the hard shoulder etc.

Radio Val d'Isere photo showing traffic queuing from Bourg direction towards Moutiers at some point yesterday .... even at 8am in the morning I had a 500 yard queue at these lights which are just outside camera shot to the left as you look!

A 'knot' in the traffic opens up a small space as part of the 2 hour traffic jam I sat in...... look carefully on the bridge and you will see the police forcing people who were taking the back roads to rejoin the motorway and the queue that stretched back on the back roads as the police argued with the various people on these back roads - chaos!

Anyway after a food stop in Bourg we eventually made it up the hill and 6 hours after leaving Geneva I was back home.

A quick turnaround before Clares Dad and John came around for lasagne and ice cream dinner - thanks Clare.

I was in bed and asleep by about 9pm - knackered!

Today (Sunday 2nd) looks like it could be quite nice with the sun making a reappearance!

6 hours Lyon Airport to Courchevel 1850 10am to 4pm.......

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Great report as usual, Steve, even though it's just about road traffic. wink

What a knackering day that must have been!

Help!!

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

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