J2Ski group holiday to Tignes January 13th 2013

Icy,

Old Andy is in fact only a few years older than me - but then I guess I am pretty old myself - I've passed the half century point now :cry:

I think everyone was pretty much as I was expecting them to be :-)

Most of us had got to know each other fairly well by wibbling together on the private FB group I set up for us :-)

And I'd asked people to try and post a photo of themselves on this private FB group just before the holiday so that we could identify each other when we met up!

I worked out who everyone was pretty quickly, especially the greatest wibblers, but it was a couple of days before I was 100% sure who all the quieter group members were. And it was complicated somewhat by the fact that some people had J2Ski forum names, and real names, and I had to learn what they looked like IN ski gear, as well as OUT of ski gear :-)

Here is one of CatP's photos, which shows quite clearly how hard it is to recognize and follow people you don't know very well. We all stopped at this point before going on down into Lavachet for lunch.

Far right is the ski host, who I nicknamed Bonjour Andy so that I wouldn't confuse him with our Old Andy and I could generally spot him on the slopes because of his bobble hat (most people were wearing helmets). I am the one with the white ski helmet, red and black backpack, and black trousers. Our one snowboarder, Ade, is very easy to spot because he's dressed in green and the only one on a snowboard! Simon is next to Ade.

Reading all the posts from the Tignes group has been a real tonic for this (temporarily) grounded skier, and has been (almost) as good as being there (well, not really) ! How you found time and energy to post after such obviously full days I don't know :)

Sounds great.
Exactly as a ski holiday should be fun, laughter and making friends.
Jealous.
:mrgreen: <---- me

OK - here is the first of my two penn'orth ......

Travel - I went by train!! Norfolk to London to Paris to Bourg St Maurice and then a bus up to resort. And back the same way, an hours delay on the return due to snow in France. Overnight sleeper train from Paris down.

This gave me 8 days skiing. Fair bit of hanging around at various stations as I was pessimistic on timings and transfers and a good job too. People in my coach on the return missed their Eurostar as the train was 20 mins late up from Bourg St Maurice.

I would go by train again if I wanted to gain the extra skiing time but would travel first on Eurostar as I found the normal seats small and the carriages were really tatty. Similarly on the overnight - upgrade to a four person sleeper unit, six in a unit was claustrophobic!

Anyway .........
I arrived in Bourg St Maurice, grabbed a double espresso and waited...........
AllyG and CatP eventually turned up and up the hill on the bus we went :mrgreen:

Got to the chalet, bit of brekie, ski pass, ski hire and on the slopes by 11.00 (could have been sooner but didn't rush). First Sunday was the warmest day and glorious sunshine. By the time we got back most of the gang had arrived from various places and in various ways...

I really enjoyed a week spent with a whole variety of skiers; some obvious obsessives from J2Ski and others who just happened to be there as friends and even one bloke who found the holiday after searching the internet!! Everyone was so relaxed, no falling outs, no problem people, just a lovely crowd to ski with, jacuzzi with, eat with, wibble with, have deep and meaningful conversations with etc etc etc.

Some of you may remember that I tweaked my knee last spring digging the potato bed :cry: and so had a brace on my left knee. After the first day my right knee was complaining that it had had 9 months off and didn't appreciate the work expected !!
:oops:
So I skied the rest of the week with a brace on both knees which worked well!!

I skied well within myself most of the week as I am not as fit as I could be at the moment and didn't want to risk any problems, but it didn't bother me when I ducked out of doing a run now and again. I also had the pleasure to ski with different groupings during the week.

We skied La Face one morning of lovely sunshine in conditions that would be hard to beat, skied 15/18 inches of powder on piste one morning, continued in total whiteouts, and I dragged everyone to an extra coffee stop one afternoon in conditions that were the coldest I can remember - I was shivering when I got into the restaurant!!

My commitment to taking care of myself went completely out of the window, though, when the ski host decided to get on the bordercross course........
:oops:

I was just going to potter down and save my knees but - as soon as the gate appeared the brain logged out, winning became important and......
I took the ski host on the second corner, the boarder on the third and was just about to pass the other two when we got to the end - even though they had all started ahead of me.
:roll:

Of course I am not competitive but ....
:twisted:

I really got a lot out of the holiday being with all the others from here - no real surprises, one or two were quieter than I imagined they would be from their online presence and one or two were noisier but, without exception, I would gladly ski with any of the group again - and hope to!

Sadly not next year, though, as MrsOA and I have a big trip planned which would clash with the 2014 dates.
:cry:

Enough for now - more to follow I am sure.
Oh - sorry, having too much fun to take the camera out and only used my headcam once, I'll try to cobble something together from this footage soon.

Iceman wrote: Was Old Andy actually old, I am not convinced ;)

And was Ally G actually Ally G?........westside :mrgreen:

Andy,
If we're going to start being competitive again, I'd just like you to remember that I actually won a PRIZE (and got a kiss from Bonjour Andy) for the best tuck technique and generally beating everyone down the slopes most of the time :mrgreen:

And in that Boardercross race Simon and I decided not to take part in the actual race (well there was only room for 4 at once anyway!) but went down after you lot of maniacs had got out of the way. I was officially the last one to start but I overtook Simon because he went too fast for the conditions at one point and went off the course :lol:

Unofficially though, Andy, you were definitely the best skier amongst us and the only reason I could beat you down the slopes some of the time was because of the state of your knees (and all the exercise I'd been doing to get fit for this holiday!).

Let's hope your knees have fully recovered by your next ski holiday :-)

Here are some more photos of our group in Tignes (from Felthorpe), but I've blanked out the faces because most people seem to be a little shy :oops:

Gotta say that blanking out the faces makes the pics look a little daft. Sorry.

Whats to be shy about?

Not sure why anyone is shy ally coz they certainly weren't on the holiday. We had a fab time. I was a bit reticent being the only boarder but it went very well and I think I held my own. Ally just about kept up. Haha. She was the queen of the tuck position. I have some go pro footage to share once I realise how to get it on here. But all being said I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Even the day it was -33 was a blast. Like OA I've never experienced cold like that before. I thought my toes were going to fall off one day. Agony. Nice to see OA seeing red on the boardercross. I knew it was I. There somewhere. Fab. I have lots of photos but I'm not sure how to get them on here so any advice would be great. Oh and the bonjour staff and chalet were absolutely fantastic. Andy the host was a top top lad. I hope he was tipped well because he deserved to be. More to follow with photos hopefully.