The upside to 7 Laux : it's close to Grenoble city centre
The downside to 7 Laux: ditto, so Wednesdays get the local school kids and the weekends are busy as.
What about skiing is it any good? Worth it?
Never been myself, but some people I know absolutely love the place. There's quite a high proportion of reds and blacks, which may or may not be what you're looking for.
No personal experience but from the where to ski and snowboard book
Les Sept-Laux
Family resort near Grenoble with pretty slopes and a modern lift system, these days promoted more often as Les 7 Laux. The main resort, with quite a bit of accommodation, is Prapoutel in the woods at 1350m; across the mountainside is another lift base at Pipay, at 1550m, and on the back of the hill is a third entry point at Le Pleynet. There is easy skiing at resort level, but the mountain as a whole is challenging. We're very sceptical of the resort's claim of 120km of pistes.
Text copied from an image via Google lens, so may have some slight inaccuracies.
@ffati hope this is helpful.
Kvitfjell or Hafjell for a few days in January?
This excellent report from Denfinella over on snowheads covers Les 7 Laux avec several other nearby resorts. Denfinella's trip reports are usually very detailed and accurate
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=158109 https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=158109
Les Arcs in two weeks. I've bought snow chains, booked the eurotunnel, and am obsessively checking the snow reports.
Sounds pretty good! Though have since found a good deal in st gervais which i love but 7laux sounds pretty awesome.
I have skied at Les 7 Laux, although it was only for 1 day and it was maybe 15 years ago. It was fine and we skied all over the area and skied all day. 1st lift up, last lift up too. I remember there was a nice bowl to drop into at the very top with along run down that was not pisted when we were there. We parked at Prapoutel, had a nice quick breakfast, and then went for an explore. I would go back, but a week might be stretching it without kids or with older kids. If I still had younger kids it would be perfect.
Might have to start a seperate thread for this as its a bit 'off piste' so to speak...
Has anyone here had experience of the their kids choosing skiing as one of their selected sports for GCSE? Advice for the school is vague as no pupils have gone with this option before.
We have to submit videos for a selection of skills, some quite simple like putting skiis on and off again, schuss, wide parallel turns etc.
However, there is a competitive element to it, which is where advice is not overly helping. The guidelines state slalom for example is acceptable and that the competitive aspect could be related to racing others or just the environment. We can video her at a timed slalom at the resort but would this be enough?
For clarity, she's a competent red run skiier but nothing more i.e. she's never raced and skiis just one week per year.
Any thoughts appreciated
@cb are you near to an indoor Snowzone or something like that? The often have a slalom club that let kids train / race weekly my daughter did this and it improved her overall technique greatly.
When you are at a resort also ask if there are any open kids races, we've stumbled across these a couple of times, nothing serious put on a bib and have a go affairs rather than something serious.
2 things.
1) Most likely the accessor won't know what they are doing. Simply due to it not being a very common choice. (I was told that by very experienced accessory)
2) Racing / competition is a major portion of the grade. You need to have footage. It's can be tricky to get out on the real snow if you are just a holiday maker so maybe do a few nights in a dry slow race training class and film that.
Very best of luck to your kid. Have fun.
In Flaine the ESF arrange a weekly Fleche race that anyone can enter. It's timed and depending how close to "their skier's" time you are, you get an award of gold, silver or bronze. Other resorts might well do this
There's also a small ski school that only use the race piste and focus entirely on race technique
For clarity, she’s a competent red run skiier but nothing more i.e. she’s never raced and skiis just one week per year.
This is not the definition of a good sport to be choosing for GSCE PE. I'm assuming you're picking this as the third sport?
FWIW, here's the mark scheme for the AQA board exams -
https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/physical-education/gcse/physical-education-8582/specification/scheme-of-assessment
The full context assessment is essentially a competitive environment, so she needs to start doing that.
She'll need to demonstrate skills too - so some coaching to get some drills to demonstrate would be useful.
source: wife is a PE teacher. She gets a lot of students picking PE as they think it's easy. It's not.
@ffati Les 7 laux is a great ski area. Never stayed there. But it's one of my local ski areas. The off piste is good, and plenty of variance in orientation and difficulity of slopes. It does get all the local kids....because it's the best. It's just as big as many other popular resorts, that I just don't get the hype for: Couramyeur for example. It's subjective, but if it was new to me, I wouldn't want to ski there for more than say 3 times in a row. Other good resorts though....Correncon en Vercors for example, part of Espace Villard can be absolutely sublime with a completely different feel to typical alps skiing.
Perfect thanks for that would be there for atleast a week so possibly not the best fir us
There are a few threads on Snowheads re PE : Skiing. If it hasn't already been said.
Also habitually checking weather and webcams and not doing any work.
Off on 27th La Plagne. Looking okay at the moment.
Kvitfjell or Hafjell for a few days in January?
@thegeneralist - neither really on my radar. Hafjell has a rep for a good park, Kvitfjell for lift access off piste (but not epic). Decent snow common, access to either and not far between them so could do both fairly easily if you're in the area. What's the logic of those over other areas in Norway?
Kvitfjell for lift access off piste (but not epic).
Ooh, now we're talking. TBH lift served off piste is all I'm interested in.
Decent snow common, access to either and not far between them so could do both fairly easily if you’re in the area. What’s the logic?
Good question. I should have added the relevant detail that it is mainly an ice climbing trip but that we'll probably do some skiing if it gets all fresh. Looking at Gudbrandsdalen area for ice.
We have booked a last minute NY week in Val d'Isere. a relative bargain on an apartment, so plus passes is about £2000 for a week for 4 of us, but the real stinger is there is no parking available to book anywhere in the resort. I have booked a space in Tignes Brevieres! I will have to park and get the shuttle bus if it is running, or a taxi. We're driving from Scotland so don't fancy any unnecessary hassle.
I have emailed chasing up a Val d'Isere parking spot. Fingers crossed...
@troutwrestler the Tignes app suggests the bus has started (as of 30/11). But not very frequent. If you download and install it you should be able to see the same.
Thanks, I can see the bus details. As it is we will arrive at Tignes Brevieres late morning, leave the stuff in the car. Go for ski, ski back to the car, take the car out the car park and drive around to check in/unload. I'll then drive back to TB, dump the car, and try to bus it back. We will probably leave after skiing on Friday, so will have everything packed up. We'll ski to get the car at the end of the day, drive back to Vd'I, fill it and bolt.
I am a little bit incredulous that there is apparently no paid parking available.
If Val is anything like Tignes, there is little pre-bookable parking but a lot of available on the day you arrive parking that you can then leave your car in all week so i would definately try in Val before you park in les brevieres.
We have driven up from bourg for the day quite a few times and always parked easily in La Daille in Val. More recently we have driven out for the week to Tignes many times and never pre book parking as they only offer covered expensive spots to pre-book and there aren't many of them, There have always been spots in the public carparks. PLus the parking people will always find you a space if you have accomodation booked for the week. I would have though Val is similar since they patrol the street parking quite aggressively.
I would ask the person who owns the air BnB you are renting
You can pre-book open-air car parks in both Tignes and Val d'Isere. There are a lot of places but on some very busy days, notably New Year everything fills up if there's good weather so if you try to book a week with those busy days in it the app will show full. Try booking just for the day you arrive or for shorter periods and see how you get on.
Thanks for the advice. The rental agency and the Tourist Office say contact the parking people. The parking people say:
Good morning,
I'm sorry, all online car parks are full for the requested period.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,
Not exactly helpful or expansive. The Tourist Office said that there "may" be spaces available on the, but after a 1500 mile drive, I would like a bit of certainty. Currently I am certain I can park in Brevieres, and I am certain it will a bit of hassle. In the grand scheme of things it isn't the end of the world, but I would currently take ANY car park in Vd'I, as I could walk back to the apartment from anywhere in the resort. Getting a relatively short local taxi ride on changeover day may well be difficult.
There's a shuttle bus:
Edit: Oops that's very out of date. I'll try again:
Are you renting an Air BnB? I would message the owner if you are, they are generally really helpful and i would think its a common question!
edit: if you are parking in brevieres it’s relatively easy to ski across to Val. If you arrive in the morning you could drive straight to your apartment and unload, drive back to Brevieres and easily make it back to Val before the lifts shut.
The bus from Breivieres to Le Lac will be running even if the lifts from Breviere aren’t. From Tignes Le lac it’s basically two lifts and two runs into the middle of Val. The last lifts are quite late as people regularly ski between the two areas. If bad weather shuts the link then they put extra buses on.
Thank you @ceepers & @Edukator. I am not AirBnBing it, I have booked via a Val d'Isere based rental agency, but they can't help (they say on their website that can, but when push comes to shove...)
I have just had a call from a very nice lady at the Tourist Office who has told me not to worry. Only 40% of the Parking spots are available for pre-booking, so I should get a space and, even if the carparks are full, I am to talk to the Police and they will tell me where to park and not ticket me. Seems almost to good to be true, although I might end up in the layby at Pont St Charles! On her advice I am to cancel the Breviere parking booking.
The main issue with Breviere parking is I can't check in until after 5pm, by which time the lifts are closed and the bus up from Brevire to Tignes 1800 needs to dovetail with the not-very-frequent bus back the Vd'I.
We are overnighting it in Grenoble on 27th, so I will be unpopular turfing the family out of bed at 6am to make it up to Vd'I early, but needs must.
Plan is:
26th - Glasgow to Dover, cross channel, Hotel in Calais.
27th Calais to Grenoble, Supermarket, early night.
28th Grenoble to Vd'I early, aiming to ski for the day then check into apartment.
3rd Ski all day, then pack car and drive to Annecy.
4th Annecy to Ashford (Kent)
5th Drive back to Scotland
6th Back to work for a rest.
There you go! I would just trust the tourist office lady. It matches our experience in Tignes. We arrived late in Tignes Val Claret once ( 9pm) and couldn’t find a space in the main open car park. There was a parking guy waiting around who took us to a space elsewhere in the village ( & in the end closer to our apartment!)
Every other time ( all half term or Easter so busy weeks ) we have just found space in the obvious main car parks.
It’s a great area & already has good snow! Make sure you go up the Soleil side and do the “up n over” chair into the next valley. You need to experience an overpriced beer in the Folie Douce at least once also!
The last time we skied in Tignes we timed the journey to arrive at 05:00 (thus avoiding the trafic jams) and found a place in the underground car park at the Tignes chair lift. A few hours sleep in the car then up the steps to buy a forfait and off skiing. We moved to a cheaper open air car park as places started freeing off at the end of the day and left it there for the week. We left just just before New Year and the car park was full as we left.
I live down in the valley and drive up to work in Tignes and Val d'Isere throughout the season. I have a reserved parking place in Tignes but not in Val. I have never, even at New Year or during half-term, been unable to find a space in Val. I used to park in La Daille and get the bus to meet clients in the centre, but eventually realised it wasn't worth the hassle. The bus plus the walk from the car park to the bus stop meant leaving the house as much as 20 mins earlier while parking in the underground car park smack in the centre was only a couple € more per day.
The only exception to this was one Christmas/New Year period where there was a train strike going on so a lot of French and British tourists made last-minute decisions to drive instead and it was total chaos.
If you arrive mid-day, you may well find the car parks pretty busy. Before 9am or after 5pm you shouldn't have any issues (i.e. when all the day workers like myself aren't around). Definitely cancel space in Brev, you'll be fine.
EDIT: Why are you overnighting in Grenoble though? If you have friends / family there, fair enough, otherwise it's well out of the way. As well as being a pig to drive in/out of at busy times.
26th – Glasgow to Dover
I've done that journey many times but never on Boxing day. Even in the height of summer, it's always a disaster at some point.
Good luck!
Woah, that is a lot of driving to do, good luck Trouty!
I'm excited about heading out on the 18th, 1 month to go..
Looking forward to it. I have skied Espace Killy a few times. I was there for NYE 1997, and have been back a couple of times pre-kids. The last time I was there we booked from Teletext! This is the first time with the kids.
We are driving back out at Easter for a Paradiski week followed by an Alpe d'Huez week. They really do not know that they are born. Driving out makes 2 weeks at Easter decent value, and 2 weeks makes driving out bearable. We are always on the bargain prowl. The 2 weeks at Easter combined, accom and passes is £2250 for 4 of us. Bring on the Salle Hors Sac at lunch!
Forecast looking quite nice
Make sure you go up the Soleil side and do the “up n over” chair into the next valley.
It's a great experience. Last season I was lucky enough to be there on the day they opened the near-mythical TK3000 drag lift and the tunnel that was the original way in to the Fornet valley.
https://www.valdisere.com/en/experiences/top-5-most-engaged-ski-slopes/
Old footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3uFDhBQj7Q
I've been skiing since the millenium and first skiied Val d'Isere almost 20 years ago, but that's the first time I've ever known the tunnel to open, and I can't say the teleski has opened all that frequently either. It was a great experience, worth doing if you're happy on a black piste
Classic standard wtap
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Edit: love this forum software
Over a meter due in Tignes over the next few days, we arrive tomorrow night so getting marginally excited 😉
Looking pretty good out there right now - I'm following the webcams and reports from Flaine as that's our destination, and reports are that most of the resort is closed due to the extreme avalanche risk from the sheer amount of snow that's fallen.
Yeah looked at Tignes yesterday and everyone was in the village, with no lifts running. Looks similar this morning too.
