Day Trip to Meribel

On our day of on March 6th we went to Meribel for the day on the coach that VIP Ski sorted out for us, although it was about 2 hours drive it was good to get out of Val and see one of the other big resorts in the Alpes.

This is the view from up the mountain, the weather was alright in terms of visibility but there were really strong winds and the snow was a bit slushy due to the warm weather.

Meribel has just been voted 'Best Snowpark in the Alpes' for 2013, with the DC Area 43 park, however luckily for mum due to the high winds most of it was shut so we just skied through to look at it and did a few smaller things, pictures below.

Lunch and a few snacks throughout the day

This year Meribel has had a Folie Douce built, so now as well as the original in Val d'Isere there's also one in Val Thorens and Meribel/ Although it was much bigger than Val it wasn't as full and the atmosphere wasn't as good, I think it will take a while for it to get as popular as VT and Val, although maybe it was the weather.

After the Folie we had a few more beers in the Rond Point, the most well known après bar in Meribel.

On the ski down from the Ronnie there was a competition and fireworks on the slope opposite.

Popped into a restaurant just before leaving to grab a pizza then fell asleep for the entire 2 hour drive home!

Skiing with Paddy Graham

During the second half of the week with RedBull we had pro-skier Paddy Graham staying in our chalet. On the Saturday afternoon we got to ski with him in the snowpark. This is a couple of the photo's taken of him, in brown) and me, in a blue top and black and white salopettes.

Me doing a backflip

Paddy doing a hand-drag

RedBull Week and Birthday

Between Feb 24th - March 3rd we had the RedBull Winter Wonderland Corporate event at our chalet. Other than the sign outside and the RedBull fridge the chalet was the same, but rather than staying for a week we had two 3 day events. Most people had never skied as they were all bar managers who'd met RedBull sales targets over Christmas and New Year.

The RedBull Fridge

One of the events in the VIP of Folie Douce... free beer and Champagne!

One of the RedBull nights out in Cafe Face and Dicks Tea Bar.

Me and Tony out at Dicks

My Birthday Night at Dicks Tea Bar

On my Birthday we had to do a changeover of the Chalet, which wasn't a great morning... but then we went for a ski and to Cafe Face for a few drinks, then Band-ioke at Le Petit Danois (it's Karaoke but with a live band playing the song and doing backing vocals for you). In the evening we went for a burger then as we had no guests me and Charlie had Champagne in the Chalet Hot Tub.

SFR Tour

In mid-Feb the SFT Tour was in Tignes doing a halfpipe competition. The weather was pretty amazing so sitting in the sun with a few beers and a croque monsieur was a good way to spent the afternoon.

SFR Tour Link

Pisteurs Couloir

On Monday 18th February I took on one of the harder and more famous couloirs in Val d'Isere, Couloir des Pisteurs.

We had to hike about 20/30 minutes along the ridge in the picture above from the top of the Grand Prix chairlift.

This is the view from the entry to the couloir.

This is Rob coming down after me and Sam.

The good news was that after the tight rocky couloir there was some really good powder when it opened up. It was 4 days since it'd snowed but as not many people do the couloir and the weather had stayed cold the snow was amazing.

This is the view of what we skiied from the bottom.

Frostgun Invitational

Between February 9th - 16th the Frostgun Invitational was held in Val d'Isere. Basically they built a huge jump and loads of pro's had a big air competition, it was won by Alex Bellemare of Canada. Unfortunately we couldn't watch the final up close because we were cooking dinner but we could see the jump out of our window and we had it streamed on the TV so we got a good view and replay after each jump.

The DJ booth where the crowd were entertained between rounds, they also had music after the event finished which we managed to go to.

 One of the competitors.

 Charlie standing in the gap between the two sides of the landing.

 Me standing on the landing with the take-off behind.