Any advice/tips on Val Thorens and Prosneige?

Thanks for your reply Ally :D Some great info there!

Particularly good to hear about Prosneige, and that they can move you according to your level. I went to Tamworth snow dome for a 'learn to ski in a day' course as a prelude to lessons with Prosneige in VT. By the end of the day I was doing the whole slope with ease, linking turns and throwing in a bit of parallel which I was pleased with :D

As for fitness....well...I've been going to the gym 3 times a week for the last 4 weeks, 45 mins a time, working on legs and cardio. Today after a full days learning at Tamworth I am hobbling around the house like a 90 year old, with calf muscles that feel like they could cramp up any second. I'm thinking that the exertions of a days learning snow plough and massive amounts of sidestepping in skis/boots may not be truly indicative of a normal days skiing. But never the less, I plan to step up the exercise and work on flexibility a bit more.

What were the instructors English like? As my partner is Polish with fluent English, but strong accents can be trouble.

Good to hear about the free shuttle bus :)

Hi Jonny,
It sounds like you got on very well at the snow dome.Well done. It took me 2 ski holidays to learn how to do parallel turns and I still struggle sometimes.

I think ski-ing uses different muscles to the normal sort you use in the gym. I have a special ski exercise book I got free from Inghams, and it has lots of very useful exercises in it, that you'd never think of doing normally - like standing on one leg and leaning forwards and backwards like a hen pecking grain. And another one is standing on one leg and going up on your toes and then back down without actually touching your heel to the ground, and doing this 10 times on each leg. It is surprisingly difficult. Star jumps are another good ski-ing exercise. I did all these exercises for months before we went ski-ing and I can honestly say I didn't ache at all, or even get tired, after very demanding lessons morning and afternoon.

I had lessons morning and afernoon, with different teachers, and so did my daughter, so between us we sampled 4 different teachers. They were all very good at English. In the afternoon my daughter's teacher had to speak English, French, and Dutch, as they were a mixed bunch of teenagers, and he seemed to cope very well. All the teachers have to speak at least two languages. Have you looked at their website? I think it's prosneige.fr or something like that. They start the lessons an hour later on Sunday, at 10 a.m. to give everyone time to get their skis etc.

We got our skis from the Intersport shop in the Caron area, and the staff were very kind and helpful. I booked them on the internet months before, and got a very good discount on the shop price - I think it was a 40% discount, but it was ages ago. I had to pay a deposit on the internet and then the balance in the shop. They let you pick your skis to a certain extent. You specify blue, red, or black, for piste colour/experience/price, and then pick skis within this range. There were quite a few people in there, but I went early in the morning on Sunday, and it wasn't overcrowded. My red skis were great, really fast, and I even overtook the instructor (and everyone else) on the flat. And my daughter's boots were brand new.

I usually try and pick a ski hire shop which is the nearest to where I'm staying. I think there is a Twinner ski shop in the Balcons area, which is sort of like a mini resort above the rest of the town. There is an interactive map on the Valthorens.com website showing where everything is, and when you're there, the Tourist Office on the Grande Rue is very helpful with maps and anything else you want to know. I think there is a Prosneige office in the Balcons area as well, although I've never been up there.

I booked the apartment, lessons, ski hire, ski pass, trains and buses over the internet before I got there, which saved a lot of time. You can buy the ski passes on the Valthorens.com website before you go, and get them in the post. I think there is a specially cheap learners pass but maybe if you are a very quick learner you will want the whole Val Thorens pass.

It can be very cold and windy in VT so bring lots of warm clothes, like a neck warmer, and thick gloves, or an inner and outer pair. On one of the chair lifts there was a sign saying it was -15 degrees, and the week before we went it was down to - 30 with the wind chill, and apparently the doors on one of the gondolas froze so that no-one could get out until the lift men had somehow melted the ice.

If there's anything else you want to know, just ask and I will let you know, if I know the answer myself.

Best Wishes,

Ally

how difficult is the piste de caron? It was an ambition of mine to ski down it but I feel it ebbing away from me...

I'm not sure which one you mean by the piste de Caron.

I have the piste map here and there is the black combe de Caron,the black cristaux, and the red col de l'audzin (which I think I did), all coming down from the Caron after you go up the Cime Caron.

As far as I remember (and I may be wrong here), the only black piste my daughter's teenage group refused to ski all week, was the black one under the Cascade lift, because I think it's the one which is horribly steep and plastered in really nasty looking moguls. If you want a challenge, how about this one?

Ally

Been to Val T quite a few times, great ski area. Stayed in Balcons last Spring and used the on site Twinner ski hire. Booked on line beforehand to save the cash and got great service from the shop, changed my skis halfway through the week to try another pair without any problems. I'd advise use of the free bus to return to Balcons at the end of the day, the stretch of hill which enables you to ski back to Balcon from plein sud when we were there wasn't pleasant for inexperienced skiers. A fall near the end could see you land on the road! Would advise use of the onsite bar where the happy hour was 4-6. Enjoy.

AllyG wrote:I'm not sure which one you mean by the piste de Caron.

I have the piste map here and there is the black combe de Caron,the black cristaux, and the red col de l'audzin (which I think I did), all coming down from the Caron after you go up the Cime Caron.

As far as I remember (and I may be wrong here), the only black piste my daughter's teenage group refused to ski all week, was the black one under the Cascade lift, because I think it's the one which is horribly steep and plastered in really nasty looking moguls. If you want a challenge, how about this one?

Ally

apologies, that's the one. I think I'll have to get a bit better before I go to VT or compromise and come down the col de l'audzin. thanks :thumbup:

Hello everyone,
I've just realised I forgot to say hello. I've been using this website for information about ski-ing for the last couple of years, without registering, and when I saw Jonny's post I thought I'd better answer it, seeing as I'd just come back from ski-ing with Prosneige in Val Thorens.

Sorry everyone.

Anyway, Jonny, I forgot to tell you where the Prosneige meeting point is. It's not with the ESF school (red ski suits), which is at the bottom of the Retour run that runs down through the middle of the village. We were ski-ing down from the Caron area to Prosneige, so we went down the Retour run and turned right, about where the ESF school is, and then skied on down the slope alongside the back of all the apartments etc. to the Prosneige meeting point (they have huge green flags up and they're all dressed in green ski suits). They are opposite the Cascade lift. And they have numbers up so you know where to stand. I think beginners are number 0. But there are loads of people around to ask if you're not sure where to stand. And with us, anyway, they had printed lists of all the people who'd paid and we didn't have to go to the office first, we just had to give in our names.

But I don't know how to walk there, because we never did, or where the shuttle bus stops. The roads in VT are very strange because the village is built on such a steep slope. They wind around like a serpent and if you try walking along one of them you pretty much double back on yourself. So, they have built in lots of short cuts for pedestrians. Like, there is one through the sports centre and the bus station next door. And there are several walkways over the road, and I believe, even under the road. It took someone in my ski group several days to work out the short cut from their apartment to the Prosneige meeting place, and as far as I remember he said it involved walking along a passage way, down a lift, and through a tunnel under the road, and out at the back onto the slope.

So, I would suggest you have a walk around when you get there and work out how to get through from the lowest road to the slope and the Prosneige meeting place.

I hope you have a lovely holiday.

Best Wishes,

Ally

Ok.... this time next week we'll be on our way :D

One more question though.....what do we have to do when we get to Grenoble to get the transfer to VT? It is of course all booked in with the package, but will there be someone to meet us as we come out of arrivals and point us in the direction of the coach?

Not got a clue as it's my first skiing holiday and never been one for package hols in the past.