Tea in bed

Another week done and another change over day raises its ugly head.  We are getting much quicker with the beds, having smashed our BP.

Our next group was another bunch of men, all old friends from all walks of life - from a furniture maker to a RAF engineer.  They go skiing every year leaving their wives and kids at home.  Living in and around Kent they had got the Chunnel over and had driven down to Val.  One of them was an insomniac, only needing a few hours sleep each night.  So every morning he would be first up and do the tea round delivering a freshly brewed cuppa to all his buddies in bed and also to us!

Priceless Princie

Been up in the mountains 2 months today!?

Up at 5am as I had kindly offered to drive one of our single guests to Val bus station.  Only a 20 min downhill walk but pretty rubbish when you're the soul departee in what felt like the middle of the night in minus 16 conditions. I had already put the snow chains on the van the night before so there was no drama and I was out and back in bed spooning for 5.20am.

We've really enjoyed having Alex here.  Not only is he a friendly face,  it's a whole different group to ski with.  Alex came with Norris, Jason (gay on a tray) and Dave (Steaders).  So after a wee lie in it was a quick ski across to Tignes and a slick ride through the mountains on the funicular getting us up close to the top of the resort.

For 300 days per annum the Tignes Val Claret funicular transports its passengers to the Grande Motte covering the distance from 2100 to 3032 metres in a time of between 6 to 8 minutes. The idea was the brain child of Bernard Genevray the then President of the STGM lift company in 1980. He could see the advantages of an all weather transport system to move passengers up to the Grande Motte en masse over the current two existing cable cars and after the Compagnes des Alpes became the majority share holder, the project completed its feasibility studies in 1988. The works started in July 1989 was planned for completion to coincide with the Albertville Winter Olympics of 1992, however, with the best intent and a few geological surprises along the way the project was not completed until April 1993, much to the joy of those skiing late in the season.

Alex was on his legendary telimarks but as usual they didn't seem to slow him down that much, although he was complaining about his thighs after 6 days of pretty hardcore ski action. Another beautiful day, no wind and clear skies it was hard to not ski yourself stupid.  The views were just wonderful we even caught a glance of Mont Blanc. The conditions have been so good for so long we're now starting to think already 'have we had the best of it already?'  Whatever happens with future snowfall, its been a great week with Mr A Prince. Priceless.

Mucho fromage

Being our day off we made plans to ski with Alex et al.  After some full on kilometres coverage we squeezed in a little apre ski before a quick shower and then out for a very rare, no in fact our very first meal out.  From previous visits Princie recalled a great little restaurant just off the high street.  Our first proper french meal out for me and Fe, shocking really since we had been here almost 2 months.  Obviously the chalet host wages don't permit too much Frenchy style eating out!

We booked a table at Le Casserole with everyone opting for the snails for starters, well why wouldn't ya?  These little buggers were fantastic if a little tricky to grab with that little fork and a pair of reverse action pliers!!  Wonder if the ones on our allotment would taste this good with a splash of the old garlic butter? Hmmm a thought for the future maybe.  For main it had to be, the full cheese feast.  Tartaflette for me and Fe and raclette for Alex and Nathan.  Raclette is a typical mountain dish, a block of cheese that is heated by a special machine and you then scrape onto your plates.  The term raclette derives from the French word raclette, meaning "to scrape".  There was going to be some serious cheese sweats and crazy dreams going on later.  All washed down with copious bottles of delicious local vin rouge. 

Whilst the girls headed for home (it was a school night) the boys decided to hit he bars.  All I know is that a podium was involved with mucho dancing and the return to home eventually at 4am.  Without a shadow of a doubt the best night of the season so far.

Monday morning

This morning was that moment. I made my ninth tomato, red onion and caper salad,  Radio 2 blaring out 'happy Monday Everybody'.  In view, just over my very tomatoey laden chopping board,  a view of a fantastic ski terrain that you could never really tire of. This made me think, I must remember mornings like these.   We seem to be in much more of a sleek routine now. Guess we would be after 9 weeks of Monday morning tomato, red onion and caper salads.

Spring must be on the way as we have noticed the birds have started to sing.  Nothing can compare to the dawn chorus that we are treated to in Sefton Park Road but this is so nice to hear even if nothing has sprung into spring yet as its buried below many metres of snow.  Though the trees opposite our chalet do now seem to have more squirrel action within them!

The United nations hit chalet Claire

Our week of no guests really has been a lovely, giving us chance to catch up on rest and admin etc.  But all that soon changed with the arrival of our 12 men.  They are all lovely.  A mixture of nationalities: USA, Slovenia, Germany and UK.   They are all work associates from the energy industry.  So yes more engineering talk at the table.
 
Also arriving today was Princie (Alex), a friend and fine skier from Bristol.  As we were full he and his buddies had to stay next door.  Was great to see him and hear a few tales from Bristol.  In the last 24 hrs 30 cm has fallen, was needed after our long stint of sunshine. So we were looking forward to a good week of skiing.

Back to work

Happy Birthday Mum!  After a team meeting I skyped home to wish mum a very happy birthday. 

Espace Killy had been thriving under sunshine and blue skies for the last 12 days, with perfect pistes and mild-ish temperatures.  But this morning we woke to white skies spewing with snow.  We had to walk into town for a few things and the horizontal snow was rather problematic but was equally good to see.

It was our last day with no guests, tomorrow it was back to work, but we had enjoyed our lazy week.

The dark side

Fe is going to the dark side.  Yesterday she traded in her skis for a board.  She had a morning lesson booked with fellow seasonnaire Nathan.  She left all padded up and raring to go.  On her return, slightly bruised but nothing broken, she was very upbeat but undecided whether the planks were to be permanently replaced with the board.  So we will have to watch this space.

Wot, no guests?!

Change over day and our Celtic friends were up and gone for 6 am with the 4 hour drive back to Lyon airport.  We did breakfast for them at 5.30 am.  But no worries as today we could jump back into bed.  This wasn't going to be our normal change over day.  Why?  Because we had no guests booked in for the forthcoming week!  A week off!!!  What luxury, a week of lazying and skiing.

Val d'Isere celebrated our no guest week with the opening of the winter tour of the BMW Polo Masters Tour 2012 so as we had no dinner service we went down to have a look.  It was minis 12 with a fresh northerly so rugged up was essential, but the free vin chaud certainly kept us warm.   From the 11th to the 14th of January the resort hosts this event.  For three days, four teams of three riders compete at dusk on a snow covered illuminated arena at the foot of the Face de Bellevarde in an attempt to win the Barmes de l'Ours Trophy.   It was weird to see horses on snow but, apparently, it was a well matched contest and well worth standing in the cold for!

Fast men in lycra

This week Val d'Isere was hosting the FIS European Cup Mens Downhill.  Where the champions of tomorrow struggle to win their place for the World Cup Tour. 

Just to stand on the safe side of the safety netting was hairy enough as contenders from across Europe hurled themselves down this well known run that normally takes tourists and locals alike down to Daille.  But these thick thighed, lycra clad guys where hitting some pace and getting plenty of air as the lead swapped back and fourth between the Austrians and the Italians.  Austrian Johannes Kroll crossed the line in the quickest time. An ice cool performance of 1 minute 12.82.  Not sure what our time would be but even minus the vin chaud stop we would never match these lot. They were flying.  We felt like snails when we eventually pulled ourselves away from the race circuit and did some skiing for ourselves!

The weather

You aren't supposed to blog about the weather, true.  But this has been no ordinary weather. We are talking about the big one here, the one in a 100 year storm.  On browsing the headlines today I noticed that the stormy weather we had has moved on to another parts and is causing the same sort of problems :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084917/European-ski-resorts-lockdown-freak-snowfalls-cut-road-rail-air-links.html

http://news.uk.msn.com/in-pictures-freak-snowfalls-hit-the-alps/#image=1

Safety first

It's shopping day, but the thing is we have no guests next week (how cool is that)!  We get allocated €20 each to spend on ourselves so we jumped in the van and headed to Bourg with the others to stock up on personal items.  Funnily enough 2 other chalets have no guests either.  Must be that lull between new year and half term.  Great for us we get to live in a 6 bedroom chalet alone and ski mucho!

It took all of 10 minutes to spend 40 bucks,  shopping for two is a doddle compared to 12, so we popped  next door, a ski/sports shop, to look at helmets.  When we started skiing helmets were rarely seen but today its the done thing.  As our skiing improves and our speed picks up we too feel that helmets are for the best, so a purchase was made.  "Safety never takes a day off"

No work Tuesdays

Tuesday is our new day off.  So here we are.  Blue skies, loads of snow and all day to ourselves.
After a leisurely breakfast we head out to what was another beautiful day.  Today was off piste day. Val is famed for off piste, we kicked off on a naturide (marked, non-groomed patrolled piste) run moving further through the mountains as the morning and confidence moved on. Most of the morning was a thigh burner and pretty tricky in parts but enjoyed it so much we did some sections twice!

Our reward for such a tough morning, a lovely lakeside (although completely hidden by metres of snow) restaurant.  We slurped down 2 hot chocolates whilst sat on deck chairs, complete with fleecy of blankets this side of Geneva, soaking up January's afternoon sunshine.

After a few more slopes we met up with the gang in a bar in town for some light apre ski.  Catching up on guest gossip, ski/board tales and general banter.  Seems like everyone has settled in now and got a handle on the work/life balance that is being a chalet host.

Monday monday

Our Irish lot are up and out by 8.30 am which is great for us.  It means that we too are ready for some sliding by 10.30am.

We headed out with Aussies Nathan and Samantha from the next door chalet, maintenance man Sam and Graham from the chalet below.  A beautiful blue sky day, we went all over the place.

We finished over in La Tania and jumped on the bus back to Val.  It was the weekly market so we parked the skis and had a wander round.   Plenty of cheese and saucisson followed closely by acres of bobble hats.  What more does one need!  Needless to say we purchased some lovely cheese and bread and headed back for a late lunch washed down with a cheeky glass of vino.

Not too shabby for a Monday.

The celtics

Change over day again, the second this week.  The bookings have been shifted slightly to fit round the fact that Christmas day fell on a Saturday.  So our lovely families have gone and in their place another lovely family, this time from Cork including 3 grown lads that will probably eat us out of house and home.  Funnily enough all skiers, not one boarder which is rare.

They were a little late arriving, 10pm instead of the estimated 4pm, got a little lost driving from the airport.  So it was a late dinner shift for us.  Everyone was a little frazzled but after the car was unloaded, safety stored in a avalanche free zone, glass of wine in hand everyone relaxed.  Going on welcome drinks the week should be a crack!

Lockdown

The morning after the night before left  the whole village on a lock down.  All lifts where closed and guests were advised not to leave the chalet until the avalanche risk had decreased. 

By lunchtime guests were allowed out and took the opportunity to walk to the carparks to check on their cars before departing the next day.  Unfortunately both cars had suffered.  One hire car had a folded roof, smashed windscreen and a very re styled bonnet from a avalanche slip high above Santons.  Others had panel damage but all needed to be towed out of resort resulting in us having to organise last minute transfers.

The road from Val to Bourg was closed.  This meant our deliveries didn't arrive.  We order a percentage of supplies online, like meat, fish, milk and juices etc.  Looks like we will have to serve up bread and water!!
 

The 100 year storm

It's been dumping down, again and it did not stop all day. By evening the storm, reportedly the worst Espace Killy has seen in a hundred years, was in full flow.   Being our day off we were heading into the village for some beers and food.  We jumped on the bus as the weather was so bad plus we had Graham, from the chalet below us, and his girlfriend Selina who had her leg in a brace due to a knee injury from the day before.  The wind was so bad with horizontal snow we should have worn our goggles. 

There was a 9pm curfew in the village and conditions were said to be equally as hairy in Tignes - with gusts of wind in town over 100kmph. Up to a metre had fallen in several stations across the Alps.  This also meant that the buses had stopped running which gave us a problem of how to get Selina home.  The crutches just weren't up to the job.  I offered to run home and get one of the vans.  Visibility was zero and the wind chill must have been making it minus 20.  With the van out of the garage and Selina scooped into the back it was all going sweet until back up the hill the snow chain snapped and we got stuck in a drift.  That van wasn't going anywhere.  2 hours later, fighting with the wind and snow we got help from the rest of the boys who came over from the hotel with spades and dug us out.  6 lads worth of effort and we were free.  We kept the van running so the everyone could take it in turns to get in and warm up.  What a night!

With luck we will have sunshine for the rest of the week so we can make the most of this mind boggling quantity of fresh snow!
 

Faith in folk restored

With the family from hell gone, thank the lord, our new guests arrived.  We had  a father and daughter from the UK, Ulrik and Maya.  Ulrik was the Official club chiropractor for the Premiership Rugby 2009 winners Leicester Tigers.  So as you can imagine there was plenty of rugby talk at the table.  We also had a family from the Netherlands, Mum, Dad, kids and boyfriends.  All very lovely, exactly what we needed after our horrid week.

It wasn't long before we had a few injuries, one day in fact!  A popped shoulder, a swollen ankle and a dodgy knee!  All part and parcel of a week in the Alps I guess!