 Poster: A snowHead
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6th - 13th April 2013.
So this is a bit of an essay but I know from the amount of research I did before we went that I would have found a lot of this stuff useful as a first timer, hence the big share particularly for anyone else who has not really been before! Plus I have a bit of a habit of blathering on at times..
I'm fairly new to skiing so please forgive any obvious naivety in this report. I have a week in Pamporovo in Bulgaria over ten years ago, then when we moved to Hemel in November I knew I wanted to get back into it again at the Snow Centre. I hadn't anticipated any mountain visits at this point, but after a few weeks of lessons I was sneakily pricing up options and I ran away on my own for a few nights in early January with SkiWeekends in the Three Valleys for a midweek break. When I came back I didn't want to wait another year to go again so I persuaded my husband to throw our savings away on a late Easter skiing break for all of us. My husband had never been skiing and had only had a few lessons at Hemel before this point but this stepped up a bit after booking obviously. He is one of those annoying people who picks stuff up in seconds then complains he is not as good as a professional after five minutes but at least I knew this meant he would be straight out on the proper slopes with me.
We opted for La Plagne 1800 with Crystal, partly because we'd made the decision to go so late we were limited by where there were childcare places available.. and we went with Crystal because it was just so much easier to do stuff in person at the Snow Centre than over the phone.
** if you don't have or care about children, feel free to skip down over the next bunch of paragraphs!
And of course we have our three children - the nearly two year old was obviously not going to be doing much skiing. For the 6 and 4 year old girls, we'd put them through a bunch of weekly group lessons since mid February at Hemel. They've done pretty well there (especially considering sometimes they were in lessons where other parents had been, shall we say, optimistic about their child's level, and there was much standing around waiting for others) and both were at a firm level 6 (reaching level 5 is the "recreational" standard) before we went. They were just as excited to go as we were and have been loving their lessons and for the most part the instruction has been very good indeed.
The original plan was to have the girls in ski school in the mornings and then come skiing with us in the afternoons, but after skiing with my 4 year old just once at Hemel I knew it wasn't going to work. She can ski just fine for her level, but much as I love her, she's away with the fairies most of the time and doesn't understand the black art of, well, listening or appreciating danger. Some of it is her young age, but her sister would have been much more sensible at her age. The stress of yelling "STOP!!!!" every few seconds just did not appeal. So we decided we'd put her in the Crystal childcare for the full day (including the ski school in the morning) and then take her out once or twice with us of an afternoon so she didn't miss out on skiing with us entirely. This turned out to be the best decision we made because she had an absolutely fabulous time in the childcare and kept her little brother who she adores company too. The one day we did take her out we knew we'd made the right decision - she might have enjoyed her afternoon but we are still gibbering wrecks. It did not help the first thing she did was ski at speed into her stationary big sister semi-deliberately "I forgot my pizza mummy" (frankly I do not believe this!) - she never did anything that silly again or even close to it, but after that the trust was broken!
Our 6 year old is another matter. Very sensible, rules-driven and level-headed and also a bit of a speed freak so we knew we'd have no problems and we were right. She kept up with us most of the time (the flats were the main issue) and left me behind several times on steeper slopes. I know you can't put a lot of faith in the Ski Tracks app over speeds, but on a few days I stuck it in her pocket on an old smartphone to see what she was up to.. she did more miles in her ski lesson, including red runs, and at higher speeds (allegedly she hit 35mph a few times) than we did in our rather intensive private lesson! Thanks to her teacher showing her how, she also has a rather alarming tendency to (deliberately) veer off-piste up banks and was over the moon when we showed her a nice long gully just above Plagne Centre our instructor had showed us.. she left my husband for dust down it and would have overtaken me if she could have got past. We're both ridiculously proud of her, given in February she could only do 5 yards down the nursery slope at Hemel.
Before we went, there was some discussion here as to what ESF level they'd go in at. I did email the local ESF and they reassured me that our four year old would not be stuck in the snow garden. Sure enough, she wasn't, although it was a close call. Crystal wanted her in Flocon/Snowflake but ESF said she could not as there were only a few children in Flocon and they were much older and there was nobody to look after a little one, so they stuck her in Piou Piou i.e. mucking about in the snow garden all week. I only spotted this as we were dropping off our oldest as Crystal was handling the 4 year old as part of the Whizzclusive package. I did the whole Pushy Mum thing and asked what was going on, and explained for possibly the millionth time that actually she could ski, so they stuck her in Ourson. To be fair to ESF, it's quite likely they'd have soon realised she could ski and bumped her up anyway but at least this way she was in a better place to begin with.
For the interested, in Ourson she was in the snow garden on the first day, nursery slope outside the snow garden on the second day, third day they went up to Plagne Centre and the nursery slope/boulevard green run there (bus back) and the rest of the week they had a wonderful time on various blue runs around the place. I know because I stuck the Ski Tracks phone on her as well, although ESF did tell Crystal what they got up to too. Her instructor was very nice and good with the children. She was one of the tiniest in her class and usually went with the instructor on the chairlifts which is a good thing as apparently she fell asleep on one of them on the last day. Her instructor did say she was a very good and strong skier and it does seem she should have been in the group above were it not for the practical considerations, so it came as no surprise she got her badge at the end of the week. She had an absolutely wonderful time, was apparently singing to herself as she skied constantly, and when we spotted her out and about we saw she was doing great too with a massive smile plastered on her face. She listens better to her instructor than to us which is why having her with us was just.. unsafe! She did the red run back down into 1800 a few times by the end with no problems when the rest of her class was tumbling around her.
Our six year old was recommended by Crystal to go into 1 Star. After the first lesson her instructor agreed it was the right level. They were out on the mountain from the first minute - I think they spent most of the first day in Plagne Centre doing slalom stuff around cones in the boulevard area but after that they were all over the mountain, including off-piste to the side of runs and I think the odd red run. Her teacher seemed nice but he was definitely cut from the typical ESF instructor mold. I asked her if he said "Bend ze knees" and "Follow me" all the time at all and she blushed and asked how I knew. Regardless, he pushed his class hard and did lots of fun things with them so no complaints from me whatsoever. She had a great time and her only complaint was that they never stopped for snacks but we told her that's what the ride in the gondolas were for and then she learned. She got her 1 Star badge no problems.
I'll stop banging on about the children shortly but before I finish I just want to put in a good word for the Crystal childcare staff in Plagne 1800 in Chalet Rose as they were brilliant. Lovely people who took great care of our youngest (and our four year old when she was there), and had far more patience with him than we do, and particularly as it was their last week too! They took them out every day to interesting places including regular bum boarding in Plagne Centre which all the children adored. They kept a "Ski School Diary" for the four year old and we were presented with all the "art" they'd both done at the end of the week. They also did babysitting in our apartment for 10 euros an hour which was very useful for one evening. We were really happy with the care they both got.
** okay, child-focused bit over!
We flew from Luton to Grenoble on a 7.15 flight - everything was on time, and we got straight on the practically deserted coach the other end. We brought along an inflatable booster for our almost two year old for the coach ride but in light of today's horrible accident I think we'll make the effort for a proper car seat in future as it could make all the difference. We were in resort by around 1pm I think. Our apartment wasn't ready, but they said they would text in half an hour or so when it was, and sure enough they did.
We stayed in the Lauze Apartments, the Silene block to be precise which is one of the ones right at the top. This was a bit of a pain in the backside for lugging stuff back up the hill each day from the childcare at the bottom of the hill, but they did let us keep our skis/boots/helmets in the childcare place which saved a ton of hassle.
From a few TripAdvisor reviews and the fact it's quite low rated, I was not expecting much - a grotty shoebox maybe. But we were pleasantly surprised. It was not a concrete jungle, it was a smartly-built wooden-styled five floor block. The apartment (sleeps 5-6, one double bedroom and sofabeds) was very clean and in great condition especially considering it's end of season. We had a ground floor apartment (thank goodness with the pushchair.. a long story but Crystal were great with arranging this) so no fancy balcony views but it didn't matter as we could see the mountains out the window anyway. There were the usual facilities and a "welcome pack" of washing materials which made life a little easier. The rooms were not big, but until recently we've lived rammed into a tiny two bed place in London so we're kind of used to living small so it didn't bother us. There was enough room for a dining table which we never had in our house due to space anyway! The heating was fine, everything worked.. damn, there was nothing to complain about whatsoever. Except maybe the dripping as the snow thawed onto a metal strip just above the window which was a bit like water torture in the early hours but I was so exhausted I slept anyway.
The non-apartment facilities include dedicated ski lockers, a heated outdoor swimming pool that we were sadly too exhausted to use and a games room. The wifi was 25 euros for the week for up to three devices which was fine. It got a little flakey around peak times (e.g. first thing before lifts open and right after they close) but during the day and later in the evening it was perfectly okay.
We were a five minute walk from the nearest lift/piste/ski school meetup, and a further few minutes from there down to the childcare. Plagne 1800 is ridiculously easy to navigate.
As this was our first family holiday we rented our gear through Crystal, who use a SkiSet franchise called Boudu Sports. This place is apparently one of the better in the La Plagne area, and they were very helpful.. I'd have probably gone with them anyway without Crystal. I have odd feet (wide) and it took three days and three sets of boots before I was happy. One of the ladies who worked in the non-ski-hire part of the shop was particularly friendly with the children and would engage in snowball fights with them outside whilst I was faffing about with boots! The gear was in good condition generally, and aside from my boot issue nobody else had any problems and our skis were great.
We debated trying out the gear on the nursery slope with the free draglift but it was getting late by the time we had everything together and having been up since 3am we were all tired and bickering so we decided to just get dinner instead.
Over the course of the week we ate in Le Loup Blanc a couple of times - nice place, fairly friendly staff, food decent quality and typical prices. Their coffee with chantilly cream was particularly good, and we enjoyed the fondu we had. We also ate in Mamma Mias - but felt slightly uncomfortable in there (like we were intruding. even though we did our best to speak in French) so we got takeout the second time. We also ate in the Lauze restaurant which was fine, albeit deserted and with a limited menu due to end of season! On one occasion we drank in Le Mine pub - they were all very friendly in there but it is a very English pub of course!
On the Thursday night we did the bumboarding with Crystal which was a lot of fun, especially when people took the bumboards to steeper parts of the piste. It's all probably highly dangerous and health and safety blah blah but that was part of the appeal.. seeing the girls in one of those round sledges screaming with laughter was priceless, and the nearly two year old was having the time of his life too.
I should probably mention the skiing. Well, there was a bit of that. Okay, a lot. We had to be back at 12.30 each day to pick up the 6 year old and back by 5 for the other two but it wasn't such a huge deal really. We got plenty of hours of skiing and stopping at mountain restaurants for coffees, crepes etc just as we planned.
As you can probably guess we were blessed with the snow conditions, although it did not feel like it on the first day on the Sunday. Opened the curtains - FOG. And not just any old fog, we're talking "what chairlift ahead of us?/I don't see any piste markers AT ALL" fog. The instructors were complaining. And.. the powder from the day before had frozen. We got to the Melezes chairlift and I could hear this huge noise like a snowboarder the size of a cruise ship approaching.. turned out it was just people coming down the Les Mines run on the frozen snow. Not that you could see this, I am just assuming that's what it was.
So we abandoned the children, got the chairlift, and then another, and prepared to go down our first blue run in the resort.. or for my husband, the first run he'd ever done outside of Hemel. Well, in the fog and the ridiculously hard snow, it didn't take long before he did his first yard sale and frankly I can't blame him. On that subject he did fall over a lot more than me over the course of the week but with the snow conditions so incredibly changeable and the fact that he tends to push his boundaries far more than I do as I am over cautious, I am not at all surprised. He may have fallen over more than me but he also skis faster than me and does far more yard-sale-prone stuff up the side of pistes etc, although by the end I was joining him most of the time. Can I just mention how much I love the term "yard sale"? It brought us much light relief with every fall as to the degree of selling going on!
After lunchtime the fog lifted and brought glorious sunshine, and with our freshly-picked up 6 year old we took her on a variety of blue runs and quickly discovered she was not going to be holding us back.
There was a hairy moment with a chairlift (Verdons Nord - quite a fast one) as I mentioned on another thread where she got overconfident and did not mount correctly and I had to make the choice to let her fall from head height a few yards out, or hold on and have a bigger fall. The chairlift operators were very fast-acting, stopped the lift within seconds (although it felt like hours..) and lifted her back up to us. There were no bad mounts on her part after that, and we knew to look out for her more carefully ourselves too.
The next day the clouds were back but the snow was in reasonable condition and the visibility was a lot better than the previous morning. We had booked a private lesson with Reflex after reading recommendations here for days 2 and 4 - 2.5 hour lessons each time. Unfortunately my boots were killing me at that point, and I spent a lot of the first lesson thinking about the pain rather than my technique, but I know my husband got a lot out of the lesson. She was a really good instructor, very patient, knew her stuff and always seemed to know what was going on in my head - things I thought were imperceptible that I'd forgotten to do, but she'd spot them. She took us on our first red runs (I'd never dared venture onto one before as I'd been a bit wobbly on some of the higher up blues in Val Thorens in January, so I had nightmare visions of what a red run must look like.. nightmares turned out to be totally not true!) and we coped just fine.
The fog returned that afternoon and we had an "interesting" time coming down Pavane when we couldn't find the markers or indeed the edges or see much of what the snow was doing. There were a few yard sales involved, none with me but that was through sheer luck!
The next day involved a lot of snow. We had a wander over to Champagny down some easy blues which we both really enjoyed. We then made the mistake of dragging our six year old in the afternoon up to Roche de Mio to do the Tunnel run. We didn't realise quite what a blizzard it was up there - I was fine with it, she was not. There were "complaints". And a frozen ponytail. And a few arguments. And no way to tell where the Tunnel piste went and which was the red run.. there was some backtracking. In the poor visibility there was no easy way to see the bottom of slopes so we never knew when we had to schuss to get across flats so there was an awful lot of slow, whiney progress through the blizzard and requests to "go home".
Thank goodness then that at around 4.30pm the sun came out, visibility returned, and we did a series of blues from the top of Colossus down to 1800. By the time we reached 1800, she was having a tantrum that we had to stop skiing because she'd been enjoying it so much over the last half an hour!
Day 4 and after snowfall in the night it was a powder day with blue skies and several explosions much to the amusement of our six year old who couldn't quite believe that people were blowing poo-poo up. It was absolutely perfect - the pistes were near empty, and covered in glorious powder. We had our second lesson with the great instructor from Reflex, and she took us all around Le Grande Rochette including a bit of off-piste. I had my first fall of the holiday when she told us to follow her into the powder.. a bona-fide face plant. I am sure she knew that was coming. But she also took us down a fun gully just off Pollux (no Milka cow all week, sob) near the Verdons Nord chair lift bottom.. and for the first time my grumpy husband admitted he had found something "fun" although he retracted it as soon as I pointed this out. Didn't stop him angling to go back there for the rest of the week though, which we did on a few occasions!
In the afternoon we brought the four year old out with us and as I documented earlier, this was hugely enjoyable for her and quite painful for us, although she managed just fine really, it's just our nerves knowing she doesn't always listen.
Days 5 and 6 did not quite have the same glorious powder, but the conditions were pretty good afternoon slush aside (did not like the rain on day 5) and we did the Tunnel under better circumstances. On the last morning I had my second and final fall on a long and steep crud-filled blue run into Champagny which was probably due to exhaustion and the onset of a new cold more than anything else as I had forgotten all I'd learned all week. We all had a go down the half pipe above Plagne Bellecotte. Sadly we ran out of time to do it again.
The transfer back was fine, mostly empty coach. I am never going through Grenoble again though. What a total shambles. I've done a lot of travelling in my life and I've never seen an airport as wee wee poor as this one for organisation. Nobody knew where they were going/what they were doing at all. Easyjet were just fine though, they have been every time I've flown with them.
It's safe to say we all had a brilliant time which exceeded our expectations. Despite my husband grumbling (it's nearly all related to the fact he can't do black runs standing on one leg after just six days on snow, but believe me he's doing amazing considering he could not ski at all a few months ago) he was pricing up trips for next year before I'd even switched my computer on when we got back which is a miracle and means the holiday could not have gone better.
We really enjoyed La Plagne. It was perfectly suited to our ability, the resort seemed (from my limited experience) well run, the ESF was fine, the apartments better than hoped for, Crystal were very good - both childcare and the reps. If you knew me you'd know I like to have things to complain about, but.. there's nothing to complain about. Perhaps this was why my husband complained so much about the fact he was not skiing "like a boss" because he had nothing else to complain about either. Everything just went to plan. Shocking.
Okay, so there is one complaint. I wish it didn't cost so much! I wish I could get this enthusiastic over chess or something cheaper.. I know where our spare money (and probably more..) is headed in the future. Thank goodness we live in Hemel and can get a small fix at the Snow Centre!
Oh yes and the other complaint you all know is coming.. why can't I keep up with my six year old?
I haven't sorted out the photos or videos yet but if people are interested I might share a few of them here when I have.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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sparklies, that is one brilliant and wonderfully personal trip report. I read it and smiled all of the way as it took me back to our early days of skiing with the kids, thank you.
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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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sparklies, great trip report - thanks for sharing..
If you've got odd feet then I'd strongly recommend getting your own boots properly, particularly if you might do the odd trip @ hemel. Yes there not cheap but turn it into an Xmas present or something - your enjoyment and development as a skier will improve significantly if you don't go 'ooh my feet hurt' every 5 minutes.
Best place to go is here - http://solutions4feet.com/catalogue_main.php?catID=1062 as Colin CEM on here- has fitted a good number of snowheads boots by appointment.
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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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boredsurfin, yes but the new gondola in Monbtalbert should help ease things in busy periods...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Frosty the Snowman, Cough .
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Thanks all! I have actually already taken a visit to see Colin but it was quite recently and as it was end of season he had to send me away as he had none in my size. Rest assured I have a return in mind!
It was a great time to go skiing as the weather gamble paid off - I think at one point we waited 30 seconds for a lift but most of the time it was ski-on and I never felt we were holding anyone up on a crowded piste. Perfect!
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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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One other thing sparklies, unless you are both teachers then take them out of school.
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| Quote: |
unless you are both teachers then take them out of school.
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+1 If they have otherwise good attendance records, that's by far the best option. Not just because of the cost, but because crowded pistes and lift queues suck. If you MUST ski in school hols (my daughter and son in law are both teachers) then Christmas can represent the best compromise. And getting away from Christmas in the UK brings a whole lot of separate benefits!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Great report sparklies, entertaining and informative 
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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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With kids of those ages take them out of school. Definitely. Cheaper and as pam w says, it's less crowded.
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Yeah, we'll definitely take them out of school next time I think. I was being a bit of a goody two-shoes this time round for no reason at all and it cost us dearly! Our six year old has only missed one day of school since she started 18 months ago due to norovirus so no worries on the attendance front. She's in the process of changing schools for the third time (long story - involves moving house and waiting lists, parents of school-aged children will understand!) and thankfully her new school seems to have a reasonable policy on term time holidays. Although.. we are tempted by Christmas in the mountains. It would be quite magical and definitely a lot less stressful!
Pam - Exactly, so much does depend on the child. I know at 4 I would have probably pushed our oldest to be in Flocon or even 1 star (especially as there was apparently another 4 year old in 1 star according to her) but I know my middle child would not have coped so well just because of who she is. It's no slight on her character, it's just her personality. She's one of life's dreamers!  Age will bring a bit more sense I am sure but not for at least another year or two. I am curious as to how our youngest will be - he does seem a bit more like the oldest so perhaps he will be all over the mountain at four too.
Rope tows are not easy! "Fortunately" they're used to them from Hemel on the nursery slope so they'd probably have been okay. That was one of the things that held them back at Hemel actually - other children who couldn't use them but were probably okay skiing at that level. The poor instructors were picking up exhausted children every few seconds it seems which just slowed the whole class down. Wish they had magic carpets there.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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sparklies, instructors are generally pretty good at stepping firmly on kids that get out of line. They invariably try to ensure the kids control their speed at all times (and the "follow me" approach can work very well here, setting down a good pace and nice round turns). I saw a child overtake an instructor last week - on a pretty steep run. He was firmly told to get back in line, and stay in line. Kids who reckon they know it all - and often just want to go straight down the run - can be a menace. A friend had a terminally smashed knee when she was standing right at the edge of a piste with her 3 year old and one such took her out. So I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about it! 
Christmas in the mountains is lovely but it's early in the season; late January would give you a better chance of decent snow and quieter slopes. And a few more minutes of daylight, which makes a difference.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Glad you had a fab time - super trip report!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The time of the season in terms of snow does worry me a little for Christmas, plus the lack of light although it was frustrating at Easter having the lifts close at 5pm or so and there being another 3 hours of daylight left! But on the other hand.. fireworks! Father Christmas on skis! Real snow on Christmas Day! Something to consider carefully I think.
When I was in Les Menuires second week of January it was COLD. With the windchill at the top of Val Thorens I think it was supposed to be -40C according to Snow Report. I was fine because for the most part my gear worked well enough to keep me warm and when it didn't, I just put up with it as adults who are otherwise having a great time tend to do. But I worry the children wouldn't like it no matter how much we wrapped them up as noses etc still seem to suffer and children's gloves never seem to be quite as hardcore as adult ones. Is it warmer at Christmas? Or would we be better off waiting for a time in March that was not French etc holidays?
Pam - yep, exactly! I am quite sure our four year old would have been told off for mucking about quite firmly if she had, and she'd have obeyed. When an instructor tells her to do things, she usually does what she is told (as I've observed from watching her lessons at Hemel) unless she's really tired or I'm around *sigh*. When we tell her to do stuff, "selective hearing" is an understatement of the year. I nearly blew a gasket with her in just an hour at Hemel alone "No, I want to sit here and eat the snow/make snow angels", "I'm 'too tired' to side step up this tiny slope from the lift, you'll have to push me" yet her instructors usually say her behaviour is fine, often exceptionally good. Which was why we were perfectly happy with her going out with the instructor but far less so with us! Although bribes of hot chocolate worked quite well when we were with her 
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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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Personally we love skiing at Christmas. We've struggled with the cold "on occasion" but not as much as you'd think. We take a mini tree and lights and a reduced sack of pressies. But being away from the pressures of christmas at home and being outdoors a lot at that time of the year is great. If you said I could only ski one of Christmas or Easter I would take Christmas.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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sparklies, it's really hard to say how cold it will be at Christmas. As it happens, having been here lots of Christmases, it's never been very cold. But certainly it's been cold - sometimes very cold - both before and after Christmas, so that's just luck of the draw. Once or twice it's actually been rather mild at Christmas, and a bit drizzly. this last Christmas (2012) it was so warm a few days before Christmas, and with wall to wall sunshine, that we took two little girls, one only 9 months old, up a long chairlift which is usually a chilly one, and they were toastie.
It IS dark though, no getting away from that. Winter solstice, almost! Best to be staying somewhere south facing which gets the sun as long as possible (which is not generally what you want at Easter),
If you can take the kids out of school then I'd agree that March, straight after the school holidays (the third week, next year) is ideal. Low season for French accommodation if you are booking direct and, on average, snow depth will be better than at Christmas.
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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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Fabulous. Great read.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
| sparklies, that is one brilliant and wonderfully personal trip report. I read it and smiled all of the way as it took me back to our early days of skiing with the kids, thank you. |
I'd echo that. Really enjoyed reading it 
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sparklies, Really enjoyed your trip report. The gulley that you mentioned is, I think, somewhere between Cipolla and Pollux (or something like that). Our children discovered it last year, named it 'Death Valley' and adored skiing it. I loathed it as all the turns are too tight for adult skis!
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Thanks all! I love a bit of a ramble and it's always good to record a holiday for posterity beyond the photos too!
Thanks everyone for the great advice on Christmas and other times of year too. Lots to consider and discuss.
foxtrotzulu - Sounds about right! There were some pretty tight turns, no wonder she was keeping up with me easily (that's the excuse I'll give myself, ha ha!) but it was a whole new type of skiing that obviously, due to Hemel curiously lacking in gulleys, I'd not done before. Wouldn't want to do it all the time but I certainly got a lot out of it and want to know of more "safe" ones now! The trouble is the whole time I was thinking "bet we're not covered by insurance.." and remembering those threads on here about avalanches 1cm off the piste or whatever. I assumed our instructor knew what she was doing, and I'd not go hunting for gulleys without expert local advice, but I think it can probably do me no harm to learn a bit more about safety in that area even if I never go anywhere not recommended by an expert.
I went for a ski at Hemel yesterday morning as I was missing it all too much. For some reason, probably due to the last day's exhaustion, I'd felt I'd not improved at all on the holiday but within a few runs at Hemel I realised I had by miles from the week on the mountain. Admittedly the slope was in great condition and practically empty yesterday morning but I was skiing with a confidence and speed there I'd never had before, probably thanks to being used to higher speeds on often cruddier, more random snow all the previous week! It is always good for the self confidence to see a definite improvement especially as so many of the things holding me back with skiing are psychological.
Roll on next season..
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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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Great report, Sparklies! It brought back a few memories of dealing with my guys in their early days 3 or 4 years ago. It was hard work at the time, but I remember it fondly, as at least then I could ski faster than the little blighters!
Re dealing with cold, we find that the "heat pads" that go in gloves are a life saver. The kids seem able to cope with anything cold-wise as long as their fingers are warm. Also, once they are skiing longer distances, don't under estimate how much they need to eat. We shovel food down our guys as though we're stoking the boilers on the Titanic and they're still always on the edge of being hungry.
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Thanks! Yep, it's definitely hard work (thank goodness for ski school in the mornings giving us time to do our own thing in conditions little ones would whine about!) but it reaps dividends. Seeing the big grin on their faces makes it all worth it, it's a hobby they really enjoy. I just wish I could make them understand how lucky they are - I wanted to ski since I was tiny but living in Cornwall and my parents not having a lot of money meant I had to wait until I was an adult!
Good point about the teabag things that go in gloves. I used some myself back in January. Although I'm not so sure about boots, as they complain about cold feet too and they're harder to keep warm.
Six year old was definitely eating like a house!! Mind you, so were we. I was eating waaaay too many calories of cheese and meat and cakes and was stunned to see I hadn't gained any weight when I got home. I used to calorie count so I have a fair idea of what is what, and was genuinely expecting to have gained a few pounds.. clearly skiing steals the calories very sneakily because from past experience you have to do a LOT and it's generally unpleasant to burn off any calories with a sport!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| I just wish I could make them understand how lucky they are |
Seconded. But of course we know it won't happen until they are much older. And of course it's all relative. I was much more fortunate than my parents. How much better can life can for the next generation!
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| Although I'm not so sure about boots, as they complain about cold feet too and they're harder to keep warm. |
You can get boot heaters but I've never used them even though I suffer from cold feet sometimes. It is crucial to make sure they fully dry overnight. We take the kids liners out. And that feet and boots are room temp warm when putting on.
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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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I was eating waaaay too many calories of cheese and meat and cakes and was stunned to see I hadn't gained any weight when I got home. I used to calorie count so I have a fair idea of what is what, and was genuinely expecting to have gained a few pounds.. clearly skiing steals the calories very sneakily because from past experience you have to do a LOT and it's generally unpleasant to burn off any calories with a sport!
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Same for me on trip to Belle Plagne (also with Esprit - brilliant! Will post up a trip report soon.); thought I should have gained about 5 pounds but actually lost a little weight. it's a combination of the cold (forcing your body to generally use more energy to stay warm), and of course 3-6 hours of exercise everyday for a week.
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Layne - Indeed, I was much more fortunate than my parents too! I had swimming lessons, Brownies, a nice big garden to play in! As you say I wonder what it will be like for their children? Lucky sods!!
I sometimes get cold feet myself but some of that could be down to the boot - I'm going to get that looked into. Good tip about letting them fully dry.
boardiac - I never actually felt all that cold but then again, constantly exercising (chairlifts aside..) would do that anyway. I'm normally reasonably active as I do a lot of walking with the pushchair, but of course skiing is that much more intensive and we were on the go from getting out of bed at the crack of dawn getting all the children ready, to bedtime almost. Aside from when we were eating of course!
Looking forward to reading your trip report!
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You know it makes sense.
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boardiac, cold?!? Are you really talking about last week? I found it far too hot.
I did put a 1lb in weight on bu given how well I was eating and drinking I am really impressed by that.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| sparklies wrote: |
6th - 13th April 2013.
So this is a bit of an essay but I know from the amount of research I did before we went that I would have found a lot of this stuff useful as a first timer, hence the big share particularly for anyone else who has not really been before! Plus I have a bit of a habit of blathering on at times..
I'm fairly new to skiing so please forgive any obvious naivety in this report. I have a week in Pamporovo in Bulgaria over ten years ago, then when we moved to Hemel in November I knew I wanted to get back into it again at the Snow Centre. I hadn't anticipated any mountain visits at this point, but after a few weeks of lessons I was sneakily pricing up options and I ran away on my own for a few nights in early January with SkiWeekends in the Three Valleys for a midweek break. When I came back I didn't want to wait another year to go again so I persuaded my husband to throw our savings away on a late Easter skiing break for all of us. My husband had never been skiing and had only had a few lessons at Hemel before this point but this stepped up a bit after booking obviously. He is one of those annoying people who picks stuff up in seconds then complains he is not as good as a professional after five minutes but at least I knew this meant he would be straight out on the proper slopes with me.
We opted for La Plagne 1800 with Crystal, partly because we'd made the decision to go so late we were limited by where there were childcare places available.. and we went with Crystal because it was just so much easier to do stuff in person at the Snow Centre than over the phone.
** if you don't have or care about children, feel free to skip down over the next bunch of paragraphs!
And of course we have our three children - the nearly two year old was obviously not going to be doing much skiing. For the 6 and 4 year old girls, we'd put them through a bunch of weekly group lessons since mid February at Hemel. They've done pretty well there (especially considering sometimes they were in lessons where other parents had been, shall we say, optimistic about their child's level, and there was much standing around waiting for others) and both were at a firm level 6 (reaching level 5 is the "recreational" standard) before we went. They were just as excited to go as we were and have been loving their lessons and for the most part the instruction has been very good indeed.
The original plan was to have the girls in ski school in the mornings and then come skiing with us in the afternoons, but after skiing with my 4 year old just once at Hemel I knew it wasn't going to work. She can ski just fine for her level, but much as I love her, she's away with the fairies most of the time and doesn't understand the black art of, well, listening or appreciating danger. Some of it is her young age, but her sister would have been much more sensible at her age. The stress of yelling "STOP!!!!" every few seconds just did not appeal. So we decided we'd put her in the Crystal childcare for the full day (including the ski school in the morning) and then take her out once or twice with us of an afternoon so she didn't miss out on skiing with us entirely. This turned out to be the best decision we made because she had an absolutely fabulous time in the childcare and kept her little brother who she adores company too. The one day we did take her out we knew we'd made the right decision - she might have enjoyed her afternoon but we are still gibbering wrecks. It did not help the first thing she did was ski at speed into her stationary big sister semi-deliberately "I forgot my pizza mummy" (frankly I do not believe this!) - she never did anything that silly again or even close to it, but after that the trust was broken!
Our 6 year old is another matter. Very sensible, rules-driven and level-headed and also a bit of a speed freak so we knew we'd have no problems and we were right. She kept up with us most of the time (the flats were the main issue) and left me behind several times on steeper slopes. I know you can't put a lot of faith in the Ski Tracks app over speeds, but on a few days I stuck it in her pocket on an old smartphone to see what she was up to.. she did more miles in her ski lesson, including red runs, and at higher speeds (allegedly she hit 35mph a few times) than we did in our rather intensive private lesson! Thanks to her teacher showing her how, she also has a rather alarming tendency to (deliberately) veer off-piste up banks and was over the moon when we showed her a nice long gully just above Plagne Centre our instructor had showed us.. she left my husband for dust down it and would have overtaken me if she could have got past. We're both ridiculously proud of her, given in February she could only do 5 yards down the nursery slope at Hemel.
Before we went, there was some discussion here as to what ESF level they'd go in at. I did email the local ESF and they reassured me that our four year old would not be stuck in the snow garden. Sure enough, she wasn't, although it was a close call. Crystal wanted her in Flocon/Snowflake but ESF said she could not as there were only a few children in Flocon and they were much older and there was nobody to look after a little one, so they stuck her in Piou Piou i.e. mucking about in the snow garden all week. I only spotted this as we were dropping off our oldest as Crystal was handling the 4 year old as part of the Whizzclusive package. I did the whole Pushy Mum thing and asked what was going on, and explained for possibly the millionth time that actually she could ski, so they stuck her in Ourson. To be fair to ESF, it's quite likely they'd have soon realised she could ski and bumped her up anyway but at least this way she was in a better place to begin with.
For the interested, in Ourson she was in the snow garden on the first day, nursery slope outside the snow garden on the second day, third day they went up to Plagne Centre and the nursery slope/boulevard green run there (bus back) and the rest of the week they had a wonderful time on various blue runs around the place. I know because I stuck the Ski Tracks phone on her as well, although ESF did tell Crystal what they got up to too. Her instructor was very nice and good with the children. She was one of the tiniest in her class and usually went with the instructor on the chairlifts which is a good thing as apparently she fell asleep on one of them on the last day. Her instructor did say she was a very good and strong skier and it does seem she should have been in the group above were it not for the practical considerations, so it came as no surprise she got her badge at the end of the week. She had an absolutely wonderful time, was apparently singing to herself as she skied constantly, and when we spotted her out and about we saw she was doing great too with a massive smile plastered on her face. She listens better to her instructor than to us which is why having her with us was just.. unsafe! She did the red run back down into 1800 a few times by the end with no problems when the rest of her class was tumbling around her.
Our six year old was recommended by Crystal to go into 1 Star. After the first lesson her instructor agreed it was the right level. They were out on the mountain from the first minute - I think they spent most of the first day in Plagne Centre doing slalom stuff around cones in the boulevard area but after that they were all over the mountain, including off-piste to the side of runs and I think the odd red run. Her teacher seemed nice but he was definitely cut from the typical ESF instructor mold. I asked her if he said "Bend ze knees" and "Follow me" all the time at all and she blushed and asked how I knew. Regardless, he pushed his class hard and did lots of fun things with them so no complaints from me whatsoever. She had a great time and her only complaint was that they never stopped for snacks but we told her that's what the ride in the gondolas were for and then she learned. She got her 1 Star badge no problems.
I'll stop banging on about the children shortly but before I finish I just want to put in a good word for the Crystal childcare staff in Plagne 1800 in Chalet Rose as they were brilliant. Lovely people who took great care of our youngest (and our four year old when she was there), and had far more patience with him than we do, and particularly as it was their last week too! They took them out every day to interesting places including regular bum boarding in Plagne Centre which all the children adored. They kept a "Ski School Diary" for the four year old and we were presented with all the "art" they'd both done at the end of the week. They also did babysitting in our apartment for 10 euros an hour which was very useful for one evening. We were really happy with the care they both got.
** okay, child-focused bit over!
We flew from Luton to Grenoble on a 7.15 flight - everything was on time, and we got straight on the practically deserted coach the other end. We brought along an inflatable booster for our almost two year old for the coach ride but in light of today's horrible accident I think we'll make the effort for a proper car seat in future as it could make all the difference. We were in resort by around 1pm I think. Our apartment wasn't ready, but they said they would text in half an hour or so when it was, and sure enough they did.
We stayed in the Lauze Apartments, the Silene block to be precise which is one of the ones right at the top. This was a bit of a pain in the backside for lugging stuff back up the hill each day from the childcare at the bottom of the hill, but they did let us keep our skis/boots/helmets in the childcare place which saved a ton of hassle.
From a few TripAdvisor reviews and the fact it's quite low rated, I was not expecting much - a grotty shoebox maybe. But we were pleasantly surprised. It was not a concrete jungle, it was a smartly-built wooden-styled five floor block. The apartment (sleeps 5-6, one double bedroom and sofabeds) was very clean and in great condition especially considering it's end of season. We had a ground floor apartment (thank goodness with the pushchair.. a long story but Crystal were great with arranging this) so no fancy balcony views but it didn't matter as we could see the mountains out the window anyway. There were the usual facilities and a "welcome pack" of washing materials which made life a little easier. The rooms were not big, but until recently we've lived rammed into a tiny two bed place in London so we're kind of used to living small so it didn't bother us. There was enough room for a dining table which we never had in our house due to space anyway! The heating was fine, everything worked.. damn, there was nothing to complain about whatsoever. Except maybe the dripping as the snow thawed onto a metal strip just above the window which was a bit like water torture in the early hours but I was so exhausted I slept anyway.
The non-apartment facilities include dedicated ski lockers, a heated outdoor swimming pool that we were sadly too exhausted to use and a games room. The wifi was 25 euros for the week for up to three devices which was fine. It got a little flakey around peak times (e.g. first thing before lifts open and right after they close) but during the day and later in the evening it was perfectly okay.
We were a five minute walk from the nearest lift/piste/ski school meetup, and a further few minutes from there down to the childcare. Plagne 1800 is ridiculously easy to navigate.
As this was our first family holiday we rented our gear through Crystal, who use a SkiSet franchise called Boudu Sports. This place is apparently one of the better in the La Plagne area, and they were very helpful.. I'd have probably gone with them anyway without Crystal. I have odd feet (wide) and it took three days and three sets of boots before I was happy. One of the ladies who worked in the non-ski-hire part of the shop was particularly friendly with the children and would engage in snowball fights with them outside whilst I was faffing about with boots! The gear was in good condition generally, and aside from my boot issue nobody else had any problems and our skis were great.
We debated trying out the gear on the nursery slope with the free draglift but it was getting late by the time we had everything together and having been up since 3am we were all tired and bickering so we decided to just get dinner instead.
Over the course of the week we ate in Le Loup Blanc a couple of times - nice place, fairly friendly staff, food decent quality and typical prices. Their coffee with chantilly cream was particularly good, and we enjoyed the fondu we had. We also ate in Mamma Mias - but felt slightly uncomfortable in there (like we were intruding. even though we did our best to speak in French) so we got takeout the second time. We also ate in the Lauze restaurant which was fine, albeit deserted and with a limited menu due to end of season! On one occasion we drank in Le Mine pub - they were all very friendly in there but it is a very English pub of course!
On the Thursday night we did the bumboarding with Crystal which was a lot of fun, especially when people took the bumboards to steeper parts of the piste. It's all probably highly dangerous and health and safety blah blah but that was part of the appeal.. seeing the girls in one of those round sledges screaming with laughter was priceless, and the nearly two year old was having the time of his life too.
I should probably mention the skiing. Well, there was a bit of that. Okay, a lot. We had to be back at 12.30 each day to pick up the 6 year old and back by 5 for the other two but it wasn't such a huge deal really. We got plenty of hours of skiing and stopping at mountain restaurants for coffees, crepes etc just as we planned.
As you can probably guess we were blessed with the snow conditions, although it did not feel like it on the first day on the Sunday. Opened the curtains - FOG. And not just any old fog, we're talking "what chairlift ahead of us?/I don't see any piste markers AT ALL" fog. The instructors were complaining. And.. the powder from the day before had frozen. We got to the Melezes chairlift and I could hear this huge noise like a snowboarder the size of a cruise ship approaching.. turned out it was just people coming down the Les Mines run on the frozen snow. Not that you could see this, I am just assuming that's what it was.
So we abandoned the children, got the chairlift, and then another, and prepared to go down our first blue run in the resort.. or for my husband, the first run he'd ever done outside of Hemel. Well, in the fog and the ridiculously hard snow, it didn't take long before he did his first yard sale and frankly I can't blame him. On that subject he did fall over a lot more than me over the course of the week but with the snow conditions so incredibly changeable and the fact that he tends to push his boundaries far more than I do as I am over cautious, I am not at all surprised. He may have fallen over more than me but he also skis faster than me and does far more yard-sale-prone stuff up the side of pistes etc, although by the end I was joining him most of the time. Can I just mention how much I love the term "yard sale"? It brought us much light relief with every fall as to the degree of selling going on!
After lunchtime the fog lifted and brought glorious sunshine, and with our freshly-picked up 6 year old we took her on a variety of blue runs and quickly discovered she was not going to be holding us back.
There was a hairy moment with a chairlift (Verdons Nord - quite a fast one) as I mentioned on another thread where she got overconfident and did not mount correctly and I had to make the choice to let her fall from head height a few yards out, or hold on and have a bigger fall. The chairlift operators were very fast-acting, stopped the lift within seconds (although it felt like hours..) and lifted her back up to us. There were no bad mounts on her part after that, and we knew to look out for her more carefully ourselves too.
The next day the clouds were back but the snow was in reasonable condition and the visibility was a lot better than the previous morning. We had booked a private lesson with Reflex after reading recommendations here for days 2 and 4 - 2.5 hour lessons each time. Unfortunately my boots were killing me at that point, and I spent a lot of the first lesson thinking about the pain rather than my technique, but I know my husband got a lot out of the lesson. She was a really good instructor, very patient, knew her stuff and always seemed to know what was going on in my head - things I thought were imperceptible that I'd forgotten to do, but she'd spot them. She took us on our first red runs (I'd never dared venture onto one before as I'd been a bit wobbly on some of the higher up blues in Val Thorens in January, so I had nightmare visions of what a red run must look like.. nightmares turned out to be totally not true!) and we coped just fine.
The fog returned that afternoon and we had an "interesting" time coming down Pavane when we couldn't find the markers or indeed the edges or see much of what the snow was doing. There were a few yard sales involved, none with me but that was through sheer luck!
The next day involved a lot of snow. We had a wander over to Champagny down some easy blues which we both really enjoyed. We then made the mistake of dragging our six year old in the afternoon up to Roche de Mio to do the Tunnel run. We didn't realise quite what a blizzard it was up there - I was fine with it, she was not. There were "complaints". And a frozen ponytail. And a few arguments. And no way to tell where the Tunnel piste went and which was the red run.. there was some backtracking. In the poor visibility there was no easy way to see the bottom of slopes so we never knew when we had to schuss to get across flats so there was an awful lot of slow, whiney progress through the blizzard and requests to "go home".
Thank goodness then that at around 4.30pm the sun came out, visibility returned, and we did a series of blues from the top of Colossus down to 1800. By the time we reached 1800, she was having a tantrum that we had to stop skiing because she'd been enjoying it so much over the last half an hour!
Day 4 and after snowfall in the night it was a powder day with blue skies and several explosions much to the amusement of our six year old who couldn't quite believe that people were blowing poo-poo up. It was absolutely perfect - the pistes were near empty, and covered in glorious powder. We had our second lesson with the great instructor from Reflex, and she took us all around Le Grande Rochette including a bit of off-piste. I had my first fall of the holiday when she told us to follow her into the powder.. a bona-fide face plant. I am sure she knew that was coming. But she also took us down a fun gully just off Pollux (no Milka cow all week, sob) near the Verdons Nord chair lift bottom.. and for the first time my grumpy husband admitted he had found something "fun" although he retracted it as soon as I pointed this out. Didn't stop him angling to go back there for the rest of the week though, which we did on a few occasions!
In the afternoon we brought the four year old out with us and as I documented earlier, this was hugely enjoyable for her and quite painful for us, although she managed just fine really, it's just our nerves knowing she doesn't always listen.
Days 5 and 6 did not quite have the same glorious powder, but the conditions were pretty good afternoon slush aside (did not like the rain on day 5) and we did the Tunnel under better circumstances. On the last morning I had my second and final fall on a long and steep crud-filled blue run into Champagny which was probably due to exhaustion and the onset of a new cold more than anything else as I had forgotten all I'd learned all week. We all had a go down the half pipe above Plagne Bellecotte. Sadly we ran out of time to do it again.
The transfer back was fine, mostly empty coach. I am never going through Grenoble again though. What a total shambles. I've done a lot of travelling in my life and I've never seen an airport as wee wee poor as this one for organisation. Nobody knew where they were going/what they were doing at all. Easyjet were just fine though, they have been every time I've flown with them.
It's safe to say we all had a brilliant time which exceeded our expectations. Despite my husband grumbling (it's nearly all related to the fact he can't do black runs standing on one leg after just six days on snow, but believe me he's doing amazing considering he could not ski at all a few months ago) he was pricing up trips for next year before I'd even switched my computer on when we got back which is a miracle and means the holiday could not have gone better.
We really enjoyed La Plagne. It was perfectly suited to our ability, the resort seemed (from my limited experience) well run, the ESF was fine, the apartments better than hoped for, Crystal were very good - both childcare and the reps. If you knew me you'd know I like to have things to complain about, but.. there's nothing to complain about. Perhaps this was why my husband complained so much about the fact he was not skiing "like a boss" because he had nothing else to complain about either. Everything just went to plan. Shocking.
Okay, so there is one complaint. I wish it didn't cost so much! I wish I could get this enthusiastic over chess or something cheaper.. I know where our spare money (and probably more..) is headed in the future. Thank goodness we live in Hemel and can get a small fix at the Snow Centre!
Oh yes and the other complaint you all know is coming.. why can't I keep up with my six year old?
I haven't sorted out the photos or videos yet but if people are interested I might share a few of them here when I have. |
That is one helluva report
Anything else you can tell us?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| peanuthead wrote: |
That is one helluva report
Anything else you can tell us? |
 That there's no obligation to read it?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I got halfway..
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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peanuthead, did you choose that moniker yourself or is it a nickname? Just askin'.
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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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I enjoyed reading it
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So did I.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| sparklies wrote: |
Okay, so there is one complaint. I wish it didn't cost so much! I wish I could get this enthusiastic over chess or something cheaper.. I know where our spare money (and probably more..) is headed in the future.....
Oh yes and the other complaint you all know is coming.. why can't I keep up with my six year old?
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Reality check - all your spare cash is now gone forever, and if you can't keep up with a 6 year old, you won't have a chance by the time she hits 10 or 11. You will get a little bit better every year. She will advance exponentially. My wee one started at 6 in 2008. This year she was skiing backwards down blacks videoing me making a hash of going forwards
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| peanuthead wrote: |
| I got halfway.. |
Have you been checked for ADHD? I thought it was a good post. As FTS said, made me smile thinking of our first trip in similar circumstances.
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Thornyhill, it was a good post
And in fairness a lot of work went into it. In fact more work I would say then any other posti have ever read anywhere
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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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sparklies, So have you booked for Chritsmas 
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FAQ
I think a lot of us know that feeling! It is possible to do it cheaper, of course and generally in school holidays it is a lot cheaper to DIY - and not difficult after the first time, when you know what to expect. Easter is low season in France and accommodation is as cheap as it gets (and pistes generally uncrowded). Though Easter is a bit late next year for anywhere but the highest resorts. You would find a very different scene at half term!
Gory accidents, ski lift dramas, avalanches? 
