alison wong
Angel Diva
My 2nd ski trip with my now 15 year-old nephew (The Kid), this year we visited Val D'Isere / Tignes to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Day One - 1 /27 D.C. to Geneva
Left work straight to airport, 7-hour direct flight from D.C. to Geneva. Arrived to Geneva at 7:30 am, and waited ~2 hours for my nephews flight at 9:40 am.
The Kid was very excited to see me and gave me a big hug. We ate lunch at the airport food court before catching 12 noon shuttle to Val D’Isere.
We did not need to get off bus to clear immigration and customs when we crossed French border. How strange!
During our 4-hour bus ride to Val, we passed many small towns, and finally we were on the curvey winey road slowly ascending. We arrived to Val around 4 pm.
Priority no. 1 of the day: picked up ski gears for The Kid.
It was a slow day at the rental shop (Snowberry), so the guy did the boot fitting was able to spend more time with us. He tried out 2 different pairs of boots before deciding. As for skis, rental shop guy suggested Salmon x-drive 154 cm on piste skis for him. The guy was very patient and he took the time to explain the relationship b/w DIN setting, length of the skis, skier levels. Learned something new everyday!
For me, I brought my 143 cm Dynastar Exclusive skis, I planned to rent few days (for demo) and used my own skis for few days. Turned out this was a stupid decision, details more to come below.
By the time we got our gears, the lift ticket office was already closed. So we went back to our hotel, shower and went out to this restaurant (L'Avancher) famous for Raclette for dinner.
Raclette cheese on the plate.
Our hotel in Val D'Isere
From our hotel room, we can see the famous "La Face" run. Some nights, lights were turned on.
It does not look steep, but it is steep!
Day Two 1/28 - Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
Picked up 8-day lift pass at the office before 9 am. Was on the Olympique Telecabine (gondola) little after 9 am. This gondola serves the Bellvarde area.
1st run of the day: Mont Blanc (Green), I found it a bit tricky because it had a double fall line and I was nervous. Afraid that if I didn’t turn soon enough, I would fall off the cliff.
Snow condition wise, it reminded me of the east coast compact snow, trail surface a bit "hard". Val hadn't had any snow for ~2 weeks.
We did 3 more different runs: Vert, Genepy, Grand Pre (all green) and Club de Sports (blue) before I noticed something went very wrong…… my skis refused to turn, it felt sticky and it just “hanged on” to the snow, even when I tried to side slip, it did not slide. I suspected it was the wrong wax (i had it tuned and waxed in the U.S. before this trip). I told The Kid, I needed to change skis. So we went back to the same ski rental shop (Snowberry), the woman recommended 149 cm Atomic Vantage. She also examined my own skis and thought nothing wrong w/ wax.
The entire process took about half hour, we went back to Olympique Telecabine (gondola), picked another green run (3 J and Vert lower part) to La Daille base. With the new skis, it was a bit better. Still at times, I felt my skis was “overpowering” me, it turned before my body reacted to the turns.
Vert lower part was a narrow cat walk, parts were bit steep, which I found were bit challenging, I had small anxiety attacks throughout this run because of the narrowness and steepness. This means: I plowed most of the way down.
Now the most interesting part of the day. We picked a blue run (Santon) to descend down to the base. Santon was a narrow natural half pipe with cliffs on both sides. (In summer, this is a river.) It became narrower and the centre part was icier as we descended down. Few people got stuck and fell. I think this had a negative impact on me. In the last ⅓ of the descend, I fell and could not get up. People just skillfully skied passed me. I think by the time I finally got up, I was paralysed with fear. I tried to side slip, but I was sliding down at a speed faster than I was comfortable with. I changed to plan B, I took off my skis and tried to walk down, not possible either because it was so icy. So, plan C, I sat my butt down, put the skis and poles on my lap, and slide down. It worked even though my jacket collected lots of snow by the time I made to the bottom.
The Kid was patiently waiting for me in the bottom. It was about 3 pm? He suggested we called it a day. I said, but I want to end the day with a good run, not a bad run like that… So we went to the main base. We took this Village chair lift (free), and skied down this green run for the newbies. Then, we saw the disc tow next to the village chair. We tried that also. That was the first time I successfully managed a disc tow without falling. Finally, I felt a bit better.
(sorry no photo this day. It was an overwhelming day with the wrong skis and the Santon run).
Day Three - 1/29 blue bird day
What a beautiful day it was! Blue sky with a bit of sun peeking out. We headed out to the Solaise Telecabine (gondola just built the past year?). I really liked this area because the trails were wider and had nice pitches, snow condition was decent, trails were freshly groomed. In general, I like this area better than the Bellvarde area (access from Olympique Telecabine) that we explored on Day Two. I had my confidence back after skiing few runs off this area.
2nd day of using the same skis Atomic Vantage. I adapted to the skis a bit better than yesterday, but still at times, I felt my skis were outperformed me….
During one of the chair lift rides in Solaise, The Kid spotted a rope tow, asked me what it was and how to use it. So I was happy to show him (thanks @marzNC). This rope tow reminded me of the rope tow in Alta.
Highlight of the day - Leissieres chair. Dang! This was some impressive chair. 1) It crossed the ridge between 2 ski areas 2) this chair was for upload and download (since there was no trail between the 2 areas). I’d pretty confident to say, once you’ve ridden this chair, there is very few chair in the world will impress you further.
Leissieres chair
This is the graphic illustration of the chair - it serves 2 different ski areas, crossing the ridge (highest point).
Photo below: I was about to "cross" the highest point of the ridge
Photo below: right after passing the highest point, descended down to the ski area - Pissaillas
I wasn't doing a great job of catching the vertical in descend for this chair. But the vertical was huge, I could hear people in front me screaming after they passed the highest point and descended down.
Interesting fact: when there was lots of snow, after crossing the highest point, some people actually jump off the chair and skied off piste.
Since this chair is for upload and download, you see people coming back.....
If you are naughty, you can throw snowballs to people as they are approaching you....
After that impressive chair ride, we took the Mangard (blue) run towards La Fornet base for lunch. Even though this run had some steep parts, and parts with chunky snow in a narrow trees-lined trail, I managed it with a flying color. This was definitely a confident booster run. For that reason, I like this run!
Day One - 1 /27 D.C. to Geneva
Left work straight to airport, 7-hour direct flight from D.C. to Geneva. Arrived to Geneva at 7:30 am, and waited ~2 hours for my nephews flight at 9:40 am.
The Kid was very excited to see me and gave me a big hug. We ate lunch at the airport food court before catching 12 noon shuttle to Val D’Isere.
We did not need to get off bus to clear immigration and customs when we crossed French border. How strange!
During our 4-hour bus ride to Val, we passed many small towns, and finally we were on the curvey winey road slowly ascending. We arrived to Val around 4 pm.
Priority no. 1 of the day: picked up ski gears for The Kid.
It was a slow day at the rental shop (Snowberry), so the guy did the boot fitting was able to spend more time with us. He tried out 2 different pairs of boots before deciding. As for skis, rental shop guy suggested Salmon x-drive 154 cm on piste skis for him. The guy was very patient and he took the time to explain the relationship b/w DIN setting, length of the skis, skier levels. Learned something new everyday!
For me, I brought my 143 cm Dynastar Exclusive skis, I planned to rent few days (for demo) and used my own skis for few days. Turned out this was a stupid decision, details more to come below.
By the time we got our gears, the lift ticket office was already closed. So we went back to our hotel, shower and went out to this restaurant (L'Avancher) famous for Raclette for dinner.
Raclette cheese on the plate.
Our hotel in Val D'Isere
From our hotel room, we can see the famous "La Face" run. Some nights, lights were turned on.
It does not look steep, but it is steep!
Day Two 1/28 - Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
Picked up 8-day lift pass at the office before 9 am. Was on the Olympique Telecabine (gondola) little after 9 am. This gondola serves the Bellvarde area.
1st run of the day: Mont Blanc (Green), I found it a bit tricky because it had a double fall line and I was nervous. Afraid that if I didn’t turn soon enough, I would fall off the cliff.
Snow condition wise, it reminded me of the east coast compact snow, trail surface a bit "hard". Val hadn't had any snow for ~2 weeks.
We did 3 more different runs: Vert, Genepy, Grand Pre (all green) and Club de Sports (blue) before I noticed something went very wrong…… my skis refused to turn, it felt sticky and it just “hanged on” to the snow, even when I tried to side slip, it did not slide. I suspected it was the wrong wax (i had it tuned and waxed in the U.S. before this trip). I told The Kid, I needed to change skis. So we went back to the same ski rental shop (Snowberry), the woman recommended 149 cm Atomic Vantage. She also examined my own skis and thought nothing wrong w/ wax.
The entire process took about half hour, we went back to Olympique Telecabine (gondola), picked another green run (3 J and Vert lower part) to La Daille base. With the new skis, it was a bit better. Still at times, I felt my skis was “overpowering” me, it turned before my body reacted to the turns.
Vert lower part was a narrow cat walk, parts were bit steep, which I found were bit challenging, I had small anxiety attacks throughout this run because of the narrowness and steepness. This means: I plowed most of the way down.
Now the most interesting part of the day. We picked a blue run (Santon) to descend down to the base. Santon was a narrow natural half pipe with cliffs on both sides. (In summer, this is a river.) It became narrower and the centre part was icier as we descended down. Few people got stuck and fell. I think this had a negative impact on me. In the last ⅓ of the descend, I fell and could not get up. People just skillfully skied passed me. I think by the time I finally got up, I was paralysed with fear. I tried to side slip, but I was sliding down at a speed faster than I was comfortable with. I changed to plan B, I took off my skis and tried to walk down, not possible either because it was so icy. So, plan C, I sat my butt down, put the skis and poles on my lap, and slide down. It worked even though my jacket collected lots of snow by the time I made to the bottom.
The Kid was patiently waiting for me in the bottom. It was about 3 pm? He suggested we called it a day. I said, but I want to end the day with a good run, not a bad run like that… So we went to the main base. We took this Village chair lift (free), and skied down this green run for the newbies. Then, we saw the disc tow next to the village chair. We tried that also. That was the first time I successfully managed a disc tow without falling. Finally, I felt a bit better.
(sorry no photo this day. It was an overwhelming day with the wrong skis and the Santon run).
Day Three - 1/29 blue bird day
What a beautiful day it was! Blue sky with a bit of sun peeking out. We headed out to the Solaise Telecabine (gondola just built the past year?). I really liked this area because the trails were wider and had nice pitches, snow condition was decent, trails were freshly groomed. In general, I like this area better than the Bellvarde area (access from Olympique Telecabine) that we explored on Day Two. I had my confidence back after skiing few runs off this area.
2nd day of using the same skis Atomic Vantage. I adapted to the skis a bit better than yesterday, but still at times, I felt my skis were outperformed me….
During one of the chair lift rides in Solaise, The Kid spotted a rope tow, asked me what it was and how to use it. So I was happy to show him (thanks @marzNC). This rope tow reminded me of the rope tow in Alta.
Highlight of the day - Leissieres chair. Dang! This was some impressive chair. 1) It crossed the ridge between 2 ski areas 2) this chair was for upload and download (since there was no trail between the 2 areas). I’d pretty confident to say, once you’ve ridden this chair, there is very few chair in the world will impress you further.
Leissieres chair
This is the graphic illustration of the chair - it serves 2 different ski areas, crossing the ridge (highest point).
Photo below: I was about to "cross" the highest point of the ridge
Photo below: right after passing the highest point, descended down to the ski area - Pissaillas
I wasn't doing a great job of catching the vertical in descend for this chair. But the vertical was huge, I could hear people in front me screaming after they passed the highest point and descended down.
Interesting fact: when there was lots of snow, after crossing the highest point, some people actually jump off the chair and skied off piste.
Since this chair is for upload and download, you see people coming back.....
If you are naughty, you can throw snowballs to people as they are approaching you....
After that impressive chair ride, we took the Mangard (blue) run towards La Fornet base for lunch. Even though this run had some steep parts, and parts with chunky snow in a narrow trees-lined trail, I managed it with a flying color. This was definitely a confident booster run. For that reason, I like this run!
