Alpe d'Huez news

I did hear that it wasnt that bad. :oops:

Stewart Dowling wrote:I am not going to talk about the journey or the problems enroute to ADH.
I am going to say that it was the most fantastic 4 days skiing I have ever had.
Powder Powder Powder.
Lost my powder cherry and I loved it.
Need some more and I am getting withdrawal symptons
Good job it is only 7 weeks till we get on the slopes again.
Pictures to follow later.

Apologies to the people I tried to arrange to meet beforehand and didnt.

Stewart,
I'm glad to hear you had a good 4 days ski-ing :D

But I do feel very bad at what happened to nearly everyone on the way out there, and I'm most especially worried about poor Sami from Glasgow :cry:

I am wondering if maybe we should start a special thread on how to avoid a break-up with one's OH during ski holidays :(

First we had poor Tino (just before his holiday), and now Sami.

Ally

Well, what a fiasco that turned out to be!
Its hard to know where to start, because there were so many things that happened for the first few days.

I am going to do a resort review and some pics on a separate thread, as the good news is that ADH is a fantastic ski area, and we were lucky enough to get in 4 days of sensational skiing. Sadly, this should have been 6 and both the airline and the tour op have a lot to answer for in all the problems and mis-communication that went on.
Review to follow elsewhere.....

I am going to try very hard to cut a long story very short, which will not perhaps explain in detail what went wrong, or the extent of the unpleasantness experienced by many of the 200 odd people on the flight. However, here is a summary of our journey:

Flight out of LGW delayed from 1.55pm to 4pm then 6pm, then indfinitely, before a sudden change and final call. Boarded quickly, took off through snow at LGW. 1hr 20 minute flight turned into 2 hours as we could not land straight away and when we did it was in Geneva instead of Grenoble.

Grenoble shut, Geneva then sh shortly after we landed. Only 1/3 approx of the bags on board, the rest including all ski bags were left behind at LGW for some reason. No hotels in Geneva, so a night sleeping rough on the floor in the baggage hall.

7am promised transfers turned into 9am, then 11am, and then not all of them turned up, so ended up in a taxi which went the wrong way and got stuck up a tiny mountain pass that was closed, and it took 5.5 hours from leaving Geneva. Big row between the tour op and the taxi firm over the price due to the extended journey!

3 out of our 8 suitcases luckily were with us, the other 5 turned up Monday evening with 1 of the 6of our ski bags, despite being told they would all have arrived before then; Grenoble and LGW all having been subject to bad weather, and full flights so no space for our bags!

Missed Sunday skiing due to travel delays, and Mondays skiing due to being promised arrival of cases and them not coming, mainly due to the fact that Grenoble staff then decided to work to rule and didnt want to open lost luggage section most of that day!

Finally hired skis and bought sallopettes for those that had not had bags arrived on day 3 of 6 skiing, so got out and had a superb day in blue skies and lovely deep snow off piste and perfectly groomed pistes. Lots of sharing of clothing and equipment going on. Ski bags finally arrived over dinner day 3 of 6 skiing.

Skied the area as much as possible the 4.5 days I had available, in totally contrasting conditions. Review to follow as promised.

Transfer back all on time, flight only 1 hour late, although heavy turbulence during the early stages due to severe snow storms coming back into Grenoble area!

SO.....all in all, no real damage done. Nothing actually lost, no one hurt, and despite it all being irritating, upsetting, annoying and downright inconvenient at the time, having 4 (and a half for me as I skied Saturday morning before the 1.30pm transfer) fantastic days skiing in the best snow I have ever experienced went someway to making amends.

Insurance will kick in, and the tour op and airline will no doubt have countless complaints and claims to deal with from everyone who was involved, far more than just my little group. Bad weather happens, no one can control it. But there are questions to be answered, and forms to be filled in. S*** happens, and you have to deal with it. It was not pleasant, expecially for one of my party who is pregnant (you can imagine how her hormones handled the whole experience....), but we got there, and we had it large for 4 days.

Praise be to the snow God, although can he please stop dumping it on airports.......... :wink:

Tony,
Where's the sock gone? Have you decided it was time to give it a wash? Will you be a long time washing it? I am very fond of that sock, I hope it will be back soon, and it didn't get lost in Geneva or somewhere. :D

It's very nice to see you back. It's been very quiet here with you all away :cry:

Ally

Sock off

Tony_H wrote:Sock off

That's the whole point Tony, when are you going to put it back on? :D :D

And if you're not going to, I hope you are at least going to have a memorial service and give it a decent burial. :D

Ally

Thanks for the report + vid, look forward to seeing more pics.

AllyG wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Sock off

That's the whole point Tony, when are you going to put it back on? :D :D

And if you're not going to, I hope you are at least going to have a memorial service and give it a decent burial. :D

Ally

:roll: