Tag Archives: Ski Sunday

3 Valleys Snow Report – 30/1/15

FotorCreated3 Valleys Snow Report – 30/2/15

By Pete & Karolina

It has been a snowing all week here in the 3 Valleys, we started off with a couple of centimetres of snow on Saturday night and then about 10 centimetres on Monday night and into Tuesday. We woke up on Thursday morning to a similar amount of snow and it is still snowing now as I pen this. It is set to continue snowing on Sunday with the heaviest snow falling on Thursday night. 

It has been cold this week and with the fresh snow the slopes have remained in good condition and are improving as the grooming team work their magic. The forecasters are saying that next week the snow is due to return on Tuesday and the temperatures are set to stay low. 

I think we will have to get a prediction from the guys at cab9 snowboarding more often as they said it would snow most of this week and it has! The skiing and snowboarding conditions are improving everyday and with the amount falling at the moment it’s looking good for skiing this half term week!

We are heading out nearly everyday to the slopes to get some footage of what the snow is like for you (I know, it’s a hard job! ;)) So check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, get that tingly feeling in your feet and then come out and stay with us here inMeribel!


How to watch The Jump and Ski Sunday

ski03How to watch The Jump and Ski Sunday

For many of us Ski Sunday and The Jump will be our window to the Alps, when we are not on our annual ski holiday. So lets make the most of them and watch like we really can’t wait for our next fix of snow.

Turn the Volume up!
The theme tune to Ski Sunday is arguably the best bit so turn the start of it up and imagine your racing through a tree run that is knee deep with fresh powder.

Get Dresses Up
Your ski outfit is like a wedding dress and only gets worn once a year (or is that just my wife?). Get the most out of your salopettes, goggles, etc and put them on when watching Ski Sunday or The Jump.

Make Your Sofa Into a Chairlift
Find a scaffolding pole and rest it across the arms of your settee and lock the whole family in for the show. Make sure the bar isn’t lifted until the end credits. For added realism watch the program on iPlayer and when it buffers pretend the lift has stopped.

Invite a foreign national of your choice.
Preferably invite an Austrian or French person and ask them to adhere to out of date cultural stereotypes and make small talk in your appalling accent and pigeon secondary school foreign language.

Get Drunk
Stock your fridge with Jagermeister, Red Bull, Toffee vodka and Larger and get drunk like you’re at an apres ski bar. This means drinking your normal Friday night out in two hours, for added realism be late for dinner.

Big Yourself Up
Both these programs provide you with the perfect opportunity to criticise other people’s technique while bigging up you own prouesse on skis or a snowboard. Why not go the whole hog and strap in at the top of your stairs then sideslip the whole case.

Post it on Facebook.
Make sure you take lots of photos and post them to your social media accounts to make your friends jealous of the excellent time you are having. Then make sure you pay your mobile phone provide double the amount next month to simulate data roaming charges.

If this too much for you then why not book an actual ski holiday.


What’s on in Meribel and La Tania – January 2015

What’s on in Meribel and La Tania – January 2015

There are always great things going on in the resorts of La Tania and Meribel. You will find that there are great bands and promo nights on all the time. Your chalet host and our resort reps will be able to tell you what is going on every day. However, there are some great events on in January you may not want to miss. Here is a list of events in January that are worth looking at.

5th to 8th January – Inuit Adventures 

The Meribel Altiport area has gone all Arctic this season! It is holding a variety of free events that will make you feel as if you are a real Inuit. The main attraction is ice fishing.

6th January – Russian Christmas

A large number of Russians are now holiday in the Three Valleys, we even have quite a few come and stay in our Alpine Action Chalets. This is great news for Christmas lovers as the Russians don’t get around to celebrating it until the 6th of January and it is well and truly embraced in Meribel!

17th January  – Moguls Competition

Want to feel inferior about your technique and ability to tackle small bumps on the piste? Then head up to Motteret and watch the French Freestyle Mogul Cup. It is even more impressive than watching it on the telly. Find out more.

18th January – Colour me Rad

We spotted this event thanks to Merinet. It is a charity fun run where you get a variety of colours thrown at you as you run. Start out in a white running kit and finish in either a vibrant rainbow of color or a sort of brown purple. It is only 5km up the mountain and there is a party at the end! Go on have a go!

20th Jan Meribel v’s Courchevel Hockey

During the season there are quite a few Hockey matches but this is a big one, Courchevel against Meribel. This is quite a grudge match, I remember watching these two battle it out at the Courchevel rink a few years back and it was brutally exciting. I didn’t really understand what was going on but it was exciting nonetheless. This event is held at the Meribel Olympic Ice Rink and is only €5 per adult.

Jan 26th – Australia Day

It seems that it isn’t only the Russians that have brought their traditions to the Alps, the Australians have too. Expect drunken people called Tad and Jason to run around bars drinking Fosters dancing to Men At Work covers and wearing beanie hats with chalet wine corks hanging from them.


7 reasons why whiteouts are fun

7 reasons why whiteouts are fun

Picture the scene… You wake up in your ski chalet, you look out the window and all you can see is white cloud.  You think to yourself “bugger” and you get back into bed. As you lie in bed you think about going back to sleep and having a lie-in, you are on holiday after all.

You can hear the chalet host setting up for breakfast and other guests getting ready to go out. You start to feel guilty and start working out how much the lift pass costs and how much your lie-in is worth.  Reluctantly you get out of bed and start dressing for the day at the same time you convince yourself that it is low cloud and that it is bright and sunny up top, probably with a light dusting of snow.

Don’t be downhearted there are lots of ways to have fun in a whiteout.

1. Trees

Head for the runs that carve through the tree line. There you will find plenty of shade to mark out the piste and the contours.

2. Guilt-free lunch

That’s right. You probably won’t burn off your lunch today however you can take your time over it. Without feeling guilty that you are not making the most of the perfect conditions.

3. Lose the slow ones

Sometimes you have a few slow mates that you feel duty-bound to ski with. Use the flat light as camouflage to accidentally on purpose lose them and have a day hooning around.

4. Imagine the adversity of others

We all know the story of  Scott of the Antarctic.  While he never had the luxury of a Folie Douce, piste patrol, or chair lifts, he did have his share of poor weather conditions.  Use the whiteout to imagine what it must have been like to face the epic struggle that he went through, then go to the pub.

5. Appear knowledgeable

A whiteout is a perfect time to show your ski knowledge and tell anyone who will listen that the piste markers with the orange tops should always be on your left to ensure you are in the middle of the piste.

6. Create a story

When you get home remember no one wants to know about the blue run you skied 8 times in a row. They will be much more interested in the tale about you losing your partner on the side of a run only for you to have to walk back up, locating them with squeals of “help I am in a hole”, which you dig them out of while laughing at their misfortune.

7. Extended apres ski

Pretty self-explanatory. Remember you will regret this when tomorrow is a fresh powder day with blue skies.



10 reasons why snowboarding is better than skiing

10 reasons why snowboarding is better than skiing

Ever since the first man or woman, we haven’t researched this, strapped on a snowboard there has been a debate about which is better, skiing or snowboarding. We at Alpine Action love both sports however, that doesn’t make good reading. Here are our 10 reasons that snowboarding is better than skiing.

1. The boots

Many people think that snowboard boots are really comfy. Compared to many mid 90’s ski boot they are. However they can be just as uncomfortable as a ski boot at times.  Where they really come into their own is when you are walking around resort. Have you ever seen a snowboarder struggling to negotiate a set of stairs?

READ OUR GUIDE ON WHERE TO SNOWBOARD IN THE 3 VALLEYS

2. People think we are cool

This depends on your definition of cool. We assume that baggy clothes, bright colours and wearing a bobble hat no matter what time of the year it is means cool. If this is true then snowboarders are cool.

3. Jenny Jones

Britain’s first Olympic medal on the snow was won by a snowboarder and she achieved it in a year when the competition was tougher than ever before. Jenny Jones is a true role model for many youngsters.

4. Sitting down

It’s not because we actually need to we just like the rest.  If us snowboarders wanted to we could easily strap in quickly and get on our way. The truth is that we quite like the social chat while we eye up a jump or route.

5. Off piste is easy

Well not that easy. But in principle tackling some fresh powered is a lot less challenging than on a pair of skis. This means that even people new to the sport can get a taste of the pure enjoyment that is floating on fresh, deep snow.

READ OUR GUIDE TO OFF PISTE RIDING IN THE VALLEYS

6. No poles

Sure there are times when a set of poles would really help, such as long flat sections. But that is why we have skier mates to pull us along.  The up side is that we never loose our poles of a chair lift. It also frees up our hands for useful reasons such as eating on a lift and throwing snowballs.

7. Innovation of skiing

Without the fast development of snowboarding in the late 90’s skiing may have not been as quick to develop the technology used today. Imagine all you skiers could still be using 10ft long straight skis with rear entry boots.

8. It is a lot easier to get a bubble for just your group

It may seem that it is a big hassle to get a snowboard in the slot or even squeeze it into the lift. This is actually a tactic to ensure that the lift is taken up by just our mates.

 READ MORE : THE BEST SKI AND SNOWBOARD MOVIES TO STREAM

9. We have better computer games

Have you ever played a good skiing game? Thought not.

10. Lots of transferable skills

Once you have mastered skiing you can only use that skill for one other sport, water skiing and everyone knows that isn’t much fun. Once you have mastered snowboarding there area endless board sports to enjoy.

Are you a skier? Then read our 10 reasons why skiing is better than snowboarding.

Click here to look at all our skier and snowboarder friendly holidays.  

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My first time in the Alps

My first time in the Alps 

As a regular blogger on this site I am always looking for different stories to tell about skiing. This week I have managed to get a guest blogger to share their experience. This tale comes from my wife. I am happy to say that since this experience she has become a dedicated skier and snow addict. Disclaimer – I was not on this holiday with her.

402399_10150531255103194_126137440_n“There’s one spare space on our ski holiday, anybody fancy it?”I look up from the magazine I have been browsing through at the lunch table in the staffroom. I’d always wanted to find myself a sport. At school I was always the last one chosen for teams and was always looking for a reason to excuse me from the dreaded cross country. But maybe skiing could be ‘my sport’?Visions of me dressed in ‘all the gear’, tanned face, gracefully shoop, shooping down the slopes in the French Alps passed through my mind and I find myself saying “yes please”.

The first question that is then asked is “do you ski or snowboard?”. A great conversation across the table then ensues about the merits of each sport and I am left a little bemused. I decide to follow my general rule of ‘going with the majority’. As most people on this said ski holiday appeared to be snowboarders – snowboarding it was.

As the next few weeks pass I find myself visiting every T K Maxx outlet store in London, as I’ve heard it’s the place to shop for the cheap, stylish ski clothing. I slowly start to realise that my purse strings won’t stretch to the ‘dope’ outfit I had researched on the internet and practical it had to be.

Next, my thoughts turned to my ‘apres outfit’ which I hear is as important as the ‘on piste’ outfit. The hat remains on, the goggles go up, but the jacket comes off, so thermals/layers need to match the salapetes. So many rules.

Only once the bag is packed do I start to think about what I have done. What if my attempts at skiing turn out to be as successful as cross country running? What if I break my leg on the first day? What if I can’t get on the first button lift that comes my way? Had I even sorted out any insurance?

On arriving at our chalet, all these thoughts left me and I was lulled into a false sense of security about how relaxing a time a ski holiday is. I was feed amazing food by the chef in the Alpine Action chalet. The host topped up my wine. I soaked up the surroundings from the hot tub. What a gentile holiday this was going to be.

9am, after a superb breakfast, in all my gear, we head off to the nursery slope, where my ‘friends’ give me a few pointers and then jump on a lift shouting “just leap, you’ll be fine.”

 


The Morris Family Holiday – Part Four, The Lift Pass Office

The Morris Family Holiday – Part Four, The Lift Pass Office

Regular readers of this adventure may be aware that at the end of part one there was a literary cliff-hanger. You may also be aware that it has not been resolved for 3 months now. Well good news readers this is the part where it gets resolved.

For the benefit of those too lazy to here is a quick recap. I pre order lift passes online. I put them in my ski coat pocket. I have a disagreement about fashion with my son. He repacks my old ski jacket for revenge. We get to resort. I discover the jacket switch. And that brings you up to where we are about to pick up from.

It is hard to have the usual shouting match about something this momentous in chalet with people you don’t know. So I decide to keep my rage for a later date. I explain the situation to my wife and how much the passes cost. She has no qualms about anyone overhearing our situation and precedes to give my son a very loud piece of her mind.

I make my way down for breakfast.
“I hear you have lost your ski passes” the chalet host says.
“Who told you that?” I ask.
“No one”.
I am the first at the table and I start eating quickly in the hope that I miss everyone else.
“Good Morning, I hear you are having a spot of bother with your pre booked lift pass” says the man staying in the room two floors up from us.
“Did my wife tell you that?”
“Sort of”.

As the chalet host delivers my cooked breakfast she tells me that she has called the Rep and she is on her way to help deal with my issue. This is very kind of her but really ads to the embarrassment. For me a resort Rep is there to help with simple things such as showing me where the coach is or booking a restaurant. Or help with extreme problems such as medical emergencies or server weather affecting our flight. Not a family prank that has escalated. I thank the chalet host and wait for the Rep.

I retire to the lounge with a mug of coffee and a newspaper that was dropped off by another member of the resort staff. I expect that on his application for the position he pit that he was looking to work in the news industry, as the paper was delivered with some resort news that a family had booked there lift passes online and left them back in the UK. “That’s €800 down the toilet” was probably the comment in the editorial comments.

I was joined in the lounge by a ski instructor who had turned up to collect some guest. He looked at me and said “never have I witnessed this happening before. When I heard I called my girlfriend up and told her all about it. She works in the Lift Pass office”
“Can she offer any advice?” I ask.
“Yes, she said that you should always double check your packing”. I was starting to feel as if I was in a sitcom. Enter stage right the resort rep.
“This hasn’t happened before”.

When I was informed that the Resort Manager had been called I hoped that the sitcom I was in wasn’t about to turn into a holiday to a hotel in Torquay. Fortunately the manager had been employed based on his experience and knowledge and not on his likeness to John Cleese. Somehow the rest of my family had carried on as if there was nothing wrong and that no one had heard the yelling earlier.

It was decided that we would go to the lift pass office to straighten out the situation. That is all of us. The manager was coming to sort it out, the Rep was coming to learn how to sort it out, the host came to collect as she needed some more piste maps anyway, my wife came to see how badly I got on and to remind me not to do this next year, the children came as they were hoping to see me get shouted at by their mother and the ski instructor came too. I assume the instructor was keen to see his girlfriend and in no way planned on finding amusement in our misfortune.

We all squeezed in to a small office and waited for a person of authority on lift passes to appear. I was preparing to lose “€800 down the toilet” as well as this public humiliation continuing. The authority appears and to my delight utters the words “this happens all the time”. I left the lift pass office feeling slightly less stupid than when I went in and temporally €800 worse off, until I get back to the UK and prove that we didn’t use the lift passes. I think the ski instructor was more disappointed than me.

We thanked all involved, which was similar to an Oscars speech with less crying, and get ready to go skiing. We had a great day on the slopes and I forgot all about the morning. At the end of the day as we headed to a bar for a beer I was handed a leaflet.
“Save Time, Pre book your lift pass on line”


How to recreate a chalet holiday at home

How to recreate a chalet holiday at home

For most of us our next ski holiday is at least six months away.  Which is a long time! To help you cope with this long gap we have created a guide on how to create that chalet feeling at home.

Morning

Waking up and checking the weather is one of the excitements of a ski holiday. We all love a blue bird day so plan ahead and make sure it is going to be a sunny day. Put some polystyrene balls or cotton wool on your windowsill to give it that fresh dusting feel. If you like a white out then you can just spray your whole window with snow from a can.

Breakfast

Fill your table with cereals, fresh fruit, croissant, pain au chocolate, boiled eggs, porridge, yogurt  a selection of fruit juices, ham, cheese and tea or coffee. Eat as much as you like, you’re going to work hard today. Also cook your self some bacon and eggs. When sitting down to eat, make sure you are wearing your thermals. For a that authentic experience tune into a French radio station, or you could log on to a resort radio station such as R’ Meribel. Spend 10 minutes looking at a map.

Get Dressed

Get your ski outfit on. Don’t be shy, go for hats and goggles as well. Make sure you put sun cream on, you may burn. Putting on ski boots will help to make it feel realistic, but this may be going too far. Don’t forget to pack a ration pack in the form of some chocolate and a piece of fruit. Now leave the house and return five minutes later to pick up your imaginary lift pass that you forgot.

 Go skiing

You have a few options here. You could actually go to a dry ski slope or indoor ski centre if there is one close by. If there isn’t then first go and get on a public bus with your ski equipment, then catch it back to your chalet, (this is actually your house). When back at home put on an episode of Ski Sunday. Once it is over, go and sit in your garden for 40 min, with your goggles on, so you can work on your tan line. You want your mates to know that you have been on a fake ski holiday. After 40 minutes go back inside a watch some clips of other peoples ski holidays on youtube, then go back out to the garden. Repeat this process until lunch time. Heat up some wine in the microwave and drink it from a glass mug. Cook some chips, then wait until they are cold and eat with mustard mayonnaise. Give £10 to your next door neighbour. Now watch an extreme ski or snowboard movie then go and sit in garden again. You can now either repeat the last step or make yourself a hot chocolate make sure you add a shot of that random spirit you bought on your last holiday.

Après Ski

It is now nearly 4pm, head to your local pub. Make sure you are still in your ski clothing. Order half’s of lager and have a shot of vodka or maybe a Jagerbomb. At about 5pm you should be ready to dance. Head to the juke box and put a selection of rock tunes on. If you are planning Austrian après, then you may need to take your own music.  At 6.30pm you should decide to head home. Take ages finding your clothes that are now in various areas of the bar. Head out side and have a panic attack that your skis are not there. Remember that you left them round the corner.

Dinner

Get home and have a shower then put on your favorite jumper. Sit in your lounge, with the fire on, if you have one. Get a glass of wine and some nibbles. If you want to go all out you should make some canapés, if you don’t have the time some twiglets and hummus will suffice. Have a look at a map of where you have been today. Maybe start a game of Jenga. Now serve you and your mates a three course meal. Feel free to invite some strangers too. During dinner drink more wine than normal, this is a holiday. Make a pact with the other dinners to get up early to do it all again. Drink some more wine.

Bed

This is personal choice time. You can either go to bed early. Or sit up in your lounge drinking whatever wine you can find, then go to bed when you can find no more. Or you could go out to your local pub again, then possibly move on to a night club.

If you really want to make this a true ski holiday you can perform this every day for a week. You could bookend it with a coach journey!

Alternatively you could just wait until next winter. 


The Morris family holiday – Part Three, Arriving

The Morris family holiday – Part Three, Arriving

We all sat on the airplane without talking to each other, based on the events up to this point we thought it best to keep a low profile on the flight. A small part of me was pleased about this as it meant that I could read my book with no distractions. When the hostess trolley came by I decided to deny myself a mini can of lager mainly because it feels like the entire crew is watching us. They have been warned.

We land at Grenoble airport and sail through passport control. The whole family is relieved to leave the reputation we earned so quickly when we arrived at the airport in England. I instantly feel more relaxed and settle into my ‘I am on holiday’ mode. This generally involves me giving up all responsibility for myself and entrusting my actions on to strangers.
“Excuse me, where is carrousel B?” I am stood next to carrousel A which is next to B.
“Excuse me, my skis haven’t come off the plane” They are in the oversized area with everyone else’s skis just like every year.
“Excuse me, I am on holiday do you know what chalet I am staying in?” “No I don’t know what company I am on holiday with, my wife booked it?”
“Excuse me, do you know where my wife is?”
“Excuse me, which coach is going to Meribel?” It has taken me so long to get to the stage where I am ready to get on the coach it is the only one in the car park.

oversized

Fortunately my ‘holiday mode’ allows me to board the coach, and, with big smiles I fail to notice the steely stares of the other guests. Later on my wife tells me about the embarrassment of sitting on the coach listening to comments such as “there is always one idiot who gets lost”. I repeat this incident when we stop halfway for a toilet break.

This year none of our friends wanted to come on holiday with us. I expect that they are busy or may not be able to afford it this year. My wife has a different theory based on the incident last year that happened in our chalet that involved me sleep walking and the chalets host. I put it down to my wife’s insistence on calling the chalet hosts, chalet maids. One was called Ben. This lack of friends meant that we were sharing a chalet with unknowns.

We were booked into a twelve bed chalet, therefore we make up one third of the occupants. To my wife’s delight the other guests are already there, so know little about my inability to board a coach. They comprise of two other families with children of similar age. The other two families have known each other for approximately two hours more than we have known them. I am keen to get the families equipment sorted at the hire shop. I am always paranoid that they will run out of boots. The other guests insist that we all share a welcome glass of wine before going. They had already got theirs, I manage to hide my impatience.

As I have my own kit, this makes me the family expert. Throughout our time in the hire shop I am always on hand to offer my opinion and override any advice the shop staff have that I disagree with. My youngest is fussy when it comes to choosing boots. Last year we had to return to the shop eleven times. We were the last people in the shop, even the rest of our family had gone back to the chalet. I assume this was so they could constantly text me that dinner time was fast approaching. My Son finally chooses the first pair of boots that he tried, I knew that we would be back at the hire shop before the week was over.

bootfiting

Back at the chalet dinner had been postponed by forty minutes. Fortunately when we arrive back the wine had been flowing and everyone was in high spirits. I make our apologies and pour myself a glass of wine.  Dinner is served. As we all are strangers dinner starts with small talk and the conversation flows well enough.  The starters are cleared and long silence falls over the dinner table. Suddenly it is broken by one of the other guests.
“Did you hear about the man who got lost at the airport and held his coach up for over an hour?”

 


What’s On Guide – Meribel and La Tania

Hello, Salute, Bonjour and welcome to the Alpine Action blog. We have dabbled in the past, but this time we are serious. Serious about blogging, but not always serious blogs. What you can expect is a mixture of info about the Three Valleys, comment, ski news, useful articles, interviews with a good dose of humour. If you like the sound of that then add us to your RSS feed or follow the blog. Most important of all, join in by posting your comments.

Below you will find the first of our monthly ‘ What’s On Guide’ that will tell you all you need to know about the big events in the Three Valleys, as well as smaller events going on in Meribel and La Tania. Make sure you have a look at what is going on before you head out to the mountains to make sure don’t miss out!

February – What’s On Guide

It is worth mentioning for those that don’t have children and can’t remember that much about school that February is half term for most UK schools. This year it starts on the 16th for one week. There are also some schools having half term the week before but so few it’s really not worth worrying about. Also during these weeks many French schools will also be on holiday. You can expect busy resorts during the middle of the month. To avoid the crowds ski early and over lunch time,  also ask your chalet host where the quietest runs are.

7th Feb – MeribelMeribel Center

After  5pm during Après hour, just outside the Méribel  tourist office, the resort is throwing a street party.  There will be free mulled wine and a DJ playing the distorted euro pop out of tinny speakers! Not much to get excited about, I hear you say, but there is also a live band called Willie and the Bandits who are a UK Blues Band. They are not your usual Après band and are well worth checking out. We have seen them many times in the West Country, as they are regulars in many pubs during the summer season.

8th Feb – Meribel

It has been 25 years since the Mont-Vallon ski area opened to the skiing public. Many a guest has spent a joyous time on the Mont-Vallon slopes. Many a guest has also spent a lot of time on the old Plattieres gondola, although the time was not so joyous. Fortunately the Plattieres has been replaced, saving skiers lots of time. To celebrate both the 25th anniversary and the demise of one of the most torturous lift journeys in the Three Valleys, the resort of Meribel will be holding a celebration in Méribel-Mottaret from 7- 8pm. Highlights include free hot chocolate, (with or without popular local nun juice, Chartreuse) and a torchlight descent.

Feb 12th – La Tania

This winter the world’s most culturally diverse festival, Mardi Gras, has teamed up with ultra conservative batter flipping day, Shrove Tuesday, to provide the earth’s population with what may become known as Triple –entendre day. Not one to miss an opportunity to throw a party, The Ski Lodge is holding a fancy dress “Carnival Party”. So dust of your non-stick outfit/frying pan and get ready to toss a few pancakes. Free toffee vodka, one would assume!

14th Feb – Three Valley

St Valentines Day. So you have taken her on a ski holiday, that should cover it. Probably not. Giving her a heart shaped cookie the chalet host knocked up for afternoon tea  probably won’t cover it either.  A vat of melted cheese with bread on a stick, in a traditional mountain restaurant?  You are now on to a winner. Ask your chalet host to recommend the best venue. Treat this as a reminder and a warning!

Feb 21st – Courchevel Courchevel Fireworks

It has been 4 months since you stared at the sky and shouted “Oooooo, Ahhhhh, Weeeee”. If you find yourself in Courchevel from the 21st February, then get ready to say it all again. Only this time you will mean it, as Courchevel hosts the International Firework Festival.  Guaranteed to be better than Granddad’s  back garden display where only  50% of the fireworks leave the plant pot! No sparklers allowed…ok, they are, but it’s strictly BYO!

Feb 23rd – Meribel

Finally your chance to appear on Ski Sunday has come. The Audi FIS Ski World Cup Womens downhill event rolls into town. Dust of your most flamboyant bobble hat, set the Sky + and go and find where Graham Bell does his piece to the camera.  Our tip is to head to the Chaudanne area as this is where the competition takes place. If anyone does get on Ski Sunday please send us the evidence so we can share it on our Facebook page, Chemmy Alcott need not apply!

Whatever you end up doing, whenever you are on your ski trip, please get in touch and tell us about your holiday.