March 18 - Val d'Isere

From Megeve, it was about a two and a half hour drive to Val d'Isere where we planned to spend the next four days exploring the massive Espace Killy area which includes Val d'Isere and Tignes.  We thought Grand Massif and Megeve had huge terrain but our minds were about to be blown by these connected areas.

But first, we had to negotiate our dreaded nemesis on the trip:  D109.  A portion of the main road connecting Megeve to Albertville (which you may recall as the base for the 1992 Winter Olympics) was closed due to construction.  So, D109 was a narrow mountain road with a gazillion switchbacks.  As if this weren't enough, the local drivers are fast and aggressive.  Tailgating is de rigueur to say the least.  On the higher portions of this road there were sheer drop-offs on the side of the road with no guardrails or measly ones.  This was not a road for the faint of heart, especially as a passenger.

I actually wish that we had some video of this drive but alas we were too focused on survival.  Thankfully, Jeff was the master driver on the way to Val d'Isere and he did a fine job keeping us alive.  I'm not sure how Mark's and Tom's stomachs survived in the back seat because I was even feeling it in the front passenger seat.  If I'd been in the back seat for this ride I'm afraid things could have become quite messy.

We finally arrived at our hotel, La Toviere, in the La Daille section of Val d'Isere, at about 8pm.  Exhausted from the drive, we decided to have dinner at our hotel for simplicity's sake and get to bed relatively early.  The hotel was very nice and the meal was very good.  Our "family suite" was a bit small, unfortunately, but the super-convenient location near the base lifts almost made up for that.  Almost.

Here is the view from our balcony:

The lift you see in the first two photos is called a Funival.  It is basically a funicular that goes through the mountain and pops out on the other side.  (One takeaway from this trip is how astounding the lift systems are here - the French put some serious money into these areas.  I'm sure the Olympics money helped give this area the state-of-the-art lift system we see today.)

I neglected to mention the major snafu that occurred for Tom on his trip to Geneva.  His ski equipment didn't arrive with him and so, for the first two days he had to rent equipment.  Thankfully he had his boots and we managed to scrounge up enough clothing for him to be fine in the warm weather.

While Tom rented his equipment on our first day in Val, Jeff, Mark and I took one run on the gondola at the La Daille base area.  As we emerged from the gondola, we walked through the coolest on-mountain ski bar I've ever seen.  As it turns out, La Folie Douce is world famous and we would find out why over the next several days.  Here is a photo of the bar/restaurant area that you WALK THROUGH after exiting the gondola.  The music was pumping and people already seemed ready to party.  What an atmosphere for our first day at Val!

After meeting up with Tom at the bottom of our first fun run with perfect corn snow, we took the Funival lift to the top of the peak, Rocher de Bellevarde, and this was the view that hit us:

We spent the morning exploring the Borsat and Grand Pre chairlift terrain.  From the Grand Pre lift, we eyed this chute (below) and were eager to get into it.  I was a bit worried about the "in" as it looked a bit sketchy with some serious exposure.  As Mark, Jeff and I traversed over to the chute entrance it quickly became apparent that this was a serious no-fall zone above a cliff.  One slip on this track into the chute and there could be dire consequences.  Older and wiser than maybe we used to be, we backed away and lived to ski another run.

In the early afternoon, we skied down Le Face (de Bellevarde), site of the Men's Downhill run for the '92 Olympics.  This trail was fantastically steep and we pondered the ridiculous speeds one might achieve straightlining portions of this run that lead directly into the main village of Val d'Isere.

View looking down Le Face into the Village of Val d'Isere 

Looking Up Le Face 

View of Le Face from Solaise Express Chairlift 

At the top of the Solaise Express chairlift (open until 5:15pm!!) we stumbled upon what would be one of our favorite lunch spots with beautiful views, a great windproof bar area, and the best pizza we'd find on the trip.  This is Solaise:

Mark and Jeff opted for beer while Tom and I chose the more appropriate bottle of local vino.  When in Rome, as they say...

After a delightful lunch at yet another good on-mountain restaurant, we struggled to get back on the skis again but there was a job to be done.  We skied the Solaise area including the Glacier and Cugnai chairlifts.  These lifts were at a very high elevation and this was a typical view (from the top of Cugnai I think).

(from left to right) Tom, Kevin and Jeff soak in the views

From these few blog posts you get the idea of what our week entailed:  mind-bending views, warm weather, sun, wine, great food, etc.