Ski nocturne is French and means night skiing. We had been talking about this for some time and found a couple night skiing places quite close to Grenoble. This Tuesday Johanna and myself were making a run for it, going to Le Collet d'Allevard. You can actually buy a combo ticket for a decent price that includes a ski pass followed with Fondue Savoyard or Raclette however this evening we were going for the skiing only. All was not well this evening some drawbacks experienced was because of the recent warmth in the area. We were skiing in about 5 degrees above zero making the slopes quite hard and icy. I also managed to get rid of my ski goggles, this happened when I fell off pist in a thick layer of snow, of course it was impossible to find them in the dark, the goggles was also white not the best of colours when you want to find something in snow. I also received some help from Johanna going off-pist with her new skis looking, but it felt as if the goggles was completely swallowed by the darkness this evening.
All in all it was a great evening in spite of the lost goggles, the weather was clear and some decent skiing focusing on some serious ski style studies. The night view was also great with Chambery city lights down in the valley combined with a clear sky and moonshine.
söndag 28 februari 2010
Spring is here!
This sunday we visited Les Menuires for some nice skiing and as so many days before
conditions were excellent. We had the sun, the snow, vine chaud, tartiflette but this time we also had a bit of warmth with a couple of degrees above zero. The best way to go to Les Menuires which is a valley in the Les Trois Vallées is to drive to Orelle and ski through Val Thorens. However when returning to Orelle you must make sure you don't miss out on the last ski lift to Orelle otherwise you must take a taxi to Orelle which will not be cheap or stay the night in Val Thorens.
When we were leaving Orelle in the afternoon we had 12 degrees and the birds were chirping, spring is certainly here.
Vine Chaud!
Suckers in the sun
conditions were excellent. We had the sun, the snow, vine chaud, tartiflette but this time we also had a bit of warmth with a couple of degrees above zero. The best way to go to Les Menuires which is a valley in the Les Trois Vallées is to drive to Orelle and ski through Val Thorens. However when returning to Orelle you must make sure you don't miss out on the last ski lift to Orelle otherwise you must take a taxi to Orelle which will not be cheap or stay the night in Val Thorens.
When we were leaving Orelle in the afternoon we had 12 degrees and the birds were chirping, spring is certainly here.
Vine Chaud!
Suckers in the sun
söndag 21 februari 2010
Serre Chevalier
This blog is more and more turning into something like a ski resort overview. Since the only thing I do on the weekends is to go ski I guess this is kind of natural, and it sure is great fun to be outside all day in sunny weather, skiing, eating and relaxing in a deckchair sipping on a wine chaud.
Anyway this Saturday we were heading for Serre Chevalier in Ecrins mountain range in the region Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur almost on the border to Italy. Serre Chevalier advertise themselves being the most sunny place in the whole alps with more than 300 days of sun a year and indeed the sun was shining also this day.
The whole ski area consists of over 16 villages and is said to be one of the biggest in the world. We have actually been trying to make our way to Serre Chevalier before, but have been forced to turn back due to that the roads were closed. The main reason for this is that it has been snowing a lot this year in the French alps, you could actually see signs of this on the way over there. The road was actually paved out from the snow, on some places several metre high walls of snow surrounded the road. An also interesting experience on the road to Serre Chevalier was this strange alp goat with the biggest antlers I ever seen just standing there right next to the road.
It's only 100 kilometres from Grenoble to Serre Chevalier so one can guess the quality of the roads when I say it took us almost 2,5 hours driving there, then of course time is included for the snow chain mounting and unmounting. While at Serre Chevalier slopes was good with a lot of fresh snow there was also a lot of off piste opportunities, perhaps most of all resorts we have been to so far, I also ate a most fantastic mousse au chocolat.
It was kind of creepy, but during the last hour the weather turned in an instance becoming windy, cloudy and cold, the visibility disappeared this while we were going on this tight mountain ridge making it impossible to see the edge. Skiing was pretty tiring this day on the way back to Grenoble I slept like a baby.
Anyway this Saturday we were heading for Serre Chevalier in Ecrins mountain range in the region Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur almost on the border to Italy. Serre Chevalier advertise themselves being the most sunny place in the whole alps with more than 300 days of sun a year and indeed the sun was shining also this day.
The whole ski area consists of over 16 villages and is said to be one of the biggest in the world. We have actually been trying to make our way to Serre Chevalier before, but have been forced to turn back due to that the roads were closed. The main reason for this is that it has been snowing a lot this year in the French alps, you could actually see signs of this on the way over there. The road was actually paved out from the snow, on some places several metre high walls of snow surrounded the road. An also interesting experience on the road to Serre Chevalier was this strange alp goat with the biggest antlers I ever seen just standing there right next to the road.
It's only 100 kilometres from Grenoble to Serre Chevalier so one can guess the quality of the roads when I say it took us almost 2,5 hours driving there, then of course time is included for the snow chain mounting and unmounting. While at Serre Chevalier slopes was good with a lot of fresh snow there was also a lot of off piste opportunities, perhaps most of all resorts we have been to so far, I also ate a most fantastic mousse au chocolat.
It was kind of creepy, but during the last hour the weather turned in an instance becoming windy, cloudy and cold, the visibility disappeared this while we were going on this tight mountain ridge making it impossible to see the edge. Skiing was pretty tiring this day on the way back to Grenoble I slept like a baby.
tisdag 16 februari 2010
Val Thorens revisited
I probably shouldn't have been out on the slopes this due to the debacle yesterday, my thumb was aching and had swollen heavily over the night, the head however felt ok except a not that aesthetic al abrasion on my right cheek. I decided fast that it was ok to go skiing, you don't ski with your thumb. The weather was also going to be great this day, so I really had no option this day.
As previously state you really never get disappointed in Val Thorens, conditions was superbe. The highlight of the day was when we took the Cime Caron cabin to the top (3200 m), on our way down we were all alone out on slopes wide as a football field.
Many thanks to Johanna and Fredrik for their pictures below.
As previously state you really never get disappointed in Val Thorens, conditions was superbe. The highlight of the day was when we took the Cime Caron cabin to the top (3200 m), on our way down we were all alone out on slopes wide as a football field.
Many thanks to Johanna and Fredrik for their pictures below.
söndag 14 februari 2010
A Courchevel kiss
This Saturday we were heading for Courchevel which is a part of the great ski area Les Trois Vallées. Courchevel also has a reputation for being a hangout for the rich and famous, an unconfirmed rumour was saying that both the Beckhams and George Clooney were skiing in Courchevel this weekend. As (almost) always the weather was looking good for the weekend with sun and around 7 degrees below zero.
However I didn't get a good start of the day, cutting myself on the skis while mounting them onto the ski rack. This was definitely not going to be my day. Around the third leg, when going down a fairly easy slope. I fell with head first in high pace down the slope twisting and turning probably ~30m, as a consequence I suffered from a light concussion with dizziness and memory blackouts as a result,a nice red mark over my right chin and my thumb did also get a thorn and is quite swollen I actually can't move it at this point.
The interesting was that I directly put myself in a upward position after the fall, a friend came down with my skies and I continued skiing for a while. Then the blackouts appeared, I didn't know where I was, didn't even know that I just fallen. My friends apparently noticed that I didn't feel very well and they took me down to the closest restaurant. I stayed at the restaurant during most of the day under the surveillance from Fredrik and Johanna, I don't think they minded that much (at least I hope) It was quite nice to lie in a deck chair in the sun drinking hot chocolate and vine chaud. Anyway my most appreciated thanks goes to Johanna, Fredrik and Mikael for their support this day. Many thanks Johanna for your contributions (last 2 pictures).
Mont Blanc in the distance
Mikael, Fredrik and Johanna
Another sunny day in the alpes
My skis with a nice scenic background
However I didn't get a good start of the day, cutting myself on the skis while mounting them onto the ski rack. This was definitely not going to be my day. Around the third leg, when going down a fairly easy slope. I fell with head first in high pace down the slope twisting and turning probably ~30m, as a consequence I suffered from a light concussion with dizziness and memory blackouts as a result,a nice red mark over my right chin and my thumb did also get a thorn and is quite swollen I actually can't move it at this point.
The interesting was that I directly put myself in a upward position after the fall, a friend came down with my skies and I continued skiing for a while. Then the blackouts appeared, I didn't know where I was, didn't even know that I just fallen. My friends apparently noticed that I didn't feel very well and they took me down to the closest restaurant. I stayed at the restaurant during most of the day under the surveillance from Fredrik and Johanna, I don't think they minded that much (at least I hope) It was quite nice to lie in a deck chair in the sun drinking hot chocolate and vine chaud. Anyway my most appreciated thanks goes to Johanna, Fredrik and Mikael for their support this day. Many thanks Johanna for your contributions (last 2 pictures).
Mont Blanc in the distance
Mikael, Fredrik and Johanna
Another sunny day in the alpes
My skis with a nice scenic background
First month
So the first month has now passed and I must say that so far everything is above my initial expectations. At work my french colleagues are starting to open up, we are now discussing all kind of thing and most technical and practical problems has also been solved. The weekends have been amazing with daily ski excursions with fantastic weather.
We did also have a first month celebration with some delicious dishes ranging from indian to french food, of cours (heavy) wine drinking is compulsory. The celebrations took place on monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One interesting thing also happened on the Wednesday evening out, Fredrik has been nagging about this Belgian bar for a whole month explaining how good his visit to it was. Apparently he must have been very drunk during his visit since it took him a whole month for him to find it. Anyway the bar was worth a visit and the Belgian beer tasted great.
We did also have a first month celebration with some delicious dishes ranging from indian to french food, of cours (heavy) wine drinking is compulsory. The celebrations took place on monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One interesting thing also happened on the Wednesday evening out, Fredrik has been nagging about this Belgian bar for a whole month explaining how good his visit to it was. Apparently he must have been very drunk during his visit since it took him a whole month for him to find it. Anyway the bar was worth a visit and the Belgian beer tasted great.
tisdag 9 februari 2010
The backdoor to Val Thorens
This sunday we were heading for Val Thorens, I had received an interesting tip at the office regarding a backdoor to Val Thorens. You simply just follow the highway to Orelle, then there is this cable car that will take you all the way up to Val Thorens (2300m). It is actually only a hour drive from Grenoble to Orelle, of course then there is the half a hour cabin ride up the mountain. But it's really cool that one of the worlds biggest ski areas are just a hour away. I was really looking forward to this day, since I had been monitoring the weather for the last couple days. The weather was suppose to be fantastic with light winds, no clouds and just a couple of degrees below zero. This day was the best ski day on the trip so far, Val Thorens is the shit with nice big slopes, good off pist opportunities and great weather, not a single cloud in range for the whole day. I also managed to get a nice tan this day. I will for sure be back here soon.
Oz-en-Oisans
The saturday excursion went this time to Oz-en-Oisans. A small quite cozy village, that is a part of the Alpe D'Huez ski area. The ski team this saturday consisted with a guest from Sweden, Fredriks girlfriend Sara, Fredrik of course (no hang over this weekend) and myself.
The morning was not good because the drive up the Oisans took some time again it was snowing in the Oisan mountains range. We were actually stopped by the police forcing us to put on the snowchains, and this time the snow chains fitted perfect and was really tight.
To bad that a headless bus driver 5 minute in front of us didn't bother putting on his snowchains. The consequence of this was that the bus got stuck blocking the road for almost a hour. During the wait Fredrik actually manage to help a confused frenchman with his snowchains. He was really impressed saying that we in Sweden probably always use snowchains, yeah right. The skiing was not very good this morning you couldn't really see any contoures in the snow and it was quite foggy and the snow fell heavy, it was actually like skiing blindfolded. This was also not optimal for Sara cause she was learning to snowboard which led to long waits in the slopes. However as usual here in the French alps (as far as I know) the weather cleared in afternoon an it turned out to be a really beautiful day. We also took the opportunity for som after ski drinking a couple of beers. Btw I have a new favourite, "vin chaud" which is hot wine with a slice of lemon.
The morning was not good because the drive up the Oisans took some time again it was snowing in the Oisan mountains range. We were actually stopped by the police forcing us to put on the snowchains, and this time the snow chains fitted perfect and was really tight.
To bad that a headless bus driver 5 minute in front of us didn't bother putting on his snowchains. The consequence of this was that the bus got stuck blocking the road for almost a hour. During the wait Fredrik actually manage to help a confused frenchman with his snowchains. He was really impressed saying that we in Sweden probably always use snowchains, yeah right. The skiing was not very good this morning you couldn't really see any contoures in the snow and it was quite foggy and the snow fell heavy, it was actually like skiing blindfolded. This was also not optimal for Sara cause she was learning to snowboard which led to long waits in the slopes. However as usual here in the French alps (as far as I know) the weather cleared in afternoon an it turned out to be a really beautiful day. We also took the opportunity for som after ski drinking a couple of beers. Btw I have a new favourite, "vin chaud" which is hot wine with a slice of lemon.
lördag 6 februari 2010
An evening of wine
If you go to France what do you do? The simple answer to the question is to participate on a wine tasting session. The whole team of swedish grenoblians was out drinking wine this evening, everyone was really looking forward to the session and was perhaps the main talk for the last few days. Funny to say the evening started in a classical moderate Swedish modesty to completely change in the end, perhaps not that unexpected.
The session was interesting starting with a presentation over different French vineyards and their history. Then the focus was changed to more local vineyards in the Rhone valley and Savoie. First wines tasted was 2 white wines and then we went on to the red ones. The session started with somewhat lighter wines continuing with stronger (in taste). All in all we tasted 6 different wines.
The session also included some food e.g. Cayatte, Tartiflette finishing with some tremendous French cheese.
I left the session carrying a 2005 Puech-Haut?
The session was interesting starting with a presentation over different French vineyards and their history. Then the focus was changed to more local vineyards in the Rhone valley and Savoie. First wines tasted was 2 white wines and then we went on to the red ones. The session started with somewhat lighter wines continuing with stronger (in taste). All in all we tasted 6 different wines.
The session also included some food e.g. Cayatte, Tartiflette finishing with some tremendous French cheese.
I left the session carrying a 2005 Puech-Haut?
fredag 5 februari 2010
A cold day in the alps
Sunday
that Frederik couldn't join us this day, he was still feeling hang-over from the friday
excursion. This sunday started with great weather but very very cold, when arriving at Chamrousse signs of warnings was posted. Great thanks to Johanna for her amazing pictures, see below.
- up at 7'o'clock
- breakfast in the restaurant
- drive to ski resort
- ski all day
- drive home
- eat
- sleep
that Frederik couldn't join us this day, he was still feeling hang-over from the friday
excursion. This sunday started with great weather but very very cold, when arriving at Chamrousse signs of warnings was posted. Great thanks to Johanna for her amazing pictures, see below.
The Return to Oisans
Another early saturday morning, this time with little or almost no sleep and a slight headache.
I was however determined to beseige my slight fatigue. Note also that some of my other swedish colleagues here in Grenoble already was on their way to Les Deux Alpes this morning, in their mind we were already there. A quick text message to the other bozos if they were still up for it.
In spite the late last night I was feeling suprisingly well. However one of the members in the friday party team (Fredrik) explained that he felt somewhat strange with a soar throat, he also stated that he might have been eaten something bad yesterday (Yeah right who haven't heard that one before, truth is that he had such a hangover that he barely knew his own name) .
Anyway Johanna and myself was on the road again slightly after 10'o'clock. The roads this day was perfect all the snow that fell the day before had effectively been removed. Something for the snow removal responsibles back home to learn from.
On arrival the sun was shining it was however quite cold I would estimate that the temperature on the top was around -20 C however in shelter of the wind you could feel the warmth from the sun.
The day was perfect given our circumstances, just cruising the easier slopes enjoying the scenery.
I was however determined to beseige my slight fatigue. Note also that some of my other swedish colleagues here in Grenoble already was on their way to Les Deux Alpes this morning, in their mind we were already there. A quick text message to the other bozos if they were still up for it.
In spite the late last night I was feeling suprisingly well. However one of the members in the friday party team (Fredrik) explained that he felt somewhat strange with a soar throat, he also stated that he might have been eaten something bad yesterday (Yeah right who haven't heard that one before, truth is that he had such a hangover that he barely knew his own name) .
Anyway Johanna and myself was on the road again slightly after 10'o'clock. The roads this day was perfect all the snow that fell the day before had effectively been removed. Something for the snow removal responsibles back home to learn from.
On arrival the sun was shining it was however quite cold I would estimate that the temperature on the top was around -20 C however in shelter of the wind you could feel the warmth from the sun.
The day was perfect given our circumstances, just cruising the easier slopes enjoying the scenery.
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)
