On Dec 6, 11:46 am, Matt T wrote:
Hello all, happy new season.

So, how's everyone finding it so far? Got my first slide in this
morning - 10am down the Palafour. Perfect corduroy piste all the way
to the bottom. Only passed about half a dozen people. Looks like
they're getting ready to open the Boisse/Brevierre sectors already
(they were warming up the Chaudannes lift at least). Aeroski is
running and, rumour has it, you can get to and from Val d'Is. I
haven't heard word yet on whether the Criterium de Premiere Neige is
still going ahead, but they don't have much of an excuse this year
what with the snow and cold weather.

The electronic pass system seems to be working better this year -
recharged my pass in November on-line in London, dug it out of my cave
this morning, stuck it in my jacket, wandered up to the lift gate
and.... ping! It worked. My wife said that STGM were being remarkably
friendly and helpful when she took a trip to Val Claret yesterday, so
the snow seems to have everyone in a good mood. Or maybe the Companies
des Alpes have given everyone a raise? (ha!)

Everyone except some of the bar owners - ironically, takings seem to
be a bit (okay, a lot) down on this time last year because everyone's
got more snow, so we're not getting the poor buggers from the lower
resorts coming up on day trips.

Snowstorms forecast for the weekend and next week. Sweeeet.

Matt

Well, since I wrote my post, there's been good news and bad news.

The good news is that it's just kept on snowing. Chatting to Kev, an
instructor here with Evo 2, he was out on Friday getting freshtracks
everywhere ("and getting paid for it." as he kept telling us) and in
some windblown corners the powder was waist-deep. Since then we've had
maybe another 40cm, and there's currently a blizzard going on outside.
The coming week could be 'awesome', or 'rude', or 'wicked', or
possibly 'pretty nice' depending on how old you are.

The bad news is that the women's races scheduled for Val D'Isere this
weekend were cancelled. Rumour has it this was not due to conditions,
but to do with 'organisational (in)capability'. The other rumours I've
heard (they might think so, I couldn't possibly comment) are that
everyone's a bit worried about the world cup in 2009 because of the
same 'organisational capability' in Val d'Is at the moment, and (this
is my favourite) Jean-Claude is considering withdrawing permission to
use his name for the ski area because he's so fed up with the
situation. The men's world cup races appear to have moved to February
now, which makes the name 'premiere neige' a bit ironic, although
given the threat of 'climate change' maybe they're just getting ahead
of the game.

Whatever, it's looking like a great start to the season from where I'm
sitting.

Matt