HUGGINS TOURS |
Val d'Isère 2004 |
Lavish Accommodation High Quantity Wines and Food |
High-Res Photos Low-Res Photos Holiday PreviewThe HolidayA total of 71 people attended the RBSG Ski Club (South) holiday to Val d'Isère. The holiday was most notable for the almost non-stop snowfall, several injuries and a bout of illness that was rife in the resort. On the positive side, the food and accommodation were excellent, and many of us made the most of the snow by joining the Mark Warner ski hosting groups. We also had the opportunity to improve our techniques in snow conditions rarely encountered. We stayed at the Mark Warner ChaletHotel Val d'Isère, right in the centre of town, many rooms having a view over the square and towards the ancient church. The ski hire shop was conveniently next door to the hotel and the main lifts were all about 5 minutes' walk across town. The bus service between the resorts - essential in these conditions - was fast and very frequent. Afternoon tea was often entertaining, with parents trying to avoid the gaze of their loved-ones who had their dinner at the same time. Mark G wasn't too shy to ask the manageress to chop up the pineapple in the fruit bowl (purely for display purposes) one afternoon, and Steve Atkins was clearly very peckish the afternoon that he helped himself to the kiddies' spaghetti bolognaise. Dinner was generally very good. DiaryThe weather was not good on Monday morning and deteriorated in the afternoon. Derek injured his knee in the heavy snow conditions and most people called it a day shortly after lunch. The Marks had their lesson all afternoon, as did the Woodards and Alex, so they were the only people to get a full day's skiing in, mostly in the Val d'Isère valley. When Vince and Matt went for one last run in La Daille after lunch they managed to descend about 50 feet before the wind-chill kicked in. Matt continued down, but Vince couldn't see through his goggles, and couldn't clear them with frozen mittens, so he decided to climb back up to the lift station. However, the snowboard he carried now acted as a sail, blowing him over, and he had to shelter from the blizzard against the slope. The climb up eventually took about 25 minutes, and there were several other people struggling to do the same thing. The early afternoon finish allowed time for others to have a snowball fight in the heated outdoor swimming pool. Sadly the outdoor ice-rink was covered in two feet of snow for the whole week, so Francis didn't have the chance to make use of her ice skates. Monday night's dinner saw us attempting the faces quiz (with dingbats as well) with at least one team identifying Gareth Gates as Demi Moore. It rained all day on Tuesday. The avalanche risk for the day was officially set at 6, despite the fact that the scale only goes up to 5. In fact members of our party witnessed two avalanches during the day, one under the Olympique lift and one behind the hotel, as seen from the swimming pool. Only a few hardy souls ventured onto the pistes, including the two Marks, whilst the rest of us were entertained by the Mark Warner staff with a couple of quizzes, Xmas Music and General Knowledge, both won by the Fast Group. There was an option to lunch in La Daille with a trip up the mountain afterwards (most came straight back down on the lift), but the majority stayed in Val d'Isère and had a pizza at La Perdrix Blanche. Sue and Andy ascended the Solaise cable car early in the afternoon, but once they had emerged from it at the top, a howling gale was blowing, so officials attempted to get them back into the cable car. However, the cable-car could no longer dock, due to high winds, so they joined a group which had to be shepherded down the slope in the blizzard, arriving at the bottom, traumatised, some time later. For the rest of us the afternoon allowed more time for games including chess with helpful hints such as "you can both get your bishops out now". Dinner was notable for the first mention of the grapes which accompanied the cheese-board, and which were rather over-endowed with pips. Phil fervently called this to the attention of those at his table, only for a complaint to be lodged with the waitress, who summoned the chef. Once it was explained as a joke there were no hard feelings. Wednesday was actually a pretty full day's skiing with hosting groups fairly full. The snowboarders caught up with the fast group just before the lunch break, and then had to wait for them at the bottom of the red run. After a leisurely lunch the ultra-fast rebellion occurred, so those who "came to ski" did their own thing and the snowboarders unofficially joined the fast group for a trip down the black run. This was a lot easier on a snowboard, as falling was almost inevitable due to the very deep snow, and at least snowboarders didn't have to put their skis back on. Over in La Daille, in some pretty bad conditions, Ian Huggins hit a rut and was flabbergasted to bend one of his own skis. The ski shop said that it was a known fault of the brand, so he was on hire skis for the rest of the week (they replaced Jill's bent pole). Two of our number were put out of action for the rest of the week by injuries which occurred on Wednesday: Phil sprained a calf muscle, and Dave Beecham did his left shoulder in. Steve missed the day due to the illness that was later to afflict Richard, Pam, Claire, Alex, Derek, Mark Guilford and Chris Woodard. The second quiz of the week was heavily biased towards the film quotes round, so "The Seedless Grapes" team, with two film buffs in Ben and Mark W, won it handsomely and were rewarded with cocktail slammers in the bar. Buoyed by this, Francis, Matt and Derek decided to join ski-host Mark in a trip to Dick's T-Bar in the early hours, Derek departing a tad late and dressed only in trousers and a shirt. He also had to ask passers-by the way, and when he fell over in the snow it reached from his hands to his shoulders. Francis and Matt were happier to make angel dives (?) into the snow. Thursday's skiing was confined to the Solaise slopes, and the few who ventured out early had the advantage of avoiding the overcrowding later in the day. It actually stopped snowing for quite a while. Another early finish gave time to switch to skis (Stuart) or take in some aprés-ski entertainment. By the end of the week the two Marks had a regular haunt for their lunch/après drinks, so much so that Mark was greeted as Norm each time he arrived. As Thursday was the hotel staff's night off, we booked some large tables at La Perdrix Blanche, as specialist fish restaurant, for dinner. The top recommendations from the chef were jumbo prawns and Dover sole (unfortunately the large ones had sold out - at €70 each). Despite the waiters' electronic order pads there was some confusion between tables, with Stuart M eating Jill's main course mussels, and some drinks being charged to the wrong table, but the food was generally excellent. Entertainment afterwards was provided by "the only girl band in the Alps", whose repertoire was exactly the same as that performed by one of their number at a mountain café the previous afternoon, as witnessed by the fast group. Thus Matt and Stu were able to predict the next song with absolute certainty, though nobody took them up on their wagers. After another pub stop seven night-owls went on to Dick's T-Bar to witness many of the staff from the hotel strutting their stuff on the dance floor - the nannies were particularly enthusiastic. On Friday the link to Tignes was finally opened. We had to wait a while for it to open, and by now ski-host Mark had cottoned on to the fact that he shouldn't host for snowboarders, so he took us down the flattest piste he could find and Vince, caught in the nadir, had to run along the snow to keep up. The second time he took a wrong turn and found a piste with a slope, joining the rest for the trip through the blizzard over the top. The conditions got worse during lunch at Pizza 2000 (large & cheap) and the attendants at the funicular lift told all the groups to go back to Val d'Isère while we still could, which was probably just in time as the comfy lift was closed and we ended up on the two-man open lift. Once back in the La Daille valley we couldn't see further than about 20 yards, so had to pair up with a buddy and make sure that we didn't lose anybody. Unfortunately Linda's buddy missed Linda's tumble, stopping some 200 yards further down the slope, but she was "rescued" by the gallant chaps behind her. After two extra runs, Linda, Vince, Stu and John L felt that they deserved a vin chaud, but by then those who had finished earlier were on their third. Meanwhile the leisurely group had similar problems in the blizzard, and Mark G wasn't too happy to side-slip down from the top, so he put in a couple of turns, the second of which triggered a mini-avalanche as a block of snow gave way beneath him. The intermediates' guide had looked for a volunteer to lead the way and Richard proposed Paul "as he usually overtakes me". But Andy's invocation of "Paul, show us how it's done" was obviously the kiss of death and he wiped-out on his first turn. Friday night's dinner was hat night for those in the know, allowing Richard to share out his dozen between the City Flyers. Was there a prize for the best hat? The prize for the pop quiz went to Lee Pomery's team, and "Stuart Mazdon's team" did particularly badly (though SM wasn't in it!), and sloped off before the final results were announced. Carolyn and Pam came to walk, but their ambitions were largely curtailed by the ban on leaving town by foot, due to the high avalanche risk. Indeed the road to Le Fornet was impassable by vehicles early in the week, and it was only on the final day that this ski area was opened, with the best pisted snow of the week on the blue run and the deepest snow on the black run. The latter was where the major mishaps occurred, with the fast and fast-intermediate groups combined. Simon lost one of his skis towards the bottom of the slope, and after several minutes of futile searching, the ski hosts decided that an organised search was required, so a police line was drawn up across the snow and 12 of us slowly advanced upwards, sticking a ski deep into the snow as we went. After a couple of false alarms, John Llewellyn finally found the ski, 25 minutes later. That wasn't the end of our troubles as ski host Will couldn't get his boot back in his binding and eventually decided that it was broken. Also, on the big schuss which we thought we had already done from the blue run, it turned out that there were several enormous undulations when you took it from the black run, so most skiers took off and Vince had a spectacular fall on his snowboard, tumbling head over heels a couple of times. Sadly this was only witnessed by Paul, so it didn't win the wipeout of the week award despite leaving Vince hobbling for the next few days. The leisurely group had a fun day with Jossie who was honoured later in the day with her own award from them. Francis was really getting into the swing of impersonating Mr Akinfe, not by skiing into a tree, but by stopping unknown skiers in the middle of the piste and asking them to take the group's photo. Simon H joined that group for the afternoon, and was impressed by the skiing of many of them. PrizesWipeout of the week: Simon Huggins for his ski burying on Saturday. We also had a collection for the hotel staff and one for Dave Beecham who put a lot of hard work into organising the trip (with help from Chris Drake, Paul Huggins and Richard Arthur). Top Back to Ski Trips Back to Huggins Tours | The Party (29+)Paul Huggins | |