The STW Ski & Snowboard thread. The 2014-2015 season

Does anyone have recommendations for a place to park up a motorhome in the summer so that we can ski a glacier in the mornings and ride bikes in the afternoons?

Looking to take the family this summer and plan to do a a week or so ski/biking and then relocate over to Northern Spain.

Well in France it’s:

Val d’Isère et son glacier du Pissaillas,
Tignes et le glacier de la Grande Motte,
Les 2 Alpes et le glacier du même nom,
l’Alpe d’Huez sur le glacier du Pic Blanc.

Most resorts have a car park somewhere for campers though you may have to pay a modest sum and it might not be the most pittoresque place.

My personal choice would be Tignes.

Some good news exupmonkey, it’s been snowing fairly hard in Whistler and there is, probably, more coming. 😀

But… the freezing level is still pretty high up the mountain, around 1400m I’d guess, so below that it is falling as rain. 🙁
And the High Alpine is stormbound with high winds and snow. No lifts running above Emerald. And the bowls are closed till they can finish blasting. 🙁

But… they did manage to get Harmony open briefly this morning and everyone swarmed over there like a pack of freshie-starved dogs, whooping and hollering as we tore the place up. 😆
If they get the top open tomorrow it’ll be a good day. 😀

Tignes would be good. Great for kids in the summer and lifts are free.

OK Graham, some goodish news there, thanks. just this minute arrived at our budget hotel so a quick unpack and head out for provisions and beer. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!

Nice day on Cairngorm today – well over 1,000 happy folk up. The freestyle area was looking complete by the time we left so should be good for the comps this weekend.

Forecast for the next couple of days is looking mighty fine too.

Day one at Whistler and yes, compared to last year conditions are pretty pants but we kept high, Chrystal Chair and Jersey Cream and had an absolute blast, blue sky day helped right enough! Great day followed by some of Whistler Real Ales finest….. luxury!!

Scotroutes – It was fantastic up Cairngorm. I’m surprised there were as many as 1000 up – we were there in the afternoon and didn’t have to wait in a single queue!

Raining again so I thought I’d share this little video of me from yesterday.

You know that thing when you are just cruising along enjoying the snow and then you suddenly fall into a great big hole?

Luckily the massage girl at the Longhorn was able to ease my strains 🙂

Raining in the valley Graham, but puking at the Roundhouse. Alpine closed today so tomorrow should be a good un.

Edit: Really hope you’re not flying back tomorrow after saying that…

Here for another week yet wnb. Didn’t bother going up today since nothing above Emerald was open and everything below Emerald is pretty wet. Tomorrow should be good though – might do First Tracks.

Went out today, pretty brutal to be honest, sleet, rain, wind and a wee bit of sunshine. Still had a blast though, despite only having a couple of runs to play with on Whistler Mountain. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Lyngen Alps Photstravaganza!

scotroutes – Member
Nice day on Cairngorm today – well over 1,000 happy folk up. The freestyle area was looking complete by the time we left so should be good for the comps this weekend.

Forecast for the next couple of days is looking mighty fine too.

POSTED 1 DAY AGO # REPORT-POST

Was up there yesterday and the weather was glorious, but with only 1 proper tow open in the ptarmigan bowl, it was a bit of a queue fest 🙁

The competition was good though.

Those photos are stunning.

Lyngen Alps

Wow. Stunning.

Cheers!

Couple more from Andy’s fb set:

Holmbuktinden:

about to swim around the buoy and back:

Pretty

All looked great till I saw the word “swim”. Not even with a triathlon wetsuit.

It wasn’t that bad, actually. Until I got out, anyway. Adrenaline did the trick for long enough to get me out and back, but I went a bit quiet for a while afterwards!

Hey Ned

Why don’t you just **** off with your photos.

Me envious, noooooo……

Nice photos btw, looks like a superb destination. Hope you had a good ‘un. Git. 😀

Well, I’m back. We stayed in a chalet run by Family Ski[/url] in Reberty 2000…around 5 or 6 hairpins up from Les Menuires, just off the road to Val Thorens. Reberty 2000 is both situated at 2000m and was built in the year 2000. It’s a pretty sleepy little village, only 2 pubs/restaurants and quite a few chalets run for families (skifamille have a few chalets here too).

It was a first time for us in Les 3 Vallées, not having been to France since a shit week in Montgenevre around 15 or 16 years ago. I knew it was a big area, but had no idea just how enormous a skiing area it is. Hence, I didn’t get near quite a bit of the stuff our lift pass covered. Snow conditions were good, as long as we stayed up high. They were slushy (though not “wet”) lower down, which was ok on the board, but a bit slowing at times. I boarded with skiers from our chalet (I was the only one on a tray) who sometimes went down flattish slushy tracks – I had a few walky bits. 😆 After those early incidents, and a few adjustments to my frankly shagged rental bindings, we all resolved to stay up high, which the lift system in the 3V allows you to do.

A few pages back, someone was decrying the “ski-in, ski-out” thing. We could (no joke) board/ski to 3 steps from the boot room in our chalet. I’ve never had this before…now I want it for every holiday I have in the future! 🙂 It made things really easy in the afternoons coming back to get dd (whose creche was in the same chalet we were staying), as a couple of hours of apres wasn’t on the cards.

Family Ski have things very well set up. Childcare is excellent, and their chalets (by all accounts from guests who had stayed in other locations previously) are very well located. Not being first on the lifts in the morning, and last down in the afternoon took a bit of getting used to, but we’d accepted before we went that this would be the case. The only bug-bear was that the food in the evenings was a bit poor & plain.

I’m taking my own board next year. The one I rented, while well edged, was pretty gouged underneath and the bindings were shagged. I did get quite a short board though, which was troublesome enough for a day or so, but I fell in love with the ability to do sharper turns with it as the week went on.

Probably our most enjoyable ski week ever I reckon…and I think I’ll head back to the 3V again next year. It’ll be nice to hit the ground running on day 1 without having to figure our way around for a day. 🙂

We used snowbrainer.com to rent kit, which is very well priced (but keep an eye on locations and distances on maps from your accommodation 😳 ). For anyone who needs data while away and hasn’t got a decent package from their operator (Yes, EE, I’m looking at you!), I can recommend a Three MiFi type thing with pre-paid data sim. Just switch it on, hide it away in your jacket somewhere and you’ve got Wifi all day (though only had 3G in the mountains).

Glad you had a good trip DD. Sounds like you did better than some of those who ventured across the pond.

Reberty’s a pretty good location isn’t it – we were just behind La Ferme for our trip in Jan. Glad to hear it went well for you. Pics?

we were just behind La Ferme for our trip in Jan.

Oh wow. Literally around the corner. It is indeed an excellent location. I’ll see if I can dig out a pic or two…we didn’t take many, and they’re a bit shite compared to some already on this thread.

We spent quite a few breaks in Chalet du Sunny! Nice spot up there.

We were right opposite the ski famille chalets. One evening as we finished out meal, our “chalet girls” (Guy, James and Simon – all blokes!) asked us to stand up and turn to face the window – where we saw the Ski famille girls dancing round the kitchen like no-one was watching. Except 22 of us were, as they realised when James texted them to let them know.

They were good girls and kept popping ovewr to help our chaps. One of our lads got the navette up from the village with them and the children they were looking after and said he was really impressed with the way the girls managed the children – kept them singing and amused for the whole journey and were obviously enjoying it, not just going through the motions

DD – I went the 3V’s this year for the first time (as a relative novice – my 3rd time on snow). Will definitely head back there, although might opt for classier accommodation next year, there are some pretty low rent places in Val itself.

But, boy those hills, that sky and that snow were well worth everything else we got.

I’d forgotten just how bad the architecture in France can be. Les Menuires, Bruyeres and some of the others are some of the ugliest places I have seen. We got over towards VT a few times…lovely lovely snow up high, but didn’t go down near the village itself. Stopped in Folie for a beer and a panini though. The scenery wasn’t bad – but the rent was high!

absolutely stunning nedrapier! 8)

Escaped the fohn wind in Chamonix today and headed over to Courmayeur to enjoy the fresh snow! 🙂

Was away last week in La Plagne report below.

Glad you liked the 3V DD , look at Meribel Motterat if possible for one the villages with the best access to the whole area . Stayed in Motterat , Menuires , Meribel village and all OK but Motterat is fastest out both directions.

Had the same conditions in La Plagne . Arrived on Sat on a very convienient Southampton – GVA flight and Bus transfer to Aime. Then had to grab a taxi up to Montablert.
Hired some Atomic Revos which I hated from the get go . Unable to put any shin pressure through my boots without feeling the skis wanting to catch an edge .
Returned and swapped for a set of Dynastar Chrome Cr 72Ltd carvers, much more suitable given the snow conditions .
Enjoyed wall to wall sunshine under cloudless skies for the entire week. Temps over freezing every day , even up at 9000ft on the glacier.

Skied Montalbert to VillaRoger and back , which is a fair way but had 2hrs spare . Rang the pistehors for a lady with knee ligament injury , as all the locals skied past ignoring her ( crying )

saw a nasty face plant/ double eject/ tombstone from a chair with no movement for at maybe a minute but fortunatly other skiers stopped quickly.

Used the sloutions room with chalets direct and got a week catered with vin for £199, I will be using them again.

Mornings were hard pack and fast , after maybe 10.30 the snow was soft and workable . Getting home one had to keep an eye out for porridge snow trying to trip you up. Resort fairly busy with queues alot of the time, but mostly between 1 and 5 mins at peak times.

My SOP of stop at 11.30 for coffee aand cake and ski through lunch served me well.

My SOP of stop at 11.30 for coffee aand cake and ski through lunch served me well.

Always the best strategy. Mrs DD and I usually go for a two stop – mid morning coffee and beer and mid afternoon shnack and coffee, and again beer. 😀

That two hour period between 12 and 2 makes for lovely quiet skiing/boarding when the snow is at its nicest.

Didn’t quite know what you meant about the chairlift thing…?

I’d forgotten just how bad the architecture in France can be.

Flaine. Les Arcs 2000. I feel ill now.

Avoriaz, Tignes…the list goes on… 😆

EDIT: Actually, St Martin de Belleville was a pretty place. And the newer stuff they’re building (mix of stone and wood, lo-rise-ish) is much nicer. Reberty, while being a bit kit-built, was all wooden chalets which looked fine. Gawd knows when the rest of it will fall down though.

Been at Nevis Range today – not great conditions. Runs are mostly open but quite bare/narrow/icy in places. Still fun though.

Walking up Ben Nevis on sat in glorious sunshine was better. 🙂

I like Avoriaz! Arcs 2000 though – bleurgh. Hasn’t even got any atmosphere to redeem itself with.

I have a bit of a Colin question…

I had one area of concern. dd’s skin went to pieces, I assume altitude, dehydration etc didn’t help and by the middle of the week, he’d scratched the shite out of the back of his shoulders. So before we put him to bed, I asked for a first aid kit to see if there were any dressings I could use to cover up the bleeding bits so he wouldn’t do any more damage in his sleep. Nobody could find one. It appeared as though there hadn’t been one in the crêche that day…I’m hoping it was just that day. 😯 When it arrived, from a place unknown, it was just in knackered cardboard box, no scissors, no antiseptic cream or dressings and just a mish mash of plasters and gauze and opened “sterile” dressings. Also, there was no FA kit in the upstairs of the chalet.

Now, I realise I may be applying the rules by which I work when on properly organised sites, but I would have thought something like this would be a requirement by law. Fair enough if it isn’t in France, but shirley you’d make bloody sure a crêche had something to hand in case of a cut/graze to one of the toddlers.

I’ve emailed stevomcd (White Room guy) to ask but does anyone know offhand what should or should not be available?

Brilliant day on the board in Whistler, amazing the difference a flurry of snow and some sunshine can make, fantastic …… That is all!

That’s great news exupmonkey! Pleased to hear you’ve had a bit of snow. Hopefully GrahamS has been too busy on the board instead of getting pissed in the Longhorn to post. 😀

DD, given the state of the French love for officialdom and red tape, that seems very lax. I’m sure that there should have been something more suitable on hand.

I had a really good reply from stevomcd, but I promised not to quote him. Anyway, probably overreacting to there being none in the chalet itself but there really should be something in the crêche at all times (IMO).

Recently back from a week in Belle Plagne.

I didnt manage to meet up with Singletrackmind in the end, but had a great week watching Jnr FD learn to ski, taking out down blue/red runs etc.

On the Wednesday I booked an off piste session with Christophe from Reflex Ski School. Only cost me 65 Euros for 5hrs of 1-1 skiing, great bloke, very professional and safety concious. Given the conditions in resort I didnt think we would find any untracked powder, but was very pleasently surprised! Access to some of the off piste was a bit sketchy due lack of fresh snow and number of skiers passing through in the last 2 weeks or so.

The first run was off the Roche de Mio. The entry from the piste was almost an ice sheet, but then gave way to a nice open wide bowl, before dropping in to I guess what you could call a couloir from a narrow entry.

Next it was to the Bellcote North Face. Getting off piste was even more ropey as it is quite heavily used as an off piste area. The first section was more missing the rocks than skiing. However, the Canadian Couloir was interesting at the top with a lot of icey, lumpy tracked snow. Lower down the lots of untracked powder could still be found 🙂

I will hopefully post some more powdery picks when Christophe emails them through to me.

I can also highly recommend Ski Esprit Hotel Des Deux Domaines. Its not cheap, but the whole family had a great time there. The childcare and support was amazing, as was the lovely pool, sauna etc.