Report from Valmorel (with photos)

Hi we were in Valmorel and St Francoise Longchamp last week too and found it stunning. It is our second time there and again found wide open pistes with no one on them at all. Most lifts we came to we were the only people around. Clear blue skies and well groomed pistes everywhere.

My guess about children being on the lift by themselves is that there just wasn't anyone else around to go on with them. On our run from the top of St Francoise to Valmorel we were the only people on the piste. The tree lined runs on the Valmorel side are lovely. When you have skiied some more there are some great red runs around, our favorite being Le Coq on St F side for pure downhill racing fun! There are a few tricky blacks too so it has something to offer everyone, just maybe not in the abundance of other resorts.

We also found we were the only English people there last year, it is a resort mainly used by French and Dutch.

We went as we were staying at a friends house at the bottom of the mountain. Luckily her house is 30 mins from St Francoise and 1 hour from Trois Valley so we had a warm up day at the Grand Domaine then three days in Trois Valley.

I was getting on a lift in SC last week, and there was a group of tiny tots around 4 or 5 with a female instructor. She waited until people were getting on the lift and then asked if the 3 of us could take a couple of kiddies on with us. She did this with everyone who got on the lift, so that there was adult supervision all the time.

What I like about that is that there is an element of trust here. Imagine if it was the UK, you would either have some jobsworth say they could not be responsible for the child blah blah or the parents kicking off about putting their kids on lifs with random strangers.

As it happened, I ended up wiping a little girls nose, putting her glasses on straight and singing Alouette to her, before helping her off the top and waiting for the instructor. All par for the course as a skier.

Tony_H wrote: and singing Alouette to her

And she resisted the urge to jump :lol:

Good on you Tony, as you say PC'ness over here has gone to the n'th extreme, there's nothing like some good old common sense to make sure things work as they should!

Jenno wrote:

Tony_H wrote: and singing Alouette to her

And she resisted the urge to jump :lol:

Good on you Tony, as you say PC'ness over here has gone to the n'th extreme, there's nothing like some good old common sense to make sure things work as they should!

She just stared at me.

Tony,
I was asked, like you, to take a small kid up a chairlift in Obergurgl. I checked with the instructor that he was actually okay to get off on his own, but at the top he skied over the top of my skis and we both fell over and he hit his head on the wooden wall at the side (luckily he had a helmet on) and his instructor was in the chair behind, saw the whole thing, and helped to pick us both up. Fortunately she didn't blame me. And the worst of it was, it turned out he was staying in the same hotel as us, and he was all chatty and friendly and introduced me to his parents afterwards :shock:

So, taking unknown kids up on a chairlift does have its problems ...

Ally

Ally, I have sworn to myself that if I ever saw you up a mountain, I would give you a very very wide berth.

Tony_H wrote:Ally, I have sworn to myself that if I ever saw you up a mountain, I would give you a very very wide berth.

Well, as long as you avoid Tignes in October half-term, and Courchevel next Feb half-term, you should be safe enough for another year anyway :lol:

Ally

Tony_H wrote:I was getting on a lift in SC last week, and there was a group of tiny tots around 4 or 5 with a female instructor. She waited until people were getting on the lift and then asked if the 3 of us could take a couple of kiddies on with us. She did this with everyone who got on the lift, so that there was adult supervision all the time.

What I like about that is that there is an element of trust here. Imagine if it was the UK, you would either have some jobsworth say they could not be responsible for the child blah blah or the parents kicking off about putting their kids on lifs with random strangers.

As it happened, I ended up wiping a little girls nose, putting her glasses on straight and singing Alouette to her, before helping her off the top and waiting for the instructor. All par for the course as a skier.

That is pretty much standard in LGb, I have had many a conversation with a French minor on a lift and all you get back is a vacant look 8)