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

A snowHead

fingerbib, What course are you doing that week? I will be out doing the off piste adventure week out of Tignes

Steve Angus, You mentioned that you took one of the off piste adventure weeks earlier in the season, would you remember what week? Ive tried to go back through your posts but after twenty minutes of searching can't find it, would be great to read what you got up to that week, I can't wait to head out, although must confess my legs are hurting at the idea of it!!

A snowHead

SkiG

It was the week starting Monday 20th Jan..... for some reason (can't remember the exact reason why) it ran Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri (not Thurs) so 4 sessions if I remember rightly! Anyway that would be cool if you are both on the same course!

Anyway back to today and I am sorry but I may make you all very jealous as today was one of the best days I have ever had as an instructor!

THIS IS WHY I WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING ELSE IN LIFE ON DAYS LIKE THIS

On that point I can also assure you there are some tough days when you have screaming kids and it is COLD and icey with a wind to sap all your strength and warmth!

So ill talk you through it then you can dribble at the photos! Sorry for being smug but it was a really wonderful day!

So the day started well as Clares dad and friend John let me have a lie in and start at 9.30 and go through to 12.30 when we all had lunch booked at the Peau du Vache. So a slow start to the day was welcome and there was a thin layer of katabatic cloud sitting in the valley above our heads but promises of sun above. We met as usual at the Funi and headed up and burst through the clouds to reveal some amazing views.

First run was skiers right of the Borsat piste in the Jardins du Borsat - an area I love heading to for a warm up! Three little pitches of green / blue run steepness on fresh snow was the perfect way to start the day.

We then looped around on the Borsat again and with their blessing hiked them 5 mins up the north face of the Borsat and once again the views were amazing. It was quite socialable up there as there was a french group of friends and british group of friends.... all having a breather and drink before the descent to follow. The snow was jolly nice although John took the 'splat du jour' award (sorry borrowed that from a well known Mountain Guide here in town who uses that phrase!) when he clipped a submerged stone and went head over heels.... apart from losing his pole for 5 mins he was OK!

After run down to Tignes we tried the Chardonnet bowl and the boys opted for the traverse line in as opposed to the walk and drop in option but this then required a 5 foot drop into the chute which caused some amusement / bemusement for a few mins but we made it in in the end. Anyway the snow was AMAZING in there with some face shots!

It was starting to get seriously warm (relatively for the mountains at this time of the year) as the sun worked its magic and the cloud veil cleared. It was now a stunning day in the mountains and another bluebird day.

At the top of the Grand Huit lift I noticed some ski tourers making what I would consider as a big mistake as they were already about 1 hour into a 2 hour skin up a steepening face (SOUTH facing at that into the sun) on a slope that hardly gets any skier compaction and with lots of signs of sluffing activity on it already - hope they are OK as they had another hour of 'exposure' if you ask me before getting away from danger - but goodness knows where they were heading for afterwards - Les Arcs possibly!!!!!!!

Anyway we headed to Tignes le Lac, up the Toviere, down the piste and up Marmottes lift and into the Cairn where once again we found some lovely snow and John and I both managed to, in the course of putting tracks down, ski off a little rock which had a 3 foot drop off but we both landed nicely - hey check us out - us extreme free-riders!

So at 12.30 Clare met the three of us at Peau du Vache - the Cow-Hide restaurant which is the one halfway down Le Face and although I have eaten there before I will re-iterate how amazing it is in there. Three of us had variations of the AMAZING burgers they serve in there - mine had lamb and foie gras to name but a few things in there. They are ENORMOUS and totally fills you up..... I have a HUGE appetite so that is saying something!

Desert was a 'Cow Pat' which is like a massive chocolate brownie with a cookie thing on top and whipped cream and came with four spoons - yet the four of us were not able to finish it off. Finally a genepy and all washed down with some wine it was quite a feast and a great way for Clares Dad to finish his trip off.

We waddled out (just about squeezed through the front door) after nearly 2 hours in there and all decided to download on the Bellevarde lift before saying our goodbyes to Clare's Dad and John. Clare and I have now had a very lazy hour or two at home and chilling watching some films and tv before an early night..... it all kicks off again with another week tomorrow morning at 9am!

Anyway hear goes the photos with some captions!

"You wanna make us ski WHAT Steve?"

The panorama view toward Mont Blanc (and Tommeuses / Tufs lift in the nearer ground of the picture) with the veil of cloud lower down.

Stevie (Clare's Dad) about to drop into the Chardonnet couloir! I was NOT sitting down or anything for this picture he really was that perched up above me!

Not that you can really see them but the ski tourers (3 of them) are right in the middle of this picture trying to skin up this south facing slope (mountain in the background NOT foreground)) - eeeeek!

A 270 degree panorama in the Jardins du Borsat. Stevie, with the Sache mountain (first main peak to HIS left), followed by Mont Blanc in the distance and then further around under the sun, the Charvet!

Two very happy campers (with my tracks as well) in the powder.

P.S. Just heard rumours of more people needing rescuing from the Gorge du Malpassat today after heading down there! Not sure why!

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

Steve Angus, is that really quite big person Martin's brother?!!!

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Pedantica - sure well is, yes!

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Steve Angus, Shocked

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Splat du jour - great phrase! An accolade that I'm sure I'll be picking up before too long, too.

SkiG, I'm staying in Val d'Isère that week so don't think we're on the same course unfortunately, but I am doing an off-piste adventure. Also got two half days of on piste technical either side on the Mon and Fri.

Steve Angus, great photos. I'd like to say the hills of the North Downs were as scenic by bike today, but they don't quite match Mont Blanc. Smile

After all it is free

Gorge du Malpassat today after heading down there! Not sure why!

Is that not sure why they were rescued, or not sure why they were down there?
Is Malpasset navigable currently?

"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."

What extraordinary behaviour! Is this common?

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Yep splat du jour is a particular favourite phrase!

ajdetpwm - not sure WHY they were down there.... NO the gorge is not navigable at the moment - plenty of tracks heading down there but then people heading that way to tour from the refuge!

James the Last - very normal behaviour - they are always doing it when its busy i.e. during school holidays! You can sometimes take the back roads and get away with it but last I heard (from a good source who was a transfer driver) was that as they see the same car (non 73 plate) coming through on a regular basis they threaten / want to fine you...... being French all this is probably totally illegal - i.e. you can surely drive anywhere you like as the roads are public surely?????? .... but the French on something like this will do as they wish and the local residents are probably giving them back-handers to the 'their' cops to keep their roads free rather than have all the pesky tourists block them up every Saturday - have to say they do have a point really don't they.... or do they?

GROTTY DAY TODAY

Well all good things come to an end and it was back to reality with a bang! We woke to light snow falling and pretty awful vis!

I had a client and his 'to-be' sister in law this morning whom I have taught on one occasion before. Reasonably solid on blue runs it was a little tougher for them today on their first day of their holiday so it was back to taking it easy on the Madelaine. We worked through some 'basics' with them again to remind them of the feelings and ideas that are the fundamentals of ski technique and little by little it all came flooding back to them! The weather really was not playing ball and although it was not too cold and/or windy (well compared to mid Winter anyway) we battled through the murk!

The afternoon was a little different. I was on a booking with a father and his two sons who had skied with TDC before. They are a tall and very well built family, even the 12 year old son was as tall as me!

Anyway they had done a couple of weeks skiing before this holiday so were relatively new to this skiing lark and especially with the weather as it was today it was always going to be a tough afternoon for them. We managed to do a couple of legs of the 'green' triangle around Borsat and Fontaine Froide before a hot chocolate beckoned. However the 12 year old has had a few injuries and breaks (not ski related) over the years so after a couple of little falls he decided that he did not want to ski anymore so his father and him took the Olympique down leaving me and the 9 year old bother to battle through the conditions for another hour..... and his little brother is doing very well considering it is only about his 10 day on snow and the conditions that were thrown at him..... we skied some blues before heading down!

And that just about sums up today folks - not much else to report really. Clare is off out to her French lesson and I am just catching up with some emails etc!

Not much to see up there today!!!!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

A day of complete contrasts. It was certainly looking like it was going to be a nice sunny day this morning.... down in town there was a veil of cloud over our heads but as soon as we got up top we pierced through the clouds and it was looking good.... for a while anyway!

I had the same 'team' as yesterday but another friend of theirs came along so we were now three! We built on what we had learned yesterday and made some great progress.... however the weather forecast was for the weather to get better.... not worse as it turned out. The clouds moved in little by little and it was an annoying level (height-wise) which meant the clouds were lingering in at that annoying height that covered the majority of the lifts up the mountains! Anyway we made it onto more than one red run which was a result!

There had been about 10cm of fresh snow overnight (which had obviously fallen in the early hours of the morning after much of the pisting had been done) and by now it was starting to snow again...... as a result the pistes were getting quite bumped up quite quickly. As a result we worked on a little bit of 'how to handle 'normal' pistes when they get a little bumped up' as opposed to 'lets go ski bumps intentionally.'

The morning session was a good one although everyone was pretty tired by the end!

The afternoon was back with the same people as yesterday afternoon and by now the weather had really moved in - so much snow that the light was totally flat and verging on white out a couple of times. We decided to head towards the Madelaine and perhaps throw in a blue or two! The first blue we threw into the mix, the Fourche, turned out was a little too tough for the older brother and the dad decided that in these poor light conditions that they would head down which left me and the younger brother (who is quite confident and good little skier for only his third week) to tackle even more pistes. We did a few more blues and developed some technique and he loved learning how to ski backwards. After that we skied the Arcelle which was a challenge for him but he did well although was totally knackered by the time we got back to the top. So much so that we ended up downloading on the Solaise Express at the end!

It finally stopped snowing pretty much as the lifts closed and Clare has just made a yummy Fajitas dinner so must dash as don't want to let it get cold. Not much else to report this end.

snow reports

Wonderful conditions but some sad news

Well as forecast (and the first of at least a week of this) the sun was out. It was going to be a 'crazy' day on the hill with people who really cannot ski (not beginners) everywhere. Pisteurs hate days like this as it is always busier for them dealing with more incidents and lots of reckless off pisting in silly places! It was certainly a cold start to the day at minus 12 but was always going to heat up considerably!

I had a nice couple from London who are here for two weeks and he is on a years sabbatical from work.... they wanted to take a years sabbatical to get things done, do some travel etc before their 2.5 year old gets too big! So skiing for 2 weeks in Val d'Isere was one of those goals!

They have both done differing amounts of skiing and he (for only a few days under his belt) is really malleable as has not had too much time to develop poor habits. Instead he listens and analyses intently and gives it his best and is more than willing to practice and follow guidance outside the lesson. As a result the first few lessons he has had he has learnt a great deal from. His aim is to be able to ski to Tignes by the end of the week and she just wants to improve her technical understanding!

Anyway we had a lovely morning in the sunshine and I left them as they headed for a nice lunch at the Signal!

At lunchtime there was a lot of commotion as (for the second time in about 7 years that I can remember) there was a major incident on the cliffs underneath the Loyes Express chair on the face (as you look up Le Face, the cliff area above the Joseray part of town). Anyway it would appear as if a couple of 22 year old guys (French) staying in Tignes had come over and followed a speed fliers tracks to the top of the (pretty much impassable) couloirs you can (sort of) see in this picture (courtesy of Radio Val d'Isere):

Anyway they thought they could do some rock hoping and also some negotiating a few avalanche barriers down there. I think one lost his footing / fell whilst trying to jump over / off a small drop, whilst another may have set of a slow, point release slide in the warming temperature which knocked him over as well. They ended up some 50 yards away from each other. One unfortunately died of his injuries and the other was taken away in a very serious condition. So there was the PGHM chopper and SAMU chopper buzzing all around the base area of the Face for a while.... a doctor winched down with supplies. In total 10 pisteurs were involved in the rescue! It was quite a full on evacuation. It rings VERY strong bells to what happened to the anaesthetist back in 2007 (or was it 2008) when the British doctor on his snowboard did a similar thing and died in pretty much the same spot on the mountain! You can see in the photo a small group of black dots in pretty much the centre where the doctors work on one of the victims! Fingers crossed the second person pulls through!

So although the temperatures rose a lot today and there are signs of lots of melt freeze Spring slides starting to happen there was still some lovely Wintery powder around to be had! Especially on north facing slopes there are some great turns to be had... check out this powder next to the piste!

So I have just had my French lesson and made a nice (although I say so myself) carbonara.... Clare has popped out for a drink with some friends and I am watching footy on one screen and the cricket from the West Indies on the iPad so it is sports galore here this evening!

Standby for more updates tomorrow.

A nice day on the hill

So I had the some couple as yesterday (and have them for one more session tomorrow and then again next week). Anyway they really are coming along in leaps and bounds! In fact I was able to take them onto an Arcelle which was in pretty good nick although most people do their best to scrape of the best of the snow through poor technique!

However the gaps in experience do shine through and I have to keep remembering that he (in particular) has only a modest amount of experience. I took a couple of still shots of him to show him how (when the going is easy) he balances nicely on the downhill ski when he turns but as it gets steeper he needs to push the same principle to the max...... the fact that the uphill hand is lower than the downhill hand shows that he is not balanced on the correct ski and therefore it does not feel like he has as much control as he would like. In fact it is quite easy to spot with many skiers this problem!

However the fact that he is able to flex the lower body and is a relatively stacked position means that changes can be made quite easily. In the photo you can see the downhill ski breaking away as there is not enough pressure control on it!

Anyway it was a jolly productive morning and I will be taking them over to Tignes tomorrow which was one of their aims for the end of week 2 let alone week number 1...... and they have more lessons booked next week with me so it can only be onward and upwards!

It was really starting to get warm after lunch (again) and I collected together the necessary numbers of off piste bags and gear ready for my "White Dot" group of seasonnaires. It was going to be their first foray into off piste and they were really excited!

So after the safety 'chat' which took the usual 30 mins or so including the time to have a go at using a transceiver and learning what to do in case of a slide we were off! I started with a little taster right off the side of the Galcier express chair where I have been many times. As predicted it was pretty cut up (snow-wise) BUT the good news was that it had not taken as much sun as I thought it might have! After a few more pitches off the side of the run we headed up the Madelaine and I went for one of my secret stashes which required a 5 minute hike!

Happy camper seasonnaires ready for the descent!

Anyway after a few funny falls and some technique input they really got the hang of the powder which was creamy smooth for the most part! Anyway we headed downwards and they got some great turns in - well done folks!

Good work team.... and some jolly good work for their first time in the powder!

After a few more short little pitches over the Fornet side we headed down to the Fornet via some trees and not forgetting 'trick of the week' which this week was twirly birds where in pairs you spin around in circles which they LOVED!

After getting all the gear back to the office I have just watched some tv with Clare and we are now off out for dinner at Scott and Becky's which will be lovely - especially as pork is on the menu - my favourite!

Yet more sun is forecast again tomorrow - watch this space.

You know it makes sense.

Steve Angus, Pics look great. You reckon there will be any powder left to be found around the EK after the next 10 days of sun?!?

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

SkiG - to be honest you will have to walk to get any powder so bring some skins - but no don't think you'll get any powder close to the pistes - no! In fact I was chatting with one mountain guide today and he was bemoaning how badly some people treat the powder by cutting everything up, traversing, leaving huge tracks about 30 metres wide etc etc etc - all in all using up lots of the available powder and leaving nothing for everyone else..... but that is the selfish nature of some people!

Well it was another wonderful sunny day in the mountains and once again the long term forecast is for sun, sun and more sun. It was chilly to start off but soon started to warm up.

I had the same couple as the rest of the week and after much chatting about where they wanted to have lunch (and then they had to relay the message back to the chalet so a driver could be booked to take the mother and young son to the lunch spot) it was decided that Les Brev was the chosen destination.

So we worked on some technique - in fact the same content as yesterday but just with some different drills - to re-enforce what we had learnt yesterday. We slowly made our way to Les Brev and enjoyed some great pistes on the way there. We made it to Les Brev a little early so I could drop them off then I could whiz back to Val. I was happy to potter back to Val and eat my lunch on the lifts.... it was quite pleasant skiing without having anyone on my tail so to speak.

In the afternoon I had the 5th of 6 seasonnaires sessions with the group that had started the season having never skied before! It was the day to try and take on their ultimate goal they had set themselves / me, for the sessions / season, and that was to ski the Face. So we worked mainly on controlling skid of the skis and route picking through bumps before doing a tester descent down Trolles into Le Lac as that was a great way for me test them out and see how they would be likely to handle Le Face!

Anyway after a quick glass of water at the Toviere we were ready to tackle the Face. I broke the run down into sections and gave my wise words about sensible stopping points etc before we carried out the plan. They were all so happy when we got to the bottom - they had done it - they were ever so chuffed. There were no fallers either so they were happy with that too.

In all fairness the Face was in reasonable conditions - yes there were some scrapped bits and some bumpier bits but all in all it was in damn good condition!

Whilst I was up the Bellevarde I managed to get a good picture of where the full depth (isn) slab that released on the Mont Roup traverse line in from the top of the Borsat lift, had released yesterday afternoon. It is massive - some 1.5m deep crown wall, 200m wide and slid for a good 400m or so...... someone skiing next to the area that slid managed to set it off yesterday about 2pm - bet that was a bit of a shock to their system.

Check out the middle of the photo to see the massive slide!

When I got to the bottom I was walking back to the office to drop a couple of things off and thinking about some of the skiers you see on the mountain and it struct me that most skiers seem to spend most of their time (unintentionally and unwittingly) trying to undo all the good technique they have paid for in lessons..... For example I snapped this shot - bet this person does not realise that in standing bolt upright and by dropping his hands to his side he is not only allowing his weight on this very flat piece of ground, to go backward but he is engraining the habit of poor posture again and again which makes it difficult to ski to his maximum abilities when he needs it on steeper slopes. Yes you could say that he was 'just coming to a halt and stopping' or whatever but you see it again and again and again on the mountain so when on tougher slopes they are not able to ski to the best of their abilities!

So 31000 cars forecast to come up the hill tomorrow and 33,000 going down so it will be another busy day on the roads. I am leaving very early (5am) as not only is it a busy day on the road, it is also the middle weekend of the Geneva Motor Show which will make the airport area chaos - eek. However on the plus side I am spending most of the day there (at the show) before picking our new guests up and getting in the jams back to Val.... so may or may not post tomorrow night!

A snowHead

I'd put a lot of money on those not being his own skis. LOL!

A snowHead

Steve Angus, wondered whether you're able to help sasha320?
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=109097

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

Chris ski H - possibly - but some people are so clueless that I would not be surprised AT ALL if they were his own. In fact shop staff find it very easy to see if you have been skiing on roads / non-pistes etc and will happily fine people!

intermediate - will look at that as soon as I can - THANK YOU!

Saturday 8th March

Well the day started badly as I had no option but to park next to the poubelles before going and collecting our guests bags etc from the chalet.... In the interim period (about 10mins) the dump truck arrived and hoisted (they do this fairly often in general so its not as if it was a particularly unusual thing for them to have to do) the giants sacks out the ground and over my car! Those poubelles are very deep - about 20 foot deep and as you can see some 8 foot in diameter so they hold a lot of rubbish in them! Anyway the crane on the back of the dump truck hoisted the rubbish up and over our car and into their compactor..... as always happens there is 'muck' (lets call it that) that leaks out the bottom and seams of the bag. Anyway without getting too graphic the car was less than clean and the 'liquids' had stuck themselves on a couple of the side windows and across the windscreen and then frozen!!!!!!!! Much spraying on the windscreen later and I could see again but most of the way to the airport the car had a feint and nasty whiff about it but finally dissipated as the journey continued - not a great start!

Anyway the journey itself was interesting...... the traffic (even at 6am) after Bourg was REALLY heavy and it ended up being about an hours delay on that part of the journey! We got through Mountiers and the next 'hurdle' was Annecy - the traffic itself was fine but they decided to pull up half the road so the work traffic lights created a small jam there too! Anyway by the time I got to Geneva we got snarled up in some pretty bad Geneva Motor Show traffic - saw some intense road rage between a coach driver and small 1L type car - the coach driver ended up intentionally cutting up the smaller car at one point - this was all in stop start motorway traffic and I thought it was going to get physical on the roadside as the coach driver ended up getting out his vehicle as bemused passengers looked at their window at me (I was stationary next to the coach at the time). Anyway after taking some back entry roads and persuading the policeman that we needed to park in P26 (right under the expo centre) as we were taking a flight we got into one of the very last few remaining spots that can accommodate a car of our size - PHEW we had made it in a little under 5 hours! The roads around the AIRPORT WERE AWFUL!

After a spot of lunch I headed to the show and the only word that can describe it is HUGE. There were some 50,000 visitors there yesterday alone. If you have ever been to the London ski show then think about 6 times that size!

Without stating the obvious there were cars everywhere.

This is just one of 7 halls!

A not very practical - triangular car!

The only ski related thing I saw all day - Bentley branded skis!!!

Looking through a Subaru Forester - a great mountain car!

....less practical in the mountains!

Cars mounted on the wall!!!

Definitely not for the mountains!!!! Bourg to Val in 5 mins anyone on a clear day!!!!

Thats more like it for the mountains!

Anyway after collecting the new guests and grabbing some dinner we hit the road and luckily all the Geneva Motor Show crowds had gone, the roads had cleared and I made it back to Val in great time - 10pm to be exact. A quick intro to the chalet (Clare had hit the sack) and I noted a couple of DIY jobs that I need to do in there this pm after skiing and it was time for bed.

So a very quick beer at 11pm and the 19 hour day had come to and end!!!!!! PHEW

Back to work today and now (having written this up) back on schedule with this too!!!!

MORE SUNSHINE FORECAST!

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Not too much to report today really.

Another warm and sunny day on the mountain and in town - lots of melting going on down low but the pistes are still holding up really well! The next few days should be a little cooler but still sunny! The rivers around town opened up officially for fishing today too to license holders - there are some nice wild trout (brown and rainbow) around although perhaps they are a little skinny after the Winter period!

So I had a really nice young lady this morning who had not skied for a number of years (since she was a teenager in actual fact). The last time she skied (her only week ever) she had not had great weather she seemed to recall so today was a nice surprise for her and she was buzzing! Anyway we started tentatively and built things up little by little. She certainly did way better than one would expect for such little experience and a large time gap at that. By the end of the session she was coming down the Madelaine really well and she was rather stoked.

I have one more session with her tomorrow so will see how far she can come along.

In the afternoon I participated in a TDC training session - telemarking, delivered by my good friend and colleague and top level telemarking coach, Ben Langridge (if you read Fall Line magazine you will know whom I mean). Anyway Ben splits his time between teaching skiing for TDC and doing telemarking sessions. Anyway it was my very first time on tele's and was a lot of fun. A few of us had done it before but several of us had never tried it. By the end of the session Ben had us going down some of the Tommeuse bumps by was rather tough on em things. My feet hurt (more than my thighs) and the start of the rugby meant we all retreated home / to the bar to watch.... great win by England!

I have been up to our chalet to do some DIY this evening, am watching the cricket and generally chilling out!

Not much else to report!

Caoch Ben at the top of Tommeuse with Mont Blanc behind in the distance!

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

I love your photos Steve, I'm unlucky enough to not be sliding this season so reading your posts and seeing your photos makes me more determined to go next season. Thank you very much and keep posting Smile

After all it is free

Great posts Steve. Really enjoy them!

Thanks for the great comments folks - I enjoy my daily photos and posts!

Another fine day in the mountains!

I had the same lovely lady from yesterday and she was raring to go. It helps that her friend (whom I trained up for his instructor qualifications) is a BASI 1 instructor! So, with his guidance, she had had a great afternoon of practice up on the mountain yesterday. So she had built on the foundations we lay down yesterday!

I decided to take the Olympic side up and head around the 'green triangle' as we call it (top part of Verte), up Borsat, Genepy piste (with optional Grand Pre add-on) and then Fontaine Froide / Olympic to get back down. We did a variety of drills and skills to build on what she learnt yesterday afternoon and to be honest with you it is extremely rare for someone to be as receptive to development and progression as she was able to do. Nevertheless some really good progress was made - it makes me smile when verbal input / demonstrations result in some really good developments..... and she was loving it - bravo!

By the end of the session she was able to do the blue pitch down to the Folie as well as another short blue.

The afternoon was spent at a similar level (of ski ability) as the morning but with a more elderly (and lovely lady). It was more a case of working on phycology with her and she responded well.

I had a quick drink with Clare after work and will be catching up on some Sky + as she is out now having her French lesson.

Whilst we were having our drink (on the Sun Bar terrace) there was the SAMU chopper coming into land, dropping someone/thing off on the corner of the Plan M red piste that comes down from the top of the Solaise, as it turns into the forest.... there must have been a serious injury up there - but I have not heard anything about what has happened there. They had to stop the Solaise chair for a few seconds each time the chopper came in as they need to make sure the downdraft etc does not have adverse affects on the lift!

Anyway more sun forecast tomorrow but I am on an all day corporate booking so that will be rather different!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Whoops forgot to post yesterday - sorry!

Another bright and sunny morning but day by day the overnight temperature drop to way below zero is being cancelled out as the ground (exposed parts of concrete and building etc) retains the days heat! Spring is moving in strongly day by day BUT we all know that Winter can return (and I am sure it will) at the drop of a hat!

So we met for a quick ski school briefing in the Gourmadine at about 8.45 to work out groups and plans for the day and we were off.

I had a couple of guys from a well known free London newspaper who were here on their "top salespersons'" corporate trip. Both were in their 30's and very pleasant guys and neither had skied until yesterday so were not only new to the sport but also loved the mountains and the views they had so far seen on the nursery slopes!

So we set off for the Savonettees piste for some warm up runs and it became apparent that one of the guys was in a lot of pain in his foot as he had an ingrowing toe nail. After only a couple of runs that guy decided that enough was enough and was happy to sit and watch from the bottom of the slope. So it was just me and the other guy.

Little by little we worked our way through central theme drills and coupled it with practice. Before long he was rocking and rolling and ready to head up the mountain to the Lac / Terrasse area. Since the corporate trip was only for two days I thought it would be worthwhile getting him up top even though he was not 100% ready (perhaps) to head up but the luxury of being one on one is that as an instructor you can be a little more hands on in situations like this.

Anyway he did very well up there for an hour so but before long it was time to head back down, change into shoes, pick the other guy up from Snowberry and head to lunch.

We took the bus to Le Fornet and then the cable car up and the group leader had organised the top sun deck area of the Signal restaurant exclusively for the group.

Cutting a long story short lunch was a very long and drawn out process - taking nearly 1.5 hours before we got our food as the whole group were more interested in drinking. Anyway it was mid afternoon before we finally left (lunch was VERY good but very long) and sitting in the sun had been jolly pleasant!

The two beginners were not skiing after lunch so I had 4 intermediate skiers (and one boarder) and with only an hour left of the day and with a few sherbets in their system I was always going to act cautiously..... unfortunately I can only refuse to take someone if I really believe that they will be a safety risk to themselves / others but in their case I thought that I could 'control' them.

Anyway it all was totally fine in the end and by 4 I was on my way home for a quick change before heading to the pub for a quick drink with a friend who is on holiday here this week and his friend whom I taught earlier in the week.

By the time I got home and had had dinner I was ready for bed and totally forgot to post last night - sorry!

A BASI gap course taking their BASI Level 2 - working on their Central Theme skiing on the Savonettes piste!

The SAF chopper atop the Solaise having just brought people back from heliskiing to Bonneval

A lovely location to have lunch in the sun at the award winning Signal restaurant at the top of the Fornet!

The Plan M red down Solaise at the end of the day was a complete mess at the end of the day - mainly because people choose to stop in the middle of the piste every few yards - arghhh!

More later folks but it is another nice sunny day out there!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

The Val d'Isere tourist board should employ you.

snow reports

The Val d'Isere tourist board should employ you.

Hi Steve. Just to say that I love reading your blog and seeing the photos.

You know it makes sense.

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

The tourist board - hmmmmmm perhaps not - I have a much better job than that - but they could give me some commission - haha! Thanks as always everyone for the positive messages. As far as keeping the EK low profile - sure!!!!!!

Another warm day in the mountains.

I bussed it down to La Daille to meet my morning lesson (the couple I was teaching a couple of times last week who are into their second and final week of their stay). They were on the pisteurs 'fresh tracks' morning where you take the Funi up at 8am - have a couple of early runs before getting breakfast at Les Tuffs - think it is about €20 a shot but a pretty nice way to spend an early morning without anyone else on the mountain and especially good when the snow is fresh and if not, then purely to watch the sun coming up and the mountain coming to life!

After they had their breakfast we headed up the Funi and the plan was to head to the top of the Tignes glacier so that is where we headed. With her she wanted some technique to help deal with slicker snow and ice so we worked on progressive edging. With him it was improving the timing and rhythm of his movements so he was able to make turns in a tighter area.... as well as tidy up some postural issues that had developed over the past few days - i.e. he had become straight ankled and therefore he was not centred on his skis and finding it harder to turn them efficiently!

We were able to get them to the top of the Tignes Funi but unfortunately high winds meant we could not summit the top of the Motte. Oh well they really enjoyed the views up there anyway and the ski down the Dahu and Double M blew them away - not only was the snow great but being so sunny the views were awesome and for parts of the run it was not too busy!

I ended up taking them down to La Daille where they jumped on their private minibus taxi service provided by the tour operator and I had to shoot off to get back home to change into my snowboarding stuff as that was what I was on in the afternoon. I grabbed lunch as well and after a 10 minute sit down I was back on the bus to the meeting point.

I had a nice Irish girl (who had skied with a colleague earlier in the week) on her snowboard this afternoon and there was lots of little bits of tidying up that needed to be done to improve her technique. After a little bit of work on working the legs and keeping the upper body still she was really making progress..... she gained in confidence and speed a fair bit too! She also loved the 360 spins we did too and allowed her to sample switch riding so on big traverses she could release the pressure on her toes and feet and pass it onto the heels instead (a nifty trick).

Anyway am about to head out for my French lesson in a moment so must dash.... however thought I would share 2 last photos with you from 4pm this afternoon after I had left my charge at the Folie and took the pistes back down to La Daille on my board. On sunny days like this EVERYONE heads to the Folie Douce for party time at 3pm until the close of play..... SO the pistes below the Folie are deserted and these photos prove just that. Bearing in mind that it is still (the last one) a French holiday week the pistes were deserted!

Looking up the piste and...

...looking down at the same moment in time - DESERTED!

A snowHead

A snowHead

Warmer than yesterday but a little bit of everything in there today!

I had the mother of the couple I have been teaching a fair bit over the last couple of weeks first up this am and she did so well. Being in her late 60's it was a 'easy, easy, steady, steady' approach to the session with a nice coffee stop in the middle. By the end of the session she was stoked as she was just about able to control her speed in a straight line through varying plough size and the lift was getting more manageable! It was very sweet as the whole family had clubbed together to buy our baby a little present of some mits and for dad (me) they noticed that my current ski gloves were wearing rather thin (being the end of the season) so bought me some really nice gloves too - how sweet - thanks folks!

Lunch was hectic as I headed off to our office to pick up some off piste gear for my seasonnaires program this afternoon!

There was a couple of changes as a couple of seasonnaires could not make it but we all got there in the end! So it was the last of the six sessions with this particular 'Team White Dot' group (all our seasonnaire groups have been named after ski manufacturers this season). Last week had been a complete intro to off piste for them so this week I wanted to push them further and really give them an experience and get plenty of mileage under their skis.

The avalanche risk has been low in the mornings and rising considerably as the afternoon moves on with the temperature.... in fact 1 this morning and rising to 3 in the afternoon. So it was always going to be a case of awareness around, about and above us as well as tactfully looking for 'chalky' snow as pretty much all the snow is either sun or wind crust affected. However if you really know where to look there are occasionally pockets of nice snow on true north facing aspects (and of course the further you are willing to walk for it the more there will be). In fact I can honestly say I did get about 3 powder turns out there this afternoon!!!!!!!!!

I wanted to get out into the Cugnai before it got even hotter so we went straight there from the meeting point and were ready to drop in about 1.45.

We carefully traversed around to the far side and found some nice chalky snow (which is essentially mega skier compacted snow that has been worked an re-worked so the snow molecules get broken down so much that they don't really get a chance to melt and re-freeze). Of course the best of the chalk was a little bumped up in places but after our bumps lesson the other week the girls were rocking down the bumps and loving it!

However near the bottom as it starts to flatten out we came across the remnants of a MASSIVE avalanche that (as we were to find out a little later) had come down mid morning! It had come down on the Super Arcelle side (skiers right) of the Cugnai. Being south facing it had been gone in the mid morning sun! It was about 150m wide and some 350m long and the debris at the bottom was some 3m deep in places. My team had never seen real avalanche debris before and could not believe how solid it becomes when it stops moving and also how massive it all was. I was to find out later that an un-named school guided group had been on what they had hoped would be nice but stable spring snow at about 11.30am! By the powers of deduction and by reading up the notes from the accident later this evening it would appear as if the group did NOT have transceivers and safety gear on. The leader and one other person were taken but only the leader was swallowed up in the slide as the other person was able to escape out the side. The person was buried and other members of the group called the pisteurs. In the end three choppers were involved in the rescue along with 11 pisteurs and more than one avalanche rescue dog. The leader was buried for 28 minutes before being pulled out (slightly injured) but alive and flown to hospital IN Bourg by the SAMU chopper! It was the avalanche rescue dog Farro (the dog was flown in by the SAF chopper) that actually smelt the person and thus she was pulled out alive!

Farro the hero (dog) of the day!

Anyway we ended up carrying on past the remains of the debris to the little refuge hut for a drink in the sun. Whilst we were sitting there the SAMU chopper came back again to look for any other buried persons in the snow. That chopper had a large and built in body finder system (aka Recco receiver system) on board. It hovered and flew up and down over the debris obviously bouncing a signal around to see if there was any other buried people in there but after a few minutes flew away - thank goodness! The problem is that a lot of people think that Recco reflectors are avalanche 'savers' but in reality all they do is allow dead bodies to be found as the equipment required to pick up a bounced signal off them is rather large so for that reason a transceiver is a much better bet!

The girls were having an exciting afternoon and learning to understand the dangers of being off the marked pistes! It was such a warm afternoon that a few of the girls had stripped down to just mid layers as it really was rather hot in the direct sun!

Next up was a trip over the Grand Vallon and once again it was a case of sticking to the guts as everything else was pretty nasty. But we had a lovely descent down to the Mangard before making our way home. Hopefully I will be meeting up with the girls (well most of them) one more time when we do a spot of heli-skiing in a couple of weeks time (hopefully).

After dropping the packs back at the office and enjoying some chocolate delights that one of the girls had brought along after the session I have been sorting out a few bits and bobs here at home before doing it all again tomorrow!

Before we new about the drama that had unfolded here shortly beforehand.................. - the girls acting like kids crawling all over the avalanche debris - note it was nearly 3 metres deep in places....

Photo taken by a colleague on another off piste itinerary shortly after the incident had taken place - note the helicopter (for scale purposes) in the bottom right hand corner as you look coming into land with the dog was that was find the buried female under all that debris!

The lovely little refuge half way down the Cugnai!

That is about all for today folks - on piste all day tomorrow as the avalanche risk is going from 2 up to 4 tomorrow (from late morning onwards) partly as there will hardly be a freeze tonight and partly as the sun is supposed to be intense once again tomorrow. I fear that all the 'last day craziness' could be a step too far for some people tomorrow as they push harder and harder off piste wise - be careful out there people!

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

Another lovely but sunny day in the valley! I met up right off the bus, as coincidence would have it, with my morning lesson so we jumped straight in the line for the Solaise lift and ended up being the first up the lift which was cool! I had the same girl that I had taught a couple of times earlier in the week so this was now the end of her second week ever skiing and once again she made great progress. We followed the sun around looking for nice slopes that would soften up as the morning progressed as we worked on technique and finally skied the Moraine red up on the Val glacier..... so many idiots skiing way too fast down it in not too much control but that is true for a HUGE number of slope users!

Anyway she did ever so well and we finished by taking the bus back into town!

For some reason I was the only member of the team at lunch and sods law I did not have keys to the Blue Note where we are taking our lunch breaks this season. Anyway being a nice sunny day I was able to sit out in the sun and soak up the atmosphere!

After lunch I had the final instalment with my seasonnaires that had started the season as beginners. The focus of the session was to do some freestyle with them as they had been keen to do some for a while now. Initially I got some video of them skiing the Fontaine Froide so we could look at it later and see how they had improved as the season progressed! Then we lapped around and around in the park. Initially some straight airs, then a few grabs before having a go at some 180's - they all enjoyed themselves!

We headed to the Fall Line bar in town after to watch the video and have a nice beer to celebrate the end of the program.

Clare and I are heading for a drink this evening with some friends before getting an early night as it is transfer day once again tomorrow! It is expected to be another (final) busy one on the road so I will be leaving town at 6am. However the good news is the weather will be good AND it looks as if I may get a whole day off on Sunday - just possibly!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Steve, Did the 3 people I pointed your way make contact?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

It was an early start and whereas last week I was surprised at how busy the roads were early this week I was surprised how quiet the roads were even though the traffic forecast was about the same - oh well you win some you lose some! So we left Val d'Isere at 6.15 and despite there being a slow trickle of cars down the hill (and we even witnessed one coach overtaking another coach on the road down which was quite scary - especially for the guests in my car!) we arrived in Bourg and were through towards Moutiers in very good time. In fact the traffic control lights for the Sioux tunnel had not been activated yet so we were well ahead of schedule!

The knock on effect was that we arrived in Geneva earlier than we had last week so the jams around the Geneva Motor Show were minimal but still building by the second!

After the guests were dropped off (they were very early for their flight so were either going to try and change the flight time (they were flying BA so hopefully it would have been possible) OR they were going to have a look around the motor show!) I went upstairs and had a bit to eat and caught up with some emails etc whilst I waited about 2 hours for the next guests to arrive!

The incoming flight was on time and before long we were on the road. I new that it was supposed to be (surprisingly) busy on the way back up the valley towards Val but I was quite surprised to find that there was a jam coming through Annecy... however despite being about 30 mins behind schedule I was then pleasantly surprised to find that the jam coming into Moutiers was much better than I thought it was going to be so all in all we made it to Bourg and our scheduled Super U stop in pretty much the amount of time I thought it was going to take!

The weather down the valley (and up in Val) was fairly overcast all day but there was no rain or snow falling so I was quite happy that I was not missing a horrible day on the hill!

After a fairly short food shop as the incoming guests were only really wanting to grab a handful of things we were on the way back up the road and into Val!

Clare and I decided that we were going to have a quiet evening just the two of us so I grabbed a takeaway pizza and some yummy ice-cream and we watched some rubbish TV before having an early night. I did manage to persuade Clare to let me watch the second half of the France / Ireland game - what a finish ehh!!!!!

scooby_simon - thanks for the message (and the previous messages before that) - no unfortunately I have not heard from them - however I do have three people tomorrow morning which could be them - but I don't think so?????????

You'll need to Register first of course.

Steve Angus, what altitude was that slide, seems quite high from absence of trees, but don't know?

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

Weathercam - the slide started at about 2600m in altitude - nearly 2700m actually and slid to about 2400 in altitude give or take!

What a pleasant day that was!

So the day started with a lovely lie in until 9am - shock horror! Clare and I watched some Sunday am TV - did not get my way to see any of the grand prix but not to worry! It had started overcast but soon the sun took hold and by 10am the sun was pumping. We headed to the Moris for brunch and what a feast that was on the decking in the sun! We did some window shopping and Clare eyed up a nice new top that she may well buy when we go out in a moment!

Anyway by mid afternoon we popped home and snoozed (whilst I did yesterdays blog (above)) before heading down to La Daille to drink in the sun at the Rosee Blanche. It was jolly nice sitting in the sun having a couple of beers watching the skiers go past! So we have just walked back up from La Daille and have about an hour at home before heading to town where I think Clare is going to buy this nice new jumper top she saw at lunchtime and then we are going to Gav and Lou's for dinner and to see Mea (there 15 week old daughter) before she goes to bed!

So it has been a jolly pleasant day really and such a change and reminds me of why I enjoy Spring time so much!

Back to the grindstone tomorrow and this week is looking relatively bust so I can't complain!

Anyway a couple of photos of the day!

View from the deck at The Moris! Bacon and eggs never tasted better!

The walk back from La Daille as the SAF chopper comes into land!

After all it is free

Sounds like a perfect rest day-well deserved I am sure!

My 2 skier friends and I (board) have booked Thursday PM with you Steve, very much looking forward to it.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

franga - yep have you locked in for that - look forward to catching you then!

Another beautiful day but it seemed even warmer than before - incredible!

So I met up with my three am skiers down in La Daille at the Funi and quickly established that we were going to work on piste technique - mainly short turns today and then some off piste tomorrow and then decide what we want to work on on Wednesday. Anyway there was a three way ability split (small one) within the group so I was giving different drills to different people but I think some good breakthroughs were made. The second half of the session we worked on bumps (as they had now softened up nicely!). I did feel slightly sorry for the guys as there were 3 BASI groups looping around on the bumps as well as another TDC group doing some moguls as well.... however all went well and by lunchtime I was rather sweaty from all that bumps action!

I dropped a layer at lunchtime and drank a lot of water!

The afternoon session was on piste again and the lady I was teaching is a friend of someone I teach regularly over the course of the Winter. Anyway she was a good skier but just lacked in confidence due to a couple of errors in her basic technique so we took it quite easy all afternoon and slowly built the difficulty up until she was flowing nicely on the blues! We finished by heading to the Folie Douce where it was (as always) going off. The plan had been to meet up with the others in the party but they were running late so we never managed to actually meet up!

Anyway Clare is now off for her French lesson and I am in charge of dinner!

More sun for a few more days BUT there is a change coming. Temperatures should drop later in the week and a front could be moving in which could produce snow again so watch this space!

Help!!

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

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