This is the story; back in late summer / autumn our friends trying the south of France for 6 months, Katie and Jon, asked if we would join them in making a French Alpes holiday. We rustled up a crew, including Fiona and Katie's friend Zoe and boyfriend Mick. (Who have also just begun a period of living overseas. They are currently based in Germany, with Micks extended Family. Interestingly Zoe speaks no German, Mick seems pretty fluent, so we had her telling lots of anecdotes of life living with his grandma).
After much skyping and e-mail, reviewing historical snow falls, discussing budgets, comparing resorts and accommodation, etc.. etc..Finally, it was agreed we would go for the week prior to official opening week, therefore taking advantage of the super deals they have to encourage people to get on the mountain before the season opening. (For future reference cost was 500Pds for Flights, Transfers, and 1 week in 2.5 bedroom penthouse with kitchen and our own cook for breakfast, Afternoon tea, and 3 course dinners AND unlimited wine.)
Between booking and December I had become unemployed, and was still looking and so it seemed absurd to be telling the Temp agency "sorry I am unavailable next week , I'm going skiing in the French Alps")
So December comes around and this trip proves to be great timing as a break from the job hunt routine. Meanwhile Kelly has the silly season of work related Christmas parties, which she enjoys very much. (This was her on the bus from Geneva to Moutiers - really feeling the night before - She mentioned vomiting until we realised what we thought was a toilet was actually exit stairs in the middle of the coach)
Little did she know that the advanced party was already stocking up on apre ski refreshments.
On arrival we had huge grins and were quite excited to see the accumulated snow depth. I for one had been worried that we might not get enough to make it worth it.
This is the bit where Kelly got back on the horse, and we all toasted the start of a great trip.
Le Trois Vallee was huuuge - we got much more than expected. So I was keen to plan best bang for bucks, by getting familiar with the layout and where the snow might be getting blown to. (It was a little breezy - even more so in the morning as you can see in the photo below)
The Windy first day meant only one lift and 2 runs were open. So we went with beginners from kiddie slopes to a very steep blue run.
no need for refrigeration
Afternoon tea was much like this. (I'm really getting into Nutella after despising it as a child.)-------------------------------------
Navigation was critical as not all lifts and runs were open. Crisp folds don't go so good in this environment , gloves probably don't help either.
The Saulire cable car out of Courchevel 1850 - very impressive. They actually ran a rescue exercise on this whilst we were there. (they had to reach it while i was stuck half way up)
This was the view from our bedroom balcony. this inversion was in place for the whole week.
more map work on our only clear sunny day. We had everyone get across to Meribel after a day or two of lessons and re-familiarisation.
Cruisin' the cat track (access Road for lift servicing)This is me mixing it up, showing the kids how much fun you can really have tooling around on your snowboard.
Our first time in le bubble! - It protect us us very well from the freezing breeze.
We had arranged to have ourselves a little Christmas party night, with cheap secret santa gifts. 
I purchased Kelly a phrasebook "how to say FABULOUS in seven different languages" - a travel phrase book for gay men. (Should come in useful in our further travels)
Kelly's gift for Katie provided us the most entertainment. The finger puppets became a vehicle for story presentations by each of us on the following evenings.
I told a story of canoeing the Noosa everglades. (its somewhat similar to the gilligans island theme tune) I even had to create an extra character from a napkin., as i had a large cast to fill. There were also stories reenacting the days events on the mountain, and of love at first sight, boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets cute girl back etc..
Because the deal in our penthouse was so good, we only had one night out, and frankly we were not missing much. We assumed that the nightlife was not really happening due to it being pre-season, but others have since related that French resorts can be a little like this, catering for families, and serious skiers. (Also It was boarder week at nearby Val Thorens, which attracts masses of students and party people)-----------------------------------------
Following our Day of sunshine we had a whole day where the snow did not let up till very late in the afternoon. This turned out to be a great day for Kelly and I 
who persisted after a taking longer than usual lunch break as most other people called it a day. We had the best afternoon! Some great powder runs and the slopes to ourselves as the weather cleared after everyone else had retired early due to poor visibility. Kelly gets super excited with fresh powder underfoot and huge flakes continuing to fall.
who persisted after a taking longer than usual lunch break as most other people called it a day. We had the best afternoon! Some great powder runs and the slopes to ourselves as the weather cleared after everyone else had retired early due to poor visibility. Kelly gets super excited with fresh powder underfoot and huge flakes continuing to fall. 
The crew walking from our building (big one in the background) to the Courchevel 1650 lift base.
A little stop in the woods on our way across from 1650 to 1850 and beyond. The next day Fi and I picked a fantastic open tree run in un-tracked wind blown powder nearby here.
As you can see visibility was terrible for most of the day. We still had our share of exploring and evaluating the newly opened runs. 
These were the only shots we got that shows a hint of the snow quality. (I'm obsessed these days in case you had not noticed)
This is a Mountain sized can against the snowfall from the day.------------------------------------
On the Second last day and Fi Josh + Kel go to Val Thorens - visibility still not so good to variable.
Learning from our time in San Sebastian Donostia we stop for espresso and lat'e mid morning.
I now understand why Bernie calls these runs French Snow Highways. (or something like that) They are often so wide, and huge cuts traversing the mountains.
This was a moment where the cloud cleared and then came back just was we said- lets get photo! Because this sky is ridiculously deep blue. 
This is more of a fair representation.
Its such a long way across to Val Thoren by the time we got there (with some side trips; "ooh look at that slope - lets ride it while the suns out" followed by "i cant even see the second post marming the edge of the run let alone which way is down. Lets wait it out till the cloud clears" then "crap. ok then lets just slowly decend and push on to val thoren" )
Fi and I made up for missing that by sneaking this pitch in. I spied with my little eye a section of deep wind blown powder (lee ward slope for the last 3 days) in a slight hollow between two fields of large boulders as you can see. We barely got these shots of our tracks before once again the cloud came in. ( I spliced two shots together for the full pitch) 
Oh and as many others have done before us, and probably do every day, we missed the last lift which would have taken us from mottaret to the top of Saulire and enabled us to ski home. Therefore along with many others we made a mad scramble to determine how we could ge back. Fortuately we discovered there is a traversing rd from Mirabel to La Praz which meant we did not have to get a bus all the way back to the head of the valley and then back up our valley to courchevel. We caught a bus, taki bus combo which was very economical.WARNING: Those who stay at Val thorens and get caught are less fortunate, they have to go all the way out and then up a valley which goes much deeper and higher in to the mountains. They were looking at a cab ride over 200EURO!!!
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On the final day I was still super keen, and was just hanging in there on the fatigue front. Fi was
adamant that she would get to Val thoren and go down one of the runs on the glaciers.Visibility turned out to be much worse than the day before at altitude (once we got there) and we had to alter our plans. Even when planning to go down the the valley to a lower altitude to try and get below the cloud was fruitless, and we were back in white out conditions, stopping regularly for map sessions and a few times nearly missing the excellent run/direction signage.
After arriving at a Cabin/Pub/Restaurant which we had not planned to be at we decided to give up the exploration, make a toilet stop and some schnapps before heading back over the ridge, valley ridge,valley, ridge to get home. I did not realise i was ordering a double.
Meanwhile those wresting up decided to get out there and had a cruisy day at lower altitude and closer to home (riding runs between 1850 and La Praz / La Tania) apparently it was very nice and well protected as it was in the treeline. This is chapman in action. No one believes she held this edge, but apparently it is true.
Did i mention they even stopped for a sun lounge? 
Followed by a group apre ski. But were were Fi and Josh??We were supposed to meet up....
.....Well lets just say that once again we found some good visibility, great snow, and some fun runs as we got close to home. And I was working my best to convince Fiona to hang in there until the lifts were well and truly closed. We managed to score some knee deep pow off the sides of the blue run which led home, and then went for a second time as the lifts were still running.
To cap off the week and really wring it out we finished with a bang. (I am also still bitter that we never got any shots of me clearing the snow fence at goats eye -Sunshine in Canada) So on spying this 
submerged cabin i had Fi set the camera to motordrive for some action. It's pretty tame, as the runup was a little short, but there it is.. 
We backed it up with some sledging through the powder as a shoertcut for Fi to return her hire board. The shortcut had us heading for the awnings/rooftops of the shopfronts, at which point we pulled up rapidly to adjust our trajectory along a traversing track of footprints leading to a little cabin with some steps leading down between the shop fronts to the street. Phew - i certainly dont need any more big drops of rooftops (Plus we did not have anyone down there to record it). So there. Done.
Now i can get the later news up from London, including XMAS in the Cotswolds, Josh gets a Job, and 15cm of snow in London for February! (I really have lagged behind) Stay Tuned.
