Skiing - What we really love to do!

Alpe D'Huez 2007

This was an Easter trip. We decided early on to go at Easter, but due to the poor conditions in most of Europe through most of 2007's season, delayed and delayed the booking until just two weeks before the holiday.

Because of this, the options were limited, but when a chalet came up on Alpe D'Huez, France I decided to go for it as conditions looked good and it remained a tempting resort to visit after a one day visit (in dreadful conditions) years before, whilst staying at nearby Les Deux Alpes.

Our accomodation was actually in Oz Station (around 1350m), which is well served by two gondola lifts into the Alpette area over nearby

Saturday - Arrival

Our early morning flight required a 3AM rise, so we were quite bleary when we checked in, but things weren't too bad. Security at Gatwick was horrible, though, with slow moving queues.

Our flight to Lyon was only a little over an hour, but that was enough in quite cramped seats on our Monarch flight. There was some delay with everyone's luggage at the other end and then we had quite a long walk to our coaches on the far side of the car park. Still, the journey wasn't too unbearable (I snoozed, at least) and we were transferred to a mini-bus a few miles outside of Alpe D'Huez and taken up to Oz Station.

We got into the Chalet Alpette (which is actually a large appartment in the Chalets Des Neiges - one of 3 identical blocks in Oz Station, near the Alpette lift), mid afternoon and quickly got ourselves down the ski school and (pre-booked) ski hire shop to sort out the kids for the week.

The view from our room

The chalet was well located, right next door to the ski school meeting place and within easy walking distance of both lifts - There was a little snow in the resort centre when we arrived, too, although the snow line was only a few hairpin bends down the mountain even then.

Lauren and I put our boots on and went and did a few runs on the Nursery slopes in our jeans, to find our ski-legs, but that was enough for us in our tired condition.

Chalets always provide nice tea and cakes and this was no exception. Dinner was good, too (Scott's cooking was a highlight of the chalet) and we all needed an early night.

Sunday

Sunday morning was a typically hectic day, with getting the kids off to ski-school.

Ryan was not terribly enthusiastic and Lauren seemed a bit pensive about joining an adult ski school class for the first time.

Ryan (yellow hat) prepares for his first day's skiing

With them both off on their way, Mandy and I went off for a gentle ski around the area.

I travelled up to the very top of the resort, Pic Blanc, to do the Sarrenne run, which is graded black and reckoned to be the longest run in the Alps. It is long, but most of it is tame green track, once you get past the first few hundred metres of vertical drop.

We returned at lunchtime separately, but, although Lauren was happy with ski school, Ryan was throwing a trademark tantrum and screaming that he wanted to go home...

We got him to do a few little runs holding our skis, which seemed to cheer him up a little.

Mandy got Ryan for the afternoon, so did no more skiing, but Lauren and I went up the Alpette lift and skiied on the mainly blue runs over Vauzjany. The skiing was pleasant, with good snow, but distinctly untaxing.

However, on the way back to Oz, I had a huge crash coming down the Alpette red. This is pretty much a path traversing across and down the mountain and I was travelling at some speed, when I can only assume I caught an edge and span around. I don't remember the start of the crash, but I remember thinking that I was going to land very heavily on my back. In fact, I landed heavily on the back of my head and as I slid along on my back, by now devoid of skis, poles, sunglasses and camera, I remember feeling relieved that there was no streak of red in the snow, so I figured I probably hadn't fractured my skull...

Someone picked up my equipment and, after checking my hands and feet would move, I rolled over and got, rather groggily up. I had another much gentler tumble a few 100 metres later and my neck was incredibly stiff for the next couple of days.

Monday

Morning with Ryan, Skiworld rep/skiguide, who was quite quick on his board, but got us around an impressive expanse of the resort, only really leaving out the Auris area.

We found the area over Villard Reculas very icy first thing in the morning (and it got very slushy, very quickly as we found out later in the week).

Ryan had a new instructor, and seemed only deeply unhappy at lunchtime. Mandy didn't feel like skiing in the afternoon, so Lauren and I went and did a few runs.

View down to Alpe D'Huez

At one point we ventured into the tight and steep red, Canyons. There's a good case for this being a Black, but Lauren was doing fine until we got out of the narrow, moguled section, when she suddenly panicked and refused to ski on - I finally persuaded her to traverse across and out, but she obviously wasn't feeling up to skiing, so we had a short afternoon, just returning to Oz.

Tuesday

On Tuesdsay morning, Mandy and I went over to Auris, as we'd not been there before.

Looking at the piste map, we wondered why there was no run from Alpe D'Huez to the base of the Sarrenne gorge, but once you ride the chair lift down, you understand why!

The drop is near vertical and rock strewn (You could just about scramble up it in the Summer, but no way would it be pisteable, even as a Black). The lift ride itself was an experience to someone like me who's not too keen on heights.

However, the trip was well worth it as Auris has some of the very best skiing in Alpe D'Huez in my opinion.

Beautiful above the clouds day

There are a couple of long, steep, but wide and well groomed reds served by a chair lift and a drag lift. These in themselves were worth skiing, quite hard too, without being icy.

We then followed signs from the top around a path to the black Col De Cluys. Until you round the bend, you wonder what's coming, but the result is a steep, unpisted descent down into an offshoot of the Sarrenne Gorge. A great run, which we revisited a few times. The only downside was, even early in the day and the week, it was already getting a bit slushy.

I had Ryan in the afternoon and we did a few little runs up and down the nursery slope as, by now, he was getting the hang of turning left and right, even if he did fall over about every other turn at this stage.

Wednesday

By now Ryan was beginning to enjoy skiing and was proudly boasting of the other green he'd now been on.

Ryan started to enjoy himself after a couple of days

We decided that, as we'd bought a family ski pass and he could go on all the lifts, we'd have lunch on the mountain.

As the weather was especially good, it was particularly pleasant to sit on the mountain side restaurant and enjoy the atmosphere, climate and scenery.

Ryan wasn't feeling confident enough to ski up the mountain yet, so we took in the Grotte De Glace. This is created, apparently, every year by tunneling into a huge pile of artificial snow and then allowing sculptures to carve out the ice and snow to a theme.

Hare in the Grotte de Glace

This year it was the Fables of Aesop (as interpreted by French Poet, Jean de La Fontaine), most famous in the UK for the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare, although Ryan recognised a couple of others.

Lauren and I did a bit of skiing afterwards, too, while Ryan and Mandy travelled down by lift to Alpe D'Huez to do some shopping.

Thursday

On Thursday morning, Ryan was trooped with his class off towards the Alpette lift, rather than in the direction of the nursery slopes near the Poutran lift.

When we met him at lunchtime, Mandy (who'd gone down to meet him whilst I did a last run on the under-rated black, Balcons) informed us that he wanted to show us the Blue he'd been skiing on!

We rode the Alpette lift up again and had another pleasant mountain lunch in one of the restaurants there, before Ryan led us (very boldly) to the Chalets blue which descends towards Vaujany.

Rare shot of ME skiing - Thanks to Lauren!

His ESF instructor had obviously been the right instructor for Ryan, as he was now confidently (if a little over-confidently at times) negotiating the fairly steep (for a blue) run. He didn't panic when other skiiers were around him and he was able to moderate his speed and turn at will, most of the time...

Lauren and Mandy went off to ski for the afternoon and Ryan and I skiied 'his' blue a few more times, before he started to tire, the run being quite long and needing almost constant control of speed. Ryan also showed he could ride the button and chair lifts without problems, which is often not the case for a first year skiier.

Friday

Started day on Black to Vauzjany, branching off of Ryan's Blue - Icy, but in good condition and impressively steep. Very bare at bottom, though, it seemed unlikely it would stand another day of sunshine and skiing.

I skiied on the blacks from the top of the Marmottes 2 lift, including the rather tame Clocher De Macle and the very long, and frankly horrible on the day (frozen, wind blown snow at the top, decent snow restricted to a plateau, and then slush on the bottom), Combe Charbonerie run.

Lauren - A true teenager.

Ryan was excited at lunchtime as he'd taken and passed his end of week test, which rewarded him with one of the rather smart ESF snow flake lapel badges, which he's still wearing most of the time, 3 weeks later...

We all met for lunch, at the very good, but very busy Plage De Neige, above Alpe D'Huez.

Weather on last couple of days was fantastic.

Ryan and Mandy skiied down to A d'Huez twice afterwards, whilst Lauren and I went over to Auris again and skiied the black and some of the Reds a few times to round out our week.

We only came down off the mountain when the lifts were closing and the Olmet run back to Oz was incredibly empty for once, giving us a great last holiday run.

Saturday

Another painfully early start, with waits for the main coach, at the airport (although check-in was incredibly good as we were early).

We got bulkhead seats, which meant loads of leg room and the flight home was quite enjoyable.

The early start did mean we were home by lunch time, although we were all very tired that night.

Summary

Overall we had a good holiday.

Alpe D'Huez is a pleasant area to ski in, with an impressive mixture of easy, medium and tough runs and (at Easter anyway) commendably few queues.

Our favourite area was Auris, but many runs were good and Ryan picked up skiing impressively quickly on the gentle greens and more challenging blues.

The chalet wasn't the very best we've stayed in, but was reasonably good and the Oz Station area was a pleasant environment, with good connections into the main area.

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