J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

This video is of 6 of us going down the red Asters piste in Val Thorens, where I fall over at the top of it, and then do some really rubbishy defensive stem turn ski-ing.

It's 8 minutes long.

I wasn't going to post it up, but then I thought it might encourage people to see that we're not all brilliant skiers! Plus, you can see the view, and how windy it was up at the top, at 3002m.

It's also quite interesting because the difficult slope and snow conditions soon sorts out who's the best skier out of us. Simon (the best skier in our group) gets down it with very little difficulty, I fall over, Piste Paul (doing the filming) manages very well but finds it difficult, and the other 3 all have a few wobbly moments but don't actually fall over.

Anyway, you will at least be able to see why I decided to treat myself to very expensive blueberry pie afterwards! ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEBpROuOqHw

I was wondering if maybe he'd done several runs, and they'd stitched the best efforts together.
It is rather like something out of a James Bond movie!
It's most impressive, and very entertaining to watch! :)

So it's genuine? And did they really film it all in one go, without cheating? That's incredible!

Presumably they let the lift guys etc. know they were coming ...

Did they really ski like that, or is it a trick video?
The part underground surprised me the most!
If it was real, it looked extremely dangerous! :shock:

We've got lots more videos and photos :)

This one is quite funny because it shows what it was like being followed everywhere by 2 camera men, whilst we were ski-ing ... ;)

Brooksy didn't really mind - he was just having a laugh ... :)

Piste Paul's 2 minute video - Felthorpe has the star role ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvJapKJuqVk

Huwcyn wrote:Wa wee!!1 Off tomorrow!!!

Oh yes, so you are! Have a great time :)

Here's the Sleeps List, updated to today Saturday 14th February and now includes Tony H's destination. If anyone else wants to go on it, or you see any mistakes, please post up on here.

Wanderer going to Vigo di Fassa Dolomites in 0 days on the 14/02/2015
Huwcyn going to Seefeld in 1 days on the 15/02/2015
Dobby going to Hemsedal in 1 days on the 15/02/2015
Biki17 going to Wengen in 7 days on the 21/02/2015
Blackpool-Skier going to Les Deux Alps in 14 days on the 28/02/2015
Far Queue going to Soll in 14 days on the 28/02/2015
LOTA going to Nendaz in 16 days on the 02/03/2015
Gareth Fair going to La Thuile in 18 days on the 04/03/2015
Tony_H going to Soelden in 21 days on the 07/03/2015
Flat Country Skier going to La Thuile in 22 days on the 08/03/2015
Ade73 going to Tignes in 22 days on the 08/03/2015
Wanderer going to St Anton in 28 days on the 14/03/2015
Old Andy going to San Martino in Badia Dolomites in 28 days on the 14/03/2015
Voodoo 1976 going to Les Gets in 29 days on the 15/03/2015
Flat Country Skier going to Zell am See in 42 days on the 28/03/2015
Michelle63 going to Les Deux Alps in 43 days on the 29/03/2015
Snapzzz going to Val Thorens in 49 days on the 04/04/2015
LOTA going to Engelberg in 65 days on the 20/04/2015

I went to Sauze on the train from London, and it stops at Bardonnecchia before Oulx station for Sauze.

It was all very simple getting there. I got the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris Nord, then the RER (like the metro) line D to Paris gare de Lyon which I did in about 20 minutes but you need to allow at least an hour.

Then I had to find the right 'hall' for the train to Oulx, which as far as I can remember was hall 2 (I asked at the information desk). Once you get to the correct hall it's up on the boards what platform the train will be leaving from about 20 minutes before it goes. As far as I remember it was the train to Milan.

It took 4 hours and 45 minutes from Paris to Oulx (in theory anyway, it was actually half an hour late) so it would be quicker to Bardonecchia.

I got my tickets as soon as they were available and it only cost me £117 return, but the price rapidly goes up. The problem is that the Eurostar tickets are available before the TGV so you can either risk that the Eurostar price will go up and wait until you can buy Paris to Bardonecchia, or buy the Eurostar first and hope they don't change the time-table. I bought the Eurostar tickets first and allowed extra time (2 hours) in case they changed the time-table from Paris.

They check your passport on the train before Bardonecchia.

You can book your tickets here:
http://uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/

This website is also very helpful for train journeys to ski resorts, and they do package holidays as well:
http://www.snowcarbon.co.uk

This is a 'still' taken from the end of Piste Paul's video 064. The lift we're heading for on the right is number 5, the piste going away to the left is blue number 52 which later branches in two so you can either go down to the bottom of the Clotes piste (by our hotel) or you can turn left (as you're ski-ing) and go down to the start of the Sportinia chairlift and up that to the Sportinia level where the ski schools and restaurants etc. are.
There's also a chairlift in the centre, which is the top of the Clotes one that we came up on in the morning.
We didn't usually ski lower than the level in this photo, apart from ski-ing home, because the lower slopes got quite busy and icy.



I've cropped and annotated the paper piste map they gave us when we were there, so you can see where we are actually ski-ing in the video. I've put a red circle around where we are in the 'still' photo.

We're coming down the 2000 piste, and I think the waves on the piste map are to show the dolphin pool/reservoir. You could also go up the drag lift number 3 and ski down piste 42 past the slalom course, which is what I did in my lesson on the final Sunday.

We really liked the 2000 piste, because it wasn't crowded, the snow was good, and the slope was just steep enough so you could go pretty fast but it wasn't actually difficult :)

For the first couple of days we were limited to going up the Clotes lift number 4, then up number 5, then down to the Sportinia level and the start of number 15 chairlift and up that, and then we had several ways we could ski down from there, one of which included part of an easy short black run number 16.

The area over to the right from the top of number 15 chairlift is what they call 'the bowl' and you have to go that way to get to Sansicario and Sestriere etc.

As Ranchero said, they had done a great job with the pistes in spite of very difficult conditions (warm and no fresh snow for the first few days). The snow in Sansicario when I went there with the Ski Club of GB on Wednesday was great! :)