How has it gone?

[greygirl]

How did your skiing trip go this year? Did it go well? what would you change for next year? where did you go?

i will go first - i went to puy st vincent with snowbizz. It was fab. we are going again next year.
next year I will again book meet and greet parking, but take a few large black bin bags, some conditioner and hair de-tangler spray with me. I will get black thermals rather than white for the kids (less staining) and i will take 2 full sets of thermals each for them

anyone else got any wisdom to pass on?

Oooh, I could write an essay on this - have been twice so far this year, to La Ros in Jan and Courcehvel 1850 last week. Gotta go out, will place mark to come back to later...

Get mitts rather than gloves if you are going to buy a new pair.

Don't take too many clothes - we've all worn the same pair of leggings and top all week (no we're not smelly!) , so a spare set and handwash would probably be enough

check British airways baggage allowance BEFORE you get to the airport with 3 bags too many and have to pay £40 per bag! !

Back again, in my normal name now that ski season is probably very for me tho' DS1 going again @ Easter with the school.
Lessons I have learnt this year - valid for me, not claiming universal:
Buy helemts here - cheap and perfectly good from eg Sprts Direct, and reduces hassle hiring in ski shop.
Parents also have helmets (I fell backwards onto my head - first time after many years of skiing, cos so icy on our last day and would have been seriously injured without.)
Do not under any circumstances put a banana in a rucksack without being in a banana guard (Lakeland - worth vastly more that the few pennies they cost) DS2 now understands why this is a captial offence
Max two sets of thermals onlty needed for over 5s
Put ski boots in main luggage - no cheaper now to transport them in separate bag and saves time @ the carousel.
Never again believe any tour operator has civilised transfers - in every case they let down their good service by cheeseparing on the transfer and and consolidating several flights onto one coach - in future, preferably drive, or otherwise get private transfer from Holiday Taxis or similar.

If going in Europe, book somewhere high (1800m+), with some North-facing slopes and plenty of snow cannons.
Try to organise different-coloured socks for each person! If you're going to attempt more than one day in a pair, it's good to know it's your own sweat!
When packing, put each person's small bits (so to speak) in separate carrier bags in the case, so you can just hand it to that DH child on arrival and saves on the "where are my socks/thermals" headache.

Oh, and get "ski-to-the-door" if you can.

Clam , yes, yes, yes and YES!

DH and I didn't go because of cash flow, but DD2 (17) went with some friends who she'd met up with the past 3 years and got to know really well (6 people ages 17-30). They were all snowboarders .
They went to Tignes in the middle of Jan and had a great time. I think they're looking at Austria next year just for a change.

(I'll get DD to write the bit after this)
Tignes was good, but there hadn't been any decent snowfall since Boxing Day so there was no good powder anywhere; and what was there either took over an hour to hike to or was dangerously unstable. The pistes got mega icy after just a few hours and there were moguls everywhere by the end of the day. The final run that we did to get back to our chalet was nicknamed 'slopestyle' cause the moguls made really good kickers. The airbag in the Swatch Snowpark would have been really awesome if the kicker didn't have a ridiculous lip. Watched three people knock themselves out on it trying to do backflips.

Lessons learnt:
Don't go out and get stupid drunk every night, and then try and snowboard all of the next day. You will not board very well.
Health insurance is a must. I didn't bother with it and managed to break a collarbone on the last day. Flew home in lots of pain (cried most of the way), straight to A&E and found out it needed pinning. Mum went ballistic. Still in lots of pain 5 weeks later and have a horrible scar.
If you're going off piste, have all the avalanche kit. This is not negotiable. Recco reflectors do not, will not and have never constituted avalanche kit. I'm talking shovels (not plastic ones), probes and transceivers. Don't go off piste without them OR the education to use them. It is selfish in the extreme.
Small children on skis are unpredictable. Try not to be angry when they ski into the back of your legs because their parents aren't paying attention. Twice.

Advice for Tignes:
If you ski, avoid the 'Santons' run in Val D'Isere at all costs. If you snowboard, make this the priority of your trip. It's a natural halfpipe and incredible fun.
The best park is the 'ValPark' at the bottom of the Borsat Express. The Nissan Gliss park is the crappest thing I've ever seen.
If you plan on going to the Ski Tranquille area (the one served by the Fresse and Borsat Express lifts), don't. Unless you like having to take your snowboard off to walk up ridiculous uphills and flats.
Whoever does the run classification for Tignes is insane. Some blues were like greens, some greens were like reds (no joke) and some blue were like blacks. The blacks all seemed to be graded quite well.
There are flat spots on ALL of the runs. If you don't like going fast, this won't be the place for you.
The blue down into Les Brevieres is good, but watch out for the bridge (it's around a blind bend). The black down into Brev is madness.
Don't stand at the top of something and go 'ooh, crap, that's steep.' Instead, say 'I wonder how fast I can get down this.' It makes everything much more fun if you're trying to break the sound barrier .
If you're a skier and are nervous about snowboarders, please don't fall over in front of us. If we can tell you're nervous, we often stop and wait for you to get to an area of the piste wide enough to pass. Or just stop and have lunch till we're sure that you're at the bottom .
Going right to the top of the glacier (3500m) might make you feel a little light-headed. Try not to faint.
Also, the top of the glacier is cold. It was -26*c the one day and I thought my hands would drop off.
Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to follow a group going off piste because 'they look like they know what they're doing'. When you tell us that you don't have any avalanche kit we will tell you to go back to the piste. If you continue to ignore us we will drop into an impossibly steep couloir going as fast as we can. You are out of your depth and if you get caught in an avalanche we will be the ones responsible for digging you out. We will not find you in time if you don't have a transceiver. And no, you can't borrow mine. Go get the kit, go get the lessons, then hire a guide. It shouldn't be our job to babysit you. And no, I don't care that you're 'only' 16. You're old enough to weigh up risks and listen to advice. (...bit of a rant there. Sorry.)
(DD is finished)

Sorry for the essay . DD doesn't do short summaries very well.

Yes, beware small children in all-in-ones.
Avoid sharing a chairlift with snowboarders.
Watch out for people sitting on the far left of the chair lift who then decide they're exiting far right.

Clam, indeed, re the chairlifts.
After a few ishoos in the past, and two friends who both sustained serious injuries by people getting off chairlifts incompetently, I now instruct the DC to get on one or other end of the chair lift, NOT in the middle, and ski sharply off to their own side when they get off. Alos, refuse to get on a chairlift when a ski instrucotr is trying to offload his class of many onto other adults - I refuse to do this.

But how else are they meant to get the class up the mountain? I usually find that the lift attendant looks out to "catch" them at the top. I'd like to think that another adult would look out for my child (if I used skischool anymore).

General tip: if you have a small group of similar-standard kids with you, consider booking private lessons, rather than ski-school. Works out cheaper and more beneficial.

Lol at bananas.
I really like underwear ina bag thing - mine are all similar age so it would have helped a lot.

TDMM, sounds like your daughter did some fantastic riding. makde me smile about the getting drunk - i guess we all have to learn...
(and i bet you are very proud of her being so sensible with her tranceiver, but i hope with age will come a little more tolerance of skiers - she'll realise there are both nobby skiers and boarders )

makde me? i am currently channeling al pacino!

TDMM - that is an excellent summary of Tignes. I particularly agree re Santons.

Also - if the weather is not that great at the restaurant on the glacier, FGS do not go up the cable car. The red down from the top is glorious in good weather but absolutely grim in poor visibility. And unbelievably windy whatever the conditions!

The only thing I didn't take that I wished I had was lounging trousers for the evenings.

And bribe try and persuade boarders to go back to the chalet to get your snowboots at the end of the holiday so that you don't have to carry your skis back to the hire shop wearing ski boots

TDMM - if mine get to be half as articlate as yours, I will be delighted !!! Please say a big thank you to your DD - very useful. I have boycotted Tignes after spraining my knee there some years ago, and later accidentlaly skiing into the lake. Perhaps will give it another chance now I am more sedate & law abising

abiding

Hi all, TeenagersDriveMeMad's DD here (I like to think that I'm not responsible for that name...).

clam - I tend to go out of my way not to share a chairlift with snowboarders that I don't know. Some of them are lethal.

greygirl - I got very drunk on the first night . Jagerbombs were a bad idea and I spent most of the second day falling on my arse/face. Mum doesn't go off piste and isn't interested in it, so doesn't really listen when I start moaning about people being unprepared. I lost a very, very good friend and mentor in an avalanche in Canada last season and it still upsets me. I don't have problems with skiers apart from the 'RAH' crowd . Most of my issues are with the 'all the gear, and no idea' snowboarders who put themselves in dangerous situations. Like the ones who can't link turns but try large kickers, or follow me off piste .

MrsGuy - Thank you . Snowboarding and surfing are the only things I'll gladly waffle on about for ages. I absolutely adored Tignes and plan to go back when Europe has an epic season so I can spend all of my time playing in the powder . How on earth did you ski into the lake?! Wrong turn? :).

I missed out writing about the halfpipe. It was shaped well, nice and big and you could get really high out of it, though it wasn't maintained throughout the day so was a bit of an adventure towards the end of the day. I even managed my first inverted spin . It was also where I broke my collarbone. You can see it on the Val Claret webcam.

For next season, I think we're spending two weeks road-tripping around resorts in Austria/Switzerland/France. The plan is to follow the snow .

ALl skiers with young children - please look at going with The Family Ski Company.

We've been with them for the last 2 years, and honestly have all had fantastic holidays - yes holidays, not just skiing trips!

DS2 will start skiing next year. I'll make sure I buy him different coloured socks to ds1

We had a week beginning of January and are going again March 31st for another week. We stay in my Dp's studio apartment and its really near the main cable car in Megeve. It sleeps 4 with a Kichenette and Bathroom, plus long balcony. If anyone here wants to use it please let us know.

just came back from a week in Les Saisies, just up the road from Megeve. Drove, which was a first for us, would do that again (tho not with DH, apparently!) and liked the fact that we could take basic foods and even frozen stuff lasted the journey inc an overnight in Laon (as recommended on here, thanks) en route.

Les S is very French tho - ski-school not that bilingual but the kids all passed the badges so something got in. Good intermediate ski-ing not much that challenging but that was fine with me and made afternoon ski-ing with the kids really easy. Linked to various villages so different hill every morning so lots of variety.

Lucky us having a weekend away too this year later in March, hope that snow lasts!

Downside was the apartments that we rented - Village des Lapons - which tho similar in style to others we have rented direct from MGM and CGH were a bit tatty and actually as we booked through a tour operator quite a bit more expensive (tho the price included the tunnel crossing) We weren't organised enough in advance this year so compromised on that - but overall given the fantastic snow and teh fact that as the DCs get older it is SO much easier i would say one of our best holidays.

Sinclair - can I ask - when you rent places from MGM etc - do you have to spend the last day cleaning? I ask because (till now we have stayed in chalets or hotels) when I have looked at renting there is always whopping great deposit - you can pay for cleansing, but it never seems to include the kitchen, and I really don't want to be cleaning a kitchen to who-knows-what standards as I am simultaneously packing up the car. Also do they come round and spend ages doing an inventory?

We nearly always rent directly. Erna Low and Peak Retreats are great UK websites which offer French apartments, once we've found what we want on these websites, we always check with the French owners who usually end up considerably cheaper and book direct. Whether rented via a UK company or direct with the apartments, the typical rental agreement either allows you to pay for last day cleaning at a supplement or you do it yourself, can usually borrow cleaning equipment if it is not already there. Last MGM place, they just trusted us and took a very quick look, previous one with Residhotel was a 10 minute inspection of everything. I don't find it difficult to keep the apartments clean, just clean the kitchen after cooking like normal. Haven't always been asked for the deposit either, it's always on the reantal agreement but either the apartments are run on a local level more relaxed than the big owners like MGM or we just come across as trustworthy! If you don't mind a little bit of cleaning throughout the week, self-catering apartments work out LOADS cheaper than hotels and catered chalets, we always stay in ones with swimming pools and next to lifts and pistes.

DD has just been to Winter Park, Colorado with the school and had an amazing time. Much quieter than Europe in HT, they enjoyed lots of tree skiing, off piste and powder, moguls. They also got to try Free style with rails etc. A long way to go though.

I got myself really stressed with this cleaning stipulation one year. Felt as you did, Guy, that I didn't want to be cleaning to someone else's unknown standard. The materials in the apartment were dodgy, to say the least, but we did it as best we could.
We were told it was "excellente" and since then I've assumed that they put this clause into the rental agreement to stop people leaving piles of dirty crockery and beds all awry etc..

I think they are just trying to prevent people leaving rubbish and old food in apartments. We've stayed in MGM (CGH) apartments in Ste Foy and Peisey/Vallandry about 10 times, usually booking through a UK operator but sometimes direct if the price is better. Never found the cleaning requirements to be a problem, and I'm definitely not someone who likes to spend any holiday time cleaning!

We've always found the apartments spotless when we arrive. They give you washing up liquid, a little bottle of detergent, J cloth and dishwasher tabs. They also provide mop, bucket, sweeping brush etc but there dosen't seem to be any expectation that you'll use them. They only require you to leave the kitchen work surfaces and fridge clean, put used towels and sheets in the bathroom and take your own rubbish to the bins. They do swipe your card with a hefty deposit against damage/lack of cleaning but it isn't processed unless there's some problem. They've never come round to check before we leave and I've never had any of the cleaning deposit taken.

They also ask you to complete an inventory when you go in (ticking off that there are 12 knives, 12 forks, etc) but frankly that's not a huge chore and it means that if anything is missing or broken (which it seldom is) they replace it for you immediately. I'm a pretty demanding customer but so far I've been really happy with MGM (only used them in two resorts tho).

Thanks - this is really helpful - will try an apartment next time.