Hors Piste Ca Dechire!

Val d’Isere and the Espace Killy is extremely well known for it’s great off piste and as a seasonnaire it is some kind of right of passage to say you’ve tracked certain routes. This week I made my first venture into this new world and surprisingly there is still some excellent snow to be had although it’s been over a week since we had snow and after the great blizzard we had which made a lot of peaks very wind swept. I have now committed by buying a beeper, shovel and probe so am filled with excitement for the next big snowfall but in the mean time am enjoying getting to grips with hiking and seeing some new terrain after trailing the same pistes for the last 3 years!

 

A Perfect Week in the Alps

I don’t want to gloat (well maybe a little bit) but we have had clear skies and sunshine all week here in Val d’Isere after having snowfall of around five meters so as you can imagine people are pretty happy around here. We’re also back to normal transfer weeks which makes the staff very happy. So happy in fact that on the first day of sunshine this week a group of them went out jumping around with joy…

The great thing is we’ve got another five days of sunshine forecast! Ahh it’s a hard life!

Val d’Isere on Lock Down

Apologies for the long wait between posts – seasonnaire life can be very busy at times! What better time to catch up with your blog though when you’re stuck indoors due to the weather.

Val d’Isere has been on lock down since about 9pm local time last night (it is now 8.30am), all the roads have been closed and the teams of diggers and emergency services have been working through the night to make the village safe for everyone. Here is the latest view from one of our staff accommodations.

The wind is still howling a gale but has calmed down considerably. Today is day off for all of our staff and last night we made sure that all the hosts walked home together as the road was being closed off at 9pm to cars and pedestrians. Everyone is now safely tucked up in the warmth of their beds.

No one can quite believe how much snow we’ve had, especially after last season. Even seasonnaires that have been here for 15 years are shocked. However, although the weather can cause a bit of mayhem to start with it is setting us up for an excellent season and already it has been amazing ski conditions. Yesterday a group of the staff were lapping the Funival and each time they reached the top there was fresh powder on piste! Looking at the weather forecast this morning looks like as of Saturday we have got several clear days which will make for perfect bluebird skiing opportunities for everybody. Happy days!

Early Bird Catches the Sunrise

I had to share these pictures of my walk up to Chalet du Berger this week. It was such a gorgeous sunrise and made the 7am walk that much more bearable.  

First Arrivals

Officially the first week of the Le Ski season in Val d’Isere! On Tuesday our first guests arrived with the new hosts prepped up and ready to go and the returning hosts eager to get back into the swing of things.  There is relief amongst staff that training is over and now they can all get on with what they have been planning for for so long.

 All the returners are very happy that this seasons’ uniform is a lot warmer than the last, especially because it has been dumping for the past week!

 It has been snowing steadily for about 4 days now which is creating a great base and some wonderful powder for guests and staff to play about in. The wind has been quite fierce though and during a skiing session yesterday many of us got blown over on piste because of the high winds on Bellevarde.  Unfortunately some lifts got closed because of the danger from the weather but the La Daille funicular stayed open which meant it was possible to lap the runs on that side where it is a lot more sheltered.  It was even more sheltered from the wind in the Rosie Blanche bar with a hot chocolate…

It keeps coming…

How many people does it take to dig out one van?…

It’s still snowing here in VDI and everyone is wishing they’d thought ahead and got some more sensible footwear! We have had a lot of snow clearing going on today thanks to our lovely maintenance and support staff yet it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference when the snow keeps falling. Rumours say that tomorrow is going to be blue bird so we’re getting very excited about a day off training to go skiing.

Everyone has been working super hard this week with training and setting up the chalets so all the new staff as well as returners deserve a day off to blow off steam and enjoy these wonderful conditions.

Two days of training left and then hosts will all be in their chalets getting them ready for our first guests on Tuesday. We have got a few more practice dinners to enjoy but so far everyone has done brilliantly and by the sound of it just want to get on with cooking and meeting their guests. 

Snow Fun

The new staff have bought loads of snow with them for our most loved team member to play about in…  We are all easing ourselves into walking around resort with snow on the ground after weeks of clear roads and blue skies but Tess doesn’t have any problem at all getting her winter paws back!