Heading out
The holiday was all booked, and I indulged in the usual last-minute shopping for bits-and-pieces.
I don't need much in the way of ski gear: I have the requisite clothing. I also have ski boots and skis, but on this occasion, I decided I'd be hiring kit in resort. There are several reasons for this. A big one is that skis in particular are hard work to carry around airports. Ski bags are about 2m long and very awkward to manhandle. They have their uses – they are a good place to stow bulky clothing items such as ski pants and spare jackets/fleeces etc.
However, my skis are about 20 years old now and the technology moves on – designs improve. My skis are good and are fairly 'stiff'. I hired last time, and the hire skis were better than mine.
Boots are a bit different. Boots conform to your foot shape, so hiring boots is an issue in addition to hygiene issues. I did opt to hire boots this year since again my boots are now 20 years old and I don't think they fit as well they used to – probably need new inners. I'll talk more about boots later on.
My luggage limit was the usual package holiday one of 20kg hold luggage plus 10kg hand luggage. I bought a new 35l day sack to wear for skiing and to use for hand luggage. I opted to pack my MacBook and camera in it, plus other things.
For a ski trip, 20kg is tight due to the weight and bulk of the gear you need to wear for skiing, which is in addition to what you need to wear when not skiing. You have to accept that on a ski trip, stuff needs to be worn twice. This means you need space to air clothing after it's been worn. I tend to pack 3 sets of everything and to rotate them (123, 123) which generally works.
I weighed the bag on the bathroom scales, and it came in at 18.5kg; the rucksack was 7.5kg. I was dropped off at the station on the Friday afternoon and got a direct train to Manchester Airport. There has been a great deal of disruption to rail travel for well over a year for numerous reasons, so it was with some trepidation that I opted to use rail.
Room with a view
Apart from some minor delays caused by engineering issues, the trip to the airport was not a problem. It was a bit of hike to the hotel – about a ten-minute walk. I arrived by about 6pm, had dinner, and went to bed.
With the flight being at 6am, check-in was 3am, so it was an early start. Terminal 2 is right across the opposite side of the airport and about a mile walk from the hotel, so I opted for a shuttle bus. The earliest was at 3am, so it wasn't an issue. I was in the terminal by 03.20.
Manchester always seems to be a building site. To me, it doesn't seem that long since T2 was significantly re-built. It's currently undergoing another re-build and check-in was a mess. Security control was another mess but for different reasons. My ski jacket looped around the system four times; each time being 'rejected' as 'unscanned'. It then had to wait to be picked up by someone, who promptly put it through again. Rinse and repeat. It took me about 45 minutes just to pick-up my jacket.
Breakfast followed – adequate but expensive, the usual airport story. When my flight's gate was announced, I misread the departure board and headed to the wrong one – a very considerable distance. This is where there was a serious short-coming in the airport's information. There were NO departure notice boards on that very long route where you could double-check you were on the right track. What had happened, is my gate hadn't been announced and I'd mid-read the one above. It was a solid 10-minute walk to the wrong gate. I had to retrace that route and then head to the correct one.
The plane was heading to Chambéry in France, which is a very small airport. Its advantage is that it is nearer to the resorts than the main ski airports of Turin, Geneva, or Lyon. The problem with Chambéry is its location makes it prone to fog. Our departure was delayed by half an hour because of fog at the destination.
In due course, we took off and headed south. The flight is short at 100 minutes. With a strong tail wind, the plane made up a substantial part of the half hour delay and we were only ten minutes late landing.
The transfer to the coaches went to plan. I was surprised that there were only about 15 people on my bus – I'm used to them being full. The transfer time was two-and-a-half hours. I could tell that snow has been a bit thin in that you didn't encounter any at all until well into the mountains. In snowy years, you get snow much further out.
Les Deux Alpes is one of those purpose-built French ski resorts from the 1960s and 70s. They are built of concrete in a neo-brutalist style. In the decades since there has been some attempt to 'soften' the style by adding timber cladding to buildings. Despite that, they still sit rather incongruously in the landscape.
These resorts were designed as a single integrated item. The hotel was at the 'back' which with its height provides good views of the surrounding mountains. The service road physically goes through the sub-basement level of the hotel, which is also the car park. Anyone who has tried parking a modern car in a 1960s/70s multi-story car park knows how painful that can be – modern cars are wider and longer than cars from that era. Car parks don't usually have the local buses going through them though…
The hotel is large. I was surprised to discover after checking-in how large my room was. My room was obviously designed as a family room with, in effect, two rooms: one with bunk beds, one with a double bed. There was plenty of storage space, which is a welcome change. The room was spacious – unusual for a French ski resort, plus a large bathroom and walk-in shower. To top it off, it had a balcony with very good views of the mountains.
Large 'family' room for one
I was able to fully unpack everything, hang everything up that needed hanging and stow everything away. I have never had that much space on a French ski trip.
The hotel had eleven floors: eight above ground and three below. Technically the first basement was at ground level because of the slope. It was where the bars, gym, and pool were located. It was also where the ski lockers and boot room were located. This was a big area with full size lockers to put your skis. It had boot heaters too. The ski rental was also located there. I was quickly able to pick up skis and boots and have them in the lockers.
Having sorted all that out, it was just time to head to the bar and then to dinner. Tomorrow I could start skiing for the first time since January 2019 – five years ago.
