Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Monday

Focus on the Novice Group

We don’t take beginners on tour so the novices are the least experienced skiers with us.  They have all attained level 3 at Firpark Ski Centre but have no other experience. 

My group of six novices have the steepest learning curve of all the skiers on tour as they not only have to try to improve their personal skiing ability the most but also have to overcome the fear factor associated with steep slopes and ice and get their muscles to adjust to  a new and very physically demanding activity.  It is very hard work for them

Conditions on our first day have been like a gift from heaven.  Sunny blue skies gave everyone a tremendously positive attitude to learn, a layer of fresh snow from a heavy fall on Sunday night took away any chance of ice and made for an easy turning “carpet” and the temperature stayed slightly sub-zero all day so the usual spring slush never developed.

This suited the novices very well so that most have already progressed during their 6 hours of skiing during the day to making basic parallel turns.  They enjoyed their 2 hour lesson with their instructor and completed a long run to St Martin in the afternoon despite an unexpectedly large number of moguls on the Grand Lac piste.  They will certainly enjoy having an evening to recuperate and let their tired muscles regroup for another sunny day on Tuesday.  Confidence levels are high but ice could still bring in “fear factor” problems so we still need to progress carefully.

Posted at 11:48:22 GMT

Monday, 05 April 2010

Sunday Evening Activity

Posted at 20:34:49 GMT

Tuesday, 06 April 2010

Tuesday

Focus on Boarders

Day 2 we woke to clear skies and we, being the cool snowboarders, were eager to hit the slopes.  Firstly we took a lift to one of the highest points of the valley, La Masse.  From there we did some warm up runs and then a few of us dropped off the roof of an abandoned house that we found on the side of the piste with our ESF instructor.  He also took us to one of his personal favourite spots where we all got about 15 feet of air!  We later progressed to attempting front flips and for some, we almost succeeded. 

Joe Palau IV

A View from a Novice

At the start, I was really nervous since it was my first time on snow.  It was a great day – the sun was out and the snow was crisp.  Everything was just liked it looked in the tour meeting slide show.  

I was in a group of 5 senior novices.  Throughout the day we made huge progress like perfecting parallel turns (!!!)  and doing emergency stops.  Olga, our ESF instructor was very amusing and great fun to be with.  

All the groups headed back to the hotel for lunch and then set out skiing yet again with friends – I did the “Les Menuires blues and greens tour”.  Overall, the day was a huge success because I improved my skiing and confidence levels massively.  We all had fun.

Jamie McAloon  (II)

Posted at 20:18:05 GMT

Wednesday, 07 April 2010

Wednesday

Day 3

Mostly overcast and mild.  Some light snow in the morning and icy conditions early on.  Visibility good.

Focus on afternoon skiing

All pupils opt for one of the afternoon group activities starting at 2pm.  Everyone has a 3 Valley pass so we provide up to 8 options for touring the area with their friends rather than instruction group.  It also lets pupils of various ages get to know each other.  The options on day 3 were : ‘Les Menuires Vert et Bleu’; ‘Les Rouges aux Meribel’; ‘Exploration a Val Thorens’; Allez Les Menuires Bleus!’; ‘Chocolat Chaud Sil Vous Plait, Bleus et Rouges’; ‘Trois Vallees Extreme’ (our French, not theirs !)

As an example, the ‘Les Rouges aux Meribel’ group consisted of Form 1 and 3 boys and girls who turned out to be all the same standard so that they were able to cover the slopes fairly rapidly.  The teachers leading chose to do the long reds at the north end of Meribel as we don’t often ski these during the mornings.  Unfortunately, two very slow old chair lifts in Motaret made for less skiing than anticipated but even so, the group covered some 10000 ft (2900m) vertical during the time we were out.

The ‘Trois Vallees Extreme’ group did the Cime Caron black and red pistes.  The leader commented on how nice it was to see Juniors skiing so well with a group of expert seniors despite there being quite large moguls on one of the runs.

Posted at 20:11:08 GMT

Thursday, 08 April 2010

Thursday

Day 4 - weather mostly overcast and mild.  Skies clearing towards the end of the day.

Focus on Advanced Skiers

Out of our total of 115 pupils on tour, we have graded 47 as advanced skiers: i.e. they can do carved parallel turns and can cope with most conditions and pistes.  The ‘top group’ are particularly ‘expert’ and it can be quite a challenge for their instructor to provide an exciting learning experience for them.  The Les Menuires ESF are usually very good at providing excellent instructors for this group and Aleen is certainly providing some testing lessons this year.

An ‘Expert’ View:
The day started cold and misty with a light snow shower.  After a quick ride up the Cime de Caron cable car in Val Thorens, we were soon standing on a windy peak near the red run in blizzard conditions.  Aleen, our somewhat daring ski instructor, then skied us into a hidden valley where we had some incredible off-piste all the way down.  When we eventually reached the bottom of the valley, we were informed we would have to ski across the frozen lake!  Well that was a real first but luckily it wasn’t very big!  We made our way back to the morning break meeting point with lots of stories to tell and wondering whether the afternoon’s skiing would be equally exciting.

Fergus Band (V)

When Mr Lumsden was allocating rooms, several girls were desperate that they wanted to be in room 28. Asked why, they volunteered to write this article.

Why Room 28?

Walking into room 28 once again almost felt like home. This was our third ski tour and we were looking forward to repeating the experience. Even though it was the three of us as usual, we were excited for the new people who would be joining us on tour.

Skiing straight on to the piste is always a great way to start the morning.  A quick chairlift and you’re on the main runs. The slopes may be a challenge at times, but they always give you a thrill.  Every year we always seem to end up at a snowcross course and we always find ourselves skiing the rollers on our favourite run, ‘Jerusalem’.

Every ski tour, we improve our skills with our daily ski lesson with ESF.  After showing off our talent to the instructors we meet at the ‘Croissette’ to have a refreshing drink and we then set off for another 2 hours of intense skiing.  It is hard work, but always great fun.  It’s a real leg burner.  We are always starving for lunch, but it is worth the wait.  In the afternoon we can choose from the varieties of activities for all abilities.  This is when we can spend quality time with our friends on the piste.  After a hard day’s skiing it is always nice to go up to the shops and have a delicious crepe. The day always ends on a high with the variety of activities which are always a great laugh. All the energy is taken out of us by the end of the day so it is great to drift off to deep sleep ready for the next day of skiing.

All of the memories from the three tours is the reason why we are addicted to coming back - like today when we went to La Folie Dance in Val Thorens and we danced with our hot chocolates to the live pumping music. We all hope to come back in 6^th year for another great experience.

By Emmie Petrie, Claire Flanagan, Katie Johnson (Form IV)

Posted at 18:57:06 GMT

Friday, 09 April 2010

Friday

Day 5:  Blue skies, no clouds; icy at first, mild in the afternoon.

FOCUS on Intermediate Skiers:

The majority of skiers on tour are intermediates: i.e. they are of plough-parallel to basic skidding parallel turns standard and have not had much experience on snow.  With the numbers of ski miles covered and 6 ESF lessons during the week, most will progress at least one level during the week.  Here is a report from one intermediate – the ‘moguls’ referred to are the bumps that naturally develop during the day (and can sometimes become quite big) with the passage of skiers and boarders.  They are flattened overnight by the resort’s piste grooming machines.

An Intermediate’s View:

I really enjoyed this week.  I had already had lessons in February on a family ski holiday and had improved but I wanted to improve even more on  the Ski Tour.  However, when I did the first run down to the Doron chairlift, my confidence was very low.  Then, in the afternoon, I chose to do the ‘Red Runs’ activity and they turned out to be MOGUL HELL!!!  I got really scared and freaked – I couldn’t do moguls!  At one point, I even went back to snowplough.

But when I got back to the hotel, everyone in my group was really encouraging.  I felt better and was determined to improve. I soon learned that doing runs that push you really does make you a better skier.  I also learned this week that when you are confident, your skills improve faster and my instructor helped me with this.  I can now do the bumpy red runs and am definitely not scared by them any more.  I also feel that my speed and parallel turns have improved.

I felt really silly this afternoon when I managed to have a bad fall on the easiest run in the resort.  However, my teacher said that even the best skiers have silly falls and I was then quite OK for the rest of the activity which was another ‘Red Runs with Chocolate Stop’.  And this time, despite the moguls, I really did well and enjoyed it.

Victoria Bremner  (I)

Novice Skier Update:

By day 4, all the novice skiers had progressed to red runs and on day 5, we did the Venturon piste into Meribel twice before the lesson.  Everyone excelled and all the group can now choose to do any afternoon group activity.

FOCUS on  Hotel Piolet Food

As all of our party are skiing for 6 to 7 hours a day, the food is a very important part of the tour experience.  This year the hotel chef and manager are to be congratulated as the food has been extremely good with very little returned uneaten.  Breakfasts consist of unlimited portions of cereals, bread, conserves, yoghurt, cheese, ham, boiled eggs, croissants, pain au chocolate, and fruit.  Lunches have been very popular and portions are as large as wanted.  Dinners are by waiter service and have also scored very highly on a sample survey that we have carried out and portions are also very large.

The menu for the week so far has been…..

Day 1

Lunch                    Soup and sandwiches

Dinner                  Cheese Pasty with Cranberry Compote, Stuffed Chicken with vegetables, vanilla slice

Day 2

Lunch                    Spaghetti  Carbonara with salad

Dinner                  Carrot and Ginger Soup, Roast lamb and vegetables, Profiteroles

Day 3

Lunch                    Pizza, salad and chips

Dinner                  Cheese ravioli, roast pork with dauphinoise potatoes, tart au citron

Day 4

Lunch                    Baked potato with a selection of fillings and salad

Dinner                  Leak and potato soup, turkey escalope with chips, red currant strudel

Day 5

Lunch                    Chorizo penne pasta and salad

Dinner                  Chicken wings, lasagne and garlic bread, apple tart with custard

Day 6

Lunch                    Cordon Bleu or Mediterranean Pasta and chips,

Dinner                  Spicy Tomato soup, Chicken pie and vegetables, fresh fruit salad.

Posted at 20:06:10 GMT

Saturday, 10 April 2010

Saturday

Day 6:  Blue Skies, some cloud but sunny all day.  Icy conditions at first.  A great day for visits to Courchevel and Val Thorens.

Water Skiing On the Ski Tour?

Many of the groups have done the off-piste route from the top of La Masse towards Val Thorens with their ESF instructors.  This route ends at a frozen lake (already referred to in Fergus Band’s report)- the Lac du Lune - except that it isn’t completely frozen!  The instructors have demonstrated to their groups how it is possible to ski over a surprisingly large distance of water (8m in the photos below).  Essentially the technique is to get up sufficient speed and then lean back (but not too far!) when hitting the water.  Many of the group members tried it with success but inevitably, a few did get a cold bath – the water was absolutely freezing!  (Parents will be relieved to know that the water wasn’t very deep and obviously, pupils aren’t allowed to go off-piste or go water skiing without their ESF instructor.)  This is certainly a first for the Ski Tour!

Senior Expert Backwoods Trip

The Senior expert group have hardly seen a piste during their week of lessons with Aleen (an ex-member of the French ski team).   On the final day, she took them on a 4 hour special lesson.  Andy Snowdon accompanied the group and described the journey as well as taking the photos below.

 The journey started from the top of the Cime Caron cable car and the group immediately dropped over the back into the Orelle valley.  From there, they were then completely off-piste with no sign of any other skiers or pistes for over an hour.  They first had to make a very tricky traverse to gain entry through a narrow gap between two rocky pinnacles into a hidden valley.  There followed around 3300ft of descent through some very varied backwoods terrain until meeting up with the line of the gondola from Orelle.  Snow conditions were pretty good but crusty in some places making progress more difficult there.  The penalty of this exciting journey was a 30 minute walk uphill to the top of the gondola and the chairlift back to Val Thorens.  Andy comments that Aleen was exceptional at explaining and demonstrating how to tackle the conditions and the group were very lucky to have her as an instructor. 

FOCUS on Evening Activities:
Tour members have discovered that Ski Tour activities don’t finish when skiing has finished for the day.  Usually there is just enough time for a wash and shop before tea at 6.30pm and then, an evening activity takes up much of the rest of the time before bedtime (which has been between  9.30 and 10.30 depending on age).  The programme has been:

Day1:     Bumboarding

Day2:     Quiz night

Day3:     Watching football at Hotel Skilt for V+ / Karaoke for others

Day 4:    Swimming after skiing at Reberty outdoor pool: Film night.

Day 5:    Basketball, badminton, table tennis at the Sports Centre for IV+, Games at the Piolet for others.

Day 6:    ESF award presentations:  Clubbing at the New Pop Disco.

Day 7:    Packing up: Bingo.

For the juniors, Mrs Dunnet has also read a story to them each night before bedtime.  This has been so popular that even some Form I’s have been sneaking a place!

Amazing Fact: (as told by Aleen, the instructor)

The lift men who operate the Cime Caron cable car (which rises around 3300ft in under 5 minutes) are only allowed to do a limited number of journeys up and down each day before being taken off duty because of the rapid changes of air pressure during the journey.  They are also paid much more than other lift men because of the risk to their health.

THE END!

Well that’s the end of the blog and almost the completion of over 20 months of preparation by Mr Lumsden and Mr Marchant.  It has been a great tour and we are pleased to report that after over 5500 hours of hard skiing by the group, we have had no broken limbs and only two pupils unable to ski on the last day (one because of concussion and one with sprained knees).  Touch wood, we can keep this record on future tours as well. 

Our grateful thanks to the excellent hotel staff and to SkiBound for their organisation.  Particular thanks also to our guest coaches – Andy Snowdon, Dave Sinclair, Sharon Crossan and Amy Marshall who have fitted in so well and who have given up a week of their own holidays to be leaders for our most advanced groups.

We will be leaving the hotel on Sunday morning at 6am and hope to be back in Dollar by 6pm.  Everyone is naturally very tired so please have the dinner and bed ready!  No doubt everyone is looking forward to seeing their parents again.

Blog Editors

Mr Roger Marchant & Mrs Susanne Stanhope 

Posted at 20:49:04 GMT