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

A snowHead

Maybe the fontaine froide upgrade is aimed at stopping people going down Santons and making life easier for users of the Ski Tranqille area. Its the only way back up from the right hand side of that area (looking down the pistes) and gets you back onto Mont Blanc or Verte or to the Olympic for download. Also as far as I remember the offload area of the current chair isn't very "green"!

So the upgrade will be good for the beginners and help the resort shed its "no good for beginners image" which isn't really deserved IMO as the Ski Tranquille area at the top of the Belvard is one of the most extensive areas of long green pistes in any resort I know. However an essential chair in the circuit giving them a smack in the legs, freezing them to death and then dumping them on a narrow steep ramp isn't very helpful!

A snowHead

I agree that Fontaine Froid seems like an odd choice to replace. My choice would be a brand new lift (rather than a replacement of an old one) from somewhere near the bottom of Germain Mattis or Piste L back up to Solaise. This would provide another route back from the left hand side of the map giving access to the runs down into Val d'Isere without having to faff around with the drags and Lac chair lifts up on Solaise itself.

Another good one would be a lift from the Fornet valley (e.g. from near the top of the Fornet cable car) to the top of Table d'Orientation or Aiglon, thus providing another link back from Fornet into the next valley and avoiding the up and over Lessieres Express (nothing wrong with that lift, it would just be nice to have the choice of more than one way to get there.

I think where Espace Killy falls down in the lift system compared to other big resorts is that there are relatively few links (often just one or two) between valleys, and so these act as choke points at busy times, or become a problem when one of them closes.

When I was last there I was wondering if you can ski on at the bottom of arcelle (bottom of the Manchet Express) to join into the run out from Santons etc. as a way to avoid Solaise at the end of the day. I know there isn't a piste there, but there looks to be a perfectly skiable track along what would I presume be the road in summer.

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

A big improvement for beginners would be to replace that horrible rope tow at the top of Solaise with a magic carpet or something similar. Anything to make it easier for the kids and beginners to get about there would be a good idea.

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Interesting thoughts indeed... you never know someone from the Compagne Des Alpes may read this.... BTW Tignes lift decisions are decided by the STGM and they have their own development plan so not sure what is happening with the Aeroski (or the Marais for that matter!).

Anyway...............................

a s h 1 t day (sorry for swearing)

Always a bad day when your student gets injured. Last run of the day (stereotypical really) and Fee took a tumble, heard and felt a large pop in the knee, sudden pain and then a few mins later (I suspected so) when she tried to stand up her knee wanted to give way all the time. I knew it had to be an ACL injury. By the time Doc Al had had a look at it and x-rayed it etc it there might (needs another test tomorrow or something) be a hairline fracture of the tibia plateau aswell as a busted ACL.... bug.... she was doing so well as well. Get well soon Fee but no more skiing for you this week.

It did not look promising first thing but it brightened up nicely as the day went on and turned into a scorcio day.

We spent the morning on the Savonnette lift and slowly worked our way to the top. The firm snow and poor light first thing made it tough going but little by little it got easier. By lunchtime we had made it onto the Village chair and the drills I was giving were getting tougher and tougher. The afternoon was going really well and we were getting ready mentally to think about making a trip up to perhaps the Lac lift tomorrow... I hope Pam has not lost her nerve having seen the accident to Fee... we shall see tomorrow.

Since the accident happened right at the end of the day (the pisteurs did not arrive until about 5.15 and Doc Als' surgery was actually shutting up shop when she was brought in) I was mostly dealing with that before popping home and having dinner. Right im off to bed as want to draw a line under today as that was my first and hopefully only accident to a student in a lesson with me, of the whole season... in fact it has been well over a year since I have had any accidents to deal with and it always upsets me and you feel you have let the student down.

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Commiserations Steve and best wishes to Fee. I hope she makes a full recovery and it doesn't put her off skiing. I know you must feel bad about it as you are in a position of responsibility, but genuine accidents do happen so don't blame yourself for it. Over a year with no accidents is something to be proud of.

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^ ^ ^ Absolutely.

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Sorry to hear about Fee, best wishes for a speedy recovery. Not your fault at all Steve, these things happen. You record is amazing, think about the amount of accidents the ESF must have to deal with!

After all it is free

Speedy recovery Fi, dont beat yourself up Steve - over and out for me this season, onto looking at summer forums now! Thanks for the up dates and hope to be back next year, on a deal of course!

A very varied day.... but better than yesterday

Thanks everyone for your kinds words... latest is that she may need an operation to mend her knee... not sure.

The weather played around every which way today... we had some sun, some cloud and some snow....

Fairly nice at the Ouilette at coffee time this morning.

I took Pam for a ski again this morning and we went up the mountain... the weather as I mentioned before kept changing its mind but the snow really was lovely up there. Lunch was taken back down at the bottom of the mountain and Pam decided that she wanted an afternoon off so both myself and Kieran worked with Bernard a little... 2 instructors for one student - that must be a first! After a couple of hours with that the grand kids were kitted out to have a first little taste of skiing with both Kieran and I... we took one each. We had been told they were (well at least we thought that is what we had been told) 4 and 6 years old respectively....... in actual fact (kids will tell you anything when you ask them) they were 4 and 2.5 years old.... no wonder it was virtually impossible going for me as I ended up with the 2.5 yr old. Now dont get me wrong he did really well for a 2.5 yr old but it is a little too young to really have a go at skiing in terms of learning how to do it.... it was more like snow play and getting used to having the equipment on his feet. Anyway bless them both as we have them again tomorrow The official school policy is 3 years is the youngest we will take in a private lesson but in this circumstance now that I was duped once.... ill happily give it another go.

When Kieran and I were out with Bernard I managed to snap the banner advertising the new Fontaine Express lift at the top of the Olympic...

3000 people an hour - pretty decent upload capacity. However when we were getting out skis on at the top of the Olympic there were a couple of senior lifties from the STVI running around with a tape measure taken measurements all over the place on the flat area outside the Olympic.... goodness knows that they were doing... perhaps (only joking) they were trying to work out where the new Fontaine Express will finish!

Talking of the Olympic lift... remember I mentioned they were doing some work to maximise the loading of it and capacity etc... well I managed to snap this photo of the new central standing area / ski racks in the middle of the cabins - trying to maximise space.

Went out for a little apres drink and then Clare and I treated ourselves to a lovely meal out at our favourite restaurant in town, Le Lodge which was yummy as always but we ate far too much.... and then I went along with a couple of friends to watch a couple of films at the 15th Val d"Isere Adventure Film Festival which was pretty cool but VERY busy.

And that is about that for another day... take care folks.

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Good news on both lifts - can't help thinking that the Olymique changes shouldn't have taken this long, I've never seen more than 20 in one bubble daahling! Suspect its going to be a bit busy around the Olympique/Funi/Marmottes/FF plateau - another Tov?

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HMMMM - are you sure its April....

The blizzard in central Val d'Isere that started about lunchtime and continues...

Pam and I worked on her confidence on the Savonnettes this morning and then I took the two brothers for an hour or so... they are very cute and doing very well.

However the weather was the main talking point of the day.... it started grey and got worse.

The client decided upon a change around this afternoon so I took Bernard and his daughter-in-law out for a slide. The weather really closed in so we took our time and pottered around mainly on the Grand Pre... Bernard practicing his hockey stops (which he loves and is getting pretty good at) and MK was doing some one-legged 360's which we all had a laugh about as she took a few tumbles.

It was fairly flat up there!

Not too much else to report but I am really looking forward to our end of season ski school party tomorrow night... all details are being kept a secret but a meal out somewhere is all I know... it will no doubt be carnage!

The last day teaching of the season for me tomorrow... and then it will be a few weeks off skis until I start teaching back at Hemel SC in about 3 weeks time... looking forward to a little break and to rest the legs.

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Steve Angus,
1. Mais Oui!
2. It may just be like L'Arc de Triomphe/Place de l'Etoile at rush hour!

You know it makes sense.

Enjoy your last day teaching Steve - and have fun at the p*ss-up..errr civilized meal!

Is this it for the updates? I actually feel a little depressed again. It's looking so wintry, it can't be all over Crying or Very sad

You know, last night I went back and read the first five pages again, it was amazing looking at all the tons and tons of snow, and feeling excited for the season ahead. Seems so long ago!

I will really miss this blog over the summer, thank you so much. I've read every update (except when I was skiing!).

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

Seconded, probably my favourite thread this season, well done Steve!

A snowHead

Thirded!

A snowHead

Oh blimey folks you really don't need to keep thanking me - it is totally my pleasure and I enjoy reflecting each day. As mentioned before ill report each day next week although I am not planning on actually skiing next week (much (unless there is loads of pow!)) - have my French year end accounts to do next week etc etc etc (yawn).

During the Summer ill summarise (perhaps once a month or whatever) the goings on in Val from afar.... ill just be speaking with friends, reading various websites etc to collate my news but it'll be news!

NEWS FLASH
About 10cm of fresh snow down here this morning (AGAIN).. must be loads more up on the glacier / up top and the forecast for next week is snow, snow and more snow.
Forgot to post this teaser video a colleague took of his client yesterday (hope link works OK).
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150824821650730

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

Steve Angus, Please keep up the pow updates from your window next week, as I am out for the final weekend and can't wait snowHead

Good luck with "les accounts" Toofy Grin

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TFIF / TFI the end of the seasons teaching

Really ready for a rest now for a few weeks before starting again for the Summer.... so much for Spring skiing this year... it has been one hell of a long Winter... and it keeps going.

It was absolutely chucking it down pretty much all day apart from a couple of hours 'break' in the middle of the day.

This photo represented the typical view all day today.

There was a good 20cm of fresh snow all over the mountain today and I did manage to get some fresh turns in off the side of the piste and (sorry people) IT WAS AMAZING!

I was just with Bernard and John all day today and we worked on consistency of the moves we have been working on all week and they both had a couple of break throughs - well done.

We lapped around on the Borsat lift all morning and on the second time up we went over the top (by that gulley) over a guy that had skied off piste (on his own - tut tut) and managed to fall and lose a ski. We went around and each time he was still looking and searching... by the third time he was joined by a friend (or well-wisher I suppose) and together they were looking. By the time we headed back down to town for lunch they were still looking - must have been looking for 2 hours so the snow was deep! You can see in the photo that a little slide has happened (to the right of where they are searching) so there was definitely activity on the slopes today for sure as the av risk was 3 (almost 4) today.

About the 'best' view / only view we got all day.

Right need to go shower and head out for our end of season do... looks like we are also heading to a place called Giez tomorrow which is near Annecy for a golf day tomorrow so that will be fun.

Not sure when ill next post but will do as soon as I can... after the hangover wears off!

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kieranm, Yes, you can get from the bottom of Arcelle back to Val D, passing the bottom of Santons en route. It's a long, mostly flat, poling session. Good for building up the triceps.

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Steve Angus, thanks for this thread. Its has been my best read of the winter.

Have a good summer.

Good luck to one and all.

See you in the mountains next winter.

Sad

After all it is free

Hangover behind me.... onwards and upwards

Friday night was an awful lot of fun. We went to Les Clochetons which is at the bottom of the Santons piste for dinner. There was a LOT of alcohol consumed and the food was superb (not cheap (not that I was paying) but I HIGHLY recommend it). Between the 15 of us I think about half of us went for the pave de boeuf and we must have consumed about half a cow (sorry vegetarians if you are reading this).... it was a great feast.

After dinner and some speeches (a great send off for Phil who leaves TDC to settle in New Zealand with his fiancee) we headed back into town and im not really sure what happened thereafter. Apparently Clare (pre-arranged) gave Giles a lift home to Seez so they could leave early yesterday morning for Hintertux and it was after 4am before they got home.

When I woke yesterday am after a far to short a nights sleep I realised that the sun was steaming in through the window and that it was going to be an amazing day for a round of golf. I had somehow volunteered to be driver but before that I needed to pick up some clubs.... the one year I left my clubs back in the UK was the year I actually wanted to play a round out here.... anyway thanks to Giles parents for lending me their clubs.

It was such a lovely morning and there must surely have been lots of pow up there but NO we were heading to play golf in Annecy... little did we know what the resort would like like when we got back some 12 hours later!

After some hangover busting mcdonalds in Bourg we got to Giez just outside Annecy at mid-morning. I was paired up with Phil and we were playing against Kieran and Colin pictured below...

Yours truly attempting to whack the ball.

We managed to get the best of the weather although it did start to rain a little near the end... Colin in his shorts was well under-dressed by the end but there you go.

Phil and I lost but hey it was a lot of fun. I only lost a few balls!

The journey back we had driving rain all the way... it was torrential. By the time we got back to Val the rain had turned into a full on blizzard and I got some seriously strange looks carrying golf club over my shoulder back from the car park... Colin got stranger looks doing the same but with shorts on.

So once again SNOW was the order of the day.

With Clare gone (I think she slept the whole way to Hintertux as someone else was driving) I had the house to myself and took an early night as I was SHATTERED.

When I woke this morning it was still snowing although has eased up now.

The next few days updates will not be very exciting as mentioned previously as I have an awful lot of admin to get through.

TTFN.

...and they tell me it was the best powder day of the season (I think they are exaggerating (just a little but exaggerating non the less)).

Whilst my day was boring - first of several days doing the annual accounts push / spring clean / filing / lots of other boring stuff that will take me a few days... I was able to watch hour on end of sport on TV.

It was overcast for the most part today...

...whilst up high colleagues were doing this...

...and even lower down on the piste others were doing this...

(photo courtesy of HAT).

That last photo was taken first thing this am on the Santons piste which as you may know is a blue run that comes back down into the Village so low(er) down.

In fact Radio Val d'Isere were reporting up to a foot of snow on the glacier whilst about 10-20cm for the most part on the pistes.... INCREDIBLE considering it is late April!

Right back to work.

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Sunny and warm then onset of massive snow fall again.

It started warm and sunny first thing and I think everyone in town thought that a change in the weather pattern had finally arrived.

However by about lunchtime things had started to cloud over and it is once again snowing very very hard.

Lunchtime'ish it was starting to cloud over and a few flakes of snow were falling from the skies... it is much harder now.

The avalanche risk has been put up to 4/5 tomorrow as the changing temps, fresh snow and winds (in some places) means things are pretty unpredictable out there. There was at least one or two accidental releases by skiers out there today in the EK - thankfully no-one seems to have been injured.

A friend sent me this photo of them up on the Tignes glacier first thing this morning:

Not much else to report as im still stuck indoors with piles of paper surrounding me!

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... not long til Im back at Hemel now Chris ski H.... think ill be running Tuesday and Thursday evening instructor training / personal performance sessions like last year but nothing on a Sunday... not 100% sure yet as need to speak with PSG.... also I need to be on the normal Hemel instructor roster too as they are quite tight at weekends.... nit of a juggling act really.

The glacier looks beautiful, so much snow! Steve I'm surprised you weren't tempted to ditch the admin and sneak out for a bit...!

You know it makes sense.

Piccadilly - yes I know it was / is so tempting but to be honest with you I have procrastinated for so long on the annual accounts and admin and taken the 'fun' option (like golf on Saturday) that it is now or never and I am so behind that I am just keeping the curtains closed and getting on with it....

however...

It has snowed VERY heavily all night and there is about 15cm of snow down here in town from the last 12 hours and I can hear them blasting out there.

Have fun out there if anyone is getting in it!

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

Steve Angus, Get out there.......leave the paperwork and get in that powder!!. Toofy Grin

A snowHead

Oh say balls to the admin, it's the last chance until Nov/Dec!!

Can't believe the webcams today, I wish I was there. It's EMPTY as well.

A snowHead

Temptation kept at bay as the storm continues to rage.

Thanks for the suggestions folks but I have managed to get loads of admin completed today - nearly there... am living early Friday morning to drive to Austria to pick Clare up before heading back to the UK on Saturday... so tomorrow will be the last daily update for this Winter.

Talking of winter the storm has raged all day and we have had over 50cm of snow up on the mountain apparently.

Whilst it has settled down here in town the warm ground means that it melts pretty quickly but still there is some 15cm outside the front door....

It looks like it will finally ease up overnight and we could be in for a sunny day tomorrow and for the next few days - we shall see!

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

Sheez I so want to be back there. All that fresh to go at, jell for sure

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Steve Angus, what pam w said. snowHead

I've looked forward to reading every new post. Have a great summer. Very Happy

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Steve Angus, just the most consistently friendly and interesting thread on snowHeads. Thank you so much! Very Happy

Hope to see you at Hemel some time during the summer.

After all it is free

Steve- I echo all of the above- a great read throughout the season. Have a good summer.

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Steve Angus, Great read throughout the season, and as Pedantica, says may see you at Hemel in the Summer snowHead

Help!!

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

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