Delayed initial post, the conditions have been far too good (compared to December) to get on some wifi and actually think about writing something semi-meaningful! So It’s a bit of a long one…

After a 25 hour journey we made it to our first destination of St Foy! The journey didn’t go without drama, the leisure battery decided it was too cold and wet to operate and keep us in warmth and light. We put this down to Maggie throwing a strop as a protest to a climate she is not akin, she prefers long weekend sunny breaks in Cornwall and the occasional festival mash-up. After a relatively quick battery change which meant removing the passenger seat, aka Jess’ sleeping chair, we were well on our way to our first mountain climb- Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise.

The climb up to our tarmac hotel, the main car park, is around 16km from Bourg-Saint-Maurice which took around an hour. For our first mountain ascent it was moody in places due to the adverse road camber on some of the hairpins. This was compounded by the snow gods choosing to dump the white stuff in abundance, just before we started the drive up. Fitting the snow chains on Maggie was a breeze…honest! Looking forward to doing that activity several times over the season.

After settling into our new surroundings for around 10 minutes we did what is normal whilst in ski resorts across the world, boozing. We met up with Jess’ cousin and her boyfriend, Millie and Jay, who are working season and would be our ski chums for the next couple of days. They took us to one of the few local bars, L’Apres, for drinks and a catch up. After around an hour of drinking something strange happened, we felt tired and decided to retire so we could get some sleep, broken by the anticipation and excitement for skiing the following morning. Now this is quite abnormal for Mark, as he has a tendency to go all “Tigger” and get far too excited on the first evening of a ski holiday and wake up with a monstrous hangover the next day, and then proceed to attempt skiing, weird but good in many ways.

For our first day skiing we couldn’t have wished for more, the snow conditions were excellent and we had new powder skis to get on with, as well as great company.  It was still snowing heavily so we decided to head for the trees after some thigh punishing Bambi skiing on-piste to break in the new planks. Jay and Lois made for excellent guides (other than the 30 minute impromptu detour) as without them we’d still be picking bits of tree from our ski gear.

Due to the severe avalanche risk across the resort (and the Alps as a whole) there was limited on and off piste skiing but this wasn’t an issue as there is so much lower level skiing to be had in St Foy. If you love powder this is the place to be at the moment. It’s a fairly small resort and the hills and lifts are quiet, this may be due to the weather / ski conditions at the moment, but its more likely because it doesn’t have the extensive après other local resorts have to offer. After skiing with Millie,  Jay and their seasonaire chums for the day, we decided to booze and Mark went “Tigger”.

The skiing here is great fun if you love freeride, we will be going back later in the season when the entire resort is open to get the full use of the lifts and pistes.

Restort blurb:

On first impressions, St Foy is a small and personal resort offering a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. As the resort was not fully open we didn’t get the full experience so when we return we will blog some more detail on what St Foy has to offer…

Next stop La Plagne…

#skiclubphotos #factioncollective #ski #powder #powpow #pow #freeride #skilife #frozenontheinside #motorhomeski

 

Ok, so drawing on experience I know fully that the sweaty washed up mop hair is deffo not a good look for those of us that decide to don a ski helmet whilst skiing/riding so I opted for a scalping of the clipper variety for my (now buzz-cut removed) greying barnet, after consulting Jess for a number of minutes I was persuaded (told) that the best option due to my unprecedented and rather large widows peek that it would be best not to go with my preferred choice of number one, all over. Instead I was coerced by Jess and her cousin into a sensible number one back and sides maintaining my cowlick wave fringe. Little do they know of my plans, I’ve packed hair clippers to finish the job in private…

Well we’re almost there. just finalising a few things before we head to the cold hills of the European Alps. First destination is still unknown but we will be heading for the best conditions possible. Current weather and ski reports suggest that Europe will have the largest amount of snowfall in the world over the next 10 days so I don’t think it will be a disappointment.