J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by amanda n

Ok Ian that last beating hurt, quietened me down for a couple of weeks but back now lol :D

Well done Caron x

Your safe Ian I won't be there you win that competion :lol:

Ian behave ! :D

Same here I have gone off the idea of Schladming for 2 weeks so I am just changing my plans back to N for the New Year Week, staying in the Hotel Austria which is ski back to the gondola station ski locker, remove boots, walk 25m to apres ski bar, then stumble 50m back to hotel directly opposite. A bit pricey on the supplement but will be worth it. Have you looked into Italy?

Good morning Wickers how are you?

Couple of pics, sorry they aren't very good, i am sure snow will be along later and add some better ones, the Cat Archer thief is quite funny. !!





Me and Snow ready for the off - i am in the brown and it was cold.




Watching the ski-er's while we lunched, that is a lot steeper than it looks

Hi guys and girls, We are back and in one piece, well most of us, scapula managed an unjury but I will let him tell you all about that.

Val Cenis - the village


Not alot to tell, this is a very quiet town, or it was till we landed, we stayed in the BonHeur Des Pistes appartments, which were very nice, clean and tidy. Don't know if it is the typical of France but we were given a list of everything in the appartment which had to be counted and checked on arrival and departure which included, the mirrors, table's, chairs, radiators etc, anything broken etc must be paid for and believe me on check out they do check, one english family was sent back to clean their appartments as it wasn't clean enough.

There are a handful of shops, mainly ski wear, a bakers, small supermarket, tabac and fromagerie,

A couple of restaurants which were constantly fully booked, so we resorted to pizza most nights, but be warned itis take away and closes at 9pm.

Bars - only a couple dotted about and most were shut sat/sun nights, a very quiet village, so if you are looking for a lively apres ski life, this is not it. The cocktail bar was the place to be, and after killer pool tournaments every night, a word of warning don't play snow for money she is a hustler !!

Supermarket, if you are lucky enough to have transport there is a supermarket about 6km out of town so stock up well as the local shop runs out of most things quickly.

The bakers was wonderful and the bread delicious, and luckily a fresh delivery was made to the appartments every morning for purchase.

There is a free ski bus which links the three villages and starts at 8.45am and the last run is 6.30 pm, and it is quite a hike into town from the gondola, where we were.

Ski-ing, after Mr W's report of green green green we actually had excellent ski-ing, it was a bit patchy down below but as long as you stayed above gondola level it wasnt a problem. There were some very challenging runs and all our leg muscles ached from hard work.

It doesn't look much from the bottom but once up and over on the gondola then it opened out and had some fantastic views and some runs. There was even some deep powder which myself and snow became stuck in and lead to a hilarious hour getting out of it.
Frenching grading of runs seems a bit odd though as some blues were easier than the reds and vice-versa, and one to avoid most definetley is L'Escargot, under no circumstances do this run lol, ask snowb4ndit.!!!

From the top you can make your way over to the next village down and some of our group likened it to either Soldeu or Andora i think it was, very open, and beautiful long runs.

The weather was fab a bit icy in the mornings but once the sun had been out the snow was brill, and I enjoyed my time there and so did the rest of the group I think, snowb4ndit is a darkhorse though, she is an excellent ski-er and has an excellent technique. Don't let her tell you any different !

So to sum up, if you are looking for a quiet holiday with family and friends but not into the apres ski life then this is definetley foryou, if you like it lively then it would be a no no, may be different in the main season.

Overall i thoroughly enjoyed my time ski-ing with snowb4ndit and her family.