Sorry I've been gone for so long, but it means it's time for a catch up- this is ultimate revision procrastination, so you'll be hearing a lot from me (but no promises).
My flatmate Merryn was over in Geneva for a long weekend- so naturally, it meant some skiing had to be done.
We went up to Flaine, part of the Grand Massif on Saturday and could barely see a thing- the whole resort was in low cloud, making the skiing a bit risky and unnerving. To sum it up, we had planned to start on a gentle blue run to get down to the right lift, but ended up taking a red earlier than planned! Fortunately nobody had any accidents that day- but if you're not under the pressure of 48 hours to ski in, I wouldn't recommend skiing in fog.
Come Sunday, I was all over the Flaine Webcams (the handiest tool for seeing what it's really like on the mountains, though we have also found the snow forecast website accurate). It looked like we would see some sun, though clouds were threatening...
...but it ended up being beautiful!
So after posing next to Mont Blanc multiple times and getting through most of what Flaine had to offer (within the limits of my ability- Merryn is a much better skier than I). We stopped off at Les Blanchots- the only restaurant on the slopes, where Dad started to look pretty sleepy and we decided to head off home.
In terms of Flaine as a resort- the slopes are amazing. I'm no expert and only skied blues and reds, but they're all really wide runs, with loads of variations- a few of the slopes have turnoffs as part of them, joining other runs or just being two ways down to the nearest lift. My personal favourite is Cristal, a blue that joins onto Beelzebuth, a red down to the lift called Desert Blanc- in fact, all the runs that begin at that chairlift are great fun for the casual skier. At the top you reach around 2400 m, meaning that the snow lasts a lot longer.
However, Flaine as a place to stay ranks pretty low on my list- it's a purpose built area, in 1970s style apartments. You would think that purpose built would mean the slopes are easily accessible, but it's not really the case- we had a total faff from parking our car to renting our skis to finally getting onto the slopes. It's basically because it's a weird system where the resort is split onto three levels which are hard to move between on foot (and even harder in ski boots). Also, there's nothing to do in Flaine except ski- so if you want to have a great apres after your day on the slopes, look elsewhere. Of course, if you're there to ski and nothing more, Flaine is great- and only 1 hour and 30 mins from Geneva, makes great day spring skiing.
It was the last opportunity I had until Christmas to ski, so we won't have much alpine blogging for a while now! I'm glad I had Merryn as an excuse to see it through until the end of the season.
My flatmate Merryn was over in Geneva for a long weekend- so naturally, it meant some skiing had to be done.
We went up to Flaine, part of the Grand Massif on Saturday and could barely see a thing- the whole resort was in low cloud, making the skiing a bit risky and unnerving. To sum it up, we had planned to start on a gentle blue run to get down to the right lift, but ended up taking a red earlier than planned! Fortunately nobody had any accidents that day- but if you're not under the pressure of 48 hours to ski in, I wouldn't recommend skiing in fog.
Come Sunday, I was all over the Flaine Webcams (the handiest tool for seeing what it's really like on the mountains, though we have also found the snow forecast website accurate). It looked like we would see some sun, though clouds were threatening...
...but it ended up being beautiful!
So after posing next to Mont Blanc multiple times and getting through most of what Flaine had to offer (within the limits of my ability- Merryn is a much better skier than I). We stopped off at Les Blanchots- the only restaurant on the slopes, where Dad started to look pretty sleepy and we decided to head off home.
In terms of Flaine as a resort- the slopes are amazing. I'm no expert and only skied blues and reds, but they're all really wide runs, with loads of variations- a few of the slopes have turnoffs as part of them, joining other runs or just being two ways down to the nearest lift. My personal favourite is Cristal, a blue that joins onto Beelzebuth, a red down to the lift called Desert Blanc- in fact, all the runs that begin at that chairlift are great fun for the casual skier. At the top you reach around 2400 m, meaning that the snow lasts a lot longer.
However, Flaine as a place to stay ranks pretty low on my list- it's a purpose built area, in 1970s style apartments. You would think that purpose built would mean the slopes are easily accessible, but it's not really the case- we had a total faff from parking our car to renting our skis to finally getting onto the slopes. It's basically because it's a weird system where the resort is split onto three levels which are hard to move between on foot (and even harder in ski boots). Also, there's nothing to do in Flaine except ski- so if you want to have a great apres after your day on the slopes, look elsewhere. Of course, if you're there to ski and nothing more, Flaine is great- and only 1 hour and 30 mins from Geneva, makes great day spring skiing.
It was the last opportunity I had until Christmas to ski, so we won't have much alpine blogging for a while now! I'm glad I had Merryn as an excuse to see it through until the end of the season.
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