Posts Tagged ‘val d’isere’
Inside Track – Ski Bucket List; Gareth
Recently back from a week’s skiing in St. Moritz, the Ski Independence Sales Manager, Gareth, has been lucky enough to visit a huge number of our featured resorts – from humble skiing beginnings at Cairngorm Mountain to the heady heights of the Aspen Highlands Bowl. Here are Gareth’s recommendations and the top 5 experiences on his wish list. Read the rest of this entry »
Inside Track – Ski Bucket List; Andy
Andy is one of the longest serving members of our reservations team and he really knows his stuff, has visited resorts all over the world and is a pretty good skier to boot. A fully qualified BASI instructor, Andy still manages to get a couple of weeks teaching in each season in some of his favourite resorts and has often accompanied our group trips like the Monster Ski challenge.
Read on to discover Andy’s ski bucket list top 5, his favourite places to stay and his recommendations for couples and families. He also shares some memorable ski experiences from trips to Chamonix and Whistler. Read the rest of this entry »
Food Glorious Food: France
I’m aware that some of you strange creatures are first to last lift skiers, to whom lunch is a squashed sandwich on a chairlift, and a mouthful of snow – but particularly at this time of year, in the spring sunshine, the mountain lunch is something to savour and linger over. So who does it best, and what’s on the menu? Read the rest of this entry »
MS Trust Monster Ski 2012
Well it’s been a few days since I’ve returned from the Monster Ski and I have to say the legs are just about recovered although the face is still a little sunburnt from the amazing weather conditions we had in Tignes! What a weekend we had and first of all I have to say a massive well done to all those who took part and completed the epic challenge of skiing the vertical of Everest (30,000ft) everyday for 3 days, a total of 90,000 vertical feet.
Also a very worthy mention was the effort put in by Donna who hadn’t snowboarded for some years. Despite struggling Donna was not to be defeated and with a lot of courage decided to take a couple of skiing lessons. Two days later we were all delighted to see Donna happily turning down a relatively steep blue run – a fantastic achievement for 2 days of skiing.
Day one just before first lifts
Each day was a case of first lifts to last lifts. The group, which was split into 2, managed to rack up over 100,000 vertical feet over 3 days – a superb effort. It wasn’t without challenges and although the snow was excellent it did get a little soft in the afternoon which isn’t too good when you have sore legs and you have to do as many runs as possible!
90,000 vertical feet around the Espace Killy
It’s only a couple of weeks until I head out for the Monster Ski MS Trust charity event. For any of you that don’t know it, the Monster Ski MS Trust event involves skiing the vertical of Mount Everest (90,000 feet) every day for 3 days! This year it will be taking place in Tignes in the Espace Killy area of France. This is an ideal place to clock up the vertical and if you are leading a group it’s always good to have a route or plan before you head off. The Espace Killy area which includes Val d’Isere is vast – stretching from Tignes Les Breviere all the way to Le Fornet.
Monster Ski Group in Whistler Blackcomb
Laugh, Ski and Dance
Snowy mountains, fresh air, blue skies, an A-list line up of comedians and an exhilarating week long party with some of the world’s best known bands and DJ’s…it looks like Mayrhofen is the place to be this spring. Kick starting the party and being dubbed the ‘funniest week in the Alps ever’ is the Altitude Comedy Festival, followed 10 days later by the well known music festival Snowbombing.
Set in the beautiful Zillertal Valley, Mayrhofen has the reputation as one of the best ski resorts in Austria. Located just over an hour from Innsbruck, the resort offers a vast 638km of ski runs. Renowned for its lively après ski scene every March and April the boundaries are pushed, resulting in 2 of the best mountain parties on the European ski calendar. Read the rest of this entry »
Snow, snow and even more snow!
I woke up on Sunday morning and it was snowing!! How can someone in their late 20’s (come on allow me some poetic license) get so excited every time it snows? If you know the answer please let me know! So I thought to myself, if it’s snowing here in Edinburgh then it MUST be snowing in our favourite ski resorts across the world – right? RIGHT!
It started to snow across France on Friday, across Switzerland on Saturday and it’s not stopped since. In fact my email inbox is full of like minded people getting really excited about the snowfall. Have a look at this picture that has just been sent to my colleague Eve (one of her friends is in Val d’Isere and like a kid at Christmas, that’s his car!)
Dude, Where’s my car?
Did someone say it’s snowing!?
Following one of the warmest and driest Novembers on record, in both the UK and Europe, it now seems as if winter is truly upon us. As temperatures dropped over the weekend all eyes became focused on the snow reports, hoping and praying that it could only mean one thing…snow is on the way!
After weeks of waiting and speculation on when the snow was going to arrive, Saturday evening witnessed the first substantial fall of the winter across the Alps. As curtains twitched on Sunday morning it came to the delights of many that winter had arrived, and as reports started circulating the UK media and social networking sites on Sunday I’m sure I wasn’t the only person to breathe a sigh of relief!
Not only did it snow on Saturday night, it continued into Sunday, Monday and it’s still snowing today in many European resorts. In Val d’Isere up to 80cm of fresh snow has fallen over the Fornet Glacier, 50cm over Solaise and 30cm over Bellevarde. Meribel, Courchevel, Les Deux Alpes and Val Thorens have also been blanketed by snow, however the clear winner with close to a metre of snow is Serre Chevalier which now has an upper base of 190cm, the best in Europe! Read the rest of this entry »
Fact Files: Gareth
Over the years we receive superb feedback on the knowledge, passion and experience of team here at Ski Independence. So we thought it would be an idea to give you a bit of an insight into who’s who..
To start things off, here’s Gareth, our Sales Manager:
For the benefit of our readers could you explain your role at Ski Independence and what you’re responsible for?
I do a bit of everything which keeps my days varied. The bit I enjoy the most though is booking the most amazing holidays for our clients (and myself). Another enjoyable aspect of my job is working with a great bunch of hotel, transfer and on mountain suppliers from all over the world. You get to meet some fantastic people and I think they like working with us too – hence the reason we get some of the best ski deals in the market! We have a fantastic team here in the office and the job wouldn’t be the same without them – I love every minute of my working week with them. Don’t quote me on that over the busiest parts of the season please…! Read the rest of this entry »
Monster Ski – 2011.
Monster Ski 2011 – Tignes. 3rd February 2011. 90,000 vertical feet in 3 days!
This was one of my favorite trips I’ve taken since I started working at Ski Independence and it was a huge success. I’ve always wanted to lead a Monster ski since it was set up by Mike Laver in 2007. Not only does it raise huge amounts of money for the MS Trust but it is proof that being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis doesn’t mean you can’t go out and do the things you would normally do. Saying that, skiing the vertical of Mount Everest 3 times in 3 days may not be classed as a particularly normal thing to do which made this trip and the challenge all the more exciting.
Tignes and the expanse of the Espace Killy area was our destination and you truly can’t get a better place to get a ton of good skiing in with lots of wide open groomed slopes and 3 – 4 lifts that will give you over 3,000 feet vertical in one run. I have to say as soon as I met the group at Geneva airport I knew everyone was going to gel and we were in for a good trip.
On the trip there was Mike, John, Victoria, Alison, Andy, Robin, Sarah, Louise and Siobhan. There were 10 of us in total and it was really nice to see a mix in genders and ages with 5 girls and 5 guys. 3 members of the group have MS and the rest of us have family members or know people who have been affected.
