Reporter: Chris Tolhurst-Cleaver
The holiday started in a tryingly familiar way. We had checked in bag-dropped and passed security fairly swiftly to find that the plane we were supposed to be taking had not yet taken off from France due to continuing action by French ATCs. The winners were those who had chosen to pay for a stay in a lounge, though even they were ejected well before we finally took off, 5 hours late.
The strike action caused several flights to arrive at Chambery together and the arrival area was more chaotic even than usual. Eventually we got some luggage, though Val had only skis as her case had been lost at Manchester. Fortunately it turned up the following evening. We found the coach and the driver packed all the luggage so there was even some spare space.
We arrived at the hotel about 0030 and there was some food waiting, which was much appreciated. Minimal unpacking followed and bed about 0130.
Sunday dawned with clear skies, sun, slush and puddles at the lift centre. The trick was to keep skis on, as some of the puddles were deeper than the boots! The queues that first day were enormous, not least to buy a lift pass but once we got higher up the snow was skiable though thin in places.
On Monday the queues had reduced a bit but the weather was even warmer. In Auris I saw a thermometer indicating 18º! Towards the evening, snow started falling and continued the following day, about a foot in all.
The visibility on Tuesday was poor and few skied for long despite the powder.
Wednesday was sunny and cool with fresh snow. A rep later said it was the best day of the season.
On Thursday conditions were good, though very icy in the morning but by the end of Friday, conditions had deteriorated to be similar to Sunday.
The hotel was reasonably comfortable and the food was generally well received, though the restaurant was crowded. Several members made good use of the sauna and hot tub.
Some important Mancunian football matches were available in the town’s bars, with satisfactory outcomes.
The hotel bar had a peculiar system where they took no payment. If you wanted a drink you had to buy a €100 card from Reception. If you hadn’t used all the credit by the end of the week the refund was allegedly made 3 days later. Unsurprisingly, much of the après- ski drinking was done elsewhere, notably in the easily accessible Tremplin bar.
Thankfully, there were no serious injuries among the group but we witnessed a couple of incidents. In the first, a boarder left the icy piste
at speed on the downhill side. Fortunately, one of our party witnessed it, or he could have been undiscovered for some time, as his groans were not audible over ski noise. He had crashed through a couple of saplings and stopped, head downwards, against a more substantial tree, 3m down, which had broken his right leg and his board were jammed against the tree. The witness climbed down and released his feet from the bindings while the rest of us called the Secours du pistes, one of whom arrived with a saw (for the tree, not the leg). The victim obviously displayed a considerable extraction problem, which we didn’t stay to witness. We heard later that he was having a plate fixed to his tibia.
As we were approaching the Centre Commercial the following day we found an apparently unconscious man face down in the snow. On further investigation he awoke, swore and staggered off, but only as far as the bar from where the police and eventually the ambulance para-medics took him away.
Our return home was much more straightforward and we arrived back in Manchester about midday. Overall the holiday was much enjoyed by everyone. The predominance of south-facing slopes in the resort suggest that a visit rather earlier in the year might be an improvement.
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