Mens GS World Cup

The guests have been here for 4 days now, and so far so good... all the cooking has gone pretty well and they're having a good time. It's 4 men probably late 40's/ 50's and they're here for 1 week, then next week we're up to full occupancy with 12 guests. The pictures below are our lovely snow-cleared steps and my first afternoon tea- hummingbird cake.

At the weekend they held the Mens World Cup Slalom and GS on that slope I've shown you thats light up at night. We has transfer day on the Saturday so didn't see the Slalom but on Sunday we watched all the 2nd runs and saw Marcel Hirscher win.

It's pretty different watching it on TV to the real thing but really glad we got to see it, hopefully there'll be a downhill at some point although someone said they got rid of it from the circuit because it was too dangerous.

Anyway here's some pictures from Sunday, lots of people and lots of noise- especially when a Frenchmen was skiing. 

Pure Powder

So it's basically been snowing everyday for the last week, lost count of how much we've had but every day has been spend doing a few hours of snow shovelling from the night before. It's a bit demoralising when you clear an area and an hour later there's 10cm of fresh stuff there but can't complain, it's good to ski on and decent exercise (plus it beats cleaning)

I think I've skied 5 times now, mostly in poor visibility but yesterday we had blue skies and could finally take on some of the powder. The new ski's are amazing, can't imagine skiing on small ski's again- they just seem to float.

Here's a few freeze frames from the GoPro

We seem to clear our doorway each night but we've woken up to this a few times

Blue skies yesterday, one of the best days skiing until I realised it was -14 and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes

Accidentally broke the 'no-backflips until 2013' rule yesterday, couldn't help it with a natural kicker and loads of powder to land in though.

Wine testing in the evening, I'm now an expert and can pick you the perfect wine for your meal, not a bad end to a great day skiing. We tried the tow house reds and whites 3 of each from our upgraded wine list including a bottle of Red that costs between €150-200 in some of the Val d'Isere restaurants.

La Face light up in the evening, ready for the downhill and GS tomorrow, should be good but they've had a job getting it ready with all the powder. Get Ski Sunday on this weekend and you should be able to watch it, or on the red button it's live I think.

Also we just found out we have our first guests tomorrow so thats something to look forward to.

First Day Skiing

Apologies for the delay in pictures but we got our first day on the mountain on the day the resort opened, December 1st. Couldn't have had much better conditions in the morning, bright blue skies and amazing snow

Not bad for the first day of the season

Me and Charlie

The second day wasn't quite so blue however, we got out in the afternoon on the 2nd December but the visibility wasn't great - mainly because it won't stop snowing! Wasn't to bad though and still got a few hours in. The picture below is a run into Tignes Val Claret.

Deep Cleaning and the Resort

The last week has basically been spent deep cleaning the chalet, here's some photos of our handy work in the kitchen and living room,

These are some pictures from around the resort, 

The Church

La Face piste lit up at night

Moving In

Training week ended on the 26th with a night out in Saloon, then on the 27th we moved to our new home about 10 minutes up the road- Bellevarde Lodge (not an official address for postage though). Not a bad place to spend 5 months...

(Technically this is two 12 man chalets though- split down the middle. Our accommodation is underneath if you can see a door next to the garage and some windows)

The chalet is really nice, the chalet, decent kitchen for cooking and serving meals for 12 and there's a big open plan dining/ lounge area with this view,

First decent snowfall, 28th November 2012, about 1ft.

This is underneath the chalet where and Charlie sleep, not huge but does the job and has en suite.


Basically the last few days has been deep cleaning the chalet, not the nicest thing to do 8 hours a day (I spent 3 hours with my head in an oven yesterday) but I suppose it has to be done, and if it goes well we've got the promise of skiing on Saturday (1st December) which is when the mountain opens.
If anyone wondered what how much crochery is required to serve up for 12 each day here's a start, and that does include the 4 types of plates and 2 bowls.

Sample of the food I've been Cooking

So during training week we basically have a cooking demo in the morning then a few hours of info on the resort/ company/ stuff we need to know for buying food etc... in the afternoon. We had a rota for cooking in the evening/ preparing breakfast and afternoon tea, here's a sample of some of the stuff we made...

Roasted Red Pepper with lemon and pea risotto

Chocolate Cupcakes

Pain au Chocolat Pudding

Key Lime Pie with Merangue

Canepes

Towel Swans

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Training Week Continued

Training week is still going, haven't cooked a full dinner again yet as we take it in turn. Had Health and Safety/ Fire today along with another cooking demo.

Yesterday we had a day off, and everyone was feeling slightly worse-for-wear after the night before when we got in at around 4.30am from DouDoune (a club in Val d'Isere). When we did rise we had a walk around the town and up one of the black piste's that leads into town, La Face, which is used for all the downhill and races.

A view down the Valley

La Face, the downhill run with snow canon snow on it getting ready for the women's Championship on 8th December

A View of the resort from up on the pistè

The Val d'Isere health club, gym, pool, spa, squash etc... pretty swanky

Training Week

We arrived in Resort on the Saturday 17th, and they gave us the rest of the day off to check out the resort. We're staying in the guest chalets which are pretty fancy and we got cooked for. Also found a bar for the football and rugby on, then had welcome drinks and off to another bar Blue Note.

Day 1 - Sun 18th
First day of training, general bits and bobs about the company and what they offer. Went to play some pool and darts in V-Spot in the evening. 

Day 2 - Mon 19th
Training continued and we had our first food demo.
In the evening me and Charlie cooked a 5 course meal including canapés with a champagne reception.

Day 3 - Tues 20nd
I think me and Charlie got the short straw because we were on breakfast, the table can barely fit all the stuff we served but cereals, yoghurts, hot pastries, bread, pancakes, bacon eggs and tomato cover most of it. Think I might put on weight in the next few months, although apparently boys generally loose weight which would be nice.
More training in the day but not on dinner so nice to be cooked for. Just finished it, and had good guests today with some crazy stories.

This is the afternoon tea we laid out (without the cake because it was still baking, pictures to come at some point)

The Season Begins

16th November 2012

The new ski's arrived ready for the season ahead, Armada AKJJ's for the powder days and AR7's for the Park and Piste. (The benefits of working all summer)

Car Packed (boot still open) and off to the station, Epping >> Bank >> Collier Wood on the underground followed by a 20 hour coach journey to Val d'Isere.