Author Topic: The Ski Locker thread (Read 127059 times)

Feanor · « **Reply #575 on:** 08 January, 2018, 11:48:18 am »

We had a mixed week.

First few days we had deep fresh powder every day; it was great.
Then one day where the uplift was all closed on account of high winds.
Then the temperature rose, and we had heavy rain.

This turned the light powder into very heavy going, which then froze into a very hard crust overnight.
So the last 2 days were mostly on-piste, because the off-piste was such hard going.

BA mislaid our skis both there and back!
So we had to rent on day 1.

Catered chalet was excellent ( we had it to ourselves as a party of 8 ).
I seem to have brought a bottle of Génépi home with me!

Ham · « **Reply #576 on:** 08 January, 2018, 11:58:43 am »

wondered what it was going to be like for you, where were you? Chalet sounds like Meribel is most likely? VT was likely a bit rough with the winds.

Génépi - nominative determinism strikes again (although I've never met a Gene)

Feanor · « **Reply #577 on:** 08 January, 2018, 01:51:53 pm »

We were in Meribel Village, which is on a dogleg off the main road up to Meribel Centre and Mottaret.
There was good snow down that low, which is fairly unusual.

We went over to VT a couple of days, and Courchevel also.
However the 3-valleys interconnects were closed due to high winds on a couple of days too.

Pingu · « **Reply #578 on:** 08 January, 2018, 11:00:39 pm »

We're off to Méribel on Saturday. Anything new since we were last there, three years ago?

Feanor · « **Reply #579 on:** 09 January, 2018, 07:59:14 pm »

The biggest thing will be the sheer quantity of sno.

The only thing I've noticed is the new Plattieres lift, but I think that's more than 3 years old.
It was there last time we were, so I expect you've already seen it.

The old 3-section gondola with egg-shaped cabins and Disney character signage has been retired, and replaced with a much higher capacity gondola which goes up as far as the old Plattieres 2 station.
The upper section to Plattieres 3 has been replaced with a seperate stand-alone gondola.

This has pretty much eliminated the mahoosive queues that used to form in Motteret at certain times of day.

Pingu · « **Reply #580 on:** 18 January, 2018, 03:19:38 pm »

Oops

2018-01-18_03-10-02 by The Pingus, on Flickr

Torslanda · « **Reply #581 on:** 18 January, 2018, 04:46:02 pm »

Garth: '. . . and then you can . . . <garbled/drowned out by landing 747> until the handle breaks off and you have to go to the ER!'

Wayne: 'You kiss your mother with that mouth . . . ?'

hatler · « **Reply #582 on:** 21 January, 2018, 10:22:54 pm »

A sneaky four days in Flaine. Three days of fair to good vis and then snow on the last day. Third day we took a guide and had a glorious, if slightly frustrating day. Covered lots of ground but the guide wasn't willing to get too far ahead of us, which meant no blatting, so we had to derive our pleasure from practising precise and controlled turns, but only two, perhaps three or four in a row. He did take us down one route we've been aiming to do for about four years now, so that was splendid.

Last day was spectacular, only one lift open but we know the area well enough to get a mostly different route down almost every time we did it (and I think we had 12 lifts in a slightly shortened day). One thing we did discover is that once one set of people have been down an off-piste route, it doesn't take long before it's skied out.

Pingu · « **Reply #583 on:** 22 January, 2018, 09:44:02 pm »

We were in Méribel in the Trois Vallées last week. We didn't see much sun, but the snow was the best we've had for a few years. For three days the links to the other valleys were shut due to winds/avalanche risk. On one of those days only a handful of lower lifts were open. Still, we had lots of good skiing and managed to find some craft beer just a couple of minutes walk away from the chalet

On transfer home day we were taken back to the airport really early because of the possibility of snow. The travel company gave us free train tickets into Geneva. We didn't see a huge amount, but it beat sitting around an airport for hours.

ETA:

Some foties here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_pingus/albums/72157662862079057

Some tracks here: https://ridewithgps.com/users/166313/activities

Jakob · « **Reply #584 on:** 23 January, 2018, 02:15:01 am »

http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Mount-Baker/6day/mid

I know where I'm going this weekend.

Greenbank · « **Reply #585 on:** 19 February, 2018, 12:42:46 pm »

5.5 days skiing in Font Romeu (in the Pyrenees). Very learner friendly resort, plenty of greens and blues which is useful when going with children.

Good snow, mixed weather (two days of sun, one day of light snow all day, another cloudy day, rain/hail for half a day, then sun for last day and a bit). Resort is quite compact and low (1700-2200m) and mostly within the tree line so visibility is rarely bad. Resort relatively quiet despite being UK half term, it filled up as we were leaving as both the French and Spanish half terms kicked in.

Half term skiing on the cheap[1]. Easyjet flights to Montpellier, rental car and a 3h drive each way, self-catered apartments 400m from the telecabine (that's a fair trudge with 2 sets of adult skis there and back every day but strapping them to the rucksack using the compression straps works well!)

Third week for MiniGB (8yo) and she's happy winding her way down anything (including a few black runs as long as they're not too choppy) but plenty more technique to be learned for her. I love the fact that the children have no fear of the sound of edges on ice - the less experienced adults get spooked by this but the children just dig their edges in and carry on blissfully unaware.

My Strava heatmap shows I've skied pretty much every bit of piste in the resort at least once (will tick off the last bits if/when we go back next year) but far from bored of it, probably a couple of years left in the place before we look for something bigger and less learner friendly.

1. 4 adults and 4 children probably £5k all in, including eating out most nights. (We were quoted £13k for a catered chalet in Tignes during the same week and that didn't include ski hire and lift passes. Oof.)

Ham · « **Reply #586 on:** 19 February, 2018, 06:22:38 pm »

That 5k include lift passes? Looks like a good half term option, but we tend to have been spoiled by the extent of the 3 Valleys, Espace Killy and the like. Another excellent one we went to a few years back was Val Cenis. Again excellent skiing for all levels, looks more extensive than Font Romeu, was quite cheap for French resorts at the time (and left me with a yet-to-be-scratched itch to cycle over Col d'Iseran, along with Col de Mont Cenis it is a part of)

hatler · « **Reply #587 on:** 19 February, 2018, 08:33:24 pm »

Oh boy. Just back from a week in Avoriaz. Haven't skied there in years so we wanted a guide to show us round. We left it far too late and could only find one guide for one day.

Saturday, snowy, grey.
Sunday, ditto.
Monday, dump dump dump.
Tuesday, glory be. 2' of fresh snow, not a cloud in the sky, and, we have the guide for the day. Haven't had a day like that in years, and we've had more than our fair share of epic runs of late. We'd had our money's worth in the first half hour. We effectively did the tour of the Portes du Soleil off piste in mostly deep and untouched snow. And the best bit was that my regular ski buddy and I were both able to share it with our respective elder kids. Mini-hatler had a ball.
Wednesday, we attempt the tour with the full three-family complement. Beautiful weather. Too many people to corral and we got far enough behind schedule (combined with a long lunch) that we turned back on our tracks not quite half way round. Still, a beautiful day.
Thursday, pissing rain. At least the pistes were clear. Great fun despite the poor visibility. The biggest impediment to my skiing was that my ski-troos were sopping wet and bending legs was problematic due to the clinging fabric.
Friday, still too mild but no real rain, and vis was poor again so pistes remained clear. Stayed in the trees and had a ball (and a monster lunch).

Greenbank · « **Reply #588 on:** 19 February, 2018, 09:02:22 pm »

Quote from: Ham on 19 February, 2018, 06:22:38 pm

That 5k include lift passes?

Yep, the family deal and a 10% discount for buying them more than 2 weeks in advance meant we paid ~€150 each for them (the family deal means the adults pay the child rate of €166 instead of the adult rate of €192, then apply the 10% discount).

For us (me, wife, 8yo daughter) it was something like:-
* Flights: £350
* Rental Car: £215 (including diesel for the ~600km of driving)
* Lift passes: £410
* Ski hire: £250 (20% discount thanks to deal with accommodation)
* Lessons for MiniGB: £85 (shared 5 x 2h lessons with proper ESF instructor with her 3 cousins)
* Accommodation: £650
* Food/Drink/etc: £300

Similar for my brother but proportionally more for flights, lift passes, ski hire and lessons as he has 3 kids. Maybe a shade over £5k for the 8 of us as it doesn't include some other things like airport parking. Accommodation was the same as we just borrowed my niece to make it 2 adults + 2 kids per apartment.

Cheap/basic accommodation (self catering studio apartments with bunk beds in the hallway for the kids) and getting in early with the (Easyjet) flights (to a non-obvious destination for skiing - Montpellier) was the key, also going Sun-Sat to keep the flight costs down, still got 5 full days and one day until 1pm of skiing in (could have pushed it to 2pm as we arrived at the airport an hour before check-in opened but erred on the side of caution as the weather was changeable).

A sprawling ski area like 3 Valleys or Espace Killy would just be a waste when going with children aged 10, 8, 7 and 6. A combination of lesson timings (and having to be back at base to pick them up ~11.30am), feeding them, and their subsequent tiredness means you'd never get to explore anywhere near all of it. It's definitely on the list for when they're all older though. I love the skiing at both of them, and I do miss the long runs with lots of elevation change, the most you can do in one go is ~500m elevation drop in Font Romeu.

Pippa · « **Reply #589 on:** 24 February, 2018, 02:23:27 pm »

Off to Val d'Isere tomorrow. It's looking a bit, well, chilly next week!

First time back on skis since I caught an edge last year resulting in my arm basically falling out

Am sure it will all be fine...if not, there is plenty of apres to keep me amused

Jurek · « **Reply #590 on:** 28 February, 2018, 06:47:41 pm »

Quote from: Pippa on 24 February, 2018, 02:23:27 pm

Off to Val d'Isere tomorrow. It's looking a bit, well, chilly next week!

First time back on skis since I caught an edge last year resulting in my arm basically falling out

Am sure it will all be fine...if not, there is plenty of apres to keep me amused

Chapeau to your bravery / foolhardery.
I hope you have a very fine time.

Pingu · « **Reply #591 on:** 16 March, 2018, 05:13:40 pm »

Jings!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-43422186/skiers-jump-from-speeding-lift-in-georgia

Greenbank · « **Reply #592 on:** 09 October, 2018, 07:55:24 am »

Just booked flights for the Pyrenees again in the Feb half term.

Probably the last year at this small resort (see above) as the children will probably have outgrown it by 2020.

But....Woo!

Ham · « **Reply #593 on:** 09 October, 2018, 08:21:26 am »

We've got Val Thorens booked for Christmas, with Miss Ham & new baby. Mrs Ham's knees have taken a turn for the worse over the last year (and they weren't up to much last year) so has been booked in for baby sitting sessions. Apparently it isn't the done thing to actually sit on them, who knew?

Pingu · « **Reply #594 on:** 09 October, 2018, 09:21:08 am »

We're booked into Val d'Isere for a week in January.

Greenbank · « **Reply #595 on:** 17 October, 2018, 01:20:20 pm »

And just booked a 3.5 day boys trip to Flims in $witzerland in late March. Woo. (Ouch, my liver.)

Ham · « **Reply #596 on:** 29 November, 2018, 10:08:54 pm »

Sno has arrived in ValT, which is just as well.

And, if this was anyone other than Candide Thovex I'd say that there was some digital manipulation going on, as it is I'm not sure there isn't a little bit here and there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHrwcQQ38bA

hatler · « **Reply #597 on:** 30 November, 2018, 07:30:48 am »

I wouldn't like to be his knees.

Ham · « **Reply #598 on:** 02 December, 2018, 11:48:30 am »

OK.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocW6mxEmXgw

could well be in the "Never in a million years"

Somewhat disappointingly, it appears he didn't use K2 skis. I'd live to see a lull length version of that, 7 hours descent....

Ham · « **Reply #599 on:** 09 December, 2018, 07:04:16 pm »

Heads up just in case anyone is interested, I'm selling my 164 Salomon Streetracer 10's on eBay, pm if you would like details might be useful if you needed summat like that, I don't expect them to make much and could end the listing.