J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

elovabloke wrote:That's the one.

Thanks :)

elovabloke wrote:The worse one is most probably the one back down into Sauze because of the use it gets but those with less confidence can always get the lift back down to Sportina and ski bus back into the village.

If you mean that red run that goes down between the nursery slope at Sportinia and the Rocce Nere lift up to the top, which seems to be piste number 11 on the piste map, then I would second that!

The top part of it when we were there was generally a sheet of ice in the centre section and pretty much impossible to turn on.

I went down it on the last Sunday at the end of the day, after everyone else had gone and after my morning lesson, and it was really terrible :(

I was side-slipping down a sheet of ice and I saw a tiny tot out of control on his own. He looked about 3 years old and he sat down and fell over with his miniature skis all tangled up. And I couldn't see a parent or instructor anywhere near, so I stopped to help and got a 'Grazie' from someone flying past but I think they were just saying thanks for helping someone else's child.

The little kid looked at me with his big eyes and didn't cry whilst I untangled his legs and his skis and got him up so he was standing in a snow-plough. And I didn't know what to do then, so I left him standing there whilst I skied very slowly away and then his mother appeared over the brow of that fairly steep slope and said 'Grazie'. I explained that he'd fallen, in French because I don't know any Italian, and then I skied off.

But I've been wondering since how did such a small kid come to be on his own on a really hard slope like that? Maybe his mum fell over and he couldn't stop on the ice.

There were loads of Italians on the slopes of Sauze on that last Sunday, with their families. My ski instructor said they were 'locals' from Turin, attracted by the snow and the sunshine.

Ben88 wrote:Hey guys! How do you find most of the red runs in sauze? Would you say the majority are easy or pretty much a standard red runs?

Apart from the fact that they were generally very icy when we did them I would say they were very easy. And I really liked the red runs in Sansicario, which is just over the top and out of Sauze itself.

I thought the red runs I did in Sestriere were much steeper and harder, although that was partly because they had lumpy snow as well as ice on them.

I had my ski boots fitted at Profeet a few years ago and I've never had any problems with them since :)
But if you've had the insoles shaped it's a good idea to try them out in the snowdome first, it took me about half an hour to learn how to ski again with squishy apricots in my boots! ;)

Here's another lunch photo from Val Thorens, this time from Ian W. Judging by his face he doesn't think much of the prices in VT ;)
His daughter is sitting beside him, and next to her is a J2Skier friend who came with us for the first time this year, although her husband has been with us each time. She was the smartest and spent least on her lunch out of all of us - 4 euros for a waffle and she went and got tap water for free from the staff! :)

And no, Icy, I don't think any of us had to pay for toilets in VT, although I have had to do so in a restaurant up on the Grande Motte in Tignes.

acarr wrote:

AllyG wrote:
Tea = 5 euros
Cafe allonge (watery coffee I think) = 2.50
Capuccino = 5.20
Hot chocolate = 4.50
Blueberry cake = 9 euros per slice

9 Euros that's 7 quid for a piece of cake! Yowza :shock: I think I'll move over there and open a cake shop...
Am loving reading your posts about the trip Ally.

Well, I had no intention of indulging in cake when I went in there, but one of the others succumbed, and then 2 more of us followed suit! Mind you, I didn't look at how much it cost before I ate it, but it was really yummy! :)

It was called 'tarte myrtille' and it looked something like this (from Google Images)


I didn't want to waste time trying to split the bill (as I wanted to get ski-ing!) so 2 of us paid for the 6 of us and then we sorted it out when we got back to the Sauze hotel. It's one of the problems with eating in restaurants in non-family groups when it's waiter service. It's fine in self-service.

I had a look to find the restaurants we stopped at in Val Thorens.

The first one we called in at was the mountain restaurant 'Le Caribou' on the red piste Asters going down from 3000m. I fell on this piste, which was icy and lumpy (my excuse anyway!), and decided I needed to treat myself in this mountain restaurant as I was ski-ing past, and the others agreed to go in.

The staff were pretty slow, which was annoying because all we wanted was a very short rest and a drink, and the bill was excessively large! Mind you, we also treated ourselves to a piece of cake ;)

Tea = 5 euros
Cafe allonge (watery coffee I think) = 2.50
Capuccino = 5.20
Hot chocolate = 4.50
Blueberry cake = 9 euros per slice



(Photo taken from http://www.valthorensguide.co.uk/mountain-restaurants.html)

I didn't realize I'd left my rucksack in the restaurant until after we'd skied down to the next lift, so I had to go back up the Portette lift, and the Thorens lift, and ski back down Asters (I didn't fall over this time though!) and one of the others came with me. The staff were very nice about handing it back, and I apologized.

The second restaurant we went into was for lunch, after we'd done a fair bit more ski-ing around VT. We thought lunch would be cheaper in the centre of VT, as the mountain restaurants are usually more expensive, and we'd been right up the other side of VT so we skied down the blue Plein Sud into the Caron district, and picked the 'Face West Cafe'.

The food here was good, and no more expensive than we were expecting for VT (I've skied here before so I know that the 3 Valley prices are really high!), and the view from the tables outside was great :)
However, the service was slow and we got really fed up waiting for them to produce the bill so we could pay and go, even though I'd told them (in my best French!) that we had to get back to Orelle. The total bill for the 6 of us, for main course and a drink, worked out at 18 euros each, depending on what you ordered. My onion soup, which was really delicious, was 11.20 and my bottle of 7 up was 4.00 euros. The lamb chops were 16.90 euros, the pizza 18.20, and the soup of the day 10.25.



I did hear other members of the group say, after we got back, that they'd very much enjoyed their day out to VT but they were very happy to be going back to our cheap hotel in Sauze d'Oulx in Italy!
(Photo taken from their website http://www.facewestcafe.com/restaurant-val-thorens-images.html

Iceman wrote:

AllyG wrote:Some people in the group had lessons during the week.

I booked my 2 hour private lesson on Sunday through the same ski school and it cost me 70 euros.

I thought the tips you received from the travellers paid for it, rather than you????? ;)

They paid me and then I paid the ski school, Icy :)

And I have posted up several photos of myself already, but here's another one of Piste Paul's photos, with me and his son in it.



And here's a 'still' I took off one of Piste Paul's videos of us coming back from Sestriere - but I'm going so fast it's hard to see me! ;)



And here's another one of Piste Paul's photos of me (well actually I think his son took this one), having difficulty schussing because my trousers had popped undone due to all the yummy food we were having in the Sauze hotel! I think it's probably the slope just before the Arc de Triomphe on the red 2000 run in Sauze, because we were always trying to see if we could get right to the top without having to pole at all.