J2Ski group holiday to Tignes January 13th 2013

AllyG wrote:I'm in Geneva airport now,
Ally

I'm sure this counts as wibble on this thread !!!!

Adders - where are you?

:mrgreen:

Got the shock of my holiday when I saw the credit card bill @ £50 for 3 filled baguettes, 3 crisp and 3 bottles of water last time I went through Geneva !!

OldAndy wrote:

AllyG wrote:I'm in Geneva airport now,
Ally

I'm sure this counts as wibble on this thread !!!!

:) :lol: well OA, we could consider Ally's trip to Tignes as a "recon mission"( 8) ): Hence, I wouldn't call it exactly "wibble" ;)

Good to know what to expect in Geneva!
...Thus even your added comments about the shocking £50 for just a nibble would not count as wibble :mrgreen:

Thanks Cat and Andy,
I don't think giving out a warning about airport prices in Geneva is wibble at all, on this thread, seeing as several of us will be passing through there on our way out, or back, from Les Brevieres :D

Anyway, I am here in Tignes Les Boisses now, the village above Les Brevieres and there is masses of snow. They had a foot here in the village last night.

AND the Sache run down to Les Brevieres is OPEN!!!!!!!!!

So - I might just possibly have a look at it. But I will start with the blue and work my way up to it. I'm not at all fit at the moment so a 10 Km piste might be too much for me. But even if I can't do it I'm sure my daughter can and I'll get her to take her phone with her and take some photos of it, to post up on here.

I will try and post some more tomorrow evening, after ski-ing, and let you all know what the blue, and maybe the red, is like down to Les Brevieres.

Ally,

I forgot to say that they seem to take euros quite happily in the city of Geneva, as well as in the airport. And, in fact, they don't mind if you pay with a mixture of euros and Swiss Francs. But if you pay in euros you get the change in francs. I suppose their tills etc. must add up in euros and francs.

So, if you're planning on spending a day in Geneva there's no need to buy francs, although I suspect they didn't give me a very good exchange rate.

Hi Everyone,
I have had a very hard day doing essential research for this holiday :lol:

I've been down about 15 pistes, including the red and the blue that go down to Les Brevieres.

The lifts don't start until 9 a.m. but I am currently in Les Boisses which is at 1850, directly above Les Brevieres which is at 1550. You can join the blue piste here in Les Boisses from just behind the bus stop, and ski down into Les Brevieres. So my daughter and I did that, and were the first down that piste and got into Les Brevieres before the lifts started. (The chair lift up from Les Brevieres also finishes here, just behind the bus stop so that pedestrians can come up on the chair lift from Les Brevieres and then take the free ski bus).

We then went up the gondola, once it had opened, and back down the red piste into Les Brevieres again. I would say that both the red and the blue were fairly easy runs. The only thing that made them both difficult first thing this morning was the fact that it was like ski-ing on icy, corrugated concrete. And they were both lovely runs down past sheer rock faces and trees. We did them again at lunch time and they'd softened up quite a lot, but by the end of the day (4-30 p.m.) the lower sections had turned into slushy mogul fields.

So I would say that it's actually very easy to get out of Les Brevieres on the lifts. I forgot to time it but I know it didn't take us long and we've been over to Val d'Isere as well today and still managed to get back for lunch (without cheating and using the bus!).

The hardest piste I've been on today was the one called something like the Olympic, which is a long black. The lower half of it was mogulled tapioca, and I've never skied anything like it before. I was lying flat on my face (because I'd fallen over) in the snow and I had a good look at it. It was almost like frog spawn - expanded jelly-like crystals which was virtually impossible to ski on. But we made it down somehow or other, much comforted by hearing both French and Brits complaining about the quality of the snow.

I think that piste is always pretty mogully and difficult so only those feeling brave enough, and competent enough had better tackle it in January, unless they don't mind lying face down on it - like me today :lol:

But apart from that the snow has been great, and we've had a simply fantastic day. I never thought there would be so much snow here at this time of year :D

We have taken photos, but I can't upload them onto here right now. It was a really sunny day until about 3-30 when it started to snow again, so the photos are pretty good.

I will continue with the research tomorrow :lol:

Ally

Thanks Ally nice report & I don't expect there to be any frog-spawn in January. :shock:
Don`t forget the chalet reccy & if poss some photos of that as well if they differ from the web content & see if Mr Ally wants to do a report of the town being that he`s not skiing & put it with yours. :thumbup:

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

You are there to go skiing, do that ;)

Good job Ally. Hope you'll have a great day tomorrow and you'll get to also enjoy some new fresh snow!!!

Looking forward to hear back from you with new impressions.
-Cat