We had both taken Friday off work as we needed to clear out our room so we don’t have to pay rent whilst at the snow. We never look forward to this as it takes ages trying to stash everything away, and then you always find more stuff. We managed to tidy the room in record time and had time to spare. Mel was also packed and ready to go so the three of us headed out for a walk. We headed to Notting Hill and had a quick look at Portabello Rd which always has lots of nice food. I wouldn’t let Christine buy anything as we had heaps of food already for the bus ride. She settled for a coffee and brownie at one of the many cafes. Time was slipping away so we headed back to DC, got our stuff and headed to Victoria Bus Station for the Snow Express at 7pm.
The first part of the journey was ok although we missed the first ferry which was annoying. This meant we had to wait at the ferry terminal for an hour on the bus. Finally we got on the ferry found a spot and started our picnic dinner. With our combined remaining food we had a bit of a feast. Cheese, dip, olives and bread topped off by a bottle of wine, to help us sleep on the bus of course.
Once back on the bus we all tried to sleep. We were lucky because the
bus wasn’t full so we all managed to get two seats to stretch out on. This was good for the first couple of hours but not so great after 18 or so hours. We did manage to get a decent sleep, partially thanks to a few sleeping pills. The last part of the ride dragged. The bus dropped people off where we got off last year, to transfer to the Chamonix bus. At this point we figured we were nearly there (1.5 hr from Chamonix). Not so we were the last stop so had to make stops at a number of different resorts dropping of a few people at each. Thankfully we finally arrived at around 3pm. We wandered around Val D’Isere a little dazed and confused until check in time which was 5pm. Finally we got into our room, unpacked, got our boards organized, showered and headed down for our first amazing dinner. 
Sunday we slept in, not going to get a chance to do that aging for a few days. Then after a bowl of coffee (no mugs, crazy French people), we hit the slopes. Christine and I hung out on the green slopes, but were happy with the variety of beginner’s runs. Mel headed off to find the blue and red runs, to ease herself into the week. After a picnic lunch the three of us did a few runs together, Mel on her ski’s and us face planting our way down the hill on snowboards. We attempted a blue run all the way back to town, but the lower we got it was very icy and very painful. In reality, we were both quite happy with our first day, we took it easy but seemed to remember some of what we had learnt last year.
Monday morning we were up early for our bowl of coffee, and then met our instructor, Antoine. We had a rough morning. Maybe it was the early morning or maybe it was trying to impress the instructor but we weren’t as good as the day before. It didn’t help that he took us right back to basics, about 3 levels below what we had been practicing the day before. After a big lunch back at UCPA we headed out for the afternoon, which was a bit more successful. We were getting the hang of doing turns again. Over all out of ten I felt I achieved about a 4, let down by a tough morning. The evening I spent in the local swimming pool, but Christine didn’t bring her bathers, even after being reminded. We then came home to find our neighbours were French (bad), brang a sub woofer sound system (really bad) and played shit doof doof until the wee hours of the morning!
Day 2, was a really good day. More practice linking the turns and then learning switch (basically riding backwards). This came fairly easy for both of us, being ambidextrous. I actually got told off in class for doing it yesterday, I didn’t even realize I was going the wrong way! Christine also had a really good day. The afternoon we tried some blue runs, visibility dropped and it started snowing. Still doing well, until the last run, where Damien did a spectacular ‘windmill’ face plant, must have looked brilliant! A dampener on a good day followed by a few more crashes on the way home, over all about 8/10. 
The evening did the stretching class before heading into town for the night show. There was a light show on the mountain, trick jumps, hundreds of skiers riding down the mountain with headlights on and a fireworks show. Dinner was a big seafood cook up we had a few drinks and then headed to bed to suffer through the noisy French! 
We
dnesday was a half day, so we slept in. Last year we headed out for another full day, but this year we needed rest, old age and I have a cold. We had a walk around town, checking out the shops, ice sculptures and ice rink.
Back on the slopes we had a mixed afternoon. I was struggling early but the instructor helped, by challenging me to go faster and do smaller tighter turns (5/10). This helped, as there was less time to think about what I was doing! The rest of the class was attempting to do 180 jumps. Struggling with standing up I was busy with my turns, but Christine gave it a shot, and came off second best, landing awkward on her hip. The snow was good today after 12 hours of light snow. Mel, who can ski, but hasn’t had lessons before has been doing the black runs and traversing the whole resort. She says she is enjoying the lessons which is good to hear, and is learning new skills, going off piste and through saloms and moguls.
Dinner as promised by Helene, our friend in the kitchen, was a local specialty. Bread, cheese, cured hams and traditional stew. This is to go with the Salad bar, cheese table, buffet mains, dessert table and ice cream fridge that is on offer each night. The food in this place is amazing, you always walk away happy but wishing you hadn’t eaten quite so much. 
Thursday was a fun day. We headed to the top of the resort and snowboarded on the Glacier. There was fresh powder everywhere, nowhere near as icy as you expect the glacier to be! This part of the resort you can ski on all year round. Finding a bit of confidence in the soft stuff (yesterday I just sank), and taking the instructors advice to ‘embrace the speed’ I provided the class with another spectacular stack. 
We were boarding from off piste onto the piste for a bit, building speed and then off up into powder. That bit was fine, but seeing the rest of the class had stopped on top of a 2m lip of powder snow, I maintained the speed to get over the lip, planning to stop on the other side. I didn’t realize that it was a sheer drop on the other side of the lip and ended up sliding 10m down the mountain, on my face. I was fine, it was all soft powder, and everyone was laughing when Christine pulled up and asked, ‘where’s Damien’. Overall it was a good day prob a 7 out of 10.
We had lunch in a restaurant in a cosy little ski town, it was so nice. Sadly we didn’t take the camera that day, possibly a good thing given my big slide earlier in the day. It was a shorter afternoon, Christine stuggled again today feeling a bit sore. Afternoon at the UCPA helped cheer her up, Crepes and chocolate sauce. Mel and I headed to the pools again for a recovery swim. The girls then hit the town and didn’t make it home until late.
Friday was our last day of classes and was exciting as we were boarding from Val D’Isere to Tignes another resort nearby. It was no surprise that Christine struggled and only boarded for about an hour. After some narrow runs to get to Tignes we headed up and spent the morning dong blue and red runs. Lunch was at the UCPA Tignes. We did a few more runs after lunch before heading back to Val D’Isere. Definitely the best day yet possibly a 9/10 and no major stacks to report back. 
Friday night everyone from the boarding classes gathered for drinks before dinner which was fun, nice to mix with everyone off the board. Then it was another great dinner, drinks, its Christine’s Birthday. She was very surprised when Helene, our friend in the kitchen, brought out a birthday cake and everyone in the UCPA sang. After dinner we headed out on the town for a few drinks to celebrate. 
The decision was tough, sleep in after a night out or hit the slopes for a few hours, possibly the last time we will do so in the French Alps. After possibly our last bowl of coffee in the French Alps, we braved it and hit the slopes. Christine joined us minus the board, which meant we had our own personal photographer. Mel and I did a few runs, modeling for Christine before heading off to some of the easier runs with better snow, for one last blast. It was another good morning, just cruising. At the end of the week I’m definitely happy with where I finished, but am a bit disappointed that I didn’t learn to jump and didn’t get to ski home. 
We then rushed back, returned our gear, cleaned or room, ate lunch, had a last walk around the town and boarded our bus for the long ride home. It wasn’t too bad on the way home. The drivers put on two dvd’s for us and we slept ok again.
The first part of the journey was ok although we missed the first ferry which was annoying. This meant we had to wait at the ferry terminal for an hour on the bus. Finally we got on the ferry found a spot and started our picnic dinner. With our combined remaining food we had a bit of a feast. Cheese, dip, olives and bread topped off by a bottle of wine, to help us sleep on the bus of course.
Once back on the bus we all tried to sleep. We were lucky because the
bus wasn’t full so we all managed to get two seats to stretch out on. This was good for the first couple of hours but not so great after 18 or so hours. We did manage to get a decent sleep, partially thanks to a few sleeping pills. The last part of the ride dragged. The bus dropped people off where we got off last year, to transfer to the Chamonix bus. At this point we figured we were nearly there (1.5 hr from Chamonix). Not so we were the last stop so had to make stops at a number of different resorts dropping of a few people at each. Thankfully we finally arrived at around 3pm. We wandered around Val D’Isere a little dazed and confused until check in time which was 5pm. Finally we got into our room, unpacked, got our boards organized, showered and headed down for our first amazing dinner. Sunday we slept in, not going to get a chance to do that aging for a few days. Then after a bowl of coffee (no mugs, crazy French people), we hit the slopes. Christine and I hung out on the green slopes, but were happy with the variety of beginner’s runs. Mel headed off to find the blue and red runs, to ease herself into the week. After a picnic lunch the three of us did a few runs together, Mel on her ski’s and us face planting our way down the hill on snowboards. We attempted a blue run all the way back to town, but the lower we got it was very icy and very painful. In reality, we were both quite happy with our first day, we took it easy but seemed to remember some of what we had learnt last year.Monday morning we were up early for our bowl of coffee, and then met our instructor, Antoine. We had a rough morning. Maybe it was the early morning or maybe it was trying to impress the instructor but we weren’t as good as the day before. It didn’t help that he took us right back to basics, about 3 levels below what we had been practicing the day before. After a big lunch back at UCPA we headed out for the afternoon, which was a bit more successful. We were getting the hang of doing turns again. Over all out of ten I felt I achieved about a 4, let down by a tough morning. The evening I spent in the local swimming pool, but Christine didn’t bring her bathers, even after being reminded. We then came home to find our neighbours were French (bad), brang a sub woofer sound system (really bad) and played shit doof doof until the wee hours of the morning!
Day 2, was a really good day. More practice linking the turns and then learning switch (basically riding backwards). This came fairly easy for both of us, being ambidextrous. I actually got told off in class for doing it yesterday, I didn’t even realize I was going the wrong way! Christine also had a really good day. The afternoon we tried some blue runs, visibility dropped and it started snowing. Still doing well, until the last run, where Damien did a spectacular ‘windmill’ face plant, must have looked brilliant! A dampener on a good day followed by a few more crashes on the way home, over all about 8/10. The evening did the stretching class before heading into town for the night show. There was a light show on the mountain, trick jumps, hundreds of skiers riding down the mountain with headlights on and a fireworks show. Dinner was a big seafood cook up we had a few drinks and then headed to bed to suffer through the noisy French! We
dnesday was a half day, so we slept in. Last year we headed out for another full day, but this year we needed rest, old age and I have a cold. We had a walk around town, checking out the shops, ice sculptures and ice rink.Back on the slopes we had a mixed afternoon. I was struggling early but the instructor helped, by challenging me to go faster and do smaller tighter turns (5/10). This helped, as there was less time to think about what I was doing! The rest of the class was attempting to do 180 jumps. Struggling with standing up I was busy with my turns, but Christine gave it a shot, and came off second best, landing awkward on her hip. The snow was good today after 12 hours of light snow. Mel, who can ski, but hasn’t had lessons before has been doing the black runs and traversing the whole resort. She says she is enjoying the lessons which is good to hear, and is learning new skills, going off piste and through saloms and moguls.
Dinner as promised by Helene, our friend in the kitchen, was a local specialty. Bread, cheese, cured hams and traditional stew. This is to go with the Salad bar, cheese table, buffet mains, dessert table and ice cream fridge that is on offer each night. The food in this place is amazing, you always walk away happy but wishing you hadn’t eaten quite so much. Thursday was a fun day. We headed to the top of the resort and snowboarded on the Glacier. There was fresh powder everywhere, nowhere near as icy as you expect the glacier to be! This part of the resort you can ski on all year round. Finding a bit of confidence in the soft stuff (yesterday I just sank), and taking the instructors advice to ‘embrace the speed’ I provided the class with another spectacular stack. 
We were boarding from off piste onto the piste for a bit, building speed and then off up into powder. That bit was fine, but seeing the rest of the class had stopped on top of a 2m lip of powder snow, I maintained the speed to get over the lip, planning to stop on the other side. I didn’t realize that it was a sheer drop on the other side of the lip and ended up sliding 10m down the mountain, on my face. I was fine, it was all soft powder, and everyone was laughing when Christine pulled up and asked, ‘where’s Damien’. Overall it was a good day prob a 7 out of 10.We had lunch in a restaurant in a cosy little ski town, it was so nice. Sadly we didn’t take the camera that day, possibly a good thing given my big slide earlier in the day. It was a shorter afternoon, Christine stuggled again today feeling a bit sore. Afternoon at the UCPA helped cheer her up, Crepes and chocolate sauce. Mel and I headed to the pools again for a recovery swim. The girls then hit the town and didn’t make it home until late.
Friday was our last day of classes and was exciting as we were boarding from Val D’Isere to Tignes another resort nearby. It was no surprise that Christine struggled and only boarded for about an hour. After some narrow runs to get to Tignes we headed up and spent the morning dong blue and red runs. Lunch was at the UCPA Tignes. We did a few more runs after lunch before heading back to Val D’Isere. Definitely the best day yet possibly a 9/10 and no major stacks to report back. 
Friday night everyone from the boarding classes gathered for drinks before dinner which was fun, nice to mix with everyone off the board. Then it was another great dinner, drinks, its Christine’s Birthday. She was very surprised when Helene, our friend in the kitchen, brought out a birthday cake and everyone in the UCPA sang. After dinner we headed out on the town for a few drinks to celebrate. The decision was tough, sleep in after a night out or hit the slopes for a few hours, possibly the last time we will do so in the French Alps. After possibly our last bowl of coffee in the French Alps, we braved it and hit the slopes. Christine joined us minus the board, which meant we had our own personal photographer. Mel and I did a few runs, modeling for Christine before heading off to some of the easier runs with better snow, for one last blast. It was another good morning, just cruising. At the end of the week I’m definitely happy with where I finished, but am a bit disappointed that I didn’t learn to jump and didn’t get to ski home. We then rushed back, returned our gear, cleaned or room, ate lunch, had a last walk around the town and boarded our bus for the long ride home. It wasn’t too bad on the way home. The drivers put on two dvd’s for us and we slept ok again.
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