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Alpe d’Huez Holiday — March 2023


Reporter: Fiona Ogden

We arrived around midnight (without Val’s luggage) into resort, after a long delay at Manchester airport due to air traffic control strike.

Hotel Check-in was swift and we were soon all tucked up in our very cosy rooms.

Only a minimum hrs sleep before it was time to get up and ready for the slopes.

Breakfast was complicated going round and round trying to find all the things we needed and a bit of queuing for the coffee machine, but we were soon marching down the muddy bank to the Marmottes lift, to yet another queue. It was a beautiful sunny day and every French family seemed to have headed for the mountains.

The temperature was average, the snow was sparse but just enough for skiing. We headed to the top of Marmottes 3 where the views were spectacular. While the big boys headed for Le Tunnel. A fabulous day was had but the temperature was rising and soon we were waterskiing back to the hotel.

Hope was in sight as we were expecting a high dump of snow on the Tuesday and boy did it snow. Conditions were improving but visibility zero.

Some of us took half a day off to chill, relax and watch the snow from a dry cafe with early Apres ski.

Wednesday was amazing. Blue skies, tonnes of powder, with lots of happy skiers. Think we all had a blast that day.

Thursday the big thaw began, however it was superhero day as David Garnet Steyne wore his red underpants on the outside of his ski trousers and helped rescue a poor snowboarded who had left the piste in favour of some trees. Badly injured our Party quickly set about emergency rescue to get him out.

The language barrier was tricky but eventually the Piste Secours arrived with saws and tools to try to cut him free. The family were very grateful to us as sent a lovely msg…

If Big T had been with us we would have handed them all a SCOM contact card!

Thursday night a bunch of us went out to ‘la Fondue’ for a change, as the food at Hotel Butlin’s was less than average. There was a lot of cheese consumed! Then for desert we headed to the ‘Creperie’ on the Conner for a night cap of cocktails and baby Guinness.

Friday we skied the Sarenne again and this time took Declan (A new, member and one of the youngest in the club). He did amazing and loved it. He’s only skied 4 times and is already better than Tony Shaw!. Once we reached the bottom, we all enjoyed coffee and cake in the valley and a well deserved rest along with many other members of the club who were already there.

Highlights — Val’s Bag arriving, The Views, Heavy Snowfall, Aperol Spritz in the sunshine

Lowlights — Delayed flight, Water skiing, Mud, Loud partying in the appartments next door.

A wonderful holiday with great company and lots of laughs. Thank you to everyone who helped to organise the 2023 trips.

Declan (Nephew) and I are already looking forward to Ski 2024!

Summary

  • Resort — 5 out of 10 (not enough ski area)
  • Snow — 2 out of 10 (except) Tues / Wed
  • Hotel — 5 out of 10 (I did think of Ruth Maddock’s Hi-di-Hi)
  • Food — 4 out of 10 (Poor schools dinners)
  • Fun — 10 out of 10 (Hooray)!
  • Sunshine — 20 out of 10 (Global warming)

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