 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all,
Just back from a fantastic week in Val D'Isere and as I always find trip reports useful, I thought I would try and do my first!!!! 
Even though you will have all seen loads of reports on Val, I hope some of it is useful. It is all personal opinion of course !!!
Party - Just the 2 of us, couple, me approx 15 years, reasonably confident skier, beginner boarder, OH 4th year, good solid intermediate skier (lots of bottle for a girl which helps  ), never boarded.
Tour Op - Crystal, booked last min, 1 week before departure (and saved a fortune lol). £520 vs brochure £high 800's.
Accommodation - Saffron Chalet. Part of 3 storey, 3 Chalet complex.
Flights Manchester to GVA were fine through Thompson, glad we went for GVA option rather than Chambery, couple in our chalet had an 8 hour delay due to low cloud and were diverted to Lyon, they were shattered when they arrived at 9pm. Their main gripe was not the weather at Chambery (safety first), but the fact that there is no head honcho at airport or centrally from Tour Ops who can make decisions quickly and organise things, too many 20 year olds running around with clipboards but with no authority or cohesion. They do a great job, but are not qualified to deal with emergency travel changes etc.
Anyway, accommodation - Chalet Saffron - was pretty nice, and matched the brochure description, good spacious communal lounge and dining area, with great views of the Olympique side of the resort runs which was lovely to look at when lit by floodlights on most nights. There was also a great log fire which we did use. The Chalet was very conveniently located in the centre of the village and approx 300m from the Solaise/Olympique lifts.
Our room was I have to say pretty basic and small, we don't expect luxury in any Chalet (especially at that price lol) but it was a Crystal 'finest' property and we would have expected to at least be able to walk around the bed comfortably, which we couldn't. Bathroom as nice with good big shower, and just enough storage space etc in built in wardrobes. I think perhaps the other rooms were slightly bigger, but as we booked last we got the short straw. Bedrooms were cleaned each day, and fresh linen/towels mid week. The Chalet had WiFi which did work, even if the router had to be rebooted hourly lol. The ski/boot room was great, and next door to the boot room they also had a sauna (which was very nice. Both of these were available for use for all three Chalets, around 30 people, there was plenty of space.
Crystal reps were great, very attentive, and our Chalet host was wonderful, cannot fault the level of customer service.
Food - was really very good, cooked breakfast (great) and continental options each morning, fresh bread, croissants, cereals, yoghurts, juices, tea/coffee etc
Dinner was also great, canapes followed by well thought out three courses (not a spag bol in sight), and then cheese/coffees. Lots and lots of wine included (as much as wanted really) and honesty bar for beers. I have to say our Chalet host (Katie nicknamed Swansea as she was Welsh - creative I know....) was brilliant and took great care with every single meal.
Town - Val is very very pretty and not quite as pretentious as I had expected, yes there were fur coated Russians parading around and one or two 'classic' Val stereotypes but overall the folk were great. We didn't venture out that much, but the bars we did venture into were great, enjoyed Saloon bar at bottom of solaise for happy hour/live music each apres especially. I believe the nightlife is great if you like to party (lol we could hear some of it!!) There is loads of shopping, pretty expensive, but great to look at, and more restaurants that you could throw a stick at. It seemed to me that it had that rare mix of being compact enough but big village with loads going on.
Equipment Hire - my one gripe - we booked online with Snowberry through snowrental and got a good 40% discount. However we booked gold level equipment, the third of four options, and were promised high level advanced skis max 1 year old. In reality, the skis we were given were at least 2/3 years old and had seen a lot of action. When I asked, they said it was very busy, to try them out, and change of necessary. The shop was bombed, and so we did just that. My skis were ok, but OH's were pretty bad, edges were not good enough etc. To be fair they did change her skis to a better pair on day 3. My real problem came when we asked about upgrading to Platinum level to try this years skis, oh my word what a change in attitude, all for a difference of 3 Euro/day, they then couldn't be more helpful and we paid the upgrade and got some great equipment - salomon BBR's fr both of us - awesome skis by the way. I really do think that they should just offer two maybe three levels of kit, most people would surely expect decent kit at level three from four? And why would their level of service/attitude change only when we upgraded to Platinum level. I know this wasn't an isolated incident as some others in our Chalet had the same problem. We did swtich to boards for the last afternoon and they were very helpful and accommodating, but of course we had by then paid the upgrade..
Finally and most importantly, the ski area, well all I can say is WOW I now see why people rave about the Espace Killy, the area is simply huge and lots of different terrain/runs for all levels of ability. Even though the off piste was tracked out, I could see that with fresh snow there would be massive off piste opportunities.
The Solaise side offered great cruisey blues once up the Solaise chairlift, and also some good long reds. Miles more options into Fornet area once the well named 'up and over' chair had been negotiated. What an awesome lift, steeply up one ridge then steeply down the next, fantastic idea to link areas, in most resprts you would have to ski all the way down then up. Could see some great OP opps down towards Fornet. Glacier area above Fornet was great too with some good long (not too difficult reds).
The Olympique side again offers endless cruising opportunities for first week skiers upwards, another glacier area, a superb park area, and some brilliant tree lined runs down towards La Daille. Need to at this point mention the infamous Folie Douce bar/restaurant at the top of the Daille gondola. OMG what a place, its like an Ibiza nightclub right on the ski slopes, I have never seen a place like it, DJ's, dancers, on site shop, banging music which you can hear from about a mile away, and a really great atmosphere, oh and wonderful (if expensive) food. Approx 7 euro fora beer and 4.50 for Vin Chaud. I had to laugh, they had a VIP area with massive couches/fur/trendy stuff, and even had a PR guy, great for the Rich Russians paying 1000 Euro for a bottle of fizz, incredible place. The well discussed 'face' run/olympic black run back into town is a wonderful experience - better if you do it around 11 am before the crowds descend. I did it at 3.30pm one day and it was very different, scraped ice everyehere, very very difficult, and no fun at all. (DOWNLOAD).
The links to Tignes were very straightforward, and Tignes itself offered some brilliant skiing, we didn't manage to cover all of it in a week.....
The lift system is world class, and we rarely found any queues, most lifts were high speed 6 man chairs or gondolas, think I only used 2 drag lifts all week.
It was easy to get from one end of the circus to the other and back, and they also had great free bus options from the bottom of each area. The only thing I would say as most people know is that there are virtually no options for beginners/low inters to ski back directly into Val, but really not an issue as most just download.
All in all an absolutely first class ski area, and by far the best I have been to (for our needs), for me easily beats the other resorts i've been to - 3V, PDS, Sallbach, Zermatt, 4V, Skiwelt, Breckenridge, Vail, Saas Fee, Kitzbuhel, Obergurgl, Cervinia (only my opinion, please don't shout!!!) as an all rounder.
We had 4 days of blue sky followed by one and a half days of snow with knee high powder on the Friday, absolutely brilliant trip, loved every minute of it, and can't wait to go back.
I really do now see the attraction, wonderful place.
Cheers, Neil.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Glad you loved it! Now you'll be back every year, just like me - I'm absolutely addicted to the place for all the same reasons as you (and OMG I love La Folie Douce!).
Great report, thanks for sharing, a very enjoyable read 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi Neil
tracked you down but it was not difficult!!
Confirm your thoughts on airports, the return leg from Chambery was just as bad as the outward leg. We were delayed basically because initially the airport can not cope with numerous flights and people on a change over day and then they cocked up the luggage. So got back to Bristol late by 3 hrs and arrived to snow.
Next time i think we will go for a longer coach transfer!!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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With Chambery airport you really do have to take the rough with the smooth. Its a tiny airport, and probably only truly adequate for handling one plane arrival every hour or so and everything running to schedule. When you take that up to 3 or even 4 flight arrivals per hour or delays/diversions it just becomes carnage, both at check-in and baggage reclaim. Geneva is typically more reliable; for a start there's a dedicated charter terminal (and a large area with multiple baggage reclaim belts) so it can much more readily accommodate more than one flight arrival at a time. Also, Geneva usually doesn't accept diverted flights from other airports so they don't have that disruption to their own schedule.
But then Chambery is around an hour closer to the Tarantaise, so the gamble is often worth it (if you're prepared to put up with the sardine-can experience).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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neilkav, Glad you enjoyed it. I strongly suspect Snowberry is in cahoots with Salamon due to the amount of BBR's they rent out to punters. Did they not have any Head Magnums or similar available? Especially since you weren't going off-piste, seems poor advise by the shop.
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neilkav - thanks for posting in so much details. Glad you enjoyed your experience of Val and the EK. Sorry to hear about your experiences of Snowberry - ill meant something to the owners and manager next time I see them! Steve
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| frenchnz wrote: |
Hi Neil
tracked you down but it was not difficult!!
Confirm your thoughts on airports, the return leg from Chambery was just as bad as the outward leg. We were delayed basically because initially the airport can not cope with numerous flights and people on a change over day and then they cocked up the luggage. So got back to Bristol late by 3 hrs and arrived to snow.
Next time i think we will go for a longer coach transfer!! |
Hiya John, great to hear from you, glad you tracked me down lol.
Thanks for the great company in Val, really enjoyed it, stay in touch if you can, oh and welcome to SH, I'm sure you can provide our community with some valuable knowledge re New Zealand hills
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| Dr John wrote: |
| neilkav, Glad you enjoyed it. I strongly suspect Snowberry is in cahoots with Salamon due to the amount of BBR's they rent out to punters. Did they not have any Head Magnums or similar available? Especially since you weren't going off-piste, seems poor advise by the shop. |
Hi there, yes they may well be tied up in some deal with salomon, they had no head ski's as far as i could tell, and also no K2's at all, would have loved to try the Head magnum Ti, and the K2 amp charger etc. Anyhow I for one (maybe minority) really enjoyed the BBR's, on piste they were brilliant, off piste i guess they were fine, but something wider would have been perfect, I still reckon they're a decent one quiver job...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Steve Angus wrote: |
| neilkav - thanks for posting in so much details. Glad you enjoyed your experience of Val and the EK. Sorry to hear about your experiences of Snowberry - ill meant something to the owners and manager next time I see them! Steve |
Thanks Steve, wish I could have scheduled in some time for some coaching from you while we were there, we will definitely be back and will certainly look you guys up.
Thanks for all of your great daily updates, still reading them now lol 
Also appreciate your offer to chat to the guys in snowberry, it wasn't a major problem, just felt we were treated very differently when we paid the extra, it made me laugh because it was only a few Euro's. Please don't anyone be put off they were great when we wanted snowboards for our last afternoon, couldn't have been more helpful.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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neilkav, thanks for the report Neil, having had this weeks Italy trip fail to materialise I have just booked a sneaky trip to VDI so the info is v useful.
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neilkav, I'd say there is deffo some financial agreement between Snowberry and Salamon. No brands mentioned in the list of equipment, but Salomon skis and boots pictured all over the web-site. I'm amazed they don't stock Head or K2 skis. I can imagine many people (including me) turning around and walking aout at that point. The deal with Salomon presumably is so good they can take that sort of hit. This makes me view them in a completely different light. Shame.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Lemond wrote: |
Hi All Snowheads - I am off to Val, February half term with the kids (11 &  .
Any advice on the best venues on the slopes for lunch and apres ski will be much appreciated. I am guessing the Folie Douce will be a favourite for afternoon drinks as my 8 year old son is a very keen dancer! |
Always good to start em young - although you might have to be explaining a few words to him if the playlist is anything like the one in val thorens...
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FAQ
Yesterday though, when there was carnage at Geneva with a lot of flight cancelled and people having to stay overnight (some on the airport floor) I think Chambery was operating normally. 
