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Flaine
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:00:06 +0000, in
, Colin Irvine wrote: Shamelessly borrowing the thread, we can see why you rate Flaine. We'll definitely be going back, quite likely staying in Samoens again. x-posting for interest Glad you enjoyed. Care to share the highs and lows? -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com) \`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10 `\\ | //' `\|/` ` |
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#2
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Flaine
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:52:17 +0100, Ace squeezed
out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:00:06 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: Shamelessly borrowing the thread, we can see why you rate Flaine. We'll definitely be going back, quite likely staying in Samoens again. x-posting for interest Glad you enjoyed. Care to share the highs and lows? Highs - huge choice of wide and easy red and blue runs , good snow for late season, Samoens is a nice village with friendly locals. All the people we chatted to staying in Flaine itself were families who really rated it as a family resort. Kids could have lunch with the ski school meaning parents had all morning and lunchtime to ski off somewhere. Lots of easy blues, ski in and out. And for better skiers, I don't think I've ever seen so much off-piste availability. Lows - Samoens not ski in or out, last part of tourmaline blue link into Flaine narrow and very crowded, had a long trek from Flaine back to Samoens one day when weather closed in to 20 ft visibility! -- Colin Irvine YZF1000R BOF#33 BONY#34 COFF#06 BHaLC#5 http://www.colinandpat.co.uk |
#3
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Flaine
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:49 +0000, in
, Colin Irvine wrote: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:52:17 +0100, Ace squeezed out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:00:06 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: Shamelessly borrowing the thread, we can see why you rate Flaine. We'll definitely be going back, quite likely staying in Samoens again. x-posting for interest Glad you enjoyed. Care to share the highs and lows? Highs - huge choice of wide and easy red and blue runs , good snow for late season, Samoens is a nice village with friendly locals. Yeah, nice village - was on our shortlist to buy before we decided on Engelberg. All the people we chatted to staying in Flaine itself were families who really rated it as a family resort. Kids could have lunch with the ski school meaning parents had all morning and lunchtime to ski off somewhere. Lots of easy blues, ski in and out. And for better skiers, I don't think I've ever seen so much off-piste availability. Indeed, it's the main reason we go back to much. But we've even more where we are now :-) Lows - Samoens not ski in or out, But much better than it ued to be now they've got the new express gondola from village height. The previous access was half-way up the hill. last part of tourmaline blue link into Flaine narrow and very crowded, They've put in a couple of alternative end-points this year, although they're both below the worst part where the piste kinks back to the right under the pylons. had a long trek from Flaine back to Samoens one day when weather closed in to 20 ft visibility! You got back though, which is the main point. It's a fair drive round in a taxi if you screw up completely. -- _______ ..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com) \`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10 `\\ | //' `\|/` ` |
#4
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Flaine
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:53:03 +0100, Ace squeezed
out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:49 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: Lows - Samoens not ski in or out, But much better than it ued to be now they've got the new express gondola from village height. The previous access was half-way up the hill. Oh yes. And tbf with a regular ski bus from the appartment and no queues to speak of for the gondola it was more of a medium than a low. had a long trek from Flaine back to Samoens one day when weather closed in to 20 ft visibility! You got back though, which is the main point. It's a fair drive round in a taxi if you screw up completely. Indeed. Thankfully we'd already done the return trip the day before so knew what to look out for. I was hard pushed, however, to explain at one point why the piste markers that emerged evey so often out of the gloom had, with an increase in steepness, suddenly changed from blue to black. Luckily Pat believed me that all the blacks were easy that far down the slope! -- Colin Irvine |
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Flaine - mini-report
"Ace" wrote in message ... On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:49 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:52:17 +0100, Ace squeezed out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:00:06 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: Shamelessly borrowing the thread, we can see why you rate Flaine. We'll definitely be going back, quite likely staying in Samoens again. x-posting for interest Glad you enjoyed. Care to share the highs and lows? With pleasu We were in the Grand Massif last week, too, but based in Les Carroz - a first for us, as we too normally choose Samoëns. Doing it differently certainly allowed us to see/ski things in a fresh light, and we got to know the areas above Les Carroz and Morillon far better than previously. There's some great terrain here, particularly the tree-lined runs which allowed us to continue in conditions which would have ruled out anywhere more open due to near total white-out. Yes, it snowed alright... We also had a lot of fun on the boarder-cross section be discovered beside one of the reds (either Cupoire or Truffe) served by the Gron chair-lift. :- Add the terrain above Samoëns and you begin to see that there's a lot of mileage to be had even before you factor-in Flaine itself. When we did head across our first trip was a leisurely affair, to say the least, picking our way through mist and falling snow - not to mention a sea of falling skiers getting to grips with unfamiliar conditions. Funny how even somewhere you think you know really well suddenly feels totally alien at times like these. When things cleared, though, it was business as usual, with a series of easy cruises over to the lift up to Les Grandes Platières. Not surprisingly, Les Cascades remained closed during our stay, but the present falling temperatures may well allow it to be re-opened. Sadly, the Lindars Nord chair was also closed, but we did discover a small corner we'd previously missed much lower down. Célestine is so tucked away, and so close to the village that we didn't expect much in the way of surprises, but it turned out to be a real find, snaking its way down through the trees. If you've ever wondered what the attraction of the smaller, family ski areas which don't make it into the big tour-op brochures, then this will give you a brief insight. Magic. As for Flaine itself, well, I've tried hard to love the Breuer architecture and so far haven't managed it. But sometimes it's people who create the real spirit of a place, and being here has come to feel almost like coming home. After a searingly glacial ride into the winds on the Grands Vans 8-seater, we headed back towards 'our' side of the mountain, via a series of blasts which got us there well ahead of time. It's quite a return run. The final couple of days clamped down visibility again, as more fresh snow piled in. Being based where we were meant we not only carried on regardless, but had a real blast on the deep, fresh powder. Towards the end of the stay we were also able to ski all the way down to the car park at the end of the day with now slush problems. It's always the coming home that's the tough bit... RM www.mountainpassions.com - an Online Magazine with Altitude |
#6
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Flaine
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:47:50 +0000, in
, Colin Irvine wrote: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:53:03 +0100, Ace squeezed out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:49 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: had a long trek from Flaine back to Samoens one day when weather closed in to 20 ft visibility! You got back though, which is the main point. It's a fair drive round in a taxi if you screw up completely. Indeed. Thankfully we'd already done the return trip the day before so knew what to look out for. I was hard pushed, however, to explain at one point why the piste markers that emerged evey so often out of the gloom had, with an increase in steepness, suddenly changed from blue to black. Luckily Pat believed me that all the blacks were easy that far down the slope! That'll have been you taking a wrong left turn off the Dahu blue onto the bottom of the Marmottes black, then. Fortunately it's not at all black at that point, more of a blue-ish red really. The blue run can actually be a lot worse at the point where it dog-legs left back on itself just before reaching the Gouilles lift, so you should tell Pat that you were taking the easyier route down without too much untruth :-) |
#7
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Flaine
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:34:49 +0100, Ace squeezed
out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:47:50 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:53:03 +0100, Ace squeezed out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:49 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: had a long trek from Flaine back to Samoens one day when weather closed in to 20 ft visibility! You got back though, which is the main point. It's a fair drive round in a taxi if you screw up completely. Indeed. Thankfully we'd already done the return trip the day before so knew what to look out for. I was hard pushed, however, to explain at one point why the piste markers that emerged evey so often out of the gloom had, with an increase in steepness, suddenly changed from blue to black. Luckily Pat believed me that all the blacks were easy that far down the slope! That'll have been you taking a wrong left turn off the Dahu blue onto the bottom of the Marmottes black, then. Fortunately it's not at all black at that point, more of a blue-ish red really. Quite. The blue run can actually be a lot worse at the point where it dog-legs left back on itself just before reaching the Gouilles lift, so you should tell Pat that you were taking the easyier route down without too much untruth :-) Oh I showed her the next day (which was glorious sunshine) - and she was convinced! -- Colin Irvine |
#8
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Flaine - mini-report
"Roger Moss" wrote in message ... "Ace" wrote in message ... On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:49 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:52:17 +0100, Ace squeezed out the following: On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:00:06 +0000, in , Colin Irvine wrote: Shamelessly borrowing the thread, we can see why you rate Flaine. We'll definitely be going back, quite likely staying in Samoens again. x-posting for interest Glad you enjoyed. Care to share the highs and lows? With pleasu We were in the Grand Massif last week, too, but based in Les Carroz - a first for us, as we too normally choose Samoëns. Doing it differently certainly allowed us to see/ski things in a fresh light, and we got to know the areas above Les Carroz and Morillon far better than previously. There's some great terrain here, particularly the tree-lined runs which allowed us to continue in conditions which would have ruled out anywhere more open due to near total white-out. Yes, it snowed alright... We also had a lot of fun on the boarder-cross section be discovered beside one of the reds (either Cupoire or Truffe) served by the Gron chair-lift. :- Add the terrain above Samoëns and you begin to see that there's a lot of mileage to be had even before you factor-in Flaine itself. When we did head across our first trip was a leisurely affair, to say the least, picking our way through mist and falling snow - not to mention a sea of falling skiers getting to grips with unfamiliar conditions. Funny how even somewhere you think you know really well suddenly feels totally alien at times like these. When things cleared, though, it was business as usual, with a series of easy cruises over to the lift up to Les Grandes Platières. Not surprisingly, Les Cascades remained closed during our stay, but the present falling temperatures may well allow it to be re-opened. Sadly, the Lindars Nord chair was also closed, but we did discover a small corner we'd previously missed much lower down. Célestine is so tucked away, and so close to the village that we didn't expect much in the way of surprises, but it turned out to be a real find, snaking its way down through the trees. If you've ever wondered what the attraction of the smaller, family ski areas which don't make it into the big tour-op brochures, then this will give you a brief insight. Magic. As for Flaine itself, well, I've tried hard to love the Breuer architecture and so far haven't managed it. But sometimes it's people who create the real spirit of a place, and being here has come to feel almost like coming home. After a searingly glacial ride into the winds on the Grands Vans 8-seater, we headed back towards 'our' side of the mountain, via a series of blasts which got us there well ahead of time. It's quite a return run. The final couple of days clamped down visibility again, as more fresh snow piled in. Being based where we were meant we not only carried on regardless, but had a real blast on the deep, fresh powder. Towards the end of the stay we were also able to ski all the way down to the car park at the end of the day with now slush problems. It's always the coming home that's the tough bit... RM www.mountainpassions.com - an Online Magazine with Altitude I've just come back from a week in Samoens with the family. It was our second week in the Grands Massif following a week in Les Carroz in early March 2006. Incidently, I was in Les Carroz for a day, a couple of weeks back with friends, and had one of my worst days ever. It was raining up to 2000m with pretty much every lift above that closed due to high winds. Not good! Last week could not have been more different with pretty much perfect conditions for the whole week and it has reaffirmed the GM as one of my favourite areas. I would second all of the comments in this these threads and add the following; Plus points, We have either been very lucky, or the GM does get better snowfall than a lot of other resorts. The amounts of snow that dropped were well above what was forecasted. Could this be due to it's location on the eastern edge of the alps, getting first shot at the moisture as it comes in from the West? To back this up, we had a day out to Verbier on Thursday and it appeared significantly less snow had fallen there in the previous week. For anybody interested, Verbier is about a two and half hour drive through Chamonix and over the Col du Montets. Some stunning scenery on route, and you can stop off in Cham on your way back.... The off-piste tracks-out quite slowly. I commented on some of the fairly easy to access slopes being relatively untracked after a couple of days. In Tignes/Val D, they would be tracked-out by 1000. Again as a previous poster has said, the ease of access to some very good (as safe as off-piste can be) 'family off-piste' is a major plus point. The tree-lined areas above Les Carroz are quite stunning when loaded with snow. They make some fantastic photo opportunities. These are also excellent beginner areas, particularly as they go back to the gondola, so you can even learn without going onto chairlifts. The panorama of the Mont Blanc range is fantastic on a clear day from several vantage points. Negatives; Samoens is a nice traditional village but pretty much shuts at 1930, so other than a few restaurants there is little to do. We self-catered though, so this was not much of an issue. Don't go if you want apres-ski, there appeared to be one Irish pub and a place near the centre that served vin chaud in the street. Whilst well connected, the lift system is quite old. The majority of the chairs are slow with less that half of them detachables. As previously posted some of the home runs are busy and there was quite a few fallers on these, particularly where they funnel into narrow channels or paths. On the Morillon/Samoens link 'itinaire liaison', there is a 30m very narrow tunnel that is paved with ice. Watching me get spat out the other side on my snowboard, kept the kids going for the week. I was going to wait with my camera to catch the spills, but thought better of it. A lot of the links are quite flat, particularly when going over to Les Carroz (Arete et al), so as a snowboarder these became a bit tedious even though the views off the top out towards the Jura and MB are stunning. A general European negative (read whinge) at the moment is the strengh of the Euro (weakness of the £?). The lift passes for a family of 4 were nearly £600. There is no family pass option like there was in La Plagne a couple of years back (do they still do the family of 4, for the price of two adults and one child?). Eating on the mountain at lunchtime was also expensive, but bravo for the GM management who have put in heated picnic rooms across the area. Overall though I would recommend the GM area for skiers/boarders of any level and will certainly be returning. |
#9
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Flaine - mini-report
"Ace" wrote in message ... On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:19:53 +0100, "Mike Mather" wrote: Grand Massif/Flaine Eating on the mountain at lunchtime was also expensive, but bravo for the GM management who have put in heated picnic rooms across the area. Really? Where are these then? Cos I didn't see any in the three weeks I was there over xmas/new year. Well, not sure about the others, but there's a large one incorporated into the top station of the gondola from Les Carroz. I applaud this move too, something they've been doing for years in Canada. Re. Samoëns, it does suit a 'different' clientele, but does that rather well - and has much easier road access than Flaine (particularly in difficult conditions). Bottm Line: the GM has something for everyone! RM www.mountainpassions.com - an Online Magazine with Altitude |
#10
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Flaine - mini-report
"Ace" wrote in message ... On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:19:53 +0100, "Mike Mather" wrote: On the Morillon/Samoens link 'itinaire liaison', there is a 30m very narrow tunnel that is paved with ice. Watching me get spat out the other side on my snowboard, kept the kids going for the week. Odd, that. It's not usually icy. Anyhow, you should just add this to the list of reasons to use two planks instead of one. A lot of the links are quite flat, particularly when going over to Les Carroz (Arete et al), so as a snowboarder these became a bit tedious And another Yes, I won't start a debate on the merits of both, but I intend to start learning on the dry slope over the Summer to keep my options open. The conditions were perfect for a board last week, but watching my daughter carve some effortless turns on a perfectly prepared Chariande run made me even keener to try it. A general European negative (read whinge) at the moment is the strengh of the Euro (weakness of the £?). Move abroad then. It's a UK problem, not a European one. Agreed, If only it was that simple! On our return my first taste of the UK was some 'fantastic' customer service at a motorway service station. The lift passes for a family of 4 were nearly £600. There is no family pass option like there was in La Plagne a couple of years back (do they still do the family of 4, for the price of two adults and one child?). Not heard of that one, I must admit. Sounds like a good idea though. When we stayed in Belle Plagne about 4 years ago, I bought a family ski pass as above. To make it even better the lift pass office said we could use it on the Saturday from 1400, so we had a bonus 3 hour session in the afternoon. I found this on the LP website. The price is ?680 for 6 days, with each additional child ?148.50, "Families made up of 2 parents and 2 children aged between 6 and 17 qualify for the family price if they buy 4 identical ski passes simultaneously (valid for 6 days and more, same dates and ski aera). Other teenagers in the same family aged between 14 and 17 years qualify for child price". Eating on the mountain at lunchtime was also expensive, but bravo for the GM management who have put in heated picnic rooms across the area. Really? Where are these then? Cos I didn't see any in the three weeks I was there over xmas/new year. As Roger as added there is one on the top of the Les Carroz gondola which was packed every day. I spent a week there is 2006 and didn't notice it once, so I'm not sure if they are new additions. It is on your right as you come out of the gondola. There was another we used at the bottom of the Le Lac chair (vernant) to the right of the lift pass booth. This was empty and looked brand new. There are several others marked on the piste map in most of the major areas (top of grand plattieres, Morrillon at the ski pass booth, Samoens by Chariande 1, to mention a few) and though I didn't visit them to confirm they are there, I assume they must be in place. Mike |
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