Easiski Spring 2010 Newsletter

Winter 2009/10 had the most amazing snowfall. Although the snow started quite late compared to last year, it never seemed to stop once it got going! To be honest, we all got fed up with it! Clearing snow is hard work, but has to be done when it falls or it's impossible.

It was also very cold for a very long time, temperatures of around -20 were regular in the mornings throughout most of the winter months. In fact the snowline is still at 2,000m and the Cretes is fully loaded.

The summer 2010 season looks as though it's going to start better than any I can remember; there is a massive amount of snow above 2,000m, and the lift company were working very hard with the piste machines to conserve everything that fell during the winter, including pisting areas of the glacier that are normally left natural. They were also busy completely re-building several of the summer lifts which was very interesting to watch.

Les Deux Alpes will be open for business again on 16th June with the huge Mondial du VTT (mountain bike) event kicking everything off from the Wednesday to the Saturday. There will also be a number of other major mountain bike events throughout the summer opening, along with so many others I couldn't possibly list them all. I'd just like to refer you to www.les2alpes.com as the tourist office website for fuller information.

Special Winter Courses Report

Easiski ran 3 ‘special weeks' this winter: 2 weeks of ‘ Learn to ski bumps and off piste' and one ‘ Cautious to Confident' .

The first off piste and bumps clinic in January was almost entirely devoted to core skills and off piste since there weren't actually any bumps around at the time (due to all the snow that kept falling). This was a great week with the participants all making great strides in both their core skills and also their handling of deep snow. Of course La Grave had to be included at the end of the week.

The second of these clinics was run in March by special request and was more focused on bumps which were then evident all over the mountain. Core skills were also to the fore in this clinic due to the disparity in the technical levels of the participants, however a couple of serious off piste descents were managed including the Vallons de la Meije.

The Cautious to Confident (largely organised by Heather) week was a huge success, building on last year's clinic, and again I was very pleased with the progress of all the participants. Some serious improvements were made, sadly for the middle group, the huge jump occurred on the last day when it was teeming with snow and the video was at home.

Easi-apartments are growing nicely, in spite of the recession. Apart from the apartments that I manage there are a number of others on the website which I know and can personally recommend. I can always help you with your search for a suitable apartment to rent.

Management terms (for those with apartments) are 20% of the rental inclusive of cleaning, preparation, and guest care; repairs are at cost using local workmen.

The new Easi-Apartments website should be ‘live' by the beginning of June — www.easi-apartments.com keep your eyes peeled!

Breaking News A new service, starting this year will be acting for apartment owners at their Co-proprieté Assemblée Genernaux. It's important to have a voice, and your ‘Pouvoir' can be voted against your wishes by the person holding it!

I 'd like to thank those of you who Easiskied last winter, and hope to see those of you who missed out next winter—or better still, this summer. I do hope all is well with you in spite of the current financial situation, and that your love of skiing is going from strength to strength. If you haven't already done so, I'd really appreciate it if you could go to my website and sign the Guestbook . This is (I'm told) a great help to potential new students. Thank you, and have a good summer

Spring 2009 Newsletter

Report on winter 2008/2009

I hope you all had a very good season with plenty of skiing and good conditions when you did. We had a really good season snow-wise, with huge dumps early on , followed by a rather dry patch in the middle of the winter and then lots more snow in March and the usual late snow in April (but sadly not during the Easter week). At the moment, in spite of a recent 3 weeks of very warm weather, the snow conditions above 2,600m are truly excellent. We were skiing 25 cms or so of powder on the piste on Thursday (16 th ) and off piste on Friday! It's been snowing above 2,000m since then too.

The figures for the season as far as the resort's concerned have been better than one might have thought with the present financial situation, with numbers up early on and then down in March and April. From the Easiski point of view, I think I was a little down on last year, but the holiday weeks were frantic as ever, and I've already had a number of reservations and enquiries for next year – mainly the week before Easter.

New for winter 2009/2010I'm working with the tourist office to get Les Deux Alpes as a resort to initiate a special page/offers on the website with ‘crunch busting' ideas for winter 2009/10. These include a number of hotels and apartments which are happy to take mid-week to mid-week bookings and to encourage more weekends etc. There's no problem with the equipment hire of course, but ski lessons are slightly more problematical. Therefore, in partnership with the European Ski School , Easiski will be offering ‘Learn to Ski' weekends , with lessons on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. These are specifically for beginners, and the course price will be €100 for the 3 days. Lift passes are unlikely to be required with 7 free lifts in the village, and with a number of cheap accommodation offers around, this will hopefully be very interesting to people wanting to start skiing, but wanting to do it on a budget.

Fast & Easy Summer Camps This year, for the first time, I'm getting together with Rick Schnellmann (known as Fastman on a number of ski forums), to run two separate weeks of Core Skills Development Camps. The price excluding travel and spending money will be £590 , which includes half board (shared rooms) in a 4* hotel, liftpass and either 2 hours of coaching per day in a group of 4 or 4 hours per day in a group of 8. There is more information on the website at http://www.easiski.com/SpecialCourses.html and places are limited to 16 per week. However it would be possible for non-participating partners/children etc to come too. The hotel is large and also has several single rooms. We will organise roommates as required.

Our camps will be following the ‘building blocks' approach shown in Rick's DVDs ( http://www.yourskicoach.com/YourSkiCoach/Ski_Instruction_DVD_Video.html )and will concentrate on the core skills which allow you to improve and enjoy your skiing more, This is, of course, the way both of us teach anyway.

Junior race training and skills development Camp I'm offering this as (hopefully) a family holiday during which the keen kids can do race training and really get their skills up to scratch before the autumn round of races on the artificial slopes etc. I shall be running this camp in partnership with Anne Millet, who is a local race trainer, ex world cup skier and speaks excellent English. Full race training facilities will be available and there can also be fitness training and other activities in the afternoon. Possibilities for accommodation are almost infinite and include camping in Venosc and Le Freney d'Oisans. Again more details can be found on http://www.easiski.com/SpecialCourses.html

Reminders I shall continue to recommend the ski shop Ski Extreme who offer a discounted price to Easiskiers, and remain (I think) the best value in town.

Please do join the Snowheads forum ( http://snowheads.com ) as a very useful source of ski information, fun, and discussion.

Of course it goes without saying that you will need to book up very early for your lessons during the school holidays!

 

 

 

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