Serre Chevalier January 2011
We did nick a quick cheapo week in Serre back in January practicing for Another Hard Day at the Office in March / April, going charter, staying in Le Grand Aigle not far from where we usually stay.
As we already have the ski pass, the on cost is not a lot!
Snow conditions were pretty well as expected. Few days before we departed it had rained to 3,000ms and had been very warm destroying any potential off piste, though I was none too worried as my knee is still sore and I did not want to aggravate it too much, that said the hard boiler plate pistes by the end of the week made the knee complain!
Saturday - Back in Serre Chevalier stayling at the Hotel Le Grand Aigle. Trip out was quite painful having not gone charter for quite a few years and not helped by a wheel on the plane having to be changed whilst we remained on board, with no air conditioning, 50 odd school kids and me wearing a merino top.........I thought I was back in a Bikram Studio.
Left home at 08:30 - Gatwick check in at 09:30 and the queue was massive, took just nigh on an hour to get to the check in desk. Quite a few school groups, then with the wheel change on the plane that delayed the flight by a couple of hours, think we arrived at Grenoble around 16:00 local time, then by the time we'd got the luggage etc and made it to the bus, then waited for others etc etc we eventaully left at 17:30 arriving at Serre at 20:00 - could just about have driven down in that time!
I had spend the past couple of weeks paranoid about baggage allowances and carrying my ABS backpack - needn't have bothered on both scores as they didn't seem to be too concerned. Our double coffin style (180) snowboard bag carrying our skis and backpack weighed in at 26kgs and they were cool with that!
And our other bags were well under the 20kgs.
Sunday - first day and piste cruising..........which I think will be what the rest of the week will consist of, though will do a couple of little off piste routes later and see but will have to be North facing........my knee was not too bad, aching by the end and soon as I went into any bumps / soft snow so I could feel it complaining.
Went up on the new Vallons chair and did a couple of warm up runs down there then over to Monetier which was empty - snow very good all the way down to the bottom and no bare patches / rocks which surprised me. Pistes hard courdroy first thing and then gradually cut up producing sugar snow - but enough to get an edge on considering I'm not exactly using a full on piste ski (Scott Mission).
Back over to the Grotte for a bowl of soup and then a few runs over that way in the afternoon and then back to the hotel by 15:30.
Both me and the Mrs quite chuffed with our fitness, as we have not been doing any running (due to being members of the wounded knee club), by this time of the year we've been upping the weekly mileage as we'd be in training for Brighton Marathon etc etc
However we both have been doing Bikram Yoga three times a week and we hoped that would be good and looks like it's worked. See forum thread here.
Had the Mrs coming down all the way from the top to the bottom without stopping (she had to earn her hot chocolat) and she did that really well, not out of breath and no leg burn.....though the test will be how we make it down the stairs tomorrow morning :~/
Monday - social piste cruising.......another blue sky day, little colder than yesterday and again pistes in superb condition. First lift up and totally empty, did some general blasting around then suddenly up at the top stomach started rumbling and aching, so then had to bomb back down to the Hotel for an emergency "pit stop" made it just in time!
But has to be said the run back down was great, as we only usually do it for the last run of the day to get home. Then back and over to Monetier where we were meeting up with some people who have an apartment there, the guy Jules actually broke his neck last year when someone collided into him!
We then headed over to Chantermerle and had a decent lunch in the "Station" excellent value at 17Euro. Sitting outside in the sunshine it was really warm, not January weather but the sort of temps you'd expect in March!
Skiing very hard and fast, had a 22 year old with us who I had to keep ahead of to show that old farts can still ski fast though knee now hurting a little more, but still holdding out well, don't think it's going to like anything too demanding!
Wednesday - yet more social piste cruising.......and yet another blue sky day and each day getting consistently colder & pistes still in superb condition. Spent the morning ripping the courdroy working on the new wide style carving technique and think it's just about there on one side though still a long way to go.
Met up with some people at lunchtime who have a place in Briancon and had touched base with me to find out a little more about ski touring in the area. He was a very experienced climber and had only been skiing for eight years and at 58 he sure could ski fast, though did not believe in using his edges too much! His lady was equally quick and Elaine was wondering why anyone we hook up with has to ski so damn quick.
Temps dropped through the day to minus 8 midway and they're due to be 8 or so degrees colder tomorrow, and just maybe a light dusting of snow overnight Thursday into Friday.
Had a bit of serious drama going on when we were back down with the rescue heli hovering overhead from what we could make out a couple of climbers were stuck on a ridge and the heli lowered a rescuer down to them.
Thursday / Friday - very very cold....... with temps nigh on minus 20 up top. They've had the snow conditions going overnight so in the morning pistes were in superb condition but by the afternoon as the cannon snow was swept off so it was very icy lower down.
Friday went over and visited my little cliff down in Montagnolle taking some people over there, snow was good at the top but hellish icy on the run out.
They now need more snow - anyway hopefully they'll get it before March!
And have to say my Merino ski socks were brilliant, one pair of socks that lasted all week without the faintest whiff of any odour, even at the end of the week sticking them under Elaine's nose, so she had to agree!
Back home, and the journey back was better than going out!
Been editing a few video clips and uploading to YouTube.
Thanks to Murray & Aimee for their company over the week both on the piste and at dinner, hopefully get to ski again with you some time.
Been a long time since skiing pistes all day. After filming and watching the clips spent the next three days trying/attempting to ski new style, though not that easy with Alpine Touring Boots and Scott Missions on hard pack icy pistes. As it was so cold did not film my attempts, that said think I might need to invest in some Slalom Race Skis if we get the same conditions in March!!
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