Dump alert!

WOW. Loads of snow fell yesterday afternoon and evening. We had some light snow showers in the morning then an hour or two of sunny skies then it dumped all afternoon and evening! Makes transfer day a bit tricky but well worth it in the end, conditions today were superb with over 25 cms of snowfall at resort level and even more higher up! This was the scene outside the office in courchevel 1550 yesterday evening....


This top up was a welcome sight as we near the end of the season, the pistes have been refreshed nicely and we are expecting further snowfall on Tuesday followed by a drop in the temperatures. Good news for the Easter week.

Fresh snow has finally arrived!

After a blisteringly warm period of around 10 days the weather has finally turned wintery again! Good news! We've had over two inches in the last hour outside the office down in Courchevel 1550 and more is set to come down today and tomorrow.

X Games came to Europe - and it was SICK!!!!

For the first time in X Games history the massive winter event was held in Europe and being relatively close to Courchevel was too good an opportunity too miss. Last Friday all of the Finlays Courchevel staff headed over to Tignes to catch a few hours of action in the afternoon. We left for Tignes (about an 90minute drive) just after 10-30am to arrive in time for the mens slopestyle finals that were scheduled for a 1-30pm start. As predicted the weather was completely clear allowing us to watch the international athletes throw down their very best tricks on the slopestyle course consisting of a series of massive jumps and a few rails. Just as we arrived we caught the end of a snowmobile demo. The snowmobilers were throwing rediculous stunts over a large jump, some of them even doing backflips with the snowmobile itself!

The snowmobile demo

We all camped out on the hill next to the long slopestyle course to get the best view as the riders hit all of the features. As i was too busy trying to film some of the action I didn't manage to get any pictures of the massive slopestyle course!

Camped out on the hill - Finlays signs included!
L to R - Sophie (Elan) Sarah (Reposoir) Jemima (Grand Cerf) Sarah (Petit Collu) Katie (Delage) Suzanne (Elan) Alan (Bubble Bar) Adam (Elan)

As the slopestyle came to a close a few of us headed down to the bottom of the course into the crowds with the hope of getting an autograph or two, and we were not dissapointed! Adam managed to get a magazine signed by both Tom Wallisch (the winner) and T.J.Schiller, I also managed to get T.J to sign a T Shirt and Sarah B managed to convince T.J to sign the back of one of our Finlays signs! We all had a great day out but had to leave before the mens snowboard superpipe finals in order to make it back to prepare dinner!

The super pipe - Massive

T.Js autograph

Another sunday morning..

B..E..A..utiful

Another gorgeous day here in Courchevel. The hazy sky almost makes it look warm and summery, but don't be fooled its very cold for this time of the season. -8 this morning in Courchevel 1850. The chalet in at the bottom of the picture is chalet Reposoir. Check it out!

And the winner is.........

No suprises really, the winner of the fireworks festival/competition was my favorite all along: the Slovakian entry! The prizegiving was a typically french affair and topped off with a superb display from a previous winner of the competition, it all happened up on the snow front in 1850 yesterday evening. In second place was the Russian display that was last week in 1650, third was the French company who kicked off the competition in Courchevel 1550 and last but not least was the German entry that was also held in 1850 a few weeks ago. I have never seen so many awesome fireworks in such a short period of time.

The prizegiving

Final fireworks

Penultimate round of the fireworks competition

Last Friday evening was the fourth round of the international pyrotechnics competition that is currently being held in Courchevel. Originally scheduled for Thursday but moved to Friday because of bad weather conditions the fireworks were staged on the snowfront at Courchevel 1650. This time is was the turn of the Russians to put on a display and the company was called "Pyrotechnic yards of Petershof"!! All the displays are limited to between 15 and 17 minutes in time. I'm judging this one a close second to the Slovakian display held in Le Praz! The winner of the competition is announced this Wednesday with another display to round of the festival on the snowfront at Courchevel 1850. Super duper.