last day on the slopes

    I woke up tired and feeling lazy again after a few too many beers with Danny last night ,That  on top of a weeks worth of nights out ,All made me very reluctant to leave my pillow and jump out of bed but its our last day on the slopes and we should make the best of it before we have to pack up for going home , Bob was taking the last day off from skiing he wanted to take his boys to the swimming baths , So the 3 amigos set off we were on the slopes when I got a txt in from Danny to say he would meet us for coffee at gran marinier ,But that was a cafe bar back in town so we asked him to meet us at la folie deuche at 12 as we were already up the pistes, It was cold on the slopes today and every chairlift I was on I would pull my hood up over my helmet and zipped it up to keep as warm as i could but the biting wind found its way to your bones sitting on the chairlifts between runs . Fur around your collar is reasonably fashionable this year lots of people especially brits are skiing in Canada goose jackets with fur round the hoods ,So I felt my new jacket was in vogue ! but what i would say is if your putting it up to keep warm then the fur at the sides of your head when skiing down definitely affects your periphery vision, and i ended up pulling the hood back down to ski  , we were hoping to get to la grand motes the highest run in the area but the upper chair lifts were closed due to high winds today
                We met danny at 12 inside the restaurant area of la folie deuche, we were chilly well especially me ! and ice crystals in my beer while holding the glass while wearing my gloves outside did not appeal today! It was a pleasant lunch and the 4 of us set off for our afternoon on local slopes , Danny is a very good skier and normally goes off piste ,having someone who lives in the resort show you around was excellent and he has such a fast pace that he was going out the sides in and out the poles and doing jumps while we were just trying to keep up with him , He also takes far fewer rests than us ,and would sometimes do a whole run without a stop we usually have 2-3short breaks on every run , We had a cracking last afternoon though and my all terrain skis were good (not sure if i would go back to freestyle skis ) we had one last beer at la folie deuche to say goodbye to it for this trip,  The usual afternoon cabaret party was kicking off we left it with a fond memory and skied away as todays party was kicking off, Danny took us down one final great run a route normally reserved for the downhill slalom race and fenced off ,But today we were allowed on and it was the perfect end to our weeks skiing , we had beers at the terrace bar bar before separating ,me ali and cammy had to return our skies to the shop and go home and pack our bags /shower before heading back to meet Danny to hear his buddy George from Bulgaria perform in la petite danois ,
          Danny had other friends in from the falkirk in la petite danois A friend of his called Mike with his son Mike . George done an excellent set his guitar work was all rock classics ,out of every bar in this resort i shall definitely miss la petite danois the most .we moved on to a tiny little but packed bar that Danny knew the owners and ended our night in the pacific bar where bob joined us , it wasn't a late one as we were up to leave in the morning

clouds and powder

    The weather forecast wasn't wrong it was low cloud ,windy and some light showers  etc , it was lovely to have the kids wave goodbye to us from the balcony as we set off in the morning ,when we got up off the olympic cable car lift ,it was poor visibility with high winds (some of it because of the altitude )but basically poor conditions for ski'ing , i had to put on my spogles because of the spin drift blowing the light snow up of the piste and under my specs . being able to see what you are doing when skiing is obviously very  important.  the spin drift made the visibility really difficult we skied as best we could but the conditions were no good for practicing our style or playing today , we went  into Tignes and met Allison Joyce and the boys  for lunch. We left bob with the family and me and cammy and Ali headed back for the beers at La Folie Douce. ,we just had one beer and ali took the cable car back to town me and cammy skied down into town , and went to the ski hires hop i changed my skies for all terrain skis for my last day tomorrow , Then we went to Le Petit Danois.  where We met my mate Danny darkness who used to live in polmont but now lives here , Ali alison and Bob joined us for a beer or two or three or four. we moved to the alpine lodge bar and i had to call it a day just before 11 as i was still in my ski gear and had had enough ! bob and ali stayed a bit longer with danny , not as much skiing done today but a good day all round    

Burns suppers in the alps !

    We were up a bit earlier today but we still didn't start ski,ing until 11am we just took our time getting going after breakfast, another beautiful sunny cloud free day thankfully there was plenty snow fell before we arrived and with the snow cannons on at night the ski conditions are still excellent ,the weather forecast says snow on friday and the slopes will be needing by then as some of the shed areas are starting to get a bit icy , we took the olympic cable car up out of town as the plan was to ski the quick black run down into tignes for lunch again, Ali had changed his ski's yesterday to new carvers and felt his ski'ing was better for it , he certainly coped easily with the black run down into tignes it wasn't that difficult a black run only one reasonably steep section of slope near the end of the run where you could fly down the last section right into town , where we stopped for an excellent lunch we all had pizza and a large beer the scenery was beautiful and it was very pleasant to sit and have lunch out in the restaurant terrace, Bob's been wanting to do the big olympic run back down into val d'isere since before we arrived and has been talking of it since we arrived. the sun hits it perfectly at lunch time so we went for it so bob could get it done and take  the afternoon of the slopes and spend time with joyce and the boys . and this run has a big sign over the start of it saying danger expert skiers only beyond this point , the start of it was in perfect sunshine it is a very fast and steep run and certainly got the adrenalin pumping and the legs working hard ,we stopped half way down as bob wanted to txt joyce to let her know he was on the way down she was watching us through her binoculars on the apartment balcony apparently my helmet is very distinct and easy to spot !the bottom section of the run is steep and fast and I felt i surely must have beat yesterdays record of 48mph, but it was nowhere near as fast as it felt , bob left us at the bottom and me cammy and ali headed up the solaise bubble cars to ski in the sun as that side of the valley gets plenty sun in the afternoon , we done a few easy runs up there and took the long red run back down to the village which has some icy narrow sections ,which i wouldn't want to be doing later on in the day when tired and lots of people are all getting funnelled down the last run of the day down ,and we decided to call it a day and take the shortcut through the trees at the back of our apartments so we could drop of our skies and boots before apre's ski beers . we put our skis in the locker and went up to the appartment the plan was then to walk along to la petite danois.but we were tired and sleepy and opted to go to the sauna and steam room and a snooze before dinner
          Everybody that knows me know how much i love a burns supper , and today is burns day we came prepared and brought some haggis and whisky with us , The dinner was excellent two different types of haggis I done my best at the address to the haggis with one i had got from the farm shop butchers out near calendar , reading the address to a haggis from allistairs phone was very difficult and my respect goes out to the people who can recite those poems from memory the whisky was a nice also a lovely dinner had by all

       when we did get out for beers it was 8pm and the town seemed much busier than normal , we went to my favourite l petite danois first then decided to give XV the rugby bar a try , its a cracker little wooden bar we had pints of murphys while football was shown on the big screen surrounded by rugby memorabilia . we met some russians there and thats what ruined our sensible early night ! they started buying us whisky ,we moved on to morris bar and the local band called dominoes were playing they were excellent and we ended up leaving at 01:30 so much for a sensible early

night !

Tuesday already !

    It really is a balance enjoying a great night out and a day on the slopes with sleep ,and yet again we got the balance a wee bit wrong another late night and late rise ! yet again it was an 11am start on the slopes , we set off with a plan to ski all the slopes at the top of the solaise and over the ridge down into fornet to meet up with joyce allison and the kids for lunch .We are hitting some fantastic weather no fresh snow which is always welcome but glorious sunshine cloud free low temperature especially at altitude the snow and slope conditions are fantastic unless you hit a shaded icy part ! but generally we had a fantastic morning early afternoon ski'ing , the chairlift up and over from solos top fornet is awesome you go right over a jagged peak with huge drops either side of the ridge pinnacle ! a spectacle on its own , Once into fornet we done a few nice runs and headed to some bubble cars we were the group of 4 waiting to get on the bubble car the other groups in front of us were sitting in carriages  .there was a screech a clatter and the bubble that had just left the enclosure swung around like mad the operator re'set the engine and everything seemed to be back operating but nope ! 3 bubbles backed up not moving and full of people with their skis outside the cabin weren't moving ,the upshot of it was the bubblecar was shut for the day the people stuck all the way up the mountain had a long wait to get off , we were all told in french that the bubble cars are shut and we had to change our choice of route and head over to the chair lift ,a short run at the end and on to a poma we rarely do poma's in the alps !but it was all fine and before long we were all down in the tiny village of fornet where Joyce Alison and the kids had taken the bus from town to meet us for lunch , and a lovely lunch it was I ordered the plate du jour and it was fab, a ham hock with a bowl of lentils . after lunch ali decided his legs were tired he was going to go back into town on the bus with the girls and change his skis have a sauna , its fair enough i don't think ali is liking freestyle skies , he certainly aint using the freestyle skies how they are supposed to be used none of us are  .and To be fair we all chose freestyle ski's this holiday and I've practiced some pirouetes and played skiing backwards but its not what we do and we would all probably benefit more from a normal pair of good carvers . I am personnaly waiting for a weather report to decide, so if we get some fresh snow i may change to off piste skies or all terrain skies .
  ali left with the girls and kids and we headed back up to the fornet ski area ,the bubble cars were still off, so we had to use the poma's and had a very difficult but enjoyable red run down to the solaise chairlift ,some fantastic runs in glorious sunshine our maximum speed was 48mph ,and it seemed we spent so much time on chairlifts and bubble cars and so little time on the slopes .possibly due to just moving too fast between runs ,
  Bob left us to do a short off piste run to the back of our apartments and me and cammy skied as far as we could toward town heading to la petite danois we got a row from a french man for skiing on the main road ! but we were in perfect time for happy hour two for 1 beers , me and cammy had 1 beer and alison joined us then ali and  the local band the killer bees kicked off at 5 , but we were home to the apartments as promised for 6:30pm for joyce's fantastic cottage pie and veg an excellent end to our days ski'ing

second day in val D

 Absolutely shocking waking up at 10am we need to give ourselves a shake and remember we are here to ski , we have definitely found our favourite bar though la petite danois ,it was a very pleasant evening out last night , excellent beers proper pints and reasonably priced for the alps ,the march back up the hill from the bar to the apartments took us 15mins which was ok (the free busses stop at 10pm ) its very pleasant marching through an alpine village late at night with clear skys fresh but cold air the piste bashers and snow cannons going so it wasn't a chore marching home .

     The problem was we woke late to get going skiing ,the ski locker heater hadn't been on so our boots were cold and damp, we headed out the back of the appartments and down the slope to the solais chair lift ,And this morning our plan was to ski to tignes which meant we had to take the cable car olympique ,we skied over toward tignes passing la folie deuche and took the chairlift up to the high point above tignes and then we made a wee mistake, we took a red run off to the left when we could have taken a direct route down a black , that mistake meant we took a huge circular route with 2-3 chairlifts to wind our way back to very near the bottom of that view point , BUT it was worth it the weather was beautiful the scenery awesome and we had a great time skiing to tignes , we chose a restaurant for lunch and beers and sat in the sun enjoying the scenery . it was a long lunch today of an hour and in reality the food quality for the price wasn't good ,we would have been better paying a little extra to get some proper fresh veg , when we made our way back up to the view point we got our photo taken by the free ski resort website camera and skied down to la folie deuche ,it was bouncing as expected and very hard to ski past without stopping for a beer ,which we done it was fantastic they do put on such a great show with dancers singers sax playing fancy outfits and great music ,I read an article recently about the top apres ski bars in europe and i had been to 5-6 of the top ten ! la folie deuche neither the val desiere or the val thorens were listed ! they have definitely got that wrong whoever wrote that article ! its a fantastic place to have a drink after a days skiing , god knows who makes these lists but if i was to make one of my personal choice of the top ten acres ski in Europe  .then it would be up there defo in the top 5 in saying that its not the only good apres ski bar in Val D and we wanted to head over to coco rico to give that a try , it was an icy shaded run down from la folie deuche (which is deferent from val thorens the la folie at val T has a short red easy run in the sun back into town which is what you need after a few sherbets )   . we made our way over to coco rico which is one of the other good apres ski bars here in val D , and it was rocking there was a band playing they were called the slopes ! and they were really good the place was bouncing there was people dancing on the tables ,the downside was the beer was rubbish they only had carlsberg on draught and you got your beer with a big head ,

     second day on the slopes and apart from when ali crashed into bob on the side of the slope when poor bob was trying to take a photo nobody has fell ! which our friend danny would say if you aint falling your not trying , but i did have a big fall on the way to the loo at coco rico! plastic ski boots on wet tiles while moving at speed for a required pee stop is a recipe for disaster and i hit the ground hard ! fortunately nothing broken and no damage done except to my pride , our stats for todays  skiing were ok but not great ,top speed of 41mph  and we never covered anywhere near as much distance as we would normally have done due to late start long lunch and beer stops

      Joyce had cooked us a fantastic curry , we are lucky to have this size of crew and its a real bonus having a family environment to come home to ,home made chicken curry round the big table with the family and a glass of wine was excellent, 

        after dinner me cammy and ali headed into town we got the bus down and headed to our favourite bar the petite danoise . which was good we caught happy hour 10-11 and bought 6 beers decent real bears so it was ace , but it was quiet ! theres a free local leaflet telling you whats on called the echo and it said there was a band on in a bar called moris , we headed over there and what a find it was .the band were called the killer bees and they were excellent there was also a decent range of beers to buy and theres beer ping pong all night another excellent bar in val D found, 

      

Day 1

    Poor logan had a bad night possibly due to altitude ! although we are 1950mtrs which is not truly thin air or getting near it ( roughly speaking 10000ft or 3000mtrs is when oxygen starts to thin a bit ) we do feel the altitude and air quality pressure difference etc ca have an affect on adults never mind babies ! they don't allow any children under the age of 3 on chair lifts because of altitude differences and we shall put that down to logan being out of character and screaming the block down lol , Ali's face lit up when i gave him a set of ear plugs when we got home from the bars last night .
       it takes a fair bit of faffing around to get all your ski gear layers of clothing snacks phones go pro sports watch extra buffs gloves lip salve creams potions etc organised on your first morning , and thats before we even work out the free bus stop and get to the soles area to collect our ski passes , find our way to the ski hire shop and collect our skis ,we have all opted to try some freestyle skis this year ali usually goes for all terrain skis and the rest of us usually just go for carvers , but cammy reckons he learned a lot wearing freestyle skis (his black crows i chamonaix were beautiful skis )
     It was at least 11 maybe 11:30 before we were in the first bubble car and off up the slopes , theres no stopping the boys once the get going and the very first pleasant run woulda been great to ease into our skiing stretch out and practice our technique ! but no the boys hit it hard as fast as we could go lol , that was to prove a mistake we hit a rally bad narrow stretch of slope that was far too much work for your first hour without a decent practice run .too late though we were already committed as we were heading back to the apartments to drop of our shoes and excess equipment, we are a ski in ski out apartment unfortunately  the ski in is a poor run , we skied out and had some soup at the top of the solaise bubble cars , we have been paying around 7.50 euros a beer and its about 9euros for soup its gonna be an expensive week ,
  the run back into town form there was fantastic perfect snow in beautiful sunshine this is going to be a great resort ,we wanted to have a look at la folie deuche so it was right down and right back up , we found it easily and it was every bit as good as its hyped to be , we had two beers lapping up the fantastic apres ski atmosphere of la folie deuche   . it was a pleasant ski back into town and there was plenty buses it was no time before we were back in town and headed back to la petite danoise for their happy hour , and what a happy hour !! 14euros for 4 proper pints of decent ale we had 3 rounds before it stopped at 5pm , joyce told us 6pm for dinner and we were slightly late but a fantastic dinner  an excellent first day

lets get going

     Because this is an annual event open to all it takes a bit of planning and organising, In the beginning there was only me and cammy but since I started taking my boy skiing abroad ( we will not include Scottish ski hols on here ) he has missed two years with the group and we have skied the Balkans the Pyrenees and the alps , we have skied in all thes countries  together we have skied in Andorra , Italy, France, Austria &Switzerland together , Ali first joined us in Borovets  then,soll ,mayerhofen ,Chamonix ,sauze deux ,val thoren and les deux alpes , I've been to Chamonix twice once with cammy and once without cammy but with ali &bob , Me and ali also had a week at morzine with bob that cammy didn't join us on . so this is me and ali`s 10th trip to the alps together , bob joined us in chamonaix first then morzine chamonaix again and then last year brought joyce aunt Allison calum and logan to les deux alpes ,
              Ali keeps an eye on when the easy jet flights to the alps comes up for sale and lets me and bob know , and s soon as he lets us know usully around June we decide who is coming and where we fly to ! we got a great deal on flights to Grenoble and me and ali have had an eye on val disere for years and decided that this was going to be the year for it , all the group had such a good trip together previously that we decided all to go together again this year , but this time with bob and the family traveling with me cammy and Ali , so the flights booked by ali the apartment booked by bob the bus transfers on bens bus again booked by bob , all that remains is for me to book the ski hire and lift passes , I booked them through ski 2000 who I had used before in val thoren , once booked I sent the group email out , immediate emails back from bob and ali oops I booked the skis for transfer day when we couldn't ski and had an extra set of skis for bob , I got a lot of emails about that mistake which was easily and quickly fixed  ! here's hoping no mistakes with the lift passes and ski hire now
    brian mac is dropping me ali and cammy at the airport , and we are meeting bob alison joyce and the boys at the airport , which all went to plan well except cammy having to be sick as he had over indulged at his grans 80th birthday party last night ,we were very quickly and easily through check in and airport security , even though the big ski bag me and ali book as a separate piece was overweight 27kg , and my backpack and the big ski bag had to go through the outsize baggage it all went well and before long,( after buying a bottle of whisky at duty free) , we were all sitting at airport spoons having a beer (a scottish tradition ) no time for food, the flight to grenoble is only 2hrs 10mins and it was a perfect flight with easy jet they now sell punk IPA and there was empty seats so we got the toilets no problem good service and no problems
        when we arrived at grenoble the transfer bus still had an hour before we could leave so we sat at the chairs outside the airport with snacks and beers , It is a long bus transfer and it took around 4.5hrs to get to val disere the kids were greta but well bored by the time we arrived at the resort around 20:30 ,because we book it all ourselves when we got dropped of in the centre of town it was our problem to find our way to our apartments ! we started marching in the general direction bags and buggies pushed dragged and carried across the cold snow and ice until we found someone who pointed us in the direction of some local transport for the final leg ,
       the apartments are really good but at the end of town so after unpacking me cammy and ali left the rest of the gang for a march into town, to suss the nightlife bob Joyce and Alison ordered take away pizza and it was at the door as we left ,
        first off we got a cash-line and started a kitty for the beers 100 Euros each , after a bit of discussion we decide to go to the petite danois the small dane or little  Denmark whatever you call it  ,the beers were excellent although i ordered a pint of red erik and it was nice beer but 6.9% proof and expensive ! so no more red erik but we still had 3 beers there before deciding it was wise to go for pizza or some food before bed , we had walked past dicks tea bar on the way down it was shut as its a night club and opens at 11pm , but it would be open now and it had a side bar selling pizzas , we ordered pizza and went into the club to use the loo , not a bad end to along days travel . it was 15mins to march uphill back to the appartment
 

A new blog for our annual ski trip

       I really should have done this years ago the same blog for all of our annual ski holidays ! a quick look through my blog site shows .two blog pages for our ski holidays ( this will be number 3) out of my 6 blogs, but one of them called morzine ski week covers 5 different ski holidays , Because this is an annual event open to all it takes a bit of planning and organising, and it would have been great for the blog for the ski week just to be a constant one blog page ,
                       In the beginning there was only me and cammy but since I started taking my boy skiing abroad ( we will not include Scottish ski hols on here ) he has missed two years with the group and we have skied in the Balkans the Pyrenees and the alps together , we have been in Andorra , Italy, France, Austria &Switzerland skiing together , So far Ali has joined us for Borovets  ,soll , Mayerhofen ,Chamonix ,sauze deux ,val thoren and les deux alpes , I've been to Chamonix twice once with cammy and once without cammy but with Ali both times  , Me and ali had a week at morzine with bob  cammy didn't join us on that trip or our first trip to cahamonaix , so this is me and ali`s 10th annual trip to the alps together , bob joined us in chamonaix first time then morzine chamonaix again and then last year he brought joyce aunt Allison calum and logan to les deux alpes , its great to see our group expanding long may it continue
              Ali keeps an eye on when the easy jet flights to the alps come up for sale and lets me and bob know,Then we make the decisions even though its around June ! we open it up to see who is coming and where we fly to ! we got a great deal on flights to Grenoble and me and ali have had an eye on val deser for years , we all had such a good trip together previously that we decided all to go together again this year , but this time with bob and the family traveling with me cammy and Ali , so the flights were booked by Ali.,Then the apartment was booked by bob,He also booked the bus transfers  bens bus again for us all no hire car this year for bob , All that remained was for me to book the ski hire and lift passes , I booked them through ski 2000 who I had used before in val thoren , once booked I sent the group email out , Immediate emails came flying back from bob and Ali oops ! I booked the skis for transfer day when we couldn't ski and had an extra set of skis for bob , I got a lot of emails about that mistake which was easily and quickly fixed  ! here's hoping no mistakes with the lift passes ,As they were all booked and paid for at the same time but a quick check and the details were ok even though I had to guess bob and Ali`s birth dates for the pass names here's hoping that wont cause a hick up at the pick up !
          all in we have spent at least £1000 each to go ski`ing not including the little ones , so around 6grand as a group before we leave the house and buy a beer at the airport , I've suggested that if the numbers stay the same for next year then we should get a credit card specifically to book everything one that gives some kind of reward that the whole group could benefit from this year we have all used our different credit cards and none of them gave any of us any benefit for using them,
 
If you’re going to use a credit card to pay for your holiday, and then clear the balance before you’re charged interest, you may as well try and get something back in return while you’re at it – so a cashback or rewards credit card could be the way to go , for example The American Express Platinum Cashback offers up to 5% cashback on up to £2,500 during the first three months – meaning we could bag ourself`s as much as £250 if we timed it right but more realistically £125 just for using the card that's only one example of 100s of bank card deals
          Basically you never stop learning and 10years of going on an annual ski holiday ,you would think we would have it all sussed but we are still debating whats the best way book for the km of piste ?book for the best apres ski ? book for the cheapest deals ?book for the best off piste ? just keep trying something new ? regardless of any of these choices we are always going to have a great time