Skiing

i like poached eggs


 
Gotcha, at least that's quite a short one and it led you back to a blue.

First I went skiing I went to Chmonix and took a wrong turn onto a very icy red (only my second day ever on skis), came around a corner WAY to fast, did the splits, lost both skis and one of them shot into the queue at a chairlift. I got a right boll0cking in several languages when I went to get it.

Didn't put me off as I've been back every year since, love it, especially sitting supping a jug of mulled wine late afternoon after a few good runs and then ambling down the last couple of slopes for a soak before a good meal and a few beers. Not a massive lover of the French but the certainly know how to cook, Chamonix is exceptional for local restaurants. I tend to go with mates and get a catered chalet nowadays, always got great food so far. We did one on Morzine 3 years ago and was very special.

 
lol, sounds like a close call! I had a chap pick up my skis and some girl carry the poles I'd left at the top of the slope down to me, then he helped me back on my skis which was lucky because my overriding thought after I realised I was alive was that I'd have to spend £200 replacing the skis lol. 
 
My ski instructor said chamonix is nice but VERY expensive and given how much Val d'Isere was I don't think I want to sample an even more expensive resort yet. 
 
Food in val d'isere is ****e - options are burgers, pizzas, crepes, or "local specialities" such as raclette, tartiflette and fondu which consist (as far as I could tell) of a plate of melted cheese. 
 
I think as you say next time I'll get a self-catered chalet with some mates, I can imagine that being a lot of fun. Whether or not I'll go for an annual skiing trip depends on whether I can fork out 1.2k every January - seems bloody expensive to me but I suppose I have been a poor student for god-knows how long now. 

SN  group lessons are ****e once you know the basics you are much better off with a one 2 one. I have one booked for next weekend Sa/Sun me and a mate so halves the cost but you get much more instruction. 
 
Glad to hear you made it down in once piece all be it on your arse. Generally its not the falls that hurt as you slide its people hitting you and that does hurt ALOT. The amount of newbs who look at a black run then try to snow plough down it crossing the whole width of the piste is insane then they get wiped out or wipe out the other skiers. Its a bit crazy you can just go anywhere unaccompanied but hey guess its part the fun. 
 
 
 
SN Chamonix is not a place I would ever reccomend for beginners i skied there Sat with a guide and after a hard days skiing I just wanted an easy run back and theres nothing less than red which after your shredded is not what you need. 
 
But tbh its pretty cheap when your ther €10 full english in town wth a pint then mountan cafe €25 steak chips and beer or vin chaud not too bad. DO NOT EVER SKI A SWISS RESORT ****ing hell I went to verbier the week before was £50 for the day lift pass, spaghetti in a restuarant nearly £20 then dont even get me started on the booze. 
 
Will you go again? Italy is cheapy cheap.

I like Val d'Isere, if you're looking for a chalet rent Eagle's Nest. Only £31620 a week for 12 of you...

master plan


I like Val d'Isere, if you're looking for a chalet rent Eagle's Nest. Only £31620 a week for 12 of you...

 
ouch!

master plan


I like Val d'Isere, if you're looking for a chalet rent Eagle's Nest. Only £31620 a week for 12 of you...

 
Our hotel had a magazine which showed some of the other hotels and chalets, some of them are so nice it makes you want to earn the high 6-figure salary you'd need to afford them! 

Rasputin


SN  group lessons are ****e once you know the basics you are much better off with a one 2 one. I have one booked for next weekend Sa/Sun me and a mate so halves the cost but you get much more instruction. 

Glad to hear you made it down in once piece all be it on your arse. Generally its not the falls that hurt as you slide its people hitting you and that does hurt ALOT. The amount of newbs who look at a black run then try to snow plough down it crossing the whole width of the piste is insane then they get wiped out or wipe out the other skiers. Its a bit crazy you can just go anywhere unaccompanied but hey guess its part the fun. 



SN Chamonix is not a place I would ever reccomend for beginners i skied there Sat with a guide and after a hard days skiing I just wanted an easy run back and theres nothing less than red which after your shredded is not what you need. 

But tbh its pretty cheap when your ther €10 full english in town wth a pint then mountan cafe €25 steak chips and beer or vin chaud not too bad. DO NOT EVER SKI A SWISS RESORT ****ing hell I went to verbier the week before was £50 for the day lift pass, spaghetti in a restuarant nearly £20 then dont even get me started on the booze. 

Will you go again? Italy is cheapy cheap.

Completely agree with the group lessons. After the first hour I was already far ahead of the other newbs, apparently learning how to snow-plow down a nursery slope is something which takes the average person an entire 3 hours to learn. 
 
To top it off I religiously made sure I practiced in the afternoons from 1.30 to 5.30 so as not to be a **** skiier for the rest of my life. Needless to say, the second day when I turned up and the rest of my group had gone drinking in the afternoon rather than skiing meant that I was far, far ahead of them in skill already. So that effectively meant the rest of the week was a waste of time. I was still the only person who could parallel turn by the end of the week, and there was one girl who was still an utter liability on going down any slope other than a nursery (I wouldn't like to be skiing below her, that's for sure) - still unable to do snowplow turns ffs.
 
Agreed with the other people thing - my girlfriend got whacked from behind by some twat going twice her speed down a green because he couldn't stop and now has a big black bruise on her knee to show for it. 
 
Strangely for me the times I almost did myself the most damage were on the chair lifts - one time I let my poles dangle too low below the chair and they got shredded under the lift and in the process pushed my fingers against the bar almost breaking them (middle finger still hurts now) and the other time I didn't get off the lift before it started turning and it started pushing against the side of my leg with my ski still on (effectively almost got my knee bent in half but from the side) - luckily the chair lift stopped before it didn't any damage. 
 
Pretty sure I'll go again, though not sure when. One thing's for sure - I'm not getting the ****ing Eurostar ever again! 

sillynarbie

I think as you say next time I'll get a self-catered chalet with some mates, I can imagine that being a lot of fun. Whether or not I'll go for an annual skiing trip depends on whether I can fork out 1.2k every January - seems bloody expensive to me but I suppose I have been a poor student for god-knows how long now. 

 
You should be able to nearly half that and still have an amazing holiday, Be it in half board/fully catered chalets or half board in decent hotels.
Cant comment on skiing , but snowboarding is addictive, love being up in the mountains/tree runs/views etc much better doing a week on the snow than a week on a sun lounger

Mr Jingles

sillynarbie

I think as you say next time I'll get a self-catered chalet with some mates, I can imagine that being a lot of fun. Whether or not I'll go for an annual skiing trip depends on whether I can fork out 1.2k every January - seems bloody expensive to me but I suppose I have been a poor student for god-knows how long now. 

You should be able to nearly half that and still have an amazing holiday, Be it in half board/fully catered chalets or half board in decent hotels.
Cant comment on skiing , but snowboarding is addictive, love being up in the mountains/tree runs/views etc much better doing a week on the snow than a week on a sun lounger

Yeh I really love the wooded runs, feels so peaceful and almost surreal. Shame there aren't that many in Val d'Isere, and they all seem to be over so quickly. 

£1200 sounds a lot for France, my little girl is going to New Hampshire (Wildcat Mountain) for a week with school for that, includes return flights from UK, 4 star hotel (full board), 2 lessons a day, full area pass, ski and boot hire and bowing, cinema etc in the evenings.
 
We get Easyjet/Ryanair to Geneva from UK, internet sourced minibus transfer, either catered chalet or good apartment, ski hire, passes all for around £600 - £800.
 
Agree with others about lessons, go private, great value if there's 2 of you at similar level.

It's quite hard to get those sorts of discounts with just two of you though. In future I'll definitely fly and then get the bus from Geneva, that'll save a bit I'm sure.