Skiing in Val d’Isère
Skied with clients this morning in Val d’Isère, no heavy cloud but it wasn’t quite clear – slightly milky skies. And it was cold, dropping to about -18°C when we were off-piste, the very high humidity making it feel even colder.
Been very busy with client visits and enquiries in the last couple of weeks, and on the go with the Villaret build. Been getting up super early to get in a quick skin most mornings. Out the chalet in the dark, up the mountain about 1000m, back down for a shower and then off to work.
We’re hearing that a contact may be looking to sell a plot of land in La Plagne (we think just outside the main bit), right on the piste. Awaiting full details but it sounds exciting – I’ll keep you posted on developments.
Posted in Chalets, Skiing
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Another big dump of snow on Friday night made it slow going driving up to Val d’Isère to ski with one of our chalet owners on Saturday morning, but we didn’t miss out as avalanche risk meant that the lifts opened late.
It was powder everywhere and we went straight off-piste to get the first go on the deep stuff. Great conditions and quite challenging – exhausting, in fact, if you’re not used to it.
Got up super early on Sunday morning for a skin up from our chalet in the dark, back down for breakfast, change of skis and gear, and then back out with Lesley for more skiing in Sainte Foy. Had such a fantastic weekend, just what life in the mountains is all about, confirming what my ski client was saying on Saturday – there are naturally financial considerations and investment aspects to relocating to the Alps or buying a second home here, which can make it a protracted process and one that often gets deferred, but life doesn’t hang around and we’ve only got so many years of skiing left in us (I do get rude responses to blog posts from friends reminding me of this).
Lesley skiing
Posted in Chalets, Skiing
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Skiing off-piste in Sainte Foy
After massive snowfalls, culminating (incredibly) in a curfew in Val d’Isère last week, we’ve been enjoying bright blue skies this week.
Did a spot of night skiing with friends last night over the back of Sainte Foy and I have a few days guiding coming up.
With so much snow still around I’ve been able to drive a few minutes from the office at lunchtimes and do a quick skin up the Versant Solaise (between la Côte d´Aime and Bourg St Maurice) and ski back.
Despite the snow we’ve been working full tilt on the current chantiers, mostly on the interiors.
Posted in Chalets, Skiing
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Chimney pot in le Planay, Sainte Foy
The festive season was pretty light on alcohol, mainly because the skiing has been so brilliant. It’s a good twenty years since we had this much snowfall.
Skied in fresh powder and bright sunshine today, tomorrow is likely to be cloudy, and on Thursday night we’re due another 50cm. All that snow and we’ve not even had avalanches. Unbelievable.
Was thinking about a little head-torch ski with Rob tonight but Paul has thrown down the last-night card – he departs with family for the UK tomorrow – so we’re heading to Le Monal for a drink.
Great snow conditions at the moment, Rob was on a flying visit yesterday and we had lots of steep and deep.
Photo here was from today in Sainte Foy – we are having a whale of a time and the kids are busy with skiing, racing and training.
The temperature has been all over the place, making conditions a bit unpredictable, and as I headed down the valley this afternoon to collect a bucket of Christmas oysters the rain started, but the forecast is cold for Crimbo, so plenty of skiing to be had over the festive period, and I have a few guiding sessions too.
off-piste in Sainte Foy
I actually wrote my earlier post last night, and it’s now a little out of date as the snow arrived this morning in earnest. The big dump is still due tomorrow, though.
Skiing untracked powder in Sainte Foy last Saturday
Paul is over with this family and just called to say that he got stuck near Tignes les Brévières on the road up to Val for 40 mins this morning, as the twits who’d set off in 2-wheel-drive vehicles sans snow chains were causing mayhem. Windy up in the resort and most of the lifts closed at the moment.
I’m taking my guys to Le Monal Hotel in Sainte Foy today for their Christmas lunch before we close up for the holidays, but heartening to hear from Paul that when he passed the chalet build in Montvalezan at 8:30am he was hailed by Luiz, who was out in the snow with the cement mixer going!
Click on the photo to view larger version.
Posted in Chalets, Skiing
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Tipping down with rain at the bottom of the valley today, but still plenty of snow about, and truckloads of it higher up in the resorts.
Even better news is that there is another dump right down to 500m due to arrive Friday – up to 60cm of snow!
Skinning up to Sainte Foy
We were like pigs in the proverbial last Saturday, up to Val d’Isere in the morning for a ski with those early-season shaky turns, then back to our chalet in the afternoon to skin up to Sainte Foy from there (the Sainte Foy lifts don’t open until this weekend). Lesley and I put it 250 turns in untracked powder – absolutely fantastic. More skiing this weekend.
Took delivery last week of our new forklift truck and had a great time driving round the yard using it as a snowplough with the instruction manual in one hand and the steering wheel in the other.
However, somewhat annoyed to find it broken the next day – the lifter stuck in the high position. We fiddled about with the box controlling the hydraulics which, with hindsight, I realise was a very bad idea – oil exploded out of one of the forks, knocking one of my guys over and cutting his hand. After that we decided to send it to the professionals to get fixed up.
We were looking forward to the snow arriving today… and it has! Went up to Val d’Isère this morning where there’s 15cm in the village and about 25cm higher up. Just sleet down in the valley but chaos on the road with people stopping to fit chains, mostly to discover that they weren’t in the car.
chalet renovation in hamlet near Montvalezan
Delighted to see the snow but glad that we were able to make the most of the dry, mild weather last week on the build in Montvalezan and the renovation in the nearby hamlet – have put some photos of both projects in a gallery here.
Picked up new vehicle last week, will report when I’ve done a bit of driving around in it.
Posted in Chalets, Skiing
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Golden Eagles near Granier
Sorry for the radio silence, folks, we’ve been having a busy old time in French Mountain Property world. The good weather has allowed us to start on the roof of one of our chalet renovations, which we should be able to finish before Christmas. This is great news as we weren’t scheduled to get to it until next spring, and we’ll now be able to get going on another project then, well ahead of ourselves.
We’ve also had another client staying at Chalet Pecchio, sorting out the land and tying up details for their new chalet. All the local meetings went well and most of the preliminaries are now sorted and we’re on the way.
The wooden cross - the eagles are out there somewhere...
Took a trip out on the road bike this week, my usual route with a climb up to Granier, a bit of downhill, a bit more up and then all the way down to Bourg. I stopped near the top by a wooden cross, looking down towards Landry while I was changing my music, and saw a pair of Golden Eagles soaring across the valley. They are so far away on the pics that they look like more like sparrows but I think it’s still an impressive enough sighting to record for posterity (click on the top pic and you’ll see a larger version and a bit more than a speck of bird).
Last Saturday I skinned up la Grand Motte, all the way from the manmade snow at the bottom up on to the glacier to watch my son, Sam, doing his ski training. On Sunday I did a 2000m climb on the road bike, but I found it a bit of a trial – still tired from the day before and I actually found it harder going than the skin as I’ve tailed off with the cycling in the last month or so.
The family trip to Dijon on the bank holiday weekend was good – we were actually too early for the gastronomic fair but we were happy enough buying a pot of mustard and having a general wander about. It’s a really lovely place, beautiful architecture untouched during the war.
As we searched for Hospice de Beaune wine it occurred to me that my claim of it being made by monks in last week’s post might be a little wayward. We actually got a tweet from the Hospices de Beaune confirming that no monks are involved – they pointed me in the direction of the interesting story of how five centuries of wine making happened in an old hospital. You can read up on it on the Hospices de Beaune website here.
Despite my serious misgivings beforehand, I have to admit that James Blunt put on a really good show. The kids loved it. Not sure if the crowd understood the point of him asking them in halting French to shout out ‘mustard’ in English (not sure we did either) but it all seemed to go down well.
As the cold weather starts to creep in we’re battening down the hatches now on the sites. The the Col du Petit Saint Bernard has closed a week early – not due to the weather, but because of roadworks on the Italian side, which is a massive pain in the backside as we now can’t transport a load of stones over from Italy that way. They’ll have to come through the Mont Blanc tunnel, which is the pricier option.
