Val Cenis

snowb4ndit wrote:Amanda summed up our week so well there is nothing I need to add. We did have a fab time, the weather was good to us and the skiing was brilliant. Val Cenis is a bit too quiet for me (in the evenings)and I don't think I'll go back. If I were to go back I'd go earlier in the season to ensure the ability to ski in and out of accomodation. I did manage to do it on the first day but the snow down to the village was too patchy after that. L'escargot (a 12km green run) was very long and boring and after skiing part of it on the first day Amanda and I made a joint decision to avoid it for the rest of the week. We worked hard on some very tough reds and blues. (The slope grading was a bit hit and miss, as Amanda said) On the last day four of us wanted to do a black. When we got to the top it was a complete white out, very very icey and it was closed! I was secretly happy.

Scapula pulled a muscle by taking a short cut and venturing into meter deep powder. It took him some time to get out of it and it was very entertaining for the rest of us who watched whilst we sipped our hot chocolate. The injury was minor thankfully and he still managed to continue to ski the day after (which was the last day).

I managed to bump and cut my head on the second day by walking into a menu board, on my way to the bar. That'll teach me for sarcastically suggesting in another thread that we wear helmets to the pub!

Amanda is a very confident skier and I'm flattered that she thinks I'm good. I have good days and bad days but she is consistently good.

Amanda is fun and I will not forget how much we laughed when venturing on to a red that had not been pisted. The idea was to take the quickest route down and we ended up crying with laughter for ages trying to get out of knee deep powder. Scapula, watching from the top, saw me searching for a buried ski and opted out...he told Amanda and I that he'd meet us at the bar. He was there half an hour before us!

I'm sad now that there'll be no more skiing for 8 months.

Ian Wickham wrote:

snowb4ndit wrote:Amanda summed up our week so well there is nothing I need to add. We did have a fab time, the weather was good to us and the skiing was brilliant. Val Cenis is a bit too quiet for me (in the evenings)and I don't think I'll go back. If I were to go back I'd go earlier in the season to ensure the ability to ski in and out of accomodation. I did manage to do it on the first day but the snow down to the village was too patchy after that. L'escargot (a 12km green run) was very long and boring and after skiing part of it on the first day Amanda and I made a joint decision to avoid it for the rest of the week. We worked hard on some very tough reds and blues. (The slope grading was a bit hit and miss, as Amanda said) On the last day four of us wanted to do a black. When we got to the top it was a complete white out, very very icey and it was closed! I was secretly happy.

Scapula pulled a muscle by taking a short cut and venturing into meter deep powder. It took him some time to get out of it and it was very entertaining for the rest of us who watched whilst we sipped our hot chocolate. The injury was minor thankfully and he still managed to continue to ski the day after (which was the last day).

I managed to bump and cut my head on the second day by walking into a menu board, on my way to the bar. That'll teach me for sarcastically suggesting in another thread that we wear helmets to the pub!

Amanda is a very confident skier and I'm flattered that she thinks I'm good. I have good days and bad days but she is consistently good.

Amanda is fun and I will not forget how much we laughed when venturing on to a red that had not been pisted. The idea was to take the quickest route down and we ended up crying with laughter for ages trying to get out of knee deep powder. Scapula, watching from the top, saw me searching for a buried ski and opted out...he told Amanda and I that he'd meet us at the bar. He was there half an hour before us!

I'm sad now that there'll be no more skiing for 8 months.

So tell me was the rain warm.... :D

JennyR wrote:So glad you enjoyed Val Cenis. I fell in love with it the week before, when the pistes were very quiet - great for us first timers.

We felt we should try all of l'escargot, so got on the chairlift in the drizzle - it didn't occur to us naive beginners that it would be snowing further up! It was a total whiteout at the top, couldn't even find the piste through a foot of fresh snow, so we went to see the huskies, had a snowball fight, then got the lift back down. We then got another lift to halfway up l'escargot, but the kids declared it to be too boring!

Les Balcons Village was great accomodation, had its own supermarket (cheaper for some things than Spar), ski shop and bar (you could virtually ski straight in through the door) and was very close to the gondola, so very convenient. L'etoile de neige in the village was a good restaurant for proper french food.

A small quiet place suited us as a family really well, but we wouldn't want to go to Val Cenis again (well, I wouldn't, but my nine year old is nagging 'when can we go back mummy?') as we have now done most of the greens - has anyone got any good ideas where we should go next?

snowb4ndit wrote:

JennyR wrote:So glad you enjoyed Val Cenis. I fell in love with it the week before, when the pistes were very quiet - great for us first timers.

We felt we should try all of l'escargot, so got on the chairlift in the drizzle - it didn't occur to us naive beginners that it would be snowing further up! It was a total whiteout at the top, couldn't even find the piste through a foot of fresh snow, so we went to see the huskies, had a snowball fight, then got the lift back down. We then got another lift to halfway up l'escargot, but the kids declared it to be too boring!

Les Balcons Village was great accomodation, had its own supermarket (cheaper for some things than Spar), ski shop and bar (you could virtually ski straight in through the door) and was very close to the gondola, so very convenient. L'etoile de neige in the village was a good restaurant for proper french food.

A small quiet place suited us as a family really well, but we wouldn't want to go to Val Cenis again (well, I wouldn't, but my nine year old is nagging 'when can we go back mummy?') as we have now done most of the greens - has anyone got any good ideas where we should go next?

We went to Soldeu (Andorra) for the New Year and had a fab time. It was good value for money like VC and there are plenty of green and gentle blue slopes. I'm not sure how snowsure it is at that time of year but snow was plentyful while we were there. They have many snow cannons. If the snow is good I would recommend there for your next trip.

JennyR wrote:

snowb4ndit wrote:

JennyR wrote:So glad you enjoyed Val Cenis. I fell in love with it the week before, when the pistes were very quiet - great for us first timers.

We felt we should try all of l'escargot, so got on the chairlift in the drizzle - it didn't occur to us naive beginners that it would be snowing further up! It was a total whiteout at the top, couldn't even find the piste through a foot of fresh snow, so we went to see the huskies, had a snowball fight, then got the lift back down. We then got another lift to halfway up l'escargot, but the kids declared it to be too boring!

Les Balcons Village was great accomodation, had its own supermarket (cheaper for some things than Spar), ski shop and bar (you could virtually ski straight in through the door) and was very close to the gondola, so very convenient. L'etoile de neige in the village was a good restaurant for proper french food.

A small quiet place suited us as a family really well, but we wouldn't want to go to Val Cenis again (well, I wouldn't, but my nine year old is nagging 'when can we go back mummy?') as we have now done most of the greens - has anyone got any good ideas where we should go next?

We went to Soldeu (Andorra) for the New Year and had a fab time. It was good value for money like VC and there are plenty of green and gentle blue slopes. I'm not sure how snowsure it is at that time of year but snow was plentyful while we were there. They have many snow cannons. If the snow is good I would recommend there for your next trip.

Thanks for that suggestion, Snowb4ndit. Soldeu was somewhere we considered for this time. Our eldest will be at senior school next year so we won't feel able to take him out of school like we did this time, so 'good value' will be necessary if we have to go in school hols! The ski bug has bitten for all of us - is there a cure?