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18:30 Friday 11 January 2002…saw us headed to Waterloo train station
for our long awaited (We had to book in August 2001!) snowboarding trip
to Tignes,
France. Our party consisted of Dan, Nina and Dan's sister Nicki who had
been in the UK and Europe since the end of November travelling. Our journey
was to take us on the Eurostar,
the high-speed train from London to France that travels under the English
Channel in the tunnel that was completed a few years ago.
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| As we departed Waterloo for what would be a 10-hour train
ride right into the heart of the Alps. The seating was not the most comfortable
for sleeping although Nicki ended up being the lucky one with two seats
to herself, while Dan and Nina struggled to get comfortable. We arrived
in Bourg St Maurice at 07:00 and made our way to the coach for our transfer
to the resort. Arriving in Tignes at 08:00 we then had to store our bags
for the day as our accommodation was not due to be available until 17:00.
After storing our gear and getting changed we began to make our way to the
slopes after stopping for some breakfast. What better food to eat for breakfast
than Croissants and Camembert! |
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| We hit the slopes at about 10:00 and had a couple of warm-up
runs to get back in the swing of things. It wasn't too long before we were
all managing to get down the hill without looking too ridiculous. Our first
proper run to the top of the hill was a bit of fun although a little bare
at the top with patches of brown and stones showing through. The French
Alps had been rather short of snow since the beginning of the season with
the last snowfall having been over the Christmas period. |
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It was a great day and all our work at the gym seemed
to have been paying off as we weren't experiencing the fatigue that plagued
us in Colorado the year before. Our day ended back at the baggage store
waiting to be shuttled to our accommodation…2 hours later we finally
made it after what was a somewhat disorganised chaos by the tour company
reps. While we were waiting we met an English couple Jane
and Jason who were equally unimpressed at having to wait so long.
It was a funny coincidence as their apartment was just down the corridor
from ours so we were destined to have some companions for our two weeks.
Well needless to say once we had unpacked and had some dinner we were
all in bed and fast asleep by 20:00 as we were shattered after our long
train journey from the UK and our first day at altitude. |
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Day 2 saw us up early for the first runs of the day. The weather
was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky and a lovely deep blue…fantastic.
We spent the day gradually improving our skills although it was 2 steps
forward and one step back every time that we fell over and hurt ourselves.
But that's part of the learning curve and we were enjoying being out of
London and in the beautiful French Alps. That evening saw us at the Fish
Tank for the "Welcome Meet" by the Crystal and Thompson reps.
It was a casual affair and nothing like what we had seen on the TV with
the Ibiza program. |
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| They told us about some of the activities they have available
such as days with guides, off piste groups, pub crawls, Huskie dog-sled
rides and even a ride down the 1992 Olympic Bobsleigh track at La Plange.
It wasn't too difficult a decision to purchase the latter although the €50
price tag was getting quite expensive for Nicki when it was transferred
into NZ dollars…but when we considered that this was probably a once
in a life time opportunity, we just had to do it. |
| The next few days flew by with some more tumbles and exploring
some different slopes in the Espace Killey terrain. Wednesday the 16th we
met up with Jane and Jason and headed up the mountain together. It was our
second run of the day down "Double M" when it all started to go
wrong. Dan was doing really well and leading every body down the piste when
he caught his backside rail at speed and was catapulted onto his back. The
impact was enough to throw his goggles and beanie off his head and into
the snow and he managed to bruise his tailbone quite badly with a little
whiplash thrown in for good measure. Luckily for him the video camera in
his bag managed to survive the fall! |
| Whilst he was trying to compose himself, further up the mountain
Nicki was having a rough time of it too, she had come a cropper and managed
to sprain her wrist quite badly. Unfortunately for her she was at the back
of the group so no one knew of her misfortune until she made it to the bottom
of the slope in Val Claret some minutes later. That spelt the end of Nicki's
day as she retired to the apartment to rest her wrist while we all continued
for a few more runs before returning for lunch and checking on her. It was
not great news for Nicki when we returned as her wrist had swelled up quite
a bit and was extremely tender to the touch. The rest of the afternoon we
took each run very cautiously so as to try and not injure ourselves any
more. |
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| The injuries knocked our confidence so much that the next
morning we were all boarding worse than when we arrived. We spent the morning
in Le Lac and then boarded back over to Val Claret for lunch before getting
changed and making our way back to Le Lac to catch the bus to La Plange
for our Bob Sleigh ride. The coach eventually arrived after half an hour
waiting in the cold. But we were on our way. It was nice to be travelling
through the French Alps during the day time as we got to see a bit of the
country side. After an hour and a half on the coach we arrived at the course.
There was group of people from a different resort already going down the
track, well all that we could see was them getting pushed off the start
slope and that was it. |
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| Before we knew it, it was our turn so we donned our helmets
and hopped in the Bob. We slowly began to pick up speed as we entered the
first turn by the second and third turns we were beginning to feel the G-forces
pushing us down into the bob. It was quite exciting although if you weren't
sitting in the front position there wasn't much too see except for the helmet
in-front of you, but we still managed to experience the thrill of it all
the same. It was so much fun racing down the track but before we knew it
we were entering the last few turns and our bob was starting to decelerate.
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| As we came to a halt and climbed out we were still buzzing
with adrenaline, we all wanted to go up and do it again even though we hadn't
even come close to the track record. We were about 30 seconds behind it
actually! Unfortunately we weren't able to go up again as the track was
fully booked. We waited at the second to last straight and watched the remainder
of our group take their turns down and then relaxed for the ride back to
Val Claret on the bus. |
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| The next few days carried on in a similar fashion with our
confidence down we were a little apprehensive and with Nicki's wrist injury
still causing her some pain (she was now boarding in wrist guards) we took
it reasonably easy. We traversed over to Val d'Isère one morning
and managed to have a nice lunch at the base of the slopes in La Daille
before heading back up to the top of the range that runs between Tignes
and Val d'Isere where we found a nice run that occupied us for a little
while before the lifts closed. Early in the second week we met up with Jane
and Jason again and spent the day boarding together which raised everyone's
spirits and confidence immensely. With challenges like going down the run
in your opposite stance, which took about 30 minutes for what would normally
be a 4 minute run. |
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It was great fun and just what we all needed to get back
into it. All be it with some more bruises that before we started. The
next day we all headed out together and ended up down at Le Lac, but the
snow was some what lacking we decided to traverse back up the valley to
Val Claret where the snow was better. On the way after a unanimous vote
we walked off piste to this little hill where someone had kindly built
a kicker that we put to good use. Everyone had some great jumps and luckily
there were no serious injuries but we managed to take some great photos
and video and even give the lucky people on the lift that passed the hill
some entertainment. We also managed a couple of nice off piste runs down
the little hill in some shin deep powder that had been untouched since
it fell. We retired early that afternoon, you'd be surprised how tired
you get walking up a hill in full gear through the snow.
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That evening was the 21st which was our first wedding
anniversary. We decided to do it in style so while Nicki, Jane and Jason
hit the bars, we went to Le Caveou, a little French restaurant in Val
Claret. We had a delicious three course French meal consisting of Salmon
and Pearch, not to mention the most delicious apple pie for dessert. Needless
to say that after that we were so full we all but rolled down the hill
to our apartment where we met up with the other drunken half of our party.
Not to mention that we were all almost too tired to walk after our afternoon
at the kicker. We finished the evening at Jane and Jason's where we all
finished off the last bottle of £2 wine before getting some sleep.
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| As the week went on we decided to try something new and hired
some skis so that Dan and Nicki could see the other side of fun in the snow.
We spent the morning on the free beginners slope where things were quite
amusing at times, but before we knew it we were making it down the 100m
slope quicker and quicker, and sometimes with out even falling over! Nina
was the instructor and as we did each run she introduced a new technique
for us to learn. Dan had the uncanny knack of only falling on one hip so
needless to say he was in a bit of pain from time to time. Unfortunately
for Nicki she was feeling a little under the weather and miserable with
her sore wrist and what appeared to be a cold. As she headed back to the
apartment for some rest we continued the lessons for a while longer before
heading in for a rest and some much deserved lunch. |
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| The afternoon progressed quickly as Dan was becoming more
and more confident on the skis. Nicki did not venture back out as her injuries
from the previous days were hampering her confidence and also she was felt
that an afternoon in bed may combat the cold that she was getting. |
| Thursday morning saw Nicki and Dan down at Le Lac whilst everyone
else headed up the slopes to enjoy the first fresh powder since we arrived.
Nicki had booked a ride on a Huskie dog sled around the lake and Dan went
along so that she would have a couple of photos of the occasion. Boy did
those dogs stink! And they were so noisy. But they made up for that in cuteness,
they were adorable. After a quick mush around the lake we returned to the
apartment to pick up our boards and headed up the slopes to try and find
some powder...if there was any left that hadn't been boarded or skied into
a lumpy mess yet. It was pretty mogully when we made it to the top, but
at least it was a pretty soft landing when we couldn't handle the bumps.
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Nicki didn't enjoy it at all and we all decided that the run
was a bit too bumpy and that we would venture elsewhere to see if we could
find some more untouched snow elsewhere. The snow continued to fall as we
made our way down to Le Lac, but we didn't find it much better there so
we took the Aeroski gondola in an effort to see if it was any better over
in Val d'Isere. We did a few run down Creux and then decided that it was
no better over this side. The weather was progressively closing in and we
could see less and less in front of us. We decided to traverse back to Val
Claret rather than take the gondola back, which turned out to be a silly
decision. |
| We traversed and walked our way to the Borsat Express chair
which took us to the crest of the range between Val d'Isere and Val Claret
where we had to traverse a little further before being able to take the
run back down to the resort. As we made it to the beginning of the traverse
the weather went from bad to worse and we could hardly stand up the wind
was so strong. Jason, Jane and Nina took of as Dan waited behind for Nicki
who was struggling to maintain her speed on the first bit of the traverse.
When Dan and Nicki finally got going and made it to the end of the traverse
to where it splits off to either side of the range into Val Claret and Val
d'Isere, Jason, Jane and Nina were nowhere to be seen. As we looked through
the snow we saw them at the bottom of the traverse heading back to Val d'Isere.
They had unwittingly taken a wrong turn in the bad weather and had given
themselves the task of having to climb back up to where we stood and then
further up the hill to the top of the run down to Val Claret. Eventually
we were all back together and we headed down the slope somewhat tired and
cold after our excursion. We all decided to call it quits then and headed
back to get cleaned up and ready for our dinner at Le Caveou again, this
time all five of us were going. |
| Dinner was delicious once again and with a few bottles of
good wine and some great company we enjoyed the meal and reminisced of our
two weeks and the fact that we would all be packing our things up in two
just over 24 hours and preparing to take our last runs down the slopes of
the French Alps for the winter. |
| Friday and Saturday went smoothly with some more good boarding
first thing as there was a small amount of powder overnight, we ventured
off piste and Dan managed to find some great runs for us off the side of
the pistes that we had become accustomed to doing. We were all in a pretty
good rhythm by that stage and we just seemed to float down the slope each
run. Although as the afternoons drew on and the lifts began to be covered
by shade, it got extremely cold as we were carried back up to the top of
the run it became a tough decision whether to go all the way down and back
in to the warmth. |
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But we braved it out and ended up coming down for our final
run after 4pm. Saturday afternoon we decided to have our last meal at Daffys
Café, a nice little Mexican restaurant on the main street of Val
Claret. We were eventually picked up by the coach and driven back to Bourg
St Maurice at about 8pm so that we were in good time for the Eurostar back
to London just before 11pm. |
| The train ride back to London went relatively quickly as we
all managed to get 2 seats to ourselves and we all crashed. We finally made
it back to Waterloo station and somehow managed to lug our gear through
the tubes and along West End lane back to our tiny flat where we would settle
in to London life once again and start dreaming about our next adventure….New
York city in March… |
