J2Ski group holiday to Tignes January 13th 2013

AllyG wrote:...I explained to the ESF instructor that the French alcohol was too strong for us Brits :lol:

I suspect it was the quantity, rather than the nationality of the alcohol which was the culprit !

Hi Everyone,
well, today was another sunny, but very cold day. 5 of us did the off-piste initiation private group lesson in the morning with the ESF.
The first thing the instructor did was complain about our skis so 2 of us had to go back to the ski shop and change them for fatter ones. We both got Movement ones, but mine were ridiculously fat!
And then we had to put on the avalanche gear, which we'd learned how to use before, and I checked that everyone was transmitting before we started.
We began by ski-ing into one of those scary looking craters at the side of a black piste, and poor Daved fell and hurt his leg slightly and went back to the chalet. The rest of us carried on and and after a few instructions our instructor took us off into the wilderness somewhere between Le Lac and Val d'Isere, and we ended up in Val.
I discovered a few less pleasant facts about serious off-piste work - for one thing you have to walk quite a bit, because there are no lifts, and for another thing I nearly suffocated in the snow! I fell into really deep, very soft stuff head first and buried myself right in it and I was trapped by my skis and my poles and I couldn't breathe! Luckily I just managed to wriggle enough to get some air. And I suppose the instructor would have rescued me before I actually died from suffocation! But it was pretty scary :shock:

We all fell over loads of times but none of them were too bad until we got back to Le Lac and I fell on the pavement and bashed my knee :cry: I am hoping it will be better tomorrow.

And I spent the afternoon ski-ing with one of our beginners and helping him, and had a really great time :D

I also saw some of the others ski-ing around the resort, and we're all going out to dinner now to spend our group discount money, as the chalet staff have a day off!

Sounds like you're really getting value for money. Brilliant!

Great hearing the updates, enjoy your last couple of days - hope you don't get delayed coming home in our snow!

AllyG wrote:we're all going out to dinner now to spend our group discount money

:thumbup:

Result. Sounds like a great trip; enjoy the remaining days. Looks like you'll need your deep snow survival expertise to get home to Wales... :shock:

Looking forward to the pictures!

Great meal last night ..hope I can ski today i'll see how i feel...pulled a muscle in my calf...I am sure someone will post some pics soon

d

Well it was all going so well yesterday. Mr F and I were in a group of 6 who decided that the off piste lesson was too much like hard work. We went off to cruise the blues and reds.

It was absolutely freezing and I mean FREEZING out on the chair lifts. We didn't go too high as a result because none of us could feel our fingers and toes. I think it said -19 on one thermometer. I had 4 layers on and it still wasn't enough.

On one chair lift I managed to walk out of my right ski when shuffling forwards to wait for the chair (I have been having a bit of trouble with it and despite adjustment by the local fitters, it was still happening). So the chair lift operator woman hit the stop button but it was an old lift and didn't stop in time before sweeping me off my feel so that I was laying across the chair a bit and by the time I managed to sit up it swept poor Brooksy off his feet so he was sitting on my lap :shock: He had to drop off the chair and I had to follow. Sorry Brooksy :oops:

So we continued with a few more stops to warm up and then headed home. Again all was calm until I tried to go down a particularly steep and narrow bit of piste on the way home (allegedly blue) and got a bit too close to the edge. The edge gave way and I shot into the net. However the net wasn't secured low enough and there was a big gap underneath where the snow had been packed before I stood on it and guess what..... yes I went straight through the gap. Fortunately I managed to get one leg either side of the rope securing the net and I ended up dangling by one leg upside down over a small cliff face.

My fellow J2Skiers were brilliant and rescued me because I was so stuck I could not move. My skis were still on and were wedged against the net tensioners. Once I had been released from my ski I was able to slide down the 20ft or so of the cliff onto the piste below and guess who broke my fall.... poor old Brooksy once again. I owe that man big time.

I also owe my fellow skier Sinbad14 who ran (yes ran) up the slope to free me and ended up sliding down the cliff after me to get down. Thanks to him and to Old Andy and Far Queue and a slightly flattened Brooksy for looking after me all day and rescuing me in my hour of need.

Anyway, no one was hurt I am glad to report but I have a bruise to be proud of with lovely criss cross marks where I dangled from the rope. I shall not be posting a pic.

The lesson I have learnt from this is that the edges may look pretty stable but they can be deceptive and just consist of a pile of snow over a hole! I am also cross with the resort and piste preparers for not fixing that net low enough to do it's job.

Off out again now :mrgreen:

felthorpe wrote: ... Anyway, no one was hurt I am glad to report ...

That's the best news of all; hope today is a little less eventful :)