J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

Lots of "home" runs are mogully and tricky late in the afternoon and often the situation is made worse by the large volume of skiers, of varying skill levels, making their way home. This may not be much fun, especially if you are tired and feel that you are not in control or, worse still, that others are not in control.

If you are worried, there is no shame in taking a gondola down and using your energy to get in enjoyable skiing on less crowded slopes up the mountain before coming down.

Also, note that as you will be in Italy, the "rush hour" to get off the mountain will be earlier than in other destinations and if you wait until after, say, 4pm, the slopes will probably be very quiet again :roll:

Dave Mac wrote:This is the French ski school system "at it" again. It is back-firing as non-French ski schools gradually are moving their businesses out of France.

Dave
I don't think the French would consider that back-firing. I think this is exactly what they want to achieve - the restoration of the monopoly for the ESF :twisted:

............ oh and another thing :!: Be careful renting in Switzerland and driving to Austria. A change in Customs regulations means that an EU citizen cannot drive a Swiss registered car in the EU any more and the car is liable to be confiscated by customs :shock:. I think the car hire companies are trying to find a solution to this but it presents a significant problem.

Of course, Brexit might help in due course - that's if the EU will let you guys in at all :roll: :roll:

Bloody car hire :evil:. There appears to be no end to the hassles they put us through. Earlier this year, the company I was renting from were muttering about the "cross-border" insurance charge but waived it before I got stroppy! I am guessing this is part of a transition and it will be a normal "extra" next year. This Summer, I hit the latest one - no roadside assistance unless you take out their (extortionately priced) full insurance :twisted:. As I didn't know whether the annual "excess" insurance, I had taken out separately covered this, I must admit I hesitated but in the end took the chance. Then I got to the car to discover that the fuel tank was only 3/4 full - a massive charge if we return it that way but a shrug when they do it :twisted:.

Did get hit with a speeding fine in France on the way from VT to Lyon. Speed limit dropped on the motorway on the outskirts of Albertville or Chambery - not sure which. The fine notice came directly from the French authorities and there was no admin charge from the car hire company :roll: .

Ranchero_1979 wrote:Wow nobody else there and looks like great snow.

In fairness, this footage was taken on Easter Saturday and changeover day does appear to be particularly quiet in the area - probably too far from any major city for weekenders. The resort was pretty much full for the week but this was not reflected on the slopes with the exception of the main "landing area" in front of the village which tended to be very busy all the time and some of the home runs in the afternoon. The plein sud run down from the Folie Douce could be fun between about 3.30 and 4.30 :shock:. But it was easy to escape the crowds and find lovely quiet slopes all over the resort :mrgreen:.

Yep great snow - the advantage of being so high :wink:

Tony - I wouldn't write it off as a destination. Yes, some of the food and drink prices can be ridiculous but the skiing is fantastic with a great variety of runs, most of them extraordinarily long, good infrastructure with no queues worth talking about :lol:. Probably great off-piste in the right conditions as well. The prices I have quoted were the extremes. More modest fare was available - still not cheap compared to Italy or most of Austria - but manageable. In the context of the overall cost of a ski holiday, it was not that material, especially as we cooked in a few evenings. We had a lovely apartment and it was easy to throw together a decent meal at a low cost, washed down by very nice high quality wines from the supermarket at much lower prices than at home :wink:.

Wearing of helmets (or not) by adults is a matter for themselves. Personally, I believe it is the sensible thing to do and would strongly advocate it to others. I was converted after suffering a mild concussion in the most innocuous of falls :oops:.

While respecting the right of adults to make their own choices, my own impression is that those not wearing helmets are increasingly the exception - helmet wearing is now the norm and the kids will accept this as being as normal was wearing a seatbelt. The younger generation have grown up with childseats, seat belts etc. Not like the old days when you could have half a dozen kids rolling around the back seat with no restraint :roll:.

If you are unhappy with instructors not wearing them, then insist on an instructor that is prepared to wear one. You could also consider contacting the ski school and asking them to insist on it with their staff :wink: .

This is a little bit of GoPro footage from our last day.

Hi all

Just back from a week in Val Thorens. First time back in 3V in over a decade. I had forgotten how extensive an area it is. We skied mainly in the VT area itself with limited forays to Orelle valley, Les Meunieres and a little bit of Meribel valley. Didn't get as far as Courcheval at all and didn't feel the need to :D.

The snow was in very good condition - I guess the high altitude keeps it pretty fresh - generally hard packed but not too icy with a little bit of slush at lower altitudes. We had 5 sunny days and 2 bad days with very limited visibility. Lift infrastructure is superb, though I was surprised at how few moving carpets there were for loading chairs - these seem to be standard in Austria now :roll: .

We really enjoyed the skiing in the Orelle valley which tended to be fairly quiet. A long Red, Mauriennaise, from the top down to the valley was really good. There were also a couple of nice runs off the top of Pointe de Bouchet. This is where the new Zipwire leaves from - 1.3km long, top speed of over 100kph and a max height over valley of 250m - not for the fainthearted :shock:. My 13yo daughter was keen to do this and after a little soul searching, we agreed she could. However, they wouldn't let her on due to a headwind - which would have stopped her from getting all the way across :oops:. The run off the top of the Col de Roseal is not great - a busy narrow pathway :x.

Also enjoyed the runs off the Boismint chair. Again very long red runs that were nice and quiet :wink:. However, hit here early one morning and found it quite icy so perhaps better after it has had a chance to soften a little.

Great selection of long cruisy Reds and Blues above Les Menuires. Again not terribly popular so you could virtually have the slopes to yourself at times. Also worth heading over to the slopes above St Martin de Belleville, including the very quiet Jerusalem run :wink:.

Headed over to the Meribel side on two days. The first time, the weather moved in just as we were getting the gondola up Mont du Vallon. This made for a slow careful descent. hit it again a few days later in perfect sunshine and was able to bomb down the same (Campagnol) run - some pals had skied the other run but said that there was a lot of out of control maniacs on that side :evil:.

Area 43 park beside the Plattiere lift is a really well laid out fun park graded from beginner to expert with at least 2 half-pipes and lots of jumps. I'm not into jumps but plenty there for all tastes. From the bottom of that, we took the Pas de Lac gondola to the top of Saulire and then took the long Red - Chamois down to Meribel. Big wide slope - hard packed in places and a couple of steepish pitches, especially just after the Folie Douce - must be interesting when it disgorges lots of drunks onto the piste at dusk :shock:.

We had a ski-in, ski-out apartment which was very convenient. The village is quite large and confusing initially until you get the hang of it. Some nice restaurants but tended to be fairly pricy. We had lunch in La Maison in the village one day - pizzas up to €20 and €7.80 for a large coke :shock:. Seemed to be a few lively pubs but we tended to stick with the slightly quieter, O'Connells, at the top of the village. This had a decent atmosphere and you could hear yourself think :lol: . Pints of Grimbergen white beer for €7. Food on the mountain was generally good but certainly quite a bit more expensive that Austria or Italy. Treated ourselves to a bit of a blow-out long lunch in the restaurant at Chalet de la Marine (they also have a more modest bistro)above the resort on the Friday - weather was pretty crap so didn't mind losing ski time :lol:. The lamb confit was really excellent and came as part of a "menu" which included dessert for €39. Dessert consisted of a trip to the dessert counter where they filled your plate with a selection - we had plenty for 5 to share so not bad value at all :oops:.

Overall, I was really impressed with the scale and variety of the skiing. Snow was great even though it was quite late in the season and I could easily see it holding up well into April - they don't close until 8 May. Lift infrastructure was very good and kept going until after 5pm for some lifts giving very long days. It is relatively expensive but by eating in occasionally we kept costs down. Also lots of takeaway places so we got pizzas for the kids while the adults headed out for proper food a couple of nights - this kept everybody happy :mrgreen:.

Travelled through Lyon airport. This was a bit of a pain. Delays getting through passport control on the way in and way out, long delay in luggage coming through, slow security line on way home, etc :twisted:.

We travelled out on Saturday, 19th and stayed in resort for 7 nights but skied a full day on Saturday 26th. Then headed to Chambery where we stayed overnight. Only been to the airport before which is a hellhole at ski weekends but the town is lovely :wink: . Really pretty pedestrianised centre. Flight home on Sunday afternoon.

Will post some GoPro footage shortly :!: