scooby_simon Posted March 29, 2008 Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 Well, Where to start! We got back from Meribel last Sunday after a week when we had all conditions thrown at us. First, what a week we had on the snow. First day (Monday) was low cloud (so could not see much) and about 2 feet of powder - not an ideal first day, but still had a lot of fun in the powder while the piste bashers were out flattening some of it down. Ski shop gave me some excellent Rossy powder ski's... Tueday was better, but still snowing and so we still had fresh powder off piste and most piste was now farily well bashed. Skiied in the afternoon with my Wife and Son. Good to ski together and it's becoming clear that my son will soon be faster than my wife! Wednesday was planned to be a "mad day" and so I changed the powder ski's for a pair of GS type skis's - Salomon Streetracer 800, now these are a couple of years old, but the set I had were almost brand new. They gave me a set at 170cm and told me I'd have a lot of fun - they were not wrong. They are very waisted ski's (tip and tails are wide) which makes them easy to ski, I was slightly worried they would be unstable at speed, but I did not manage to "over drive them" more than a couple of times. Colin and I were on the first lift out of Meribel heading for Les Menuiers and Val Thorens. Got to Val T at about 10 am and then had a mega queue up the Carron Cable car Got to the top with the plan of ripping down the Carron black run and then off to the 4th Valley for an early lunch; Spoke to one of the pisteures who said the 4th Valley was closing (avalance risk) and that the black run was closed for the same reason - fecking annoying as both were shown open at the bottom of the cable car. Never mind, we just went off down the plethor of red runs and had a great time skiing around all of Val T that morning. Conditions were fantastic, sun was out and the piste was very smooth and the ski's allowed me to carve down anything at any speed. Quick lunch and then back out to finish of Val T and Les Minuiers. Thursday was another day of fast skiing in the morning (Most of Coucheval was dispatched) and then skiing with my Wife and Son in the afternoon. Highlight of the week? Watching my son's face after taking him down a red run (he thought it was blue). "daddy, that was quite a hard blue run"; "yep, that was because it was a red run!". Mission accomplished, Michael is hooked on Skiing! Daughter was also in 1/2 day lessons and is now Skiing good snowplough's down green and easier blues (she's only 4). Looks like the Scooby_family ski holidays will be a tyearly event now (more in this later). Friday was more powder (another 2 feet)! I've never had so much snow in a weeks skiing and it was a fantastic days skiing. Colin then ducked out as he was off to La Plagne for his second week. Saturday was our last days skiing and as there was no ski school we all headed off to the green runs to start with. After a few runs Michael was getting bored and so we went of for a few blues and reds leaving Alison and Nicole to play on the greens. Picked up Alison and Nicole later and skiied (so poled) down the "la Fond" green run back to the Rond Point where we were staying; dropped the kids off for lunch and their afternoon with the other kids. Skiied with Alison for a while after lunch and then as she was getting tired I dropped her off at around 15:30 and had an hour or so on my own. Went over to the other side of the Meribel pistes and had a ball skiing down under the Olympic ski lift in a couple of feet of powder - luckily met a couple of guys from the Ski club of GB to ski with as I'd not ski off piste on my own. Second, the accomodation was fantastic. We stayed at the Chelet Hotel Alber with Esprit Excellent staff (really excellent), the child care was fantastic, great hotel in a great location. For those that know the area, 30 second ski from the Adret Chair lift and just below the middle station of the Rhodos. Hotel was well run and did things at the right time. Breakfast was a bit mad, but it always is; Kids sayd they had good food at lunch time and we had excellent food in the evenings. Transfers from/to Geneva were a bit of a pain as the motorway is being worked on so it was about 3 hours each way. Highlights of the week? Skiing in 2 feet of powder twice in the same week, Skiing with the whole family and watching my son go down Runs I thought he’d be doing in years to come, not this year; watching my daughter Skiing for the first time and the joy on her face when she finally understood that she can do this skiing thing, Wife deciding she can also do this skiing thing. The Lunches at the Cristal De Coeur resurant on the Green run from the Rhodos list in the way back to the Ronde point, the fruit tarts were fantastic! Lowlights, the cost of everything! Lunches on the piste were averaging around 20 euros per person! But with the GBP:EUR rate it just hurt! Next year we are planning to go to St. Anton, which is one of the best places in the world (IMO) to ski. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted March 29, 2008 Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 glad you had a fantastic time, we loved Meribel too. This year I rocked the T-Roll's from Volkl which I was pleasently surprised with not sure about this 'first on the lift' business, sounds like hard work to me our group is pretty light on effort, especially in the morning after a 5am finish we also flew into Geneva - oh the delights of their charter terminal, what a dump. Waited a good hour for our luggage, just lack of staff and dozens of baggage trailers sitting around oh and agree entirely about the pound/euro making lunch on the piste pricey! T-Roll on next year, we'll probably be one to one and in the euro by then anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby_simon Posted March 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 [ QUOTE ] not sure about this 'first on the lift' business, sounds like hard work to me our group is pretty light on effort, especially in the morning after a 5am finish [/ QUOTE ] When it costs as much as it does to take 2 adults and 2 kids; it's worth going for it. We dropped the kids off with the Esprit staff just before 9 (so they could take them to Ski school) and so it was rude not to just head off for the snow. Alison was in Ski School too and so was leaving at the same time. First on the lifts had some advantages. Both powder days we were making fresh tracks on-piste and off! But we were in bed by 10 every night as we were totally knackered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted March 29, 2008 Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 [ QUOTE ] But we were in bed by 10 every night as we were totally knackered [/ QUOTE ] one day we'll manage to do a holiday like that, its really hard to do a days skiing on 3 or 4 hours sleep nearly every night. I came home needing a holiday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby_simon Posted March 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] But we were in bed by 10 every night as we were totally knackered [/ QUOTE ] one day we'll manage to do a holiday like that, its really hard to do a days skiing on 3 or 4 hours sleep nearly every night. I came home needing a holiday [/ QUOTE ] AS we have the kids, there is no point tyring to go out late. Esprit offer staff that stay on each floor until 23:00, but after that you have to make other arrangements. As the kids are up at 07:00 anyway, it makes sense to get up and out early. Does mean you can get a full 9 to 5 ski sessoin if the legs will last that long (they did not). As I said, St. Anton next year so another chance to get to the top of the Valluga, but I think we'll go back to the Alber in Meribel at some point. Next job Skiing wise is to buy the wife some Ski boots. There is so much snow out ther at the moment, if I had the time we'd go again. There is going to be some great late skiing this year. There was still a couple of meters of snow in Val T and Meribel still had 80cm or so on piste in the village. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted March 29, 2008 Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 I'd love to go out again but time is against us - I'm still recieving the 'dump alerts' makes you want to boot those boots on right away Next year looks like Chamonix - St. Anton was on the cards until several people referred to it as St. Manton which put off the single manjority in our group Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby_simon Posted March 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 [ QUOTE ] I'd love to go out again but time is against us - I'm still recieving the 'dump alerts' makes you want to boot those boots on right away Next year looks like Chamonix - St. Anton was on the cards until several people referred to it as St. Manton which put off the single manjority in our group [/ QUOTE ] What! St. Anton is heaven on and off the snow. Had some mad times there when I was younger (and single) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted March 29, 2008 Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 apparently 'sausage heavy' doesn't even start to cover it from a ski point of view I'd love to give St Anton a visit, Tignes is another option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby_simon Posted March 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2008 Another thing. one massive advantage of Skiing with a 6 year old kid. All the loverly ladies talk to you! well, they actually talk to my son..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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