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

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

A little bonus down day

Well through a combination of things I think I am going to have a couple of 'down' days in a row.

So after a nice night out at the Lodge last night (wonderful food and company) we were hoping for a lie in this morning but Olivia had other ideas (typical). Anyway we started the day with a yummy selection of pastries from Chevallot bakery and had a lazy couple of hours.

It was proving to be a lovely sunny morning so we decided to head up the Solaise for a drink up there with Olivia.

The suns rays just about starting to hit the mountain tops first thing this morning on my 'bakery run'

The Club des Sport kids lining up on the Stade de Legattaz for Saturday morning race training!

It was beautiful up there.... a few high clouds, no wind.... however it was to change slowly as the day passed!

After an hour or so we were back down and Olivia then decided she would have a lunchtime nap that spanned 3hours......

Plenty more procrastinating followed (which to be fair I think Clare and I deserved as it has been such a hectic few weeks).

The clouds had been slowly moving in and it has been 50:50 on and off for about 24 hours now as to whether this depression 'ridge' would bring anything, how much, rain or snow or nothing at all.... however finally about 7pm the weather took hold and it finally started snowing and pretty much at the same time the wind picked up so within the space of a couple of hours we went from a lovely sunny day to a blizzard and that continues now.

Thanks to Radio Val for this pic.

My Periscope this afternoon unfortunately does not show the weather developing for the 'worse / better' (depending on how you look at it) but non the less here it is:

https://t.co/9XM2RjyCyH and the perma-link
https://t.co/plFX8678IC

CAUTION. After the run of warm weather we have had recently this fresh snow will not really bind to the pre-existing snow.... that coupled with some high winds means we will see the avalanche risk rise steeply again to widespread instability... so please be careful out there. A new week with fresh 'powder-hounds' will be chomping at the bit but take it easy for a day or more!

Until tomorrow folks. A fresh canvas and some more family time follows as we fully rest up before another week of teaching starts. Only another week or two until half term kicks off and the resort starts to fill up next week when the first of the French school holidays start!

TTFN

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

Well we have had about 30cm's overnight in town and moderate winds up top. It continues to snow hard and should continue for most of the day.... the weather was always going to be either 'plenty' or non at all and I was pessimistic but pleasantly surprised that we have had a descent top up. Chains were required on all vehicles to / from Bourg as it was snowing all the way down the valley but that restriction has been eased now I believe! However as we get closer to the evening and temps drop and the amount of traffic on the road decreases (so the snow settles again) the restriction could very well be implemented again! They have increased the av risk to 4/5 so best to stick to the pistes for safety if you can OR know WHERE you are going and WHAT you are doing very carefully. If this cold front pulls (as it should do) the warm front in behind it again the temperatures could raise quite quickly tomorrow so we could have the 'triple bullseye' of 'recent significant snowfall,' 'wind' and 'rising temperature' to give very juicy and tricky off piste avalanche conditions - stay safe, think safer folks!

Full written update here later on this evening.... and my video Periscope (check out the app on IOS and Android!) daily report happening later on.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Snow, snow and more snow - its back to the real Winter!

Well it was a relaxed start to the day again with family scrambled eggs as we looked out the window to a snow covered landscape with about 30cms of fresh. The snow was accumulating fast all day so by the end of the day we must have had getting on for 40cm's of snow here in town and more up high.

You can see my video update from the bottom of the Face here:

https://t.co/Hc1ZKpQEhG and the permalink
https://t.co/Oa05zlh2Ge

The periscoping is going from strength to strength - thanks to those of you who tune in - in total there was somewhere in the region of nearly 250 people who tuned in today and on top of that the total amount of time spent viewing the broadcast was getting on for 6 hours - incredible as I actually only spoke for about 10 mins today!

Mid morning I took Olivia for a swim... she loves it so much and with her armbands happily floats about... drinks about half the water though!

Lots of lovely snow falling!

The leisure centre has fantastic facilities!

The snow continued nicely all day and the avalanche risk is now 4/5. The pisteurs are starting their control work at 0650 tomorrow morning as there will be lots to sort out up there!

Talking of safety it is worth reminding people that skiing / snowboarding on the roads to get home is both illegal and highly dangerous - the local police will fine anyone they catch doing it - so be warned! If you have rental skis it is so easy to tell when they have been used on the roads by the scratch marks on the base! I was on the bus earlier and as we came around the corner there were a group of skiers and boarders who almost got sucked under the wheels - take care!

The latest TDC conditions video is out... Scott at the helm this week:

https://www.facebook.com/tdcski/videos/10153838979108607/

Olivia had a very long sleep at lunchtime so I caught up on a few things and then this afternoon we had some family time... watching Ski Sunday and having a yummy family meal... a very relaxed Sunday all in all. With the unplanned day off yesterday it has been quite a chilled weekend. However it is probably needed as Monday has been mighty busy and half term madness is not long away!

Earlier this week there was the memorial torchlite descent where those of us who work on the mountain remember fallen colleagues etc... so pisteurs / lifties and instructors all get together and pay for the privilege of doing the descent and remembering. I unfortunately could not do it but here is Radio Val's edited version of what happened!

http://www.webtvvaldisere.com/upload_vids/2016-01-28%20Descente%20aux%20flambeaux%20des%20copains.mp4

So with the snow today there was the invariable jams on the roads but it was made a little worse in a slow speed head on collision just outside Val today which snarled up the roads a little more:

Luckily only flesh wounds apparently!

As an aside with this fresh snow it is easy to get carried away (and not in the safety sense that is) and when you take a tumble and lose a ski it is not funny. So it is worth investing in ski traces or something similar which are high vis ribbons that unfurl from your trouser leg (brightly coloured) when you fall so you can locate your skis easily... however one of the clients from Alpine Experience was not so lucky today as was recounted in this blog piece from one of their guides today... oops!

"Thomas had a skier lose a ski and his team spent almost 90-minutes looking for it. My team came down to lend a hand but to no avail and the poor Viking had to ski down on one ski, which was extremely hard work. Bummer!"

Finally I recently filmed a couple more tips:

https://ktch.tv/6mjg?s=03m50s&e=07m11s[ - tips for taking kids skiing / snowboarding for the first time
https://ktch.tv/6BZG?s=03m22s&e=05m39s[ - tips for getting the most from your skiing / snowboarding lessons

And that is all for now folks!

TTFN

@valdisere @tignesofficial

You'll need to Register first of course.

Looking for a little local info / advice. Arrived in val on Saturday so sunday was our first day skiing and now all set for day two. We've got mixed ability in our group but even the weaker skiers are competent on most reds providing they've been pisted. Yesterday though we went up the solaise side and the pistes were in quite a mess making things pretty difficult. Plenty of others were struggling too. Are there particular areas that are more likely to have bn pisted and would we be better heading towards tignes or another area? Thanks

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

In my experience almost all of the runs in VDI and Tignes were pisted daily. I expect the "mess" you encountered was all the fresh snow that fell during the day. If you check:

http://www.skiplan.com/bulletin/bulletin.php?station=val-d-isere&region=alpes&pays=france&lang=en

In the morning they usually post which runs have been pisted, Tignes didn't tend to give this info on their site, same URL but for Tignes.

Enjoy!

After all it is free

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your reply and daily periscope updates. It's nice to get live feed of Val whist i'm sitting in the office counting down the (eighteen) days until we arrive!

There are 8 of us coming for the week with really mixed abilities, some are excellent skiers and others haven't skied before. Do you / TDC do any kind of intensive lessons for beginners so they can grasp the basics?

Hope all is well,

Cheers.

Thanks for the photos they look great. We are due to come next week - we heard there is a big snow storm expected next week wondering if it will affect our ability to ski?

Some friends who are in the French alps mentioned that the snow is fairly wet and that it is rather warm so no extra cold thermal clothing required.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Thanks @Steve Angus, for a great lesson this morning. We really enjoyed ourselves and took away lots to work on. Will keep in touch by watching the periscope brosdcasts- look forward to skiing with you again in the future.

Ski safe and thanks again for a fab morning!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Hi Andymarsden1 - thanks for the kind comments - have private messaged you about this... but the short answer is YES

the saint - yes as Vasta has pretty much said. ALL (unless due to extenuating curcumstances e.g. technical issues / avalanche risk etc) greens and blues will be pisted in Val and Tignes overnight. Virtually all reds and most of the blacks unless it says 'non damee' will be done - especially 'popular' blacks such as Le Face. Some blacks never get pisted and are left as 'naturide' pistes. HOWEVER it is a blend of how busy the slopes get, the fresh snow (in particular yesterday and then again today) and numbers of people that will make a slope snarled up..... people always cheer the fresh snow but it does make the piste conditions tricky and as you will have seen today even the easiest of runs can get totally 'messed up' - but that makes skiing an enjoyable challenge some would say! Your best bet is to head places others are generally NOT going and get there early and ski hard e.g. the Val glacier! The link vasta has put is your best source of info on openings etc.

Cheers,

Steve

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

Thanks to Romu at Radio Val d'Isere for getting hold of this amazing picture the pisteurs took this morning.

And the pisteurs for this pic this am to - STUNNING!

Not as warm as threatened but then again off piste was worse than hoped for!

It was an hour or so of judging this morning to get the correct connections to get over to Tignes on time. The Funi opened dead on time but there was a veil of clouds floating in and out of the picture.... there was always going to be a lot of avalanche blasting that needed doing this am.

Didn't look promising down in town but up top...

Anyway in the end I met @lynnecha dead on time at the top of Tommeuse. There was a very short hold as they were blasting the Val side of the Campanule which was cool to see as we were only about 200 yards away when they blasted it and most of the people on the chair with me almost fell off from shock when it happened.

It was a jolly ski around and the clouds parted and we were treated to wonderful weather! Some really good improvements were made - bravo.

The only blot on the landscape this morning was a very severe accident on the infamous steep section of the Diebold run.... the bit where everyone lets their skis run as you get within sight of Marmottes and everyone else is out of their depth on there... it is such a black spot for accidents (like the freestyle park)... anyway they basically closed off most of the piste and got the SAMU chopper in.

You can just about see where the pictures are working and certainly see where the helicopter has landed (and shut down!)

I am still waiting to hear details but it won't be pretty that is for sure.

At lunchtime I met Clare and we went to do some route-finding for some off piste routes... we knew already that the snow was going to be shocking... unfortunately the high humidity and then a drop in temps overnight lead to crust developing - it should even itself out as the snow dries out overnight but it will take a day or two to sort itself out. I am lead to believe by colleagues that it was gross top to bottom off piste in terms of altitude. Anyway Clare and I went looking for a few new routes to take off piste clients on and since the aim of the game was not really the skiing it was fine. We practiced some dummy multi burial transceiver searches too.

By the time I had gotten home it was already time to collect Olivia from creche.

The avalanche risk was up to 4 today and as you can see right under the chair there was instability - a skier set this slide off this morning just by passing under the prone slope - be careful folks!

The weather forecast is still calling for some snow this Wednesday and as it clouded over a little this afternoon who knows what tomorrow will bring. Looking even further afield there could be some fronts starting to back up over the Atlantic but I am not going to speculate how much if anything could come from it.... we shall see.

Todays Periscope:

https://t.co/XTowzHuAA8 and the permalink version:
https://t.co/B24MUvrPLH

TTFN

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

A scorcio day

It really was a lovely day and the clouds were so thin today that the heat of the sun came through today BUT the temps are supposed to plummet overnight and that coupled with fresh snow will see a return to Winter!

The snow 'dried' out somewhat overnight so I am led to believe that some places the off piste was back in full swing today which was good news and with the fresh snow coming it should change again.

I started a 3 day Development Plus clinic this morning and it is a nice team of people - some of whom have done a LOT with TDC over the years and others it is their first time. We had a jolly morning atop the Bellevarde working on general piste technique and hitting up the reds. It was not quite as busy as it was yesterday which was good news and the avalanche risk was back down to 3/5

I got some great views of town when I was doing my Periscope today.... it sure looked lovely up there I thought:

https://t.co/Ny4bfI1mie and the perma-link
https://t.co/pWcroBAEMh

This afternoon was spent at home catching up on some admin, then taking a walk into town to catch up with someone and whilst I was there I took a snapshot of the current monthly Val Cinema listings... so if you are in town in the next few weeks this is what they are planning on showing. A reminder that the (new) cinema is located next to the leisure centre / swimming pool complex and is on the free 'yellow' bus route around town. VO or VOST means it is the original version so Star Wars will be the original Hollywood version - may just finally get myself along to see it - finally!

Olivia was on form when I picked her up and we have enjoyed a quiet family evening all together.

Anyway folks sorry not too much to report today but standby for a change in the weather tomorrow and for about 36 hours!

Cheers.

TTFN

A snowHead

More intense snow than expected

Breakfast time started with overcast skies but by 8am it was snowing, lightly at first but certainly by 9am it had moved in heavily. The snow was falling without wind initially and the snowflakes were LARGE. Temperature wise it was a degree or two below zero.

I met my team as normal at 9am and we headed up the Olympic. It immediately became obvious that there was strong winds developing at altitude. When you get out the lift and you can see the lifties studying the wind dials in their control room carefully you know it must be windy out there. The 'exit' door was shut and that is the second tell-tale sign! Anyway I have to say it was not too bad and I have CERTAINLY skied worse up there before! We headed down towards La Daille as not much was likely to be open.

Pretty much immediately one of the team decided to split off as the conditions were not for him.

We did laps down to La Daille and not only found some lovely snow but had the place to ourselves for the first hour or so. We touched on a fair few 'strands' as we call it in the trade. We looked at some powder technique, some steeps technique and how to deal with narrow pistes! It was a nice morning in the end although the wind speeds crept up and the pistes down in La Daille got rather busy later on. The temperatures also dropped a wee bit too!

By lunchtime the winds really were picking up, the temperatures dropping and one by one the lifts all over the mountain were shutting down. It was weird as about mid morning there was perhaps 10 mins when it looked like it might clear up and the wind and snow stopped and the clouds started to part. At that point there seemed to be a lot of people trying to head in the direction of Tignes and vice-a-versa! As it turned out there ended up being a lot of stranded people - Val people in Tignes or vice-a-versa when the links shut.
It is a point worth noting that they put signs up warning people that the links may close and you should get back to your home resort asap and on a day like this even thinking of going 'over the top' would not be a great idea!

I managed to fit in my Periscope from a snowbound top of Village lift at lunchtime too.

https://t.co/yVSbtbu6NT and the perma-linke
https://t.co/Znb4koqdXe

It does seem to be a relatively quiet week - although the next couple of days are chocka... so I headed home at lunchtime and got further through my to do list. The wind and weather got worse and worse outside though!

These poor bugs are going to have rather a lot of digging out to be done when they want to leave town!

It was a fun afternoon for Olivia too as Clare went to Rize cafe with her for a few hours! However on the roads things were not fun as chains were required on cars as the roads were in pretty bad shape all the way up and down the valley... indeed a van with a couple of Dutch guys had a lucky escape when their van came off the road outside Val and slide 80m metres down into the dammed lake. A major rescue was launched to recover them and it would seem as if apart from a hot shower they both escaped un-harmed!

Thanks to Radio Val for this picture.

And that brings everyone up to date. The weather forecast is for a slight improvement overnight and a bit better tomorrow and then looking towards the weekend..... well only one word for the outlook... SNOW and lots of it.

Sorry not much in tonights update folks. Tomorrow night may be a very late one as I am heading straight down the valley after skiing at 4pm to pick up our car as it has been repaired (well 99% repaired anyway) and then doing a food shop before coming back up and putting it all away.... so it could be a late report tomorrow folks!

TTFN

A snowHead

A day of two halves

Well it certainly started cold this morning (certainly felt the coldest in a LONG time). Although the Olympique opened on time (there had been a queue of hungry powder hounds from about 8.45 waiting for the lift to open) I opted to head up Solaise as I knew that not much would be open up Bellevarde and the hordes would be up that way!

I was not prepared for how long it would take them to get the Solaise open... it was gone 9.30 before they finally got it open.... initially when we got up top for about 10 mins the only thing open was the run back down but the Madelaine quickly opened and we had sublime first tracks down a perfectly groomed piste..... after a few laps there working on carving it got pretty busy so we got ahead of the crowds as they opened the Glacier Express and again perfect groomed conditions.

Looking around at the off piste it was apparent that the wind has ravaged a lot of the snow and things easterly facing and thereabouts have been sliding (a lot). Sheltered gullies etc may be OK.... in fact I know there was some awesome snow to be had chatting to colleagues! (we have a private Facebook group where we all chat about where we have been off piste, what we have found, what was good / bad etc).

So after a couple of hours working on carving we changed tac and worked on 'bumps and lumps' skiing.... essentially how to deal with pistes when they get all cut up... I was expecting the Plan M red run to be a heck of a lot more cut up but it wasn't so that part of the lesson required quite a lot of imagination!

I think everyone (myself included) was surprised at how cold it was this morning and it was welcome when the sun got going around about lunchtime.... however this was to be short lived as the clouds rolled in this afternoon and it got colder and colder again. In fact a stiff breeze picked up and then by about 3pm it started snowing again!

Lunchtime was a brief affair before taking my seasonnaires out for another session. One was still working so could not make it and another was ill so I only had four of them. Again they wanted to work on carving so it was a similar afternoon to the morning. We finished with a run down the Foret black run which is one of my favourite runs.

A hectic half hour getting rid of my ski stuff for the night at Snowberry.... doing my Scope (it cut out half way though to apologies folks when you come to watch it back) and the getting the bus to Bourg. I was on the slow bus that goes via Tignes but I got there in the end. The workmanship on our car is wonderful and I hope they will have the new mirror in stock in the next month or so but for the time being it is great to have a fixed car back and the other persons insurance is footing the €5k bill! I also managed to pick up a large 'click and collect' shop from Super U and this was all against a background of increasingly heavy snowfalls.... yes it was snowing hard when I left Val and the flakes falling in Bourg were HUGE... the drive back up was pretty painless.

So I have been in and had a snack dinner and then this is the last job on my list tonight as I am now ready for sleep!

I am off piste all day tomorrow so I am really looking forward to that.

A lovely start to the day and the powder hounds are queuing up for first lifts!

They feed them mighty well in the creche... I dropped Olivia off this morning and it is such a joy to see her so excited about going to creche... I just hope that that excitement continues as she gets older and goes to school!

https://t.co/fAXUuofP0z and the perma-link
https://t.co/kfIxsQ7N7v

TTFN

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

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

Quite a special day

The clouds had parted and the sun was shining brightly from the off set this morning but BOY was it a hectic one today!

Firstly I had to get to our office asap at 8.30 when it opened and en route had to stop by our car and take the bins out. Since I let my skis and boots in there and also had to collect several transceivers as would hardly have much time at lunch to collect the gear (and also the better transceivers would have been taken by lunchtime if I was not careful anyway!).

So by 8.45 I was waiting for the Olympic to open and now we have moved into February it opens as 8.50!

So it opened dead on time and the view from the top of the Olympic this morning was stunning!

I was very lucky that I was meeting at the bottom of Tommeuse at 9.20 as the client was skiing over from Tignes so en route I made the most of the conditions and got some lovely powder turns in.

I was slightly worried looking in the Mt Blanc direction that the clouds may make an appearance at some point but my fears most certainly did not materialise.

Alas I met the client on time and we were to have a FANTASTIC morning - sorry for rubbing it in those who were not skiing today!

We started with a lap in the Familial and it was pretty brilliant - the old tracks more or less buried and the odd piece of crust but nothing to note really! On down through the 'picnic' run and to Trifollet and the snow was a little heavier!

Anyway the plan had then been to open up the Spatule but we could not traverse over as there was a race on on the Orange piste so instead we cut back and headed for the Cairn. The entry was fairly standard but the snow was pretty awful. As we were about to put some turns in I noted some snow sluffing down from above - the Orientation Couloir.... and about 10 seconds later three pisteurs obviously out having a blast on their own appeared.... anyway we headed down the main bowl and it was pretty awful for some reason as the wind had compacted it..... anyway lower down in the sheltered areas we found some descent turns. Some technique on the Face was followed by a trip up Solaise and a descent down Super L.... came off the path early and found some lovely powder in their...... next up was the Orientation Table (Laisenant one) piste and off the side there into my secret glade... great snow again.

However the best snow of the morning was in Sunny Bowl and despite lots of idiots cutting high above us it was rather wonderful in there.... The Lievre Blanc was pretty humid snow but worth a punt and suddenly it was lunchtime - we had barely breathed or stopped all morning.

Lunch, if you can call if that was taken standing on the bus back into town and then I grabbed some packs and spent a penny before meeting the seasonnaires for an afternoon 'intro to off piste' session! Probably the most downtime of the day was going through how a transceiver etc works and then it was off.

We skied 'my' pitches including some of my hidden spots up and around the Datcha, Madeleine and Glacier lifts.... they had fun and there were certainly some interesting 'splats'!

But they got some nice lines in too and there were smiles all round by the end of the session:

...once again the views were special this afternoon.

So it was a quick change into shoes before picking Olivia up (oh and I also managed to fit my 'Scope' in to - but WHERE WAS EVERYONE TODAY?).

https://t.co/FUyzPYuk9x and the perma-link
https://t.co/haZNWmsf8a

.... please keep tuning in and keep those questions coming folks!

So after letting Clare head out for a drink I am now well and truly shattered.com - however we have a friend coming up to stay with us for the weekend and won't be arriving for another couple of hours (traffic back by the sounds of things!). But more excitedly than that I am about to head out to watch Star Wars (original English version) at the cinema.... so must dash!

Back to work tomorrow morning.

The traffic forecast for tomorrow is for 36000 cars so it will be a fairly hectic one on the roads tomorrow and expect jams!!!! Welcome to the start of French school holidays.... non local or French ones but still there will be plenty of kids (and adults) around!

TTFN

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Steve are you still running your little chalet?

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

Thanks again Steve for the session this morning. Great tips and we very much enjoyed our well-earned hot dogs in the Rosee Blanche. Then headed back up to Toviere then blasted down Combe Folle and Trolles with new-found confidence! Smile

All the best, Alan

After all it is free

I echo Alan's comments really enjoyed it and was great to try a few runs we wouldn't have thought of.

Looking forward to shouting at myself tomorrow to get the weight forward!

Jams and a foehn wind

It was lovely to be up the mountain first thing to make my way over to Tignes for my snowboarding / skiing combo lesson.... I do these from time to time where I am teaching a person (in this case on the board) but the second or 'other' person is on something else (skis in this case). It makes the teaching a slightly different conundrum but it works really well if the level of skier/ boarder and the learner type can adapt to be solely told what to do.

Anyway in this case it worked just fine. So thanks alansk and evilhomer for a fun morning - glad you enjoyed - onwards and upwards!

As I arrived at the top of Bellevarde en route to get over to Tignes I spotted YET ANOTHER 'walker'.... I wish (it should be marked better I know) people would think that walking down the middle of the piste at the top of Bellevarde there is a danger to everyone (and against the FIS rules of skiing etc!)... and not only that but if I was being pushed to walk down that bit ('well' meaning partner / friend / husband or whomever was just ahead out of shot when I took this picture coaxing her along) I might just stop and think 'what happens further along here!

Anyway the morning was a good one. There was a stiff foehn wind blowing from the south (a warm wind)... but this is indicative of an upwelling in air mass that when it hits the low pressure airmass will mean sustained snowfall (often this is the case and I think it will be in this). However it was a stiff breeze that meant it was not the best of weather days up high but I dont think too many lifts were affected unless up on the glacier altitude!

As the sun came out and got going mid morning it actually felt like the first day of Spring - well almost.... initially it was a little chilly with the wind but the sun made it feel a delight for most of the day.

The afternoon was a little more relaxed pottering around on the nursery slopes with a couple on honeymoon which was quite fun as they were just out to have a fun time so there were plenty of laughs to be had! They have some more lessons booked over the course of the week but I have a lot of lessons on my planner already to a colleague will be taking over the mantel!

Anyway I finished and swapped into 'civvies' and we had a family sledging session on the nursery slopes which was a lot of fun although yours truly (Olivia prompted me to do it - I swear) managed to crack the sledge under said weight - I dont think it will be lasting damage thank goodness as Olivia loves being taken to creche in that thing!

I have enjoyed an evening of watching the end of the England cricket match - well done boys.... then the two 6 Nations matches - oh so close Italy and now Clare and I are having a catch up on some iPlayer things and enjoying a home made chicken pie!

I have the day off tomorrow and to be honest I need it as this cold is getting pretty heavy and I feel quite washed out with it so looking forward to a lie in as I think we totally wore Olivia out today (Clare took her for a long walk this am too). So in the morning I am on swimming duty and then we are going for a family lunch down in La Daille I do believe.

On the traffic front there were 3km downward traffic jams towards the Sioux tunnel today but about 25km jams (essentially all the way from Albertville to Moutiers) coming up.... the 36000 car loads of people AND the umpteen buses need to get to many of the big resorts in the Tarantaise valley today! Matters were not helped when people actually got to Val this evening after there was coming together of a transfer coach and a car on the high street that effectively blocked the main road for about 30 mins - ouch!

https://t.co/J3BmDWsWNz and the perma-link
https://t.co/HZOYz8vH1N

OK folks off to bed.

TTFN

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

ansta1 -

snow reports

Hi Steve,

Just wondering if you have any vacancies for a few "lads" (actually the wrong side of 50!) for an introduction to Off Piste skiing? We are in Val the week of 27th February and usually bomb around the pistes with very little finesse and lots of bravado! Could be 2 or 3 of us looking to improve our skiing skills. Would appreciate it if you could fit us in!
Cheers
Nick

You know it makes sense.

HI almost there - welcome to Snowheads! Thanks for the question..... I am looking at my schedule and I have a few slots that week dotted all over the place! So indeed I could probably fit you in. Ill drop you a pm to give you some more details.

My daily update follows in a moment.

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

The NEXT storm rolls in

Well folks it has been a fun day.

After a family lie in - yes Olivia slept until 8am!!!! We had a family breakfast and then Clare did some housework as I headed to the swimming pool. As the weather was not the best everyone under the sun was at the swimming pool so it was rather busy in there but great as that means that Olivia had lots of friends - she was mental as normal and totally tired herself out.

It was rather windy up the hill and there were reports of 100+ km/h gusts coming from the south again. However it looks as if just a couple of lifts like the La Daille bubble were shut. The vis according to my friend who went up there was pretty awful.

Anyway Olivia fell asleep as soon as we left the pool in her pram and I walked the long way home very slowly before Clare took over and I hung the towels up to dry etc. Then I caught up with Clare who had carried on the walk to La Daille as we were having lunch with our friend down at Chez Louis in La Daille. Chez Louis is owned by the same people that run La Toviere hotel where Clare works in the Summer.

Anyway lunch was really nice and great value and Olivia behaved perfectly.

The snow REALLY started to fall in quantity from about 1pm onwards and it was to stay like that all day.... only now it is easing off a little.... the NEXT WEATHER FRONT BRINGING MORE SNOW is due to sweep in tomorrow afternoon and we should have loads more snow this week if the forecasts are to be believed - as usual I will air on the side of caution for the time being!

Anyway after lunch our friend left and hit the chaos on the roads - even though she was going the other way (down) the cars coming up were all over the place and the road was a nightmare as a result. They had the chainage areas all set up but still the road was stuffed up:

Photo courtesy of Radio Val d'Isere

The rest of the day has been rather mellow really. Back to the grind stone tomorrow - ha ha.... looking forward to being back out there - it always seems strange when I spend a day without ski / snowboard stuff on!

One piece of local news - the resort are reporting that this season to date we are about 3.5% up in terms of visitor numbers compared to the season to date last year!

And finally my video periscope broadcast today:

https://t.co/l9W3LT5jWr and the perma-link
https://t.co/3zCc2SACAm

TTFN

A snowHead

Pre 9am on a Monday morning during school holidays after a fresh dump..... QUEUES indeed!

Wonderful snow

Bearing in mind it was the start of school holidays it was always going to be a busy one... however I always forget how the hordes seem to come away on their holidays and leave all common sense (amongst other things) behind at home!

Anyway I met the usual suspects (hi again folks for what you reckon is the 5th year now of teaching - is it really that long!?!?!) for a pronto 9am start. The problem during school hols is that at 8.45 or so the buses get so busy.... so they were a couple of mins late but we are not going to complain.

So it was a nice morning with amazing snow... the weather was pretty good although there was a stiff northerly breeze blowing. The powder on and off the pistes was light and dry and the tracks looked lovely. I think EVERYONE was trying to rack up as many km's as quickly as possible on the pistes today as there was rather a lot of people rushing non stop around the Bellevarde.... and the top bit down from the Olympic is always horrible but during school hols it is especially horrible!

Alas it was a lovely morning and good fun and some good 'seeds' for change were sown.

My lunchtime 'Scope' was done on the usual deserted lunchtime slopes... not sure why people dont opt for early or later lunches to make the most of the great snow and empty lift lines at lunchtime but there you go!

https://t.co/Zsp300SvuJ and the perma-link
https://t.co/FJN6MV5TJJ

The afternoon was a very relaxed affair with a couple of lads who wanted a technique on piste brush up which was easy enough to accommodate and they were a very funny pair constantly taking the p**s out of each other!

Some play time with Olivia was on the books and she certainly is on form at the moment.

Weatherwise and local news wise:

The snow started falling very heavily later this afternoon but the wind really picked up and they ended up shutting down most of the high level lifts. The snowfall is brewing (you can tell) and we could have a fair whack of fresh snow come the morning before a slight break for a few hours and then another large fall coupled with extremely high winds... all in all by Wednesday morning it could be rather crazy up there.

3 skiers ignored the signs and headed down towards the Gorge du Malpasset this afternoon and had to be rescued by the pisteurs...

The ESF torchlight descent has already been postponed until March holidays from tomorrow due to the forecast.

A suspected broken ankle that turned out to be no more than a twisted ankle resulted in a heli rescue from the Familial for an associate I know in resort today - pisteurs can never be too careful but boy the insurance company will get a shock on that one.

And I think that brings us all up to date for this evening... standby for a snowstorm tomorrow!

A snowHead

@Steve Angus Thanks for another great lesson. It's amazing how just a few little tweaks and some small drills can make all the difference. Now we just need to put what you've taught us into practise. snowHead

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

Not how I expected!

I think everyone in town got a shock this morning when we woke up and opened curtains. I for one was expecting to see a gale blowing and snow at least 30cm outside but it was not windy at all. Also there was only about 10cm in town.

My morning was spent with a couple I generally give a lesson to each season so it was nice catching up with them. I was thinking that the weather was going to close in on us so decided to head Solaise way. At a lower altitude over there the options were likely to be more substantial and it would likely be quieter than Bellevarde!

We pottered around all morning quite contently working on improving confidence in flat light on one hand and mainly getting our heads around what good skiing (and snowboarding for that matter) is or isn't. The pistes I must say were in amazing condition and with the addition of just 10cm of snow it was lovely for a few runs but of course it didn't take too long for a few lumps and bumps to starts appearing! The weather really never moved in on us which surprised me.... just as I thought it was going to c**p out on us the cloud would thin again and we got a reprieve.... great all round!

Since I was scheduled a nice little afternoon off today - it is a strange week as although it is very busy and I / we as a school, are pretty chokka with lessons there was a random slot open this afternoon. So as a result I enjoyed a very nice lunch with said clients at the always impressive Grand Ourse... I had a stinking burger - yummy. Thanks folks (you know who you are as you are lurkers on here).

As we sat and ate the weather moved in and little by little the snow intensified.... the wind did not seem to pick up but there was little chance of seeing any more than about half way up the mountain...

I did my Scope and it was nice as today I passed my 250th follower - thanks to everyone who tunes in OR indeed if you simply watch it on catch up!

https://t.co/oHKYBXiInB and the permalink
https://t.co/o56iVhQaBP

Being Mardi Gras Olivia came home from creche covered in some face paint and obviously did some good arts and crafts today as her locker was full of 'presents' for the fridge door - bless!

The snow now this evening is immense but the wind is really starting to get up. They are calling an avalanche 4 day tomorrow and the snow is due to continue most of tomorrow before moving in again for much of the rest of the week. It could be an interesting days teaching tomorrow that is for sure!

I have now edited my latest tips from the other day regarding slope-side value eateries for Val d'Isere and Tignes and it is here:

https://ktch.tv/6YKj?s=03m32s&e=06m39s

So I think that is all for today.

TTFN

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sno trax - my pleasure - ready for more of the same tomorrow afternoon!!!!!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We were also over on the Solaise and it seemed so quiet. We were lucky to be passing the Lessieres just as it opened and so decided to go up to the glacier. It was so quiet up there, the snow conditions were great and even the weather wasn't as bad as we expected. As the weather started to close, we headed back over to the Solaise expecting more of the same but no, it had brighten up a bit.

As Steve Angus said, it was a better day than expected. Not sure about tomorrow though! I think we are ready for more. wink

You'll need to Register first of course.

No lifts open in Val yet. Going to be a bun fight when (if?) they do finally open. Would be great if Valdinet could give rough estimates of when they think lifts might open. Would save on the constant screen refreshing!

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

@luckyV, just having a chilled out morning.....waiting....

After all it is free

@luckyV, Bar Toofy Grin

Ok Solaise open and Olympic and fornet cable car and now funival.... Staggered further openings might happen. Reason why websites and info sometimes slow coming is because it is so subjective to how the Pisteurs etc clear stuff and whether things slide or not. If stuff slides then more blasting (longer delay) needed then piste basher etc so all info takes time to trickle through etc. But as PM goes more and more should open.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

One of those days.... but turned out nice in the end

When you wake up and immediately hear of 117km/h gusts recorded atop the Solaise in the middle of the night and the freezing level dropping to sea level you know it is going to be a tricky day. When you also hear that the pisteurs have had problems measuring the amount of snow fallen (I reckon a good 30cm but transported and compacted rather a lot) you shake your head, gear up and just get on with the day!

I walked to the meeting point as I was not sure the bus would be on time and Clare carried Olivia to creche as the snow drifts outside the front door had not been cleared yet.

It was always going to be a 'low down morning' as the pisteurs were clearing like crazy and could only start with the Bellevarde as it was too windy to even get them up the Solaise Cable Car. They obviously were finding that lots of things were moving as they were actually blasting lower down just above the Olympic flame on the Face.

So I had a sister of a local guy I know quite well and it was a general technique brush up and to be honest we didn't really need too much open so the lower slopes were fine to use. Starting with the Village and then up the Rogoney before things got too busy we got a fair few laps in. Then we were over at the Legettaz drag which in reality I only ever use on days like this.... so there were about 5 lifts useable from about 9.15 which is good for Val as they are quite sheltered.

Anyway the wind was howling and the blasting going off all around us and it was COLD - REALLY cold but we had a good morning and some good changes were made.

By about 11am things were starting to open and the winds and skies were calming down.

The afternoon my 'crew' had been reduced to just one with the other two deciding on an easier afternoon. So by now the Solaise was open so we headed up. The weather was much better up there now and the wind had almost totally died off.

We worked on skiing powder as the pistes were obviously all powder and in some places it was down to the hard pack underneath but in general nice snow to be had.

Looking more promising by lunchtime

Come on Andy a second nice track next to mine... and dont face plant.... on second thoughts double eject into the pile of snow just behind me!

The magic carpet tunnels have now almost totally been buried under snow.

After skiing we had a nice cuppa and a cake at Rize with them all which was nice and Olivia was on form.

In local news 25 pisteurs from Squaw Valley in California are here this week to watch how Val d'Isere works its avalanche clearance system and they must have had a great show today!

The Frostgun Invitational freestyle contest which happens next week on the lower part of the Face is taking shape in the form of a 12m high kicker being built.... you could park a London double decker bus in the gap and you would not see it! It is gonna be big!

Check out this crazy sight snapped today on the Village lift - ANY ideas what the heck is happening here!

The weather forecast is looking much brighter for tomorrow before the next front moves in tomorrow night and into the weekend. As it stands transfer day on Saturday could be very interesting indeed - be warned!

Today periscoping!

https://t.co/ibN5PLSWZn and the permalink
https://t.co/2uYKNoVgfT

Help!!

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

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