Les 3 Vallees, France: Jan 2022

[Face4Me]

Did you socialize and eat meals with the ski club members?

Yes. The current president of the club is a friend of mine from work, so at the start of the trip, he was the only person I knew in the group. I think there were one or two others that I had met on previous trips.

Were they all old? Ski clubs are not young.

I guess it depends on your definition of old. I would say that the majority of the people on the trip were in their 40's & 50's, with a few 20 somethings thrown in, and a couple of 60 somethings too.

 

[Benny Profane]

That's actually pretty young compared to the club I travelled with and a few others whose meetings I attended around here.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Everyone starts drinking there at, oh, 2, and it continues until 3 in the morning in the indoor discos in town. You'd hear them coming home. I totally understood how Covid spread so fast in those ski towns early in the pandemic.

Right. The #1 super spreader was Ischgl, which I visited in 2013 as part of a very small percentage of its clientele who go only to ski (kinda like the old days, claiming that you read Playboy for the interviews).

Somehow, the town avoided charges of negligence for not moving quickly enough at the outset of COVID, which I suppose would be hard to prove.

 

[Benny Profane]

That awful movie Downhill, with Will Farrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who I really like and was listed as a producer (too bad) was filmed there. I do point at it for non skiers as what the experience of modern lift serviced groomer skiing looks like, if they care. Except that two bedroom hotel suite they sleep in with the kitchen. Um, no.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

That awful movie Downhill, with Will Farrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus

A perfect example of Hollywood trying to adapt an interesting foreign film (Force Majeure) and ruining it.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

@Face4Me:​

Tony on the First Tracks Online forum just posted reports from six days at the 3V. He stayed at the Club Med, whose all-inclusive format provides all-day guides.

Two bluebird days:
Val Thorens/Mottaret, March 28, 2022
Val Thorens/Orelle, March 29, 2022

Four days with tough visibility:
Courchevel, March 30-31, 2022
Val Thorens, April 1-2, 2022

 

[chumpomatic]

Getting myself psyched up for the upcoming season and came across this trip report. Thanks so much for this @Face4Me, super fun read. What an awesome attitude you have!

Now I'm even more psyched!