HUGGINS TOURS |
Mottaret 2003 |
Lavish Accommodation High Quantity Wines and Food |
Photographs Holiday PreviewThe HolidayThe holiday was booked through the NatWest Ski Club and their close relationship with Mark Warner for the week of 12th to 19th January 2003. Altogether our party comprised about 50 people, including many of the NatWest people we'd met in St Anton. One person, Hennie, didn't make it to France, as his South African passport would only let him as far as Switzerland (without a French visa), and he didn't want to risk sneaking through on the coach. He therefore skied in Switzerland, joining ski school for the week. The SkiingThe weather was clear and sunny every day, and crisply cold except for a warm Tuesday and on Friday when a bitter wind swept in from the south. The small snowfall the week before and the snow-cannons enabled us to enjoy good snow conditions all week, with different consistencies on different slopes including some ice and a few stones showing through. We had the ideal situation of being able to ski to and from the hotel. Most of the Huggins Tours party joined the Mark Warner snow guides, with Paul & Simon insisting upon being in Caroline's "A" Intermediate Group every day, and implying that it was somehow superior. Paul revelled in his new boots and brand-new skis. Julian, Rebecca, Ian, Stu, Steve, Ben and Matt along with Bob Cook and Dave Turner all joined Hawk's "B" Intermediate group on most days, supplemented by Jill, Margaret and Vince for as long as they could handle the pace. Ben employed his well-oiled towing technique to help Matt along the flat bits on his snowboard. Some entire pistes were covered without stopping, but any stragglers could look out for the two "yellow perils", Dave and Stu, in order to head in the right direction. The whole "B" group was recognised by the Mark Warner reps as significantly faster than the "A" group, and as fast as the "Fast" group this week, being awarded a certificate of achievement, much to the chagrin of the "A" group. Mark Warner Certificate of Achievement: Rebecca & Julian took a morning's lesson, along with young Mr Drake, and returned with tales of a dashing young tutor with an outrageous French accent on such phrases as "May I carry your skis for you madame?". Thursday provided the opportunity for a traditional Huggins Tours fast group, with the usual map-reading and vin-chaud breaks, but without the usual forays off-piste (we missed you, Linda). We tried to stick to the sunny slopes, as our guides did throughout the week, so there were some mogully black runs to try above Les Menuires in the afternoon. Bob and Christine spent most days with their friend John and his son, joined once by Vince on his snowboard. Vince got faster all week and later kept pace with our fast groups and had a go on the jumps, half-pipe and banked turns of the Snow Park, along with Stu on skis. Stuart Killen tried out langlaufing (or was it telemark skiing?), and seemed to enjoy it, being joined by his wife Carolyn and John Huggins. John agreed with most of us in describing it as too much like hard work. The best entertainment of the week was provided by Francis, Rafi and Philip. The French method of only having lessons in the morning seemed to suit Francis, as it left plenty of time in the afternoon for exploring the furthest reaches of the 3 Valleys. Each day they would return unfed and exhausted, having tried to make the lunchtime rendez-vous, but arrived too late, and only had time for a drink and a Mars bar before having to race back to Mottaret. On three of the days Francis tried to lead the trio to the highest point in the 3 Valleys (having done the furthest east and the furthest west), but after the first two occasions had to try again when he realised that the piste on the highest peak wasn't necessarily the highest skiable point. They might have had more time had it not been for the constant stops for photographs and video footage. It all culminated on Friday when they reached the top of the most distant high lift in the Val Thorens valley (Cime de Caron) at 3 o'clock, with barely enough time to get back, but Francis and Rafi then had to ascend to the viewing point above it and spend 15 minutes taking photos. Phil was not best pleased - they now didn't even have time for falls on the way back. They caught the last lift back to the Meribel valley with 5 minutes to spare, but were too late for the last Arolles lift up from Mottaret. In the mean time Francis had skied into a tree and further injured his arm (showing off, or was it just getting dark?), and managed to lose the others, so they struggled up the 444 steps of the hill back to our hotel with skis in hand. Francis, however, had found out about the all-day cable car up the hill, so arrived outside the tea-room on skis, at about 5:30pm, just as Rafi and Phil arrived inside it. "How was your day Phil" was met by no comment (literally). Anyway, they're probably all laughing about it now. Later Francis and Rafi skulked down to dinner late, to be seated at the table at the back, only for the waiter to seat Ian and Phil at the same table shortly afterwards. Phil, who had just about recovered from his ordeal and another trip up the hill (shopping, to burn off his excess energy), said "This is a set-up". On the plus side, Phil recognised that Francis had been chivalrous to several lady skiers during the week, and was not backward at flagging down passers-by to take photos on the piste, as long as they didn't look like they could ski away too fast. Francis actually had competition this year on the hat front (he brought 10 different ones) from Richard Arthur whose wardrobe included a rotating-police-light-hat - useful when trying to stop French buses. He and John Barker joined Huggins Tours for part of the week. We didn't seem to see much of Andrew Lister, maybe because he slept through one of the evening meals. He also chipped a tooth, but enjoyed himself nontheless. Derek risked an afternoon with the venturers, moderated by Ian. At the top of the Saulire lift Derek looked out at the piste colours - red, red and red. Don't worry, Del, we'll take the hardest red in the 3 valleys - Saulire itself. Although he may not have enjoyed it at the time ("is it nearly over yet?"), perhaps this, and an excellent tutor, helped make him the most improved skier of the week, as Derek surprised some of us on Saturday with his speed and stability (no falls all day) down many red runs. Vince, Ian and Stu tried out snow blades on Saturday with that same group (on their skis), some of them keeping pace on the black run Suisses, notably Francis when not taking photos. The black Tétras was steep, mogully, narrow and icy, but good fun on snowblades, and there Stu had a contender for fall of the week, trying to run like a clown in big shoes. It was, however, his only fall of the week, as he managed to stay upright when colliding with Simon earlier. Some of the party did have one off-day each due to food poisoning, notably Steve, Ian and Derek, but the source was not identified. Apart from the certificate for the "B" Intermediate group, Stuart Mazdon won the Hardcore Skier of the Week award for keeping on the tail of Hawk in the "B" Intermediate group and doing a few extra runs at the end of each day, and Francis Akinfe won the Shopping Trolley of the Week award for not knowing where he was going or how to get back. Apres SkiAfter Dave Beecham's NatWest Ski Club get-together at Le Pub on Tuesday, a mis-read bus timetable meant that some of us only just arrived back in time for dinner. Bowling on Wednesday turned into a debacle as our slot was switched from 6pm to 7pm, but some lanes didn't start until nearer 8pm, and many participants weren't well-practised at speed-bowling á la Finsbury Park. Steve Pearson had the best score after 9 goes when we had to make a run for the bus. The meal out on Thursday was equally disastrous as the gourmet group's booking went astray, and many of us ended up with the pizza we were trying to avoid. That evening was the first trip to Jack's Tea Bar, Meribel's English night-club, for Francis, Derek, Stu and Vince. The music was mediocre and the entertainment provided by Alexandra turned out to be more exotic than the disk-jockeying kind. The four repeated the trip together with Rafi on the final night when there seemed no point in going to bed, but the club was emptier on that Saturday night - why could that be? Meribel turned out to be expensive for everything, especially drinks, lunchtime food and taxis. Luckily we had free wine at dinner (until the main course was cleared away, as we quickly learnt). ChaletHotel TarentaiseThe Mark Warner hotel staff all spoke English with various Commonwealth accents, and were very cheerful even in the face of such puzzling requests as erotic ice-cream and granulated sugar for porridge. Food was generally excellent, including the option of soup at afternoon tea-time. Some of the under-fives particularly enjoyed spreading the chocolate cake around their faces, and turning their bowls upside down. A Huggins Tours team upheld their long tradition of winning the hotel quizzes with victory in the team slalom quiz, the champagne shared with team and "splitters" alike. Steve was also down to the last two in the individual quiz until his remote house-buying took priority. The grand piano in the hotel lobby took a good battering from Richard during the week as he accompanied the songs of Paul & Simon (not Paul Simon) and the Killens. At one stage they were competing with the "70's disco", and probably won on points. Top Back to Ski Trips Back to Huggins Tours | The Party (c25)Paul Huggins | |
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