Meribel 2013

Great first two days.
After a relatively smooth Eurostar journey, we hit the slopes at 9.30 and headed up the Pas de Lac and then down the valley towards the Altiport, some lovely runs on fresh powder topped runs. Then we went up Loze and over into the Courchevel valley, dropping down first into La Tania then later following lunch into Le Praz via the Jockeys black, which was fantastic. Making our way back towards Mottaret and our last lift at 4.10
Today the plan had to change several times due to the high winds shutting several of the top lifts. But we eventually got to La Masse via quite a round about route, only to find the top of the runs very wind blown and so we didn't hang around long. Lunch at the mid way point was great, an afternoon of reds, blacks and a bit of off piste finished off a great if a bit of a frustrating day. Though seeing that the forecast was for cloud and a fit of snow and we had quite a bit of sun, I'm not complaining.
The snow has now arrived, we'll see what it's like tomorrow. Glad to have two great days in the bag. Hope tomorrow isn't skiing by brail!

Third day and a forecast of some weather coming in pm, so I decided to take my little group across to Courchevel 1650 and work our way back as the vis disappeared.
We got some fantastic runs in up above 1650, somewhere I've not done a great deal of skiing before. The snow started to fall about half 11, so we skied across to 1850 for lunch. Now I've recommended Ku De Ta several times, unfortunately this stop was a big disappointment. I think the restaurant has changed hands, what was an excellent value for money stop isn't anymore.
As the vis dropped we headed back using the tree lined runs, dropping back into our valley and the runs in the Altiport area, before heading home. Another great day.

same experience last season with Ku De Ta, had always been good value, now up there with the rest.

4th day we headed across to Val Thorens, overnight snow leaving powder on piste as well as off. Heading up to the highest point in 3 Valleys we dropped off the back into the 4th valley via the black. Awesome snow, moguls everywhere by afternoon. Epic day. Very achey legs later!

The bashers had done their thing overnight so the 5th day was a cruising day, though it did give the opportunity to feel the speed, 48mph according to ski tracks.
The plan was to have a good ski in the morning then meet a few of the others for lunch and have a very gentle ski with them in the afternoon. We covered a lot of ground during the morning, dropping into the Courchevel valley an working our way back to Meribel via La Tania.
The people we were meeting for lunch turned up in walking shoes, so we weren't skiing with them. Instead we ended up hooking up with a few more of our group and ended up doing a load of filming off piste, so much for an easy afternoon! An amazing day. Everything aches this morning!

Thanks for the updates Andy - it sounds like you're having a great time :thumbup:

AllyG wrote:Thanks for the updates Andy - it sounds like you're having a great time :thumbup:

Thanks Ally, my knees don't think so! I've promised them a rest on Monday!

The last three days have been superb, on Thursday we again failed to follow the easy day plan and notched up our highest mileage of he week. Some great little off piste bits and pieces.
Friday we stayed fairly local, skiing down to St Martin, then working our way back towards our valley. Some more great bits of off piste, lots of Go Pro editing to do!
Today we had a blast, Courchevel 1650, across to 1850, down to Le Praz via Jean Blanc black. After a great lunch we did a load of off piste bits and back to base.
8 days in paradise! Amazing week. One of the best.

A first attempt at a ski vid, using some of the GoPro footage I shot last week.