Category: Skiing

Well, for once this season the weather forecast indeed turned out to be both positive and accurate.

Encouraged by the promise of a grand beau I cheekily proposed a ski day on what had already been declared a snow-shoe outing, albeit with no snow. However, none of the skiing members of the snow-shoers could be persuaded to change their allegiance, preferring a meander on Mont Mussy to a day’s piste bashing in the Valais.

So it was only the two faithful stalwarts, Joe and Mervyn, who set off bright and early and headed for Veysonnaz, one of the satellite ski stations in the huge 4 Vallées domain. We arrived without incident and were ticketed and booted and on skis by 10am. Cloudless skies above and a good depth of snow underfoot greeted us. The 360° views were magnificent and even the distant Matterhorn showed itself.

Being so youthful, Joe had to pay full whack for his lift pass so we decided to get his money’s worth by exploring as much of the area as possible. Oldies like me and Portes du Soleil season ticket holders go free! After a quick sampling of the Thyon runs we headed, direction Verbier, to Siviez, Tortin and Nendaz. Lunch was taken on a sunny terrace above Siviez to fortify us for the return journey to Veysonnaz. There we enjoyed the perfectly groomed and empty black runs of Etherolla and the celebrated Piste de l’Ours (twice) before descending down to the village via a much anticipated vin chaud/beer stop.

The return journey was not entirely traffic-free, with the usual heavy evening traffic between Lausanne and Morges – the only negative to an otherwise splendid Leap Day ski day.

Next outing is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 7 March – DV&WP (Deo volente and weather permitting)

Here is the blog of the ski day that never was!

Despite the change of date of this week’s ski outing which was probably wise weatherwise, it was nevertheless unsuccessful in attracting a quorum, nay, even a single participant to sign up.

There were a number of apologies for absence proffered, mostly of an orthopaedic nature, but I suspect the perception of the prevailing skiing conditions – poor snow and potentially crowded pistes – also contributed.

Perhaps also the purpose of these ski outing should be clarified. We are no longer (if ever?) a group of thrill-seeking, dare-devil powder hounds, who are impatient to get the first cable car, think lunch is a Mars bar on a chairlift and ski until the pisteurs clear the slopes. No, we are pleasure-seeking, mountain-loving, epicureans who just enjoy doing it at a high-level and where the uphill effort element is largely removed from the equation. Hikers and snow-shoers take note! Sounds to me like the criteria for a perfect day out with good company.

Next outing is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 22 February. Let’s see what the weather gods will have conspired to provide by then.

Disgruntled from Commugny.

Here is the blog of the third GIN ski outing of the current season – though you wouldn’t know it from the absence of the two earlier blogs!

Skiing is getting to be as unpopular as underwater chess. Apologies for absence this time ranged from the frivolous and feeble to the downright mutinous with talk of a breakaway B team?!!

Nevertheless, two of us, myself and Joe, a welcome young new addition, drove early to Champéry and were soon basking in glorious sunshine at 2000m.  The perfect conditions above were not quite matched by those underfoot. There was still plenty of snow cover but the pistes were hard packed and very icy early on and those exposed to the sun soon got soft and heavy. This didn’t seem to deter a surprising number of other skiers. This “working from home” lark is getting out of hand.

A mid-morning coffee stop and a late lunch provided welcome respite from some serious piste-bashing around Champéry, Les Crosets, Linderets, Avoriaz and Plaine Dranse.  The Domaine des Noirs above Avoriaz was closed (too icy?) and the Swiss Wall didn’t look very inviting, but that still left plenty of other options.  The Welsh ski team (Dragons) were strutting/sliding their stuff but thankfully didn’t need an additional veteran.

We were off the mountain by 16:30 and the return journey was thankfully reasonably trouble-free. 

All in all, a ten hour day but no idea of distance or denivelation skied.  Must do it again.

The forecast was good for Tuesday and lousy after that so Thursday’s ski outing was two days early. Mervyn, of course, led and only Peter S and Mark 2Ts signed up.

The journey to Champéry was totally uneventful with the only holdup being the queue to buy a lift ticket once we got there. Then it was up to the top of the Champéry lift where we were joined by Stephen – a mate of Mervyns from St Cergue.

The snow was good, the skies blue and we skied to Les Crozets, and on into Avoriaz and many other places before having a late lunch in Les Linderets.

Not much energy after lunch so we basically just skied back to the car and finished about 15:30.

The traffic got its revenge on the way home and we had to leave the autoroute at Aubonne and take the lake road from there on. However we still got home in reasonable time.

A great day out and especially good for being so early in the season, before Christmas!

Mervyn Powell, Peter Strebel, Mark Watts +Stephen (Mervyn’s mate)

Three fearless skiers: Mervyn, Ralph Wares and Mark, left Commugny at 08:30 last Saturday morning bound for Tignes. Sensible people might ask why we were stupid enough to be out of bed at that time – after all we had no dog to walk – but Tignes is quietest at weekends and we wanted to maximise skiing time on Saturday.

Ralph drove us in his fancy large newish car with everything working, even the navigation screen!!, after Mark had pleaded that his car was too small and Mervyn had pleaded something about the scrap yard.

We duly arrived in the Grande Motte parking and were ready to ski by 12:30, Mervyn and Mark revelling in their free passes while Ralph will have to wait nearly 10 years for his. The snow was remarkably good considering there had hardly been any precipitation since January and the sky was as bright blue and cloudless as it was going to remain until the end of skiing on Monday afternoon.

We celebrated the lack of crowds by immediately going up the Grande Motte to take the télépherique to the highest point in the whole resort at 3456m.

Then back down to Val Claret, up to the Aiguille Percée and down to the lowest point, Les Brévières at 1550m.

Sunday was over to Val d’Isère via la Daille and Santons. Previous experience and uncustomary common sense told us to avoid la Face (ice) and épaule (large hard moguls). Ralph managed to get wiped out on Santons – a lunatic going too fast who claimed that Ralph had reversed into him. With no permanent damage we continued and took the Solaise lift over to the next valley which we fully explored before hopping on the Leissières lift to the col d l’Iseran. This lift is a real treat as it goes up and over the ridge leaving you feeling weightless at one point. I could spend the whole day just riding this lift.

We even found some powder in this valley then had to race back to catch lifts before they closed and left us stranded. Mark developed a new skill of not seeing Mervyn or Ralph. I often skied right past them as they were waiting for me. Best was when I missed them at the Olympic lift out of Val d’Isère so that I was waiting at the top and they were waiting at the bottom. And this was a time when we had to get to the next lift before it closed.

Monday brought the crowds. There were queues at most of the lifts. Fortunately Mervyn demonstrated his true calling, pushing to the front on a ski queue. He left Ralph and I full of admiration as we followed sedately behind but never had to queue for more than a few minutes. We again went over to Val d’Isère and filled in bits we had missed the day before so that only a small corner on the bottom left of the ski map was left untouched by us. We then had the inevitable race back to Tignes and arrived just in time for a last run down Génépy from the Grande Motte – we arrived at one lift just 3 minutes before it closed!!

We’d eaten out so well on Saturday and Sunday nights that we decided to stay in Monday and just have a bowl of soup plus a little liquid refreshment. We were exhausted but more than a little satisfied.

Tuesday was planned to be a gentle 3 hour run home but the “I don’t want to work until I’m 64” brigade closed the motorway, leaving us, and the whole population of the Savoie, crawling at snail’s pace, or slower, through the back streets of Albertville. Eventually we got on our way again, Ralph and Mervyn did not have to crawl into their sleeping bags for the night, and we got home about 4 o’clock.

All agreed it had been a good weekend’s skiing. The snow was brilliant if a little old. No idea how far we skied as forgot to turn on the tracker but we covered most of the resort.

The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap.

Armed with these inspiring words from WH Auden, six intrepid GIN downhill skiers came together in Champéry on 9 February to attack the domaine of the Portes de Soleil.

Part-time Champérolain Nicolas and Mervyn were on hand to greet Steven as he motored up from his Morgins hideout; Peter, Mark TT and David braved the autoroute to join the expedition.

The team promptly proceeded to the Mosette lift in order to test their skills (?) on the more rigourous French Alps: zipping down Abricotine and then taking the chair to a snow packed road above Avoriaz. At this point there was some dissension in the ranks with Steven propounding a change in programme to ski in the ever white Dranse/Chatel domaine. The rebel faction won out and we were soon to find ourselves regrouping before the handsome chapel on the Plaine de Dranse (no GIN members were recorded going into the chapel to confess their sin and error, although several candidates came to mind).

This lead to a rather extensive morning ski exploration of the Chatel ski area, largely led by local boy Steve, who proved very knowledgeable as to all lifts and connections (including at least one that was entirely new to your humble scribe.). The team was consequently quite ready to sit for lunch by the 13h00 reservation.

Déjeuner à six was held at the Refuge de l’Abricotine, an establishment well known to Nicolas; alas the plat du jour of a brochette de viande was a bit tough and Steven was a bit disappointed in his croute de fromage. Nevertheless a convivial time was had by all, possibly aided by a pitcher of Côtes du Rhône and the suds that preceded it.

The afternoon was a bit less dynamic as the team took on one more French slope and then the long télesiège back to CH, where we proceed down to Crozet by the serene if unchallenging secret route. A prudent group headed directly back to Champéry by the benne—Steve and Mervyn were made of sterner stuff and skied down to Grand Paradis.

It had been prior announced that those who distinguished (or at least did not totally embarrass) themselves on the slopes would be invited for a libation at Nicolas’ Champéry chalet, with eligibility to be determined by secret council. As it happened the determination was made by a sole distinguished jurist and all participants made the cut. Surprisingly for a GIN Group most were quite abstemious, preferring tea to other beverages (with Steve opting for an Irish coffee). Indeed the group was happy but restrained, possibly recovering from their earlier exertions, or perhaps already gaining strength for their next sortie.

6th annual Dave Knewstubb memorial ski outing

The skiers’ prayers have finally been answered and the frustratingly capricious weather pattern this winter began to normalise at the end of last week. This meant that the much-anticipated inaugural outing of the 2023 skiing season could actually take place.

On Friday 20 January three stalwart GINtlemen (Mark, Steve and Mervyn) and one honorary guest (Alun) convened on skis for a warming coffee high above Champéry at 10:30. There had been several absentee messages received, few of which constituted a convincing excuse, to wit: dog matters, passport problem, lack of ski fitness, can’t ski when the day starts with an F (because we normally do it on a Thursday!)

A fine morning’s skiing under sunny blue skies and on freshly prepared, near-empty pistes and some adjacent powder fields got us back in the groove and hungry for some mountain fare at one of Steve’s favourite haunts below Avoriaz. Beers, croutes and tarts restored energy levels and enabled us to indulge in a further few hours of piste-bashing before bidding farewells and returning to the various car-parks around the Portes du Soleil from where we each started our skiing day.

No record of distances or denivelation, but it seemed like a lot. All in all a good, if belated, start to the season with hopes for many more days like it. Sadly only thought of photos at end of day, after Alun left.

The accommodation could only have taken 4 but due to all the GINjuries and other commitments only Mervyn and Mark were able to make this outing. The venue was Tignes, a 3 hour drive away, and very empty at weekends, so we set off at 9 on Saturday morning and were skiing by 1. First off was up the Grande Motte and, since there were no queues, up the Telepherique to the glacier at 3458m. From there we skied over to Val d’Isère gaining no points for style as we negotiated the moguls of épaule which were scraped bare of soft snow. On our return to Tignes we both decided that the main problem was the lack of edges on our skis and nothing to do with our ability so we duly rectified that, but that took away our excuse!

Sunday was the end to end day. We were at the Aiguille Percée by 10 and at les Brévières, 1550m, lowest point of the whole resort, by 10:30. Then over to Val d’Isère and over the Leissières up and over lift to Col de l’Iseran. We missed out on the furthest extreme, mainly as a result of having eaten a good lunch too early.

Monday we had to correct the omission so we booked a late (14:00) lunch at the Eidelweiss restaurant, a favourite, and explored the remainder of Val d’Isère, including the Montets lift to the furthest point from Brévières. After a wonderful lunch we were even worried about connecting with the last lift back into Tignes.

Tuesday was planned as half a day so we revisited the Aiguille Percée then up the Grande Motte for a run down Leisse, coffee at the Panoramique (no lunch since we needed to drive) and a long descent down Génépi.

We were home by 17:00 for tea and cakes at Mervyn’s.

Summary

• Highest point – la Grande Motte (3458m)
• Lowest point – les Brevières (1550m)
• Furthest North – les Brevières
• Other extreme – Montets
• Plenty of snow but a little bit hard packed in places.
• Clear blue skies every day, no sign of any clouds.
• Fabulous 3 days, great snow, no crowds, good food and drink.

A compact team of four attended this sunny ski day in Portes du Soleil in a week when our leader was gallivanting in higher realms. Stephen had been up at 5 am on an airport run and somehow stayed awake the whole day to lead us on a fine route to and from a fine restaurant. Mark drove PeterT from La Côte while David came across from Villars. We all met up at 9.30 am also with Jeff, a friend of Stephen who skied with us until just before our coffee break in the sunshine up at Pointe des Mossettes. Until then the skiing had been clean and crisp with some nice runs in the warming sun.

Suffice to relate we had only one faller the whole day long, and the clue as to who that was lies in this sentence. As for myself I had been concerned about my knees, but they seemed happier skiing than dog walking in the Versoix forest. Others seemed to make no gripe or complaint, whatever pains they may have been inwardly suffering.

We rested when being whisked up on lifts and then whirled down pistes in a kaleidoscope of ski dancing with the peaks swirling around us. Stephen expertly led us on through Avoriaz and across to his chosen eatery, Le Passage, above Morzine.

We had a fine table in the sun, and beers preceded an excellent lunch of salads and cheesy Savoyard fare, for we were in France. A bottle of Côte de Rhone helped us sort out the problems of the world, Scottish independence, Ukraine, Partygate, inflation, Brexit, Covid/Omicron, etc etc. On the future of Boris our bets were that he would go (PT – by the end of next week, DC – by the end of February, SL – by the end of May, MW2Ts – by the end of June).

There was no shortage of Ketchup

I rather enjoyed my croute Savoyard, but the café gourmandise was also a delight. This restaurant is seriously recommended.

To cap it all off we were left with some large bottles of genepi and similar with which we toasted absent friends, especially Thatcher who would have enjoyed this one :-

It was all too soon time to set off back on the long trek across Avoriaz and on down to Morgins.

The slanting rays of the January sun heightened our sensory perceptions, or was it the genepi?, but in any event it was a wonderful long and strange trip back to Morgins, reached without mishap.

Stephen offered us some tea and Christmas cake before our ride home in the traffic, while David wended his way back up to Villars.

An excellent day for which we were all thankful.

The Dave Knewstubb Memorial Outing (2^nd outing of the 2021/22 ski season, 1^st in 2022)

As is customary at the beginning of the year an outing was planned from Champéry to get our ski legs back into some shape on empty long wide sunlit pistes, enjoy superb views and good mountain food and drink a toast to absent friends, in particular, Dave Knewstubb who loved this place

And so four of us (Thatcher, Michael, Stephen and Mervyn) set off early from our respective homes, thanks to Thatcher’s excellent taxi service, for a rendezvous with David at the Champéry télécabine soon after 9:30.

We were pleased to see that the entire Portes du Soleil domaine was open and decided to splash out on the complete PdS day-pass. The seniors were granted a token discount while the super-seniors (75+) paid a mere Sfr 24.

Booted and stretched(?), we clipped on our skis* and set off into the sunny white yonder – direction Les Crosets and the frontier ridge above leading to Avoriaz in France.  Well, that was the plan, which always works until you get punched in the face. Or in this case until a ski unattaches itself and throws the hapless wearer to the ground with a heavy bump. Poor Mike may not have adjusted his bindings* quite right and he decided it was best for him to sit out the rest of the day. Nothing dramatic like piste-side first aid nor helicopter evacuation this time, just hot coffee. We later learned that a lunch of pizza and 3dl of pinot noir was effective medicine.

The remaining “four skiers of the apocalypse” bade farewell to Mike when safely back at the top of the cablecar and set off again. There were no further incidents and a well-deserved  tartiflette lunch was taken in Steve’s favourite rustic resto near Les Prodains. We returned to ski the sunny Swiss slopes and met up with Mike in the car park at 4pm as planned.

Thatcher delivered us home safely to complete a day of, shall we say, ups and downs?