It was the best snow year we have experienced for many a year, it snowed every day and we skied knee deep powder every day on empty pistes it was a complete joy ... we had a couple of days where the sun came out and the pistes were some what harder which helped my poor old knees as the extra work in the powder was beginning to take its toll on my poor old knees.
We booked a small but modern apartment the normal double bedroom and the bunk beds in the hall, it was clean and well looked after it could have slept four which would have been tight so for three it was fine.
In Merdassier the skiing was on both side of the valley one side was uninteresting reds on the other more tree lined blues which came in handy
on poor visibility days. The routine was drop Little W off at lessons at 9.00 am skis on and catch the lift there was nobody on the piste our tracks even at 09.15 were the first of the day every day a real pleasure.
This was a big year for Little W her last Exam "The Gold" she has been skiing properly since the age of three and experiencing ski resorts since she was 18 months.
We was toying with the idea of giving her private lessons again this year but decided on group as part of the "Gold" is a giant Slalom race against the clock. Well this turned out to be private as there was only two in her lessons and one of these was a French lad doing his bronze star !!!!
Merdassier is a small resort which has links to La Clusaz some of these links are a pain as they are greens where your poles come into play a little too much .... I will edit out my foul language out of the video when I get to post it !!.
There is nothing difficult in Merdassier cruisy reds and blues but as mentioned above some of the links between the sides of the mountains are a pain.
We have experienced the Aravis from a number of years spent in the LGb and again in this area as you can tell from the photos the scenery is absolutly stunning.
The Merdassier is made up of two areas Massif De L'etale and the Domaine de la Croix fry which both have links to La clusaz possiby the better links are from L'Etale the other link is from La Croix fry which is by a long sometimes flat green which takes you down the valley to the Massif de Beaugard which has a black a red and a couple of blues, I personnaly think it is the best link back to Merdassier which at the top again the views are breath taking.
From the base station of Beauregard you can catch the telecabine over to the other side of La Clusaz Le Massif Aiguille which opens up to mainly blues and Reds and some runs through the trees, we did not get over to the Balme area which looks interesting, we will have to leave that to another time.
La Clusaz village is a really nice working village most of the buildings are low rise with plenty of character, coffee shops and eating establishments, I really quite like the place and it would be an option for us for another winter or even summer holiday.
The picture above was what we thought was an ice bar but the bars were white plastic box type thing so a tad peed off but the music was good but the prices were more on the pricey side, but hey ho your on holiday.
I suppose I must balance the books, I think in lesser snow years the snow on village runs could be a bit of an issue do to the height of La Clusaz there were signs of wear and tear where the new snow had been pushed a side but it was only the odd patch.
In Both resorts there are plenty of off piste oppertunities and you don't have to go too far off piste to find it.
The restaurents in Merdassier were few and far between about four in all but all of a good Standard and reasonably priced.
We drove to La Clusaz one afternoon as did not quite fancy walking about the village in ski boots, the restaurant prices compared to Merdassier were about 10 % higher but not super expensive.
Everybody in both resorts were extremly friendly in one restaurent in Merdassier the owner invited Little W into the kitchen dressed her whites where she made her own pizza from scatch, you just don't get that kind of customer service in the large resorts !!
Right I am getting bored now so I will end with a few more pic's, and get youselves out to the Aravis once experienced your outlook of France will change for ever .... Bon Ski ......
If you have any individual questions about the area please feel free to PM me.
I suppose I must finsh by telling you all that Little W passed her Gold star,
it was a bit touch and go, an instuctor does the slalom course and then 50% of the time then gets added for the time to beat.
There is no making it easy .... this instructor flew down the course in 20.5 sec which gave Little W 30.6 sec to complete the run, she had a practice run
and smashed it in 26.5 sec but when it came to big one she was visably slower and came in on the 30 sec mark.I was trying really hard not to shout and put her off but never mind she did it.
And last but not least every year we have a dad daughter race normally down a quite red every year ....... so off we went she was no where to be seen and I really thought it would be more of a race this year but she had taken a wide line and as I was slowing down as not to give her too much of a beating she wizzed past me on my right ... the little bugger, I managed to catch up a tad but she took me to the cleaners by 10 Mts.
Yes I know I am a disgrace !!!!!!!