Jonathan has just retired so we’re both now free to enjoy all the action we’ve been planning for several years. We’ve arrived at our apartment in Ste Foy Tarentaise, full of excitement, hoping to ski pretty much every day until May.
Ste Foy Chef Lieu is just up the road from Bourg St Maurice and from here we’re well placed to ski in Val d’Isere, Tignes, La Rosiere, Ste Foy, Villaroger and Les Arcs.
Val d’Isere just opened this weekend and it was snowing whilst we travelled out from England. Time to hit the slopes…
Our first week has been fabulous. No time to unpack the belongings we brought from our home in Cornwall.
The first glorious sunny day found us in Le Fornet and Solaise, where we found untracked powder skiing the Tour de Charvet.
We bumped into our ski guide, Pierre, with our friend Nathalie, and talked of plans for hut to hut ski tours later in the season.
With plans for off piste skiing, often just the two of us, we splashed out on Avalanche Air bags. Thought we ought to check whether they work in the safety of the chalet car park!
So much sunshine and snow…
But no people…
Couldn’t believe we had the Grande Motte cable car to ourselves – there are always queues for the top.
Great fun on our new Black Crow skis. The drags to the top were set up for race training so we had all the off piste powder to the sides to ourselves.
Skied off piste below Refuge Des Fours
A whole week of sunshine, settled conditions, low avalanche risk and no crowds found us skiing well known tours around Tignes and Val d’Isere. Martin joined us on the 7th and we skied le Fornet the next day, before being joined by a whole bunch of friends. We spent a week in a Val d’Isere chalet enjoying ‘la Bonne vie’ good weather, good music, good food, good wine, good company.
A little worried about the lack of new snow, we had it in buckets at the end of the week with all lifts closed for two days.
The third week of December continued with brilliant sunshine and skiing in Tignes, bumping in to friends from home out for family holidays. We headed home ourselves to see family over Christmas.
Back just in time for New Year and to enjoy the fireworks of Les Arcs, Ste Foy and the stunning display over Villaroger viewed from our balcony.