Les Deux Alpes - days 3-7

Day 3 (the second day on the slopes) and we set off straight for the top of the mountain. Today was was cloudy & windy with a little snow fall and as a result it was cold - on the top of the mountain it was VERY cold. As we came out of the funicular railway at the top slope we just got sorted and down the first part of the slope as soon as possible. This ended up being the only cold day we had so really the weather had been fantastic the whole time.

Today though was a breakthrough for my boarding, it somehow all just fell into place, I was linking turns smoothly from the off and varying from picking up speed to having slow winding descents - it was great!

The rest of the week followed suit, my riding improved, I hardly fell over apart from the occasional spectacular fall when crossing a black run where I managed to end up on my back sliding down the slope head first unable to stop myself!
On one of the slopes there was a little area sectioned off with a kicker (jump) and a guy sat with his camera, he would take your picture as you jumped and you could presumably download it later on. I was really temped later in the week to have a go but never quite plucked up the courage.

On the subject of ski lifts, I have to say that after the first day of falling off them, I soon got used to riding with 1 foot out and keeping my balance. The rest of the week was fairly uneventful in that respect apart from one day when we got on a chair lift, it swung backwards as we sat on it, then as it came forwards again the front of my board dug into the snow and it flipped me right off the chair! The crowd of people waiting for the life were highly amused! :)
There was also a rope lift / pull thing that was a little awkward but again once I got the hang of riding with 1 foot out it wasn't so bad.

The days were spent boarding in the sun, then having breaks at the cafe's and restaurants on the slopes - hot chocolate with baileys & cream or hot mulled wine and decent food to keep us going.
The resort had runs leading right past our lodge and right past a local bar so we often boarded right up to the bar, had a couple of pints then nipped over to our lodge for the evening.

On the last day we decided to attempt a black run as there was one off a green run and it headed right back into town. It was pretty steep, but to be honest, as a snowboarder it wasn't really a major concern - if in doubt you could just go down it in "falling leaf" and take it easy so there was nothing to worry about - the skiers found it slightly more difficult but again they managed just fine.

There was a board park at Deux Alpes which we never attended - in hindsight I think it was the right decision (for me at least) as I wasn't anywhere near up to the required level, however next time I will be tempted to go to a park for a bit.

By the end of the week we were all well and truly aching, I don't think my body could have coped with 10 days, much less a fortnight - but it was a fantastic holiday and we capped it all with a big blow out on the Friday night which started in a quiet bar and ended up with the whole bar around us watching us playing drinking games. They were all very friendly!

For next time, I wouldn't do much differently, I largely had all the equipment and stuff that I needed (thanks to the advice of my friends) and had a great time - looking forward to the next one now!

Les Deux Alpes - days 1-2

The big day arrived, Saturday morning we set off to the airport, checked in our baggage (which included stuffing a load of clothing into the snowboard bag as our main luggage was too heavy) and went to have a pint while we waited for the flight.

After landing in France at Grenoble airport, we took a coach ("Bens Buses") the 111km to Les Deux Alpes, it was pretty uneventful and dark so we saw very little but once we started up the winding roads into the mountains we started to get a feel for the place.

When we arrived and got off the coach, nothing could have prepared me for the place, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before, snow drifts 10 feet deep at the side of the road, the alpine lodges, snow everywhere, the night life, everything about this place was fantastic!

The lodge we were staying in was nice enough, although there was barely

room to swing a cat, 6 of us in a 2 bed lodge, but it was fuctional and that was all we needed.

We popped up the road for pizza that night whilst meeting everybody off the bus then got a relatively early night ready for our first day on the slopes.

The next morning, ski pass in hand, we set off up the slopes, 2 skiers and 4 snowboarders (me being the most novice by far).

Les Deux Alpes is a little different to most other resorts, generally the steepest slopes are towards the top of the mountain with more gentle slopes further down, however this was not the case with Deux Alpes, it was the other way around.

I had been advised by regulars on the goneboarding snowboarding forum that the best thing to do was travel all the way to the top of the mountain and work our way down - possibly getting a lift back down the last bit as it was mainly black runs, however we didn't start at the correct lifts so only got a bit of the way up the mountain before we headed back down one of the slopes.

At this point I'll just mention the chair lifts, if you've never been on one before, you should get some practise riding with your back foot out of your bindings (just standing on the board) - as this is how you'll exit the chair lifts, on top of a short slope, you have to get off the chair and ride 1 footed to the bottom of the short slope (I'm talking 6-12 feet really) - and if you've never practised, you WILL fall off - several times!

Anyway, back to our first descent from low down the mountain, and this as it turned out was a bad idea, the slope was a green run (the only one at the bottom of the mountain) which should have made it easy but it was designed for skiers, it was a narrow winding path and as a novice all I could do was travel down it on one edge until it turned 180 degrees then I swapped edges - it was terrible, it hurt my shins & calves - by the end of it, me & Rich were positively aching!

Thankfully at the end of the run, we stopped at the main lift (cable car) up the mountain and promptly got on board, it took us up very high and as I was starting to wonder how much further it could go, the end came into sight - and by the end, I mean, the next station, where you got out and into another cable car which went up even further. After this cable car, we then got into an underground railway which took us right up to the top of the mountain - the views were amazing and we spent some time just admiring it and feeling lik

e we were on top of the world!

The "bottom" of the mountain where our lodge was is at 1650m above sea level. The first cable car stopped at 2600m, the second one stopped at 3200m and the funicular railway brought us out at 3421m above sea level (the mountains actually continued to 4102m but that was beyond the point of reasonable slopes).

Once we set off from the top, things improved

dramatically for me, we were on wide open slopes with plenty of room and I got into my linking turns rather than just falling leaf all the time.

I have to say, I lost it and fell over A LOT this day, I had some real high speed ones too where I cartwheeled several times before coming to a halt and by the end of the day I was positively aching, but I wa

s loving every minute of it as well!

The ibuprofen gel came in particularly handy that evening I can tell you!

All the gear but...

Just days before the holiday I assembled the last required items - as I'd never been before this was all alien to me and I harassed my mate to death asking him about what I did or didn't need to take with me. In the end, the list of things to pack (aside from obvious clothing etc.) was something like this :

• Plasters
• Nurofen / Paracetomol
• Ibuprofen cream
• Deep heat
• Sun cream (yes really!)
  
  
• Board rental certificate
• Passport
• Driving license
• European Health card
• Holiday insurance
  
  
• Snowboard Jacket
• Salopettes
• Gloves
• Impact shorts
• Wrist guards
• Helmet
• Goggles
• Sunglasses (I later discovered I didn't really need these)
• Long socks
• 2 Fleeces (something else I never needed but had it been colder they'd have been handy)
  
  
• iPod + charger
• Phone charger
• Digital camera + battery charger

A couple of after-notes :

The plasters were hugely welcome on day 2 when I woke up and realised I was in danger of getting blisters - where? On my hands, where my wrist guards were rubbing - who would have though it!

Aside from that, the plasters, tablets, sprays etc. were all of little use apart from the ibuprofen gel which I applied a couple of times just in case I started to suffer (which I never really did)

Sunglasses I didn't need as I wore goggles every day, and the fleeces were also redundant as with just a T shirt and snowboard jacket I was more than warm enough (often having my jacket half zipped down for ventilation) - that said, we had great weather and had it been colder I'm sure they'd have come in handy.

The iPod was an absolute must, it made my days so much more enjoyable as I zoned into the music and the boarding and zoned out of people around me, personal preference of course but I wouldn't be without it now!

Each day I took my iPod, mobile phone & digi camera up the slope with me - the phone never got used but I guess was there for emergencies as much as anything.

Board, boots & bindings I hired from InterSport for about £85 for the week and the equipment was in great condition so that worked out fine for me (it costs roughly £60 to transport your snowboard on a plane anyway so even if I did own one, this way was definitely cost effective!)

The finisher!

After another 2 hours of lessons in which I learnt to go from "falling leaf" to turning down the slope, then back to "falling leaf" again, I had my 2 hour finisher lesson - this was basically the final lesson which meant once passed I would be allowed on the slope unsupervised.

The lesson didn't start well, the hire board I had been using had loose bindings, not majorly loose but loose enough that they moved about a little and even at this early stage I could tell the difference as the board wasn't responding to me as much as it had on previous lessons.

I spoke to the instructor about it who was great and tried (in vain) to fix the problem - eventually it got to the point where he couldn't get the bindings back on the board so went off to get me another one, in the meantime I got to use one of the instructors own boards and I really saw the difference using that! It felt 100 times better!

In the end the instructor returned with another board and I continued with the lesson, this one was all about learning to link turns, so going from "falling leaf", turning down the slope, then turning right round to "falling leaf" on the other edge, so from heel to toe, then back again. This was basically the final step in being able to travel from the top of the slope to the bottom in a controlled manner.

At the end of the lesson the instructor told me I had passed but advised a couple of free ride sessions prior to my holiday in order to get the best out of what I'd learnt - I booked another 2 hours to tide me over until the holiday!

In the beginning...

These first few posts are actually pre-dated, having been written after I first took up snowboarding, but I thought I would date them as and when things happened to make things appear in the correct order!

So, a little bit of background, it was over Christmas 2008 that my friend H had suggested a snowboarding holiday with some friends. It was something I'd always wanted to do but never had done and at the age of 33 I was very much in the "can't teach an old dog new tricks" camp so had to decline (especially as they were going within a month so no time to learn).

H's response was that a month was plenty of time to learn, and that it was an experience not to be missed and a top laugh - and so my journey began!

By the 5th Jan we were booked, 1 week in Les Deux Alpes on the 24th Jan - less than 3 weeks to go!

I had my first lesson that night, 2 hours at the snowdome in Tamworth. It went really well, I first learnt to balance whilst heading down the slope on both toe & heel edges (imagine standing on a slope with your board lying across the slope rather than up/down it - heel edge is when you are facing down the slope & so digging your heels in to control yourself, toe edge is when you are facing up the slope and digging your toes in to control yourself. Digging your heels/toes in acts like applying a brake, the harder you push the slower you go)

We then learnt to do "falling leaf" which is basically the same, coming down on toe or heel edge, whilst moving side to side in a "falling leaf" motion.

It was a lot of fun, I fell over a couple of times but in a controlled manner to prevent myself shooting off down the slope at speed.

The next day I became a member of the snowdome, it was money well spent as it meant I got a third off my future lessons, also a load of vouchers for guests and drinks and stuff.

Now all I had to do were a few more lessons & pass my finisher which meant I was allowed on the slope unsupervised!