Stewart Dowling has spent the night an hour north of Lyon and is off to cross the Col du Lautaret early, before the forecasted snow starts to fall. I'm sat at Heathrow waiting for our delayed BA plane to come in so that we can get to Lyon and pick up the hire car.
The BA flight comes in an hour and 45 mins late but we make it into Lyon with a back wind and a very bumpy landing, having left heathrow 75 minutes earlier with heavy rain and a blustery wind.
4 of us pile into the Opel Meriva......its warm and sunny but windy - a sure sign the weather is on the change. Little did we know quite how much.....
The drive up to Grenoble is stop/start - its the final Saturday of the regional French holidays and traffic is irritatingly slow, but we finally start the climb out of Grenoble, up the gorge towards Bourg-en-Oissans passing ADH and then L2A.
The first signs of snow beside the road arouses excitement in the car, and as we cross the dam and climb through La Grave, it feels like the skiing is within reach.
The weather turns at the top of the Col, snow flakes start to fall and the temperature falls to -6. Lights on now, its getting dark, and we drop down through the tunnels and bends into Monetier, the church lit up from afar. Theres not many people on the streets and we breeze through the village, into Villeneuve with snow flakes still gently falling outside.
Turn left at the Pontillas lift station, next right and theres Stewart sat on a bench having a cigarette........ We have arrived - the holiday begins........
The chalet is small, but then this is France. But its warm and welcoming, and Stewart has lined the fridge with beers, wine and Prosecco, and the home cooked dinner slides down well. A quick glance outside before bed and we note the snow is starting to settle now. Tomorrow could be a good day......
Sunday 17th
I havent slept much. I am like a kid in a sweet shop. Apart from the usual early morning toilet visit, I am full of anticipation and excitement and I am first up for breakfast, deciding we will all be on the first lift like it or not! A quick peek outside confirms the snow has settled and it seems to be a reasonable amount:
We rush breakfast down and walk to the ski bus stop, a mere 50 metres from the front door - booted and carrying skis. For 2 of them its the first snow of the season, and I can smell the nerves. I cant wait to get on it again and the feeling as we arrive at the lift station is one of being about to burst. Snow covers the ground, only a few inches but we know it will be good up the mountain.
The Pontillas gondola strikes up, we are first in the queue, and we ride the slow old rickety lift up to mid station, the buzz of the cables and motors in out ears as I play the Bastille album on my iPod.
The Frejus chair half way up is a short ski away, only a few hundred metres, but this is the first taste of the snow of the week and it feels amazing. There is 25cm of light feathery powder sitting on top of the groomed piste, and we swish slowly and gently down the short run to the chair. No surprises that it isnt running yet......
Finally we ride the deathly slow 3 manner up to the upper station. Its the perfect place for the group with 1 very timid skier, and a couple of intermediates who havent skied for a year, so the greens and blues up here will be perfect for their morning. Its still snowing, in fact it hasnt stopped and doesnt all day, not that we really notice. Mrs H and I decide to head off after the sort of coffee that should be used to disinfect toilets, and later that morning my mate Steve leaves his other half on the greens and we head over to the higher section above Villeneuve.
We ski all morning, through lunch to 1.30pm to get the quietest time on the slopes, and by mid afternoon notice that the pistes are getting bumpy now - no blasting around at speed. Moguls appear, but no sign of the piste bashers like you'd see in Austria. But who cares......we are skiing and its still snowing.
We meet the other 3 in La Grotte which should not be renamed The Grotty. Its turned into a bit of a tip, but they sell cheap beer when its snowing and we have earned one. Or four.
A short bus ride back to the chalet, and time to see how much more snow has fallen. Its double what there was this morning, and thats down at 1400m.
A good home cooked dinner is prepared, helped down with some bubbly and a few more beers, but we are all shattered so its an early night. A quick check to see whats happening outside, I cant resist. Its doubled again!!!!
I would love to say I slept like a baby. But I didnt. But I did shout like a child when I opened the curtains with a mug of tea and saw just how much snow was on the ground now:
Ok so it might mean difficulty getting around resort, but up top it was going to be epic.
Stewart and I decided to mess about outside in the deep snow, up to our knees on the driveway, his car invisible under a white blanket.
A full breakfast and the usual fannying about with boots, jackets, packing of rucksacks later, and we were sliding down the pathway to the bus stop. 8.32 it was due and by 8.52 it was clear it wasnt coming. We were the only idiots out, no one else had left their houses. So we picked up our skis and walked down to the lift station, a valley bus driver stopping on the way past to tell us "tout freme" but I was having none of it. On we plodded, skiing down a path and over a bridge. This was serious snow.
Across the car park to the Pontillas lift again and music to my ears -the buzz of the gondola. Up we headed, speechless on the way as we climbed up through the trees, heavily laden with thick snow, getting whiter each metre we rose.
The short ski to the chair was hilarious. Some had never skied in powder before, and it was a while (or so it felt) since I had.
We had a morning full of laughs, giggles, whoops and amazing skiing. At times it was waist deep ON piste, and still it snowed. Some higher lifts were closed -yesterday it was wind, today it was snow, tomorrow it would be avalanche risk. But we were able to get around, and I remembered the drag lift lower down which took you across to the next sector. There was no piste across to it, just a blanket of smooth white snow, so we made tracks through it and down to the bottom of the drag which was running, albeit with no real tracks for skis - you had to ride lumps and bumps and hang on here and there, but soon we were up at the top of the Casse bu Boeuf black.....covered in thick snow!!
We played around above Villeneuve and after a lunch stop at the Bivouac, we noticed the sun had come out. This was the start of what turned into possibly the most amazing weather I have ever skied in - fresh snow, comfortable temperatures, bright sunshine with a spot of cloud, and a few more snow showers across the week.
An amazing 2 metres fell in the week, the highest single snow fall of 1.5m for 5 years in SC. Lucky.....me?????
I love Serre Che as a ski area. Ok, its got its drawbacks with slow lifts, but they link well, always run, and because of the time of year we go its never busy on the slopes. In fact I was amazed with just how quiet it was.
The daily routine revolved around getting the 3 lesser experienced skiers up the mountain to a focal point we could meet at, whether that was Frejus, Aravet or Serre Ratier, and the other 3 of us heading off to ski the preverbial arse out of it. Which we happily obliged with.
For those who havent been but might be interested, there is such a massive range of runs of all levels, and nothing that anyone who isnt a reasonable intermediate cant ski.
Stewart had said he might venture onto the Cucumelle, a long fast red, by the end of the week, and we had him on it on Monday! Check him out on my video in the blue jacket and green helmet.
Sometimes the other 3 might ski the morning and finish early, head down and relax or have a few beers, or meet us in the afternoon if they were feeling energetic, but myself, Mrs H and my mate Steve skied pretty much the whole area with the exception of Briancon. The link across was shut for 3 days and by the time we bothered on the Thursday the sun was so strong over that side that the snow was just not enjoyable.
We found Monetier, yet again, to have the most interesting area to ski. Lots of long blue and red cruises, with a couple of testing blacks and off piste routes higher up over the back including Yret, the highest point of the area. We managed to hoodwink Stewart into going up the chair - he has a massive fear of heights - and he could not get off the top fast enough, without even a photo stop to prove he was there!
The slopes were deserted all week. The odd run off the mountain at 4pm got busy and we only did it 2 days at that time and down the tracks everyone else took.
The Luc Alphond black into Chantmerle is a morning run. Do it at 10am when its quiet and still pisted nicely. The same with the Casse du Boeuf black into Villeneuve, although we chose this as our daily run off the mountain as well.
The pistes over at Aiguelette, which are a kind of secret as not many people bother to head over there, were not pisted after the snow and were insane!!!!
The lovely run through the trees from the top of the Prorel chair at the top of Briancon down to Serre Ratier is fantastic, through the trees, and there are other runs we covered off, and whilst the avalanche risk was 5 for the first couple of days we hardly ventured away from the pistes, but as the week went by my keenness grew and we covered off some fantastic steeps in waist deep powder, and several pistes which were still hardly tracked at all.
Sadly, as always happens, the end came round all too quickly. I clicked sadly out of my bindings for what I know will be the last time this year, and we trudged back up to the chalet. Stewart had packed the car and headed off early, so we had a nice last dinner with the forecast of more snow for the morning, so we were up and out before 8am. As we crossed the Col it suddenly darkened and the snow started again. Apparently the had another 30cm in the village that afternoon and evening.....
Thats the third week I have had now in SC, and whilst I wouldnt want to go back every year, I would certainly return. Its such a wide and varied area, with a massive feeling of travel. Joking aside about France and the French, prices have increased and it is no longer "cheap".
5 euros for a pint anywhere isnt ridiculous, but its hardly a bargain either.
Lunches were the problem - either 40 euros for a sit down pucker meal (too much VST wasted if you ask me) or grab a panini for just under a tenner.
Spag Bol or Lasagne, or something similar like sausage and chips was between 12 and 15 euros. Not good value.
Best eating places for lunch if you wanted a reasonable meal at not hugely inflated prices were the restaurant at Aravet, and the Serre Ratier self service, as well as the Bivouac up by the snow park which had a lovely sun terrace for an afternoon Wartsteiner - yes even the local beer is that rubbish they have to import German stuff ;-)
I will return for sure, maybe not in 2014, but I fully endorse the area for anyone. Its always makes me smile, and whilst I enjoy my skiing enormously anywhere I think I can say that Serre Che holds a special place in my heart. Its just a really great place.
Here are some images to show you how quiet it was and what amazing snow we had:
And finally, dont talk to Stewart on a chair lift :wink: -
