It was great to be back in the French Alpes. what a great place to be.

Late in 2019 we had been invited by Edward and Louise to ski in Alpe D’huez. We had to go in half term because my son Alex (12) would come with me as we had done 2 years ago. The last time we went it was very busy so we kind of knew what to expect.

Alpes D’huez is a great family oriented resort and comprises mainly of French and English people. Its particularly busy at half term and having been there before at this time we did know what to expect.

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Arrival in Oz

On arrival we went and parked the car in an underground car park and we then went to the local ski shop where we obtained skis, poles and helmets for the week. The ski shop is directly adjacent to the appartment building so again this is really convenient.

Car – What a pile of cra*

When visiting Oz we normally hire a car. This time we were provided with one of the ugliest cars that I have ever driven (it was a Renault). I drove the car from the airport to Oz and it was really challenging. It was a manual geared car with a manual gear box. The gear box fought me all the way to Oz as I could never seem to select the right gear twice in succession. Fortunately I had a great co-driver (Louise) to direct me BUT with new traffic lights installed on the route it took what seemed to be forever to reach our destination.

Nearing Oz there is a really twisty mountain road, the type that yiou see featured in “The Grand Tour” where Clarkson zooms up the hill in some form of 1,000 bhp supercar but we were in this Renault wheelybin which appeared to also have a slipping clutch. The uphill , twisty climb to Oz is probably very scenic but I had no time to admire the views as I was fighting to get to our destination. It was a great feeling when we finally arrived .

To the Ski Lift

Ski Lift – In years gone by it was possible to ski from the appartment block down to the main ski lift but this year there was a shortage of snow and this was not possible (no big deal really). The ski lift is about 100 yds down the hill from the appartment and takes only a couple of minutes to walk.

About the resort

Alpes D’huez has a large and varied range of ski slopes, runs and pistes. Its a great location for learning how to ski. There is a large ski school in the centre of the village and there are large numbers of young skiiers congrataged each morning together with the men/women in red ( ski instructors ).

The resort is small but there are several restaurants, bars, ski hire shops and there is a grocery store or two which is great if you are self catering.

Over the course of the week we skied just about every run that there was at Alpes D’huez thiugh we did not do the intrepid ‘tunnel’ but maybe next time. There are some really great runs. The Sarenna is one of the longest runs in europe and its some 14Km long. We did the Sarenne which is labelled as the longest black run in europe but although there are steep sections its really only in parts that the Sarenne is a black and at some points you have to carry enough speed with you else you will be yomping ( and no one likes to do that ).

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A gloomy, grey day

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Alex decides the ‘L’ shaped ski poles are the best.

Alex decided that his poles required a redesign.

I had hoped to have placed some photographs here but I cannot seem to located them. We were on this chari lift which was a 2-man charilift and the scenery was amazing. It was silent all around and we were some 50 ft off the ground. Snow was all around as we were quite high and there was hardly a human footprint to be seen (perfect). This chairlift crossed a valley and so it went down really sharply. At the bottom there was a small station whee , if you wish, you can disembark off the lift and then ski down the mountain down to the valley floor BUT what we did not know was the the chair actually went very, very low to the ground but just for a brief moment. Alex happened to have his ski poles in his handsbut hanging below the bottom of the chair and he was sort of unaware that the ground was rushing up to him kind of sharpish when all of a sudden panic set in as the poles started to bend, having been trapped between the bottom of the chair and the ground. He did not let the poles go (to his credit) but when the chair statred to climb up the hill his poles were ‘L’ shaped with a big crease in the middle (this was not good). When we got off the lift Eddie edcided to try and straighten one of the poles (bad idea) and because they are an aluminium tubular affair of course the pole broke in half (really no good).

Louise loaned Alex at least one of her poles and we had to make our way back off the ountain and to the ski shop where Alex was made to recount what had happened. New poles were supplied and once more we set off to the slopes having parted with 20 euros for the replacement poles.

Alex, get out of that net.

So we were coming down a really steep section of a really long run. The sky was Azure Blue and the snow was just fantastic. In front of me I spied Louise who had stopped some 100m below on the outside of a sharp left hand bend. As I approached louise I noticed that there was some steel work and that in front of this was an orange catch fence which was there just to ensure that if someone came speeding down the hill and round the bend that if they lost control that there would be something there to protect them from the steel structure.

So I arrived with Louise and had a good look round. I knew that Alex was behind me so I glanced back and over to the right and I could see that he was coming down the hioll and he was carrying quite some speed. Alex then decided NOT to slow down for some reason and he zoomed right past , but behind me and the next thing I witnessed was my 12 year old son, entangled in this orange netting with both legs up in the air and his skiis flailing somewhere above his head. Again this would have been a great photo opportunity and it was one of those moments that we really should have captured but alas we missed the chance to record another long term memory.