Val D'Isere Week 5

Val 2010 Week 5.jpg
The skiers were back with snow fun this week where Julian, David and Philip put the basecamper’s through their paces and pushed them to the limit.The week was geared towards increasing our understanding of the mountain, weather systems and avalanche risk. The snowboarders spent Monday doing transceiver training, checking the snow pack and learning about how the wind and the face of the slope affects the snow stability and slab risk. All of this added to the information provided in last week’s avalanche talk, but they were able to put it into practice so the understanding became far clearer. After the training the basecamper’s were shown some of the most remote and untouched off piste that the L’espace Killy has to offer. Hiking up in tignes to access the Chardonnay valley and also hitting some untouched powder in le Fornet as well as narrow tree runs and powder kickers. The snow fall permitted a lot of off piste.

The 4 weekers departed on Wednesday morning so leaving drinks were held on Tuesday night in Saloon with a few members of the group opting for fancy dress (with no particular theme!!). Annabel left on Saturday so we had a final supper a la table for her departure.

The 2nd first aid group was held on fri/sat of this week, which was again successful with a 100% pass rate. The boys celebrated the end of this by watching the 6 nations in blue note on Saturday night. Sunday was a powder day and Gareth go the ‘keeno’ prize for first lifts and staying out until 5pm. Overall another good week, with big progression in their skiing. This forthcoming week is freestyle for the boarders and slalom/race training and freestyle for the skiers so everyone is excited about the week ahead.