I don't want to sound like a spoiled child but.... I WANT SUNSHINE!!

Well, the winter continues in Courchevel... The skies last night were very moody. It was a beautiful day here on Sunday and we enjoyed the first day of 'party week' in 1550. This is what the staff down here are naming their last week. With no guests in any chalets, with the exception of Elan, the staff are not letting the cleaning of the chalets get in the way of their fun...

A BBQ on the terrace of Barragiste was the plan for Sunday; and for once, the weather not only held, but was beautifully sunny... Once again we were lulled into a false sense of Spring. That was dashed when we woke up yesterday to heavy snowfall and today there is no change. I am not sure where it is coming from, but the snow keeps falling...

Apparently spring may start on Wednesday. Fingers crossed because there are a lot of shandies waiting to be drunk and definately some goggle marks to be improved...

Photos are taken from 1650, looking across towards 1550

Through the Eye of the Needle...

The Courchevel staff take a road trip to Val D'Isere!

A team of 15 of us headed over to Val D'Isere today for our day off. We drove the hour and a half in convoy in two minibuses. As always, I felt completely at home in Val, having done my first season with Finlays there in 2004. There was no need to look at a piste map for those skiing with me!

We headed straight over to the Grand Motte to try and catch a few rays of sunshine. Our first two runs down Double M were stunning, lovely snow and beautifully groomed runs.

Then we headed off on a little adventure. We climbed up through the Aiguille Percee (the Eye of the Needle) and dropped down onto an ungroomed black run back towards Tigne Le Lac.

We ended our day by heading back to Val via the Face - always a good challenge to end on. And actually my first time ever doing it on a snow board...

We, of course, stayed for a few apres drinks in Bananas and then headed back to Courchevel for a cocktail in La Taiga in La Tania... Well it would not be day off without a Mojito...

April snow showers...

The weather forecast for this week was not good, snow and rain for most of the week. Luckily on Sunday, after a bad start to the morning, the skies cleared and there were big patches of blue sky. The skies then clouded over and we thought the bad weather was back to stay. However, the perfect conditions arrived...

Snow overnight, clear skies by 9am!

The ideal scenario for any skiing holiday has to be snow overnight to create a nice layer of fresh powder (in this case 3 or 4 inches at least) and then the clouds clear early on and by 9am there are blue skies. I am not sure who did the wishing for this but it worked today...

It was a beautiful day today. Still cold at the top but sitting in the sunshine it was glorious. Fingers crossed the rest of the forecast for this week is wrong as well!!

The tiny chapel in 1550.

There is a beautiful little chapel located on the right hand side below the road, as you drive out of 1550. For those of you who have not noticed it, it is worth keeping an eye out for it... I don't think you can fit more than about 3 people in there at a time...

The Shopping Day Dance.

Today all records were smashed and we managed to finish shopping, including unpacking the vans, by 11:15am. All the chalets are pretty full next week so it was a normal size shop; the last proper shop of the season! The girls on the second bus to leave resort were the most impressive: from leaving 1550 to go to Moutiers, until they got back having shopped for their chalets for a week, took just two hours in total.

Above is a video of the shopping day dance, unfortunately it is on it's side because I don't know how to rotate videos... But even so, I still thought it was worth uploading; it is quite something! Imagine the chaos these girls can cause on the dance floor after a few beers...

Once again we celebrated by heading over to the Marmottons for lunch; what a tough life we do lead...

Spring blossom?

From close up, these trees reminded me of those cardboard ones I used to get when I was little which grew spring blossom when you stuck them in water...

However, when zoomed out as below, you can see that in fact all evidence of spring has once again disappeared and there has been more snow in Courchevel!

Now, I love powder as much as the next person, but by now it should be sunny and lovely every day... I think it is time spring came back for good. There is lots of snow to last to the end of the season and I dont want to go back to England with a pasty white face!!

Challenge extended...

Early in the game: the four people crazy enough to attempt the challange: Abby, Sarah, Kat and Clare

As many of you will know, in January, some of the Finlays staff completed the Three Valleys Escapade (see entry from 27th Jan). Well, yesterday we upped the challenge. A hard core group of four of us (as above) decided to raise the bar. We completed the challenge, PLUS we went up and down Mont Vallon. We did this all by 4:30pm, so decided to fit in an extra couple of runs and end up in La Tania for a cocktail to celebrate.

For those of you who know the runs involved, to give you an idea of the pace we kept up, we did Mont Vallon top to bottom without stopping once. In fact as soon as we left Orelle, not a single person over took us in the next 3 hours and we did not stop once on a piste. Our only pauses were lift queues. This is my fourth time doing the challenge this season and I can really feel the extra distance, my thighs are screaming today!!

Views from the top of Cime Caron - Val Thorens

We picked a beautiful day for it with blue skies all around. There were some strange low lying clouds, but most of the time we were above them. Even when we went down into them, although long range distance was impaired, visibility remained good.

We had Mountain Trak GPS on again, but have not got the maps back. The main aim of the day was to create the best Mountain Trak map possible, in order to do this, we decided to try and go over every possible peak in the Three Valleys. Challenge completed! When we get the maps back I will upload the stats and a link, these should be worth seeing...

We were all so happy to get back. It was getting the stage where I needed to give myself a pep talk just to persude myself to get off each chair lift... We all collapsed into the Taiga in La Tania for happy hour cocktails...

Leaving VT, spirits still high...

Red faced but happy to be home!

THE ROUTE:

3 Valleys Challenge, route as planned by Abbs

Courchevel

· TOVETS CHAIRS (1 bottom)
· Green to PLANTREY CHAIR
· Bouc Blanc red to Moretta blanche red to La Tania
· LA TANIA BUBBLE (2 bottom)
· Arolles blue to DOU DES LANCHES CHAIR

Meribel

· Boulevard De La Loze blue until intersection
· Renard red
· DENT DE BURGIN CHAIR (3 top)
· Renard red
· Blanchot green
· Lapin blue
· GOLF CHAIR (4 bottom)
· Foret green
· Doron blue to Meribel 1450m
· PLAN DE L'HOMME CHAIR
· Escargot blue
· OLYMPIC EXPRESS CHAIR (5 top)
· Verdet blue
· Grand duc blue
· CHERFERIE DRAG

Les Menuires

· Cretes blue
· Jerusalem red
· Verdet blue to St Martin de Belleville
· ST MARTIN BUBBLE (6 bottom)
· ST MARTIN 2 CHAIR

Meribel

· Combe tougnette red then right onto dahu red then onto martre blue
· ROC DE TOUGNE DRAG (7 bottom)

Les Menuires

· Teppes red (8 bottom of GRANGES CHAIR; bleep in then leave queue)
· Gros tougne blue then la violette green to Les Menuires 1850
· Follow signs through Les Menuires towards La Masse
· Green run to MASSE 1 BUBBLE
· MASSE 2 BUBBLE (9 top)
· Drop off the back of the Masse into off piste. Follow tracks towards the bottom, then signs onto plan de l’eau red
· PLAN DE L’EAU CHAIR (10 bottom)
· Boismint red, cut right towards the CARON BUBBLE
· CIME CARON TELECABINE
· Combe rosael black
· Mauriennaise red
· PEYRON CHAIR
· BOUCHET CHAIR (11 top)
· Corais red to bouchet red to peyron blue
· ROSAEL CHAIR
· Chamois red past top of plateau drag
· Right down blue to portette chair (do not get on)
· Green to MORAINE CHAIR
· COL CHAIR (12 top)
· Col red
· Moraine blue
· Onto green past snowparc down to PLEIN SUD CHAIR
· Left down blue to FUNITEL BOUQUETIN

Meribel

· Lac de la chamber red to bottom of Mont Vallon
· MONT VALLON BUBBLE
· Campagnol red onto lac de la chambre red
· PLAN DES MAINS CHAIR
· Rossignol blue
· Martres blue into Mottaret
· PAS DU LAC BUBBLE 1 & 2

Courchevel

· Creux red
· CHANROSSA CHAIR
· Roc merlet red
· Pyramide blue
· Bel air red
· CHAPELETS CHAIR (13 bottom)
· Grandes bosses blue
· Roc mugnier red
· AIGUILLE DE FRUIT
· Park city red
· Altiport blue
· PRALONG CHAIR
· Biollay blue
· COQS CHAIR
· Lanches red
· Bouc blanc red
· Folyeres blue to La Tania