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

A snowHead

I assume "73" car means it's a local? Is that strictly legal, can't imagine it is in the UK, public highway is a public highway. Pretty scary having avalanche come down on the road.

A snowHead

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Sorry folks forgot to do yesterdays update.... got so engrossed with the rugby then football and then fell asleep on the sofa that totally forgot to do it. sorry.

Anyway the weather was NOT my friend yesterday... not that it was bad, really, but where I went the cloud seemed to follow.

First thing there was some scattered cloud around and Solaise looked better than the Bellevarde side.

It was certainly a little cooler with the cloud cover and a breeze that I was glad I was still on 5 layers even though the forecast was for some very warm temperatures. With the sun being obscured by the clouds it was always going to be colder than expected.

I had an all day session with some of the instructors from Hemel Snow Centre (4 of them are out here all week staying with us and training with me) and we worked on some core fundamentals followed by carving (cut that short as the cloud moved in) and then short turns. I am teaching them half days every day this week so hopefully we will have some breakthroughs.

At lunchtime we stopped at the brand new restaurant they have spent the last couple of years building at the bottom of the Cascades chairlift leading up onto the Pissaillas (Val d'Isere) glacier. It is very nice inside and self-service but surprisingly busy. Anyway for me is another good one to add to the list to recommend. They of course are new and could up the price / drop the quality but for €11 I got a nice little salad, bowl of soup, bread roll and can of coke.... not bad at ALL for Val d'Isere (and that was a public price so no instructor discount or anything). So I shall be back there!

Bring swimming trunks!!!!!!!! Seriously should be fine in the mornings and fine all day higher up so fear not!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I'm in la daille this week and had a great day yesterday being chased around the mountains by some patchy clouds. Not as warm as I had feared and forecast is for it to stay just below freezing for the rest of the week. The snow is in great condition , no sign of slush on Face, but my friend did get taken out after one turn on the step section by an out of control boarder

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kieranm sorry to hear about your friend... not as bad as what else happened on the Face yesterday afternoon (see below).

Lovely day out there today - it really felt like Spring.

We had a good ski around this morning on the Bellevarde side of things... short turns follows by moguls. The girls all showed good skills and improved their understanding... practice this afternoon and hopefully tomorrow they will be skiing better!

It was certainly busier out there today... last week of French hols then it will calm down a little before Easter appears on the horizon.

There was a horrendous incident yesterday in the Ancolie Couloir on the Face yesterday. Half way down the Face there is a route that is often not open, rarely pisted and not really noticed from the main route. But the 'couloir' was skied as part of the downhill in both the Olympics and World Championships.

Anyway a man had a heart attach whilst skiing the couloir (I am not sure what the cause of the cardiac arrest was) and despite the best efforts of the pisteurs and a doctor being flown to the scene the man who was 65 and from the UK died unfortunately.

As usual the area at the top of the Tommeuse / Aeroski / Toviere / Tuffs (whatever you wanna call it) was rammed.

I have done lots of admin catch up this afternoon. Back to a full days teaching again tomorrow - enjoyed a half day today and the rest that has brought with it.

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Steve Angus, that's sad news.

Sad

Better news is that weather models continue to show signs of snow arriving in the area over the coming weekend and into next week. Very Happy

After all it is free

Great time up on the glacier today. There is some cracking snow and runs with hardly anyone on them. But it was warm enough to ski with t-shirt and jacket open even up there. Spent 15 mins queuing for the tiny Lacs lift on the way back though. They really need more links between the different valleys to avoid those sort of bottlenecks. Lower down was hard-packed and very fast this morning, but softer and looser later on and some icy runs unto the resort.

Steve Angus, I was told that the new restaurant is under the same ownership as "Marmottes". Hence the 2euro hot choc/coffee machine and more reasonably priced food.

Must be taking a bit of trade off "Signal". It's nice not having to leave the Fornet area just to grab a drink or a bite to eat.

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Got the layers just right...

A lovely sunny day in the mountains once again...

Roz at the top of the Grand Pre enjoying the views into the Vanoise National Park.

I was working on carving with the girls this morning and they made some changes. However Terry took a little (fairly low speed) tumble and managed to bug her calf muscle up... she limped home in a fair amount of pain to ice it... I hope she is back on form tomorrow.

After lunch I thought the sun was going to be too strong and I had over-layered it once again but a tiny bit of high cloud gave a little shelter from the sun which was very welcome.... although it was still warm.

The Folie Douce really is starting to go off now the days are getting longer and sunnier and today as no exception..... I taught a pleasant lady some red run technique this afternoon and she made some great changes and grew in confidence which was nice to see... she was very excited at the end of the session as she was going to the Folie for some drinking time.

Looks like I have tomorrow afternoon off so will continue to catch up on some admin... I always seem to have mountains of it to get through.

The weather tomorrow should be even sunnier and even warmer... I really should go paragliding (my hobby) tomorrow but paperwork is a priority.

Off out for dinner now with Gav (runs Oxygene rental shop) and Lou (owner of Bonne Sante physio)... they always do a good spread which is great as I am starving.

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Same here - have always visited early in January when it has been cold weather so looking forward to having a drink in the sunshine in w/c 17 March. Anyone eaten in Les Tuffs recently?

You know it makes sense.

I am out in Tignes Le Lac 10-31 March. Propect of new snow at start of next week sounds Perfect.
Can't say Folie Douce is my cup of tea. Its always the same. Very loud music with lot of base and somebody shouting the same words repeatedly. OK for half an hour but then frankly irritating.
Went in the Cave restaurant in Folie Douce in Jan (go down to the loos and turn right and walk to the end). A big difference from upstairs - quiet. OK but I thought the food was a bit bland. Wall lined with racks and racks of wine - hence the name

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

Boy is it warm. Spring has arrived, over 10 degrees and sunny slopes turning slushy by the end of the morning. Still a lot of great skiing if you pick your slopes, but plenty of people skiing without jackets. Saline was great, nice soft moguls. Don't think I queued once today, but would have had to if I had stayed up on the tignes glacier after 10:30

A snowHead

A varied day...

Spring has arrived for sure as others have said above.... all the snow from the roads has melted and the pavements are getting clear... well it makes getting around town easier.

The morning I did short turns with the ladies and we had a break through in terms of lateral movement... it was good to see Terry back out skiing after her damage to her calf muscle yesterday.

This cold is really getting to me... I felt really weak and feeble this morning which did not set me up very well for the afternoon lesson... more on that in a moment.

The heat and sun is getting to the snow for sure now... slush is definitely present on southerly facing slopes in the afternoons (and west ones too). Natural avalanches are starting to come down left right and centre. Clare skied the Tour de Charvet today on the way back from Col du Sana after she had been touring this morning and said that quite a lot had come down all the way into the river bed at the bottom. In the same aspect the Santons skiers left bank has been sliding (see the photo above - in the background just to the right of the cable car cabin see the slide down the bank into the ravine (Santons blue run). Santons has therefore been closed each afternoon (and will continue to be closed) until this warm period passes.

The afternoons lesson was very different... teenagers on skis who wanted to develop their freestyle skills. It is such a varied and cool job sometimes.

We covered ollies, nollies, backwards skiing, 360 flatland spins, mute, safety and tail grabs of the skis over kickers and then we worked on 180's off kickers... well done Calum and Nathan... you guys rock. I was a little tired by the end but it was fun.

Only teaching until lunchtime tomorrow therefore hopefully will finally catch up on some rest.

A snowHead

Enjoy your afternoon off!

Looks like Val is in for some snow next week at last..

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

Piccadilly, I hope so..... going to be there again from 17th. Kiters, be good to say hi - you'll spot me anywhere where Mullit are playing (Le Chalet or Moris Pub) or in the Pacific bar - I usually have something snowheady on Smile

. Where are you staying?

Tufs was always very popular with my army friends although didn't see them this year, but I'm sure it is still fairly good value.

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Looking promising for next week leading into the 11th* Very Happy

Should co-incide with some weather coming in off the atlantic and maybe even a system moving in from the south as well!

*subject to change Very Happy

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

shoogly,

Looking good fella! My OH is skiing with you on the Thursday I think and she is off with Wayne earlier in the week too - lets hope for some lovely fresh to play on!

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lib-banana, hope i'm up to her standard!

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Looking forward to some cooler weather and snow...

As everyone has said above it will be nice when the temperatures drop a little and we (hopefully) get some snow. It is lovely and warm and sunny but the pistes and the off-piste is taking a real battering.

I headed high to the Val glacier and the snow was superb (although everyone and their uncle had the same idea). Anyway some carving (before the pistes got too busy) followed by some moguls was the order of the day. In December when the girls were out they had to miss their last day due to the avalanche 5 risk and slope closures so I gave them a little extra time this afternoon... they do ski with me an awful lot therefore it was the least I could do.

Anyway by lunchtime it was so hot I was really looking forward to getting into the shade.

We stopped for lunch again at the new place up on the glacier and it struck me that they really have quite a long way to go to finish it off....

They will finish the upstairs off this Summer I am guessing and put some stairs in so you can get up there.

I had a very relaxed afternoon... wading through my itunes library trying to write lists of songs for the disco at our wedding... fun but frustrating at the same time.

Looking forward to dinner out at our favourite restaurant (The Lodge) tonight with the girls... I can taste the steak with roquefort cheese sauce topping from here... the decision is though whether to have dauphinoise or chips with it???????????????

Clares father arrives tomorrow so she is looking forward to seeing him.

After all it is free

I had the same idea as Steve and went up to the glacier. The snow was much better up there and colder than it had been in Tignes the day before, but in general the thaw
Continues. I saw steve with his class on the glacier with the video camera out but didn't want to interrupt to say hi. The restaurant steve is recomending was packed so we had to ski down to signal for the second time this week, but that is no great hardsship. Some of the pistes naturelle are closed now due to lack of snow cover and santons was closed all day due to avalanche risk.

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Songs for the disco at your wedding - something you need to tell us Steve......a date has been set already wink

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forecast looks more and more promising for next week Very Happy

I'm feeling all christmasy all of a sudden Very Happy

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Just over three weeks to go! Starting to get excited now Very Happy

My new skis were delivered today with the bindings and DIN settings all correctly done, and they'd even waxed them as I'd asked, YAY. Good service from Ellis Brigham. 2012 Dynastar Exclusive Idylls. Very pleased with them.

Steve, whatever you do, don't have 'Come on Eileen' Toofy Grin

So when's the big day??

Another warm day, and more thawing, but many of the pistes are holding up well, if hard and icy in the morning and slushy lower down later on. Descente into doyble m at lunchtime was the run of the day for me- beautiful from top to bottom.

You know it makes sense.

kieranm I think your stalking me... seeing me yesterday on the slopes and then today sounds like you too went up the Grand Motte in Tignes... the Double M was great at lunchtime wasn't it... that's when I went down it too.

pam w went for the dauphinoise in the end - it was YUMMY... we all had steak in the end (bar one) and The Lodge lived up to expectations (and my recommendation). Clare felt under the weather last night therefore didn't come out in the end. We had fun non-the-less (she is feeling much better now) and hit Victors for some cocktails after dinner which was great fun. Thanks girls I had a lovely night.

YES A DATE FOR THE WEDDING 1st September... sure I mentioned that on here somewhere before. Oh well not to worry that is when it is and I have almost finished choosing the tunes... getting excited already. 'Come on Eileen' is on the 'reserve' list at the moment - fear not.

So today we headed over to Tignes and went for mileage as all week we have worked quite technical therefore wanted to get some practice in. It was (expected) busy getting over and around Tignes but the girls enjoyed it... especially the view from the top of the Grand Motte.

We almost ended up doing the Face first thing as it is in great condition first thing at the moment but nerves got to the girls and they held out against it.. next time!

Tignes was lovely but busy and we were treated to the pro-free stylers practicing in the Val Park on the way home at lunchtime... pulling inverted 720's and other very cool (but dangerous) tricks... there were a lot of groupies watching around the park and on neighbouring kickers. Next week the chopper should be action getting some good aerial shots for promo purposes, magazines and video's etc... it is always a great spectator day when that happens.

They were pulling some cool tricks (sorry not quick enough getting the camera out) off the Val Park black kicker.

A return to Wintery conditions looks like it is on the way... so this season is not (nearly) over yet. That will freshen things up nicely.

In local news... the two light aircraft that banged into each other on the alti-surface in Val the other day have now been airlifted away for fixing... it was a weird sight having a plan slung under a chopper. Also the pisteurs whacked the avalanche risk up to 4 today (be careful out there) due to the massive temperature fluctuations we have had recently... lots of natural movements have been observed all over the place and there is one heck of a lot of snow this season that will have to come down sooner or later.

Transfer day tomorrow... wish me luck!

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

good luck

A snowHead

Steve. Like the others, my little party appears to have been following you around for the last two days. And I mirror your comments on the conditions. Yesterday on the Fornet glacier the snow, in the sunshine was brilliant, both first thing and last. Then today the conditions on the Tignes glacier and the routes down were also brill. Unlike you we have to head home on Sunday. Enjoy the rest of the season and thanks for the posts on this thread.

A snowHead

Poodle Hunter Glad you enjoyed your trip... have a safe journey home and thanks for reading my posts.

As you can tell I am posting this on Sunday morning. Even though the actual tranfers were not too bad (4 hours and 4.5hours) I had a LOT of shopping to do so did not make it back to Val until late last night.

It was another glorious day in the mountains and the roads themselves were a pleasure to drive on. If I had not had a roof box on then I may even have opened the sunroof yesterday it was that nice. We made pretty good time going although there was the usual holdups into Bourg and then into Moutiers but after that it was pretty open roads.

After a lunch stop at Geneva Airport I hit the road back. Our incoming guests are self-drivers (well did) so I had an empty leg but had to stop in Albertville to buy a new hob (ours blew up), stop and get some race wax etc at Intersport in Bourg as well as do a food shop, buy a new heated towel rail, buy some dongle credit and lots of other things so it was a long trip home. The main road looked awful on the way back (when I was going to the airport) therefore once again I decided to take all the back roads to Bourg which saved a fair while as well as being an amazingly wonderful drive.

The Olympic cauldron (centre of photo) in Albertville - you forget that the Olympics were actually hosted here in 1992!

NEWS FLASH
Fresh snow overnight... I woke this am and looked out the curtain to see all of about 2cm of fresh 'blanket' snow covering the ground.... I looked up to see blue sky and sun beating down.... don't suppose that snow will last long then will it! We are expecting about 12cm of snow to come in tonight and into tomorrow therefore fingers crossed it will be a little more than a 'blanket' when that finally arrives!

...in other sad news...
There was another 'non-avalanche but skiing related' accident / death on the mountain today. This one was serious and dramatic. At the end of the Col Pers off piste itinerary (and other routes up the Fornet / Iseran end of the valley) if you drop low enough you end up in somewhere called the Gorge de Malpassat. This is essentially a steep sided but relivately speaking, small gorge at the source of the Isere river. In heavy snow seasons like this there is enough snow to fill the gorge in an you can ski it out back down to the Pont St Charles and further on down to the Fornet... in season like this it is like a natural halfpipe. In many seasons there is not enough snow to tackle it but this year there is.

Anyway underneath the snow bridges is the relatively strong flowing Isere river. After the warming we have had recently the bridges were obviously weaker than normal. Cutting a long story short a group were making their way down this 'natural half-pipe' when the 'bridge' one of them was on collapsed and he (think it was a 'he') fell in. 3 choppers, 12 pisteurs, sniffer dogs and nearly 3 hours later with the help of military divers the drowned body of the man was found trapped further downstream under the snow. Personally when I was driving back into town after dark I could see the PGHM chopper 'tidying everything away' down at the heli-port and the ambulance taking the body away.... very sad. note so self - shall not be going down the Gorge unless in the middle of Winter from now on!

This photo (courtesy of Radio Val d'Isere) was NOT taken yesterday but gives you an idea what the gorge looks like.

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

Saturday was my last day skiing Espace Killy this year, and finished the week off filling in the gaps of the black runs we'd missed out earlier in the week. As a result we seemed to be mostly skiing moguls, so a tiring day. Then bus to Bourg, sleeper train to Paris, and Eurostar back home this morning, only to find that it was snowing in Cambridge when I got back. Let's hope that it carries on south and dumps on the Alps!

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Generally a very pleasant day with weather moving in.

A very pleasant but casual morning with our chalet guests showing them around and giving them a couple of tips here and there... they enjoyed the challenges I gave them and I think they appreciated 'going back to basics' and being reminded of some of the core concepts related to ski technique. Lucy was keen to do the Face (dad would not allow her to do it unless she was with an instructor) so at the end of the lesson we did that and she coped more than admirably - she creamed it - good on you.

The afternoon was not particularly exciting. Put the new hob in that I bought yesterday - it works so I obviously did something right. The front door lock was properly mended and I also started to change the electric towel rail in the bathroom but only got half way through that when Clares father arrived with dinner.... that was the end of the day really as we have been watching tv and chatting ever since!

A smattering of snow around town this am - looked all wintery again!

The weather was generally nice but built as the day progressed and by this evening there were some strong gusts of wind and snow flying about....

... they are forecasting for this to turn into a reasonably strong system so hopefully we shall get a nice top up. I am on an all day booking tomorrow so not sure what ill be doing in that session but it could be a long day if the weather is crappy. Whatever happens this freshen up of snow should be good as I am running an off-piste adventure clinic all of next week therefore some decent snow will make it all the more interesting and fun!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

O.M.G

Its a hard life.... not.... and Im not complaining either but boy was that one heck of a day... hence Im writing this the morning after (so to speak).

I was on an all day booking and the booker was a nice guy who was out here with his young daughter and his non-skiing wife. In actual fact he is going to be in my development plus clinic which starts today. Anyway he was a strong skier who wanted LOTS of mileage and NO teaching and NO stopping. We had woken to a nice 10cm blanket of fresh snow across the resort...

When I took this photo the other day there was no sign of snow on the road here.

Being capable of skiing pretty much any slope in any condition at any speed we set off bound for the Fornet. He had never been to the Espace Killy before therefore wanted to 'see and ski it all.' The whole resort was stuck in deep cloud and snow pretty much all day unless you were a) very high (above 3000m) and b) lucky and c) stuck it out until the last 30 mins of the day when it cleared up all of a sudden. We blasted around from place to place and got powder turn after powder turn in either just on or just off the side of the piste. We barely did the same run twice. The pick was definitely the t-bar at the top of the Pissaillas glacier (Val glacier)...

The sun tried to break-through and we could see pretty well as we laid tracks in 20cms or so of fresh snow (up top of Val d'Isere).

We had come back from Fornet and were skiing the Arcelle into the Manchet valley when I went to plant my left pole and it felt very 'light' I looked down as I 'missed' my plant to see that the bottom half of my pole had broken off.... how weird and sudden. The Arcelle was in awful condition I have to admit and it was a strange ski down and back up again.

We were getting hungry by now therefore we skied (I was now holding my one good pole across in front of me) through the S bumps down the Solaise, cut through the trees (awesome snow) and down into town and stopped for lunch at the Gourmandine (yummy burger and fries thanks Clive) . I ran across the road to Snowberry and Jock and Susan very kindly agreed to lend me a set of poles to use (I owe you guys - thanks).

After lunch we headed Tignes way and made it up the Grand Motte glacier. It was VERY windy up top there and the vis was varying by the second between NOTHING at all and virtually NOTHING at all. The cable car was well and truly shut because of the wind but the Leisse black run was open.... lets give it a go I said. In the conditions it was a challenge for both of us BUT the snow was AMAZING and we got pow turn after pow turn down there... it was epic. After bearing the wind again coming up on the lift we did it again. A third time was going to push our tolerance to the wind to the max so we headed down to Val Claret and went 'around the world' so up Tichot and Gatalu and onwards... ending up in Tignes Le Lac. When we got there (I had been observing from a distance as the vis was now a little better that the Aeroski had been running all day - more or less) they had just closed the Aeroski due to strong wind so had to take the Paquis and Combe Folle lifts to get back to Val (save the Paquis lift as they say (they are threatening to take it away next year as it does not get much use in general)).

We rolled back into town having covered (according to my goggles) about 120km in the day (including lifts) and we were both knackered but chuffed for getting so much great skiing and POWDER turns in.

I fixed up our new heated towel rail at home and then was in bed by 9pm and asleep shortly after... it was a long and tiring day.

I slept so well and it looks like it is still snowing out there so should be another great day in the mountains!

Must dash.

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Steve Angus, what a fabulous day - sounds like he dragged you round the mountain rather than you guiding him though! Good luck in development plus clinic - looks like it might be a week of early nights for you!

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Scampi Dellahanti I wouldn't say he 'dragged me around the mountain' but certainly we skied hard all day... more intensely than a normal day. When I spoke to him today it transpired that he was in bed by 8pm last night so he must have been pretty whacked too!

The piste conditions today were awesome.

We had much better weather today but not clear skies. There was high cloud for most of the day. Another 10cm or so had fallen overnight so on top of the fresh from the last couple of days the anticipation was high all round.

I met my Dev+ clinic and all 6 people are exceptionally nice... 3 men and 3 women who balance the group up nicely. The mix of locations people come from is quote incredible... from Hong Kong to New York and from Scotland to London - they come far and wide to ski Val d'Isere.

I worked on generic piste technique on reds and blacks with them and I could see some changes by the end of the session... onto moguls tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent with a pleasant couple who again wanted a mixture of stuff so we did some short turns as well as some powder technique (because we could) and we even managed to slot in some carving too (it was a busy session). We only really scratched the surface but they had fun.

Our tracks are all in their somewhere!

Had a bit of chilled evening and Clares father came around for dinner so Clare made the MOST AMAZING chocolate brownies... but these were her famous ones that have no buts, are only partially baked so really gooey, had milk chocolate AND white chocolate chunks in them.... YUMMY.

Last day of the seasonairres program tomorrow afternoon and scheduled to be doing some freestyle with them so with the moguls in the morning it should be a tiring day but with this great snow I can think of no better place i'd rather be.

After all it is free

great to read - well done for remaining so positive and enthusiastic about the teaching - I don't think all instructors manage that!! snowHead

Steve,
Any chance you could put an 8ft razor wire fence round some untracked fresh, keep it well below freezing out of the sun and take it all down Sunday night ready for me on Monday morning? Thanks Very Happy

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

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