Sunday
A mid morning trip to Gatwick and an easy check-in with SnowJet/Titan Airlines although we were told we had emergency exit seats, but clearly didnt!
Still, the seats were not too cramped and it was a fairly short flight to tiny Chamberey.
From there it was 2 hours, roughly, to VDI but plenty of snow was visible from shortly after leaving the airport and VDI was stacked high with snow on the roofs and sides of pavements.
Above : Our Chalet - 16th century!
Our home for the week was Chalet Lo Soli in Laissnant, just outside the main town (less than 5 minutes on the regular and free buses) right by a ski lift.
Our Chalet Host was friendly, but didn’t seem as wholeheartedly committed as some have in the past. I wouldn’t complain about anything, but I’ve had chalet hosts who made me feel more truly welcome.
There were only 7 in the chalet, a couple about our age with their 18 year old daughter and another couple a bit younger than us.
The chalet is very old (c 1500s in parts) and didn't lack charm inside or out. What it did lack was facilities. Our room had it's own bath (a free standing iron thing with a surprisingly effective shower from the taps), but no toilet. In fact there were just two toilets in the whole chalet. Some of the furniture was, truly, ancient - Our wardrobe so warped with age (centuries by the look of it) that the doors would not shut.
Above : Communal areas comfortable and modern, but bedrooms a little basic albeit comfortable
To be fair we had an idea it might be a bit like this and, aside from the terrible mattress (changed after one night, well done Ski Total team), our room was pretty comfortable and the public rooms were fine.
That said, we would choose something more up to date if we visited Val D'Isere again.
Monday
Chatting to a fellow guest who had skiied many times in VDI we decided to stay close to home and ski in the area above Laissnant and Le Fornet.
Above : Feet of snow for a change!
There were some great reds with wonderful snow on there and we eventually worked our way back to above Solaise, skiing the Arcelles and Marmotons runs and then the Rhones Alpes black in to the heart of VDI befure going back up the Solaise Express and into Laisnant, skiing right to our front door!
Above : With blue sky to go with it!
We lunched in Le Fornet in the cafe under the cable car, which served good home made soup and hot, thick chips - excellent!
Tuesday
We decided to go with Ski Total Ski Guide over to Tignes. Unfortuately, it was pretty cloudy and whilst the guide was good and the group of a generally decent standard and speed, the near white out conditions made many of the runs hard work.
The long red, Double M was rechrisitened “Astrid’s” in honour of our ski guide who skiied it top to bottom without stopping leaving nearly everyone behind as their leg muscles gave out!
Above : Down "Astrid's" to Tignes
We had a great pizza lunch in Val Claret and then the guide took others back to La Daille and a bus home.
I went with a couple of former ski guides and we skiied down La Face into VDI and then I took the Solaise Express and Matthis back to the hotel, only arriving about 5 minutes behind Mandy.
Wednesday
The forecast was good and it started sunny, but by the time we reached the top of the Vallon De L'Iseran gondola it was white out again and as we’d seen a sign saying a linking lift was closed and we couldn’t actually see it, we simply came back down again and skiied the red back to Le Fornet.
There we hopped on the bus and went to VDI centire, where we were delighted to see La Face was bathed in sunlight. We hopped aboard the large gondola and skiied straight over to the Face, finding it highly enjoyable as the light and snow were excellent and there were few people on it.
We returned up the gondola and skiied over to OK, which is the more commonly used Men’s Downhill course into La Daille (no race this year due to too much snow!). Again light was good and this was a great run.
Above : Lovely Mountain scenery when the weather's good
Above : On the way down to VDI
We stopped in La Daille for a leisurely lunch as Wednesday is chalet staff night off and we knew we wouldn’t get a big meal in the evening.
Above : La Daille Funicular as the weather closed in
Sadly, when we came out it was white out again. We boarded the Funicular up to the top and did the Orange run which parallels OK for a while and then comes down to the same lifts by a different route. By now it wasn’t great, so we hopped on another bus to see if things were better at Solaise.
They weren’t so we took the Solaise Express and then simply returned down Matthis again in pretty poor visibility which took a lot of the pleasure out of the skiing.
Thursday
Thursday started much better.
Again plenty of sun, but this time the cloud stayed away. We took the Laissnant chair and then the Col run to the Datcha lift which took us above Solaise.
We did the Arcelles run quickly (finding it suprisingly hard packed) and then another couple of lifts and the red Plan A back to Solaise.
Above : Me by the race start hut - Nothing like a natural pose to make a photo, is there!
Above : Cold and quiet - This was the most people we saw for hours
We then took the gondola up and then skiied down a number of blues and reds to the link with Tignes. We then skiied right over to the foot of the La Motte cable car, but it was hanging uselessly mid cable and obviously out of action for the day (at least).
Above : Setting off for Tignes from Grande Motte
We skiied a wide and well groomed, but steep black (Leisse) down the back and then headed down Les Lanches (red) towards Tignes.
We covered a number of runs before dropping onto Silenes, a mild looking black that turned into an evil narrow mogul field about a quarter of the way down, and eventually reached La Breuviere for a quick lunch.
Above : Keyhole worn by wind in the rock above Tignes
On the way back we took in Astrid’s again (we stopped once ) and took a vicious Poma back to drop back into VDI.
Here we skiied back down the Face, which was surprisingly hard, even revealing a sheet of glass like ice on the final steep pitch and then back home via the Matthis run.
Friday
I had signed up for a day’s off Piste tour, but due to forecast bad weather it was curtailed to a half day local to the VDI area.
This was probably just as well as I’m pretty sure I would’ve struggled t o complete a whole as strenuous as the morning was.
We started off from the Ski Evolution shop in the village and then headed up to take a run of the Cuneigo lift which took as around and down to the Les Manchets lift.
The snow was soft, but fairly heavy and so was hard on the legs compared to pure powder or piste and all the four of us skiing with the guide were tired by the end.
The second run we did dropped us off the Matthis run and down onto Piste L (closed this week) via a very steep (at first) drop which saw a little hesitation on the part of one of the skiers, but we all made it down with major mishap.
Above : Off piste, with airbags, probes and beepers!
Finally, we took the Signal drag lift and dropped off to the left at the top and followed the Grand C back to Le Fornet, but by then all our legs were screaming ENOUGH! We took the bus back to VDI and after a leisurely lunch I jumped on the gondola up to the top of VDI and did the OK and Orange runs, but again the visibility wasn’t great so I returned via the black Lepaule run which I hadn’t done before.
I’d been warned it was a steep mogul field, but although fairly shallow approach was bumpy the steep face of the end of the run was fairly smooth and in good condition (and ice free).
I ended my day with a run down Matthis and back to the chalet door.
We nipped in to VDI in the evening to get some cash and look around the shops and it was attractively lit with lots of stone and wood buildings (both new and very old).
Above : Snow carvings abound in town
Above : Pretty town centre as night draws in
There are a lot worse looking French ski resorts, even if it does look a bit fake in places.
Saturday
This proved a rather disappointing last day. Snow was forecast (heavy for the afternoon) and sure enough it was gently failing when we woke up.
We took the Laisnant chair lift up and noticed that it seemed brighter on the high reds above Le Fornet, so we headed over there . It wasn’t sunny, but the cloud was certainly thinner here making visibility pretty good, but we found the two reds, Cascades and Morraine too easy and extremely cold, so after two runs down each we headed over to Solaise.
Here visibility was poor and after a stop at the Tipi Cafe for a very expensive hot chocolate we skied down Rhone Alpes (with acceptable visibility once we reached the tree line) and had lunch in the Sana cafe in the main square facing the slopes of VDI. This was very good (and it was lovely and warm in there, so we lingered).
As it was, if anything, even cloudier when we came out, Mandy gave up skiing for the day, returning to the chalet via Matthis.
Above : Traditional look to the town centre
I went back up and tackled OK (which is the FIS WC downhill run). The top was difficult with appaling visibility, but once again things improved once into the tree line.
I almost gave up there, but took the Funicular and did Orange again. The conditions were much the same, so I decided to save myself the joys of the Face in those conditions and bussed back to the centre of VDI.
Once there I took the Solaise Express up, but decided to do one last run down Rhone Alpes before getting back on the Solaise Express and returning down Matthis for my last run of the week.
Above : La Face illuminated for preparation at night
Sunday
The return transfer was at 5:20, sparking memories of my last visit here, when I’d left similarly early but not got home until 2:30 the following morning! Fortunately, things went more smoothly this time and, although we hung around at the tiny Chambery airport for a couple of hours more than we needed to, it was a fairly smooth journey home with about a 30 minute delay in the flight.
Conclusion
Overall we’d had a good holiday in Val D’Isere. The snow was in great condition and when the sun shone it was marvellous. However, the cloud meant it was rarely like that and it was a bit of a challenge (I almost wrote chore, but skiing's never a chore!) to ski (especially in sun glasses – Next season I will have some yellow googles or something similar).
There are plenty of challenging runs in the Espace Killy (it’s the opposite of the 3 Valleys in this respect, many blues are too hard to really be blues here), but we seemed to walk or pole quite a lot.
Val D’Isere is a good place to ski, but to be honest, it didn’t live up to the hype that it’d had from other people. Whilst we enjoyed it, I don’t think we’ll make it a priority to come back soon.
