J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

andyoneil wrote: I'm off to VDI in 8 days and the amount of snow there is already excellent with more falling (as per the reports and the webcams that I'm watching non-stop). Hopefully it'll come down for the next 5 days or so then bluebirds when we get there - here's hoping...

I hope you have a great time, with plenty of snow and sunshine during the day :)

It's amazing the difference a foot of snow and some cold temperatures made to Sauze whilst we were there. You can see this very clearly looking at Piste Paul's excellent photos.

This is what the bottom of the Clotes piste looked like on Tuesday. I have to say I was kind of fascinated with looking at how bad it was - sort of like looking at a natural disaster!




And this is what it looked like on Saturday:

shipjack wrote:My fault AllyG, I'm setting off tomorrow but wo nt get there until Saturday..so you're right really, 2 more sleeps if i manage to sleep on the train!

Oh good, thanks for letting me know :)
I thought my counter had gone wrong or something!

shipjack wrote:Off tomorrow!...yee haw! :)

Really? Oh dear I've got you down for 2 more sleeps ...

Oh well, I hope you have a great time! :)
And ditto for everyone else :)

Here's the List, updated to today Thursday 29th January. And if you want to go on it, or you see any mistakes, please post up on here.

NellyPS going to Les Arcs in 1 days on the 30/01/2015
Andyhull going to Niseko in 2 days on the 31/01/2015
GreenGoblin going to Val d'Isere in 2 days on the 31/01/2015
Shipjack going to Les Carroz in 2 days on the 31/01/2015
Tahiti gra going to Chatel in 4 days on the 02/02/2015
Wanderer going to Vigo di Fassa Dolomites in 16 days on the 14/02/2015
Huwcyn going to Seefeld in 17 days on the 15/02/2015
Dobby going to Hemsedal in 17 days on the 15/02/2015
Far Queue going to Soll in 30 days on the 28/02/2015
LOTA going to Nendaz in 32 days on the 02/03/2015
Gareth Fair going to La Thuile in 34 days on the 04/03/2015
Tony_H going to Somewhere in 37 days on the 07/03/2015
Ade73 going to Tignes in 38 days on the 08/03/2015
Wanderer going to St Anton in 44 days on the 14/03/2015
Old Andy going to Somewhere in the Dolomites in 44 days on the 14/03/2015
Voodoo 1976 going to Les Gets in 45 days on the 15/03/2015
Michelle63 going to Les Deux Alps in 59 days on the 29/03/2015

Andyoneil,
The only fairly large queue I saw in VT during our day out was for the big cable car up to the junction between VT and Meribel, where they only let so many through at once to join the final queue, like for the funicular up to the Grand Motte in Tignes.

And even here I don't suppose we had to wait for more than about 5 minutes. The other lifts were pretty much straight on.

There was also, apparently, a queue at the end of the day for the gondola down to the car park in Orelle. It was supposed to close at 4-30 p.m. but I think it kept going for a short while after that to clear the queue.

And as for the problem with the lack of snow in Sauze and the links being closed for the first couple of days, well, each group holiday we seem to have had some extreme weather conditions! And each time we could have decided it was too cold/foggy/icy to ski but we were there to ski/board so we went out and made the best of the conditions.

The first J2Ski group holiday, to Tignes, there was plenty of snow and the slopes were uncrowded, but for a lot of the time the light was very bad so we couldn't see properly (even with goggles), and it was incredibly cold! As far as I remember it went down to minus 28C (with wind chill) at one point :shock:
And one of the group got frostbite in her toes! :(
And someone else had part of their beard snap off! :shock:

I thought I'd better not post up a photo of her black toe-nails in case I upset anyone, but I think you can see from this photo of me ready to go up the Sache gondola in the morning (where it wasn't so cold as up the top) how cold it was!

Tignes 13th - 20th January 2013


And then last year when we went to Folgarida there was an incredible amount of snow, a record for the area I think, but it was also really foggy for nearly the entire week, so we could hardly see where we were ski-ing/boarding :(

Folgarida 2nd to 9th Feb 2014:


And during the holiday we've just had, it was lovely and sunny for most of the week (so we could see where we were going!) but for the first couple of days we were confined to a limited area with icy pistes.
However, later on it snowed quite a bit, as you can see from Piste Paul's photo of the off-piste skiers, taken from the chairlift.
Sauze 11th to 18th January 2015:

Here's a nice one of Bald-Eagleman (Piste Paul's photo).
I think it's coming back from Sestriere on Saturday.

Huwcyn wrote:Yes please! :-)

OK :)

Huwcyn wrote:It's close enough for me to be able to count it now. 18 sleeps to Seefeld - again.

Do you want to go on the List?

Here's a photo I took myself, with my rubbishy disposable waterproof camera. I didn't want to bring a good camera in case I left it somewhere or dropped it in the snow or something.

I took it on the last Sunday, after the others had gone. It shows the nursery slope up at Sportinia, where they have a travelator. There were loads of Italian families and small kids having a great time on the slopes on Sunday :)



As I have said before, I first skied on real snow in Sauze d'Oulx on a family ski holiday when I was 8. I don't remember anything about a nursery slope up at Sportinia. I'm pretty sure the only one was at the bottom of the Clotes piste. However I do remember going up a lift. Unfortunately after this I went for about 30 years without ski-ing, or I suppose I'd have been pretty good by now :(.

I have posted up this photo of myself (taken by my Dad) in Sauze before. As you can see, I have always been a very stylish skier ... ;)