The Col

Finally, on our last day of skiing, we find Col de l'Isèran, which we rode over on bicycles, way back in 1985. It's the highest paved pass in the Alps (at 2770 meters… just a few meters higher than Passo Stelvio in the Italian Alps, which we also rode that year.) The memories came back little by little. This was the last pass on one of the longest days of the 1985 Super Tour of the Alps, a day which had over 200 km with 5 big passes that totaled more than 4000 meters of climbing. We passed by this bleak outpost with the little chapel at the top late in the day and rode the long winding descent down through Val d'Isère, finally ending the day at Bourg St. Maurice.

Today we skied by the same pass, with the same bleak little chapel on the windswept pass. But the sun was out and the snow was good, so we skied down and took a few more runs and finish off the afternoon of skiing on the other side of the mountain in La Daille. What a week!

Col de l'Isèran, 2770m, highest paved pass in the Alps.

View down the pass to the north (the road is there somewhere under the snow).

Cusine de Savoyard

As you have no doubt learned from my previous missives from our temporary abode in the French Alps, the skiing part of this tour is simply a front for enjoying incredible food on a daily basis. This, our last evening in Val d'Isère, was not without exception as we enjoyed the fondue aux morilles and pierrade (meats barbecued at the table on a hot stone slab) at the superb little hole-in-the-wall restaurant of Le Bistrot des Cimes, Zak's fav!

We came to eat

Val d'Isère seems to have a restaurant at the top of every other lift so we stop at almost every opportunity for a snack, lunch or a drink or just to warm up or take in the view. Our balanced diet usually includes something from at least 3 of the 4 French food groups: bread, cheese, wine and frites.

Monday Market

Every Monday an outdoor market comes to life throughout the main village in Val. Offering substantially different fare from our vegetable and fruit filled market's back home, this winter market is filled with booths of sausage, cheese, nuts and candy in addition to many booths with clothing and souvenirs for tourists.

This dried fruit and nut vendor had a vast assortment… it was hard to pick just one.

The candy booth flew straight out of a dentist's nightmare.

Getting Up the Mountain

The size of the Val d'Isère is simply overwhelming, especially compared to our humble little Sugar Bowl back home. The vertical is at least double that of Sugar Bowl: over 4000 feet of vertical are achievable in one run down. Barb's ski tracker recorded that run to be 5 miles long!

Val d'Isère and adjoining Tignes have no less than 42 modes of transport up the mountain including an assortment of rope tows (yes, these mitten shredders from my childhood still exist!), Poma lifts, T-bars, chairs, some holding up to 8 people, gondolas that hold from 4 to 12 and cable cars that hold dozens. Additionally, there are a couple of funiculars – cable pulled trains that go straight up through the mountain and come out on the other side. No orderly lift lines here… the French method of getting to the lift is to push your way through to the front, then wait for your friends.

This gondola, known as Vallon, with it's rose tinted windows, wrapped around the mountain for several miles and it was just the middle lift of 5 lifts to get to the top! That included one of the longest Poma lifts that I've ever been on, which had 2 Pomas, side by side, and included two curves and a steep upper section… no wonder it said 'experts only' at the bottom.

Sur la Montagne

We had dinner tonight at this whimsical restaurant 'On the Mountain' (actually in the village of Val d'Isere) which had an amazing wall of plants growing on a wall of dirt, a toy area for kids (rivaling the Circus Pub, at home), bird cages filled with colorful stuffed birds, and sheepskins on many of the chairs. Oh, and good food!

Coca cola deck chair monopoly

All of the slope side decks at Val d'Isere are blanketed with these things... and eventually we are seduced into taking more breaks and more vistas.

One of the largest restaurants, Le Folle Douce, high on the mountain, puts on a big dance production in the afternoon, capturing hundreds of skiers with loud pumping music, flowing wine and champagne, and of course, live dancers. Meanwhile, small planes land and take off nearby and hang gliders, parasailers and ultralights cruise the skies overhead. 1000s of skiers and boarders complete the winter circus. And this is a light weekend crowd... the real craziness apparently starts tomorrow when all of Paris goes on spring break.

Zoë's friends

Hanging out with Zoe and a couple of her good friends in Val d'Isere and Tignes.

Cheers!

We stop for a little drink in the afternoon...

View from the upper deck

Taking a break with Zak at one of the many cafes on the mountain. The views are just spectacular and expansive... you just want to stop and look and appreciate it because no amount of pictures can really capture it.

View from the top

Zoë catches the view before our first run today.

Le petit déjeuner

Nice little breakfast spread at Hotel Kandahar.

al•pine |ˈalˌpīn|

adjective [ usu. attrib. ]of or relating to high mountains: kinda like this…

Aprés Cocoa

With the initials 'bn' for the Blue Note which would be the bar we're at.

On the Bus

Definitely on the bus!

Val Vistas

Zoë and Barb take in the view from the top.

The 'Eye of the Needle'

From the Bubble

View of Val d'Isere from the Olympic gondola (AKA the Bubble) about 30 seconds after lift off, for our first run of the day.

Val!

We arrive in Val d'Isere... home of the champion skier Chocolate Kitty (AKA Jean-Claud Killy) who everyone knows from the 3 gold medals in skiing in Grenoble in 1968, if not from his appearance in Schwinn bicycle ads in the 1970s. What a view from our hotel!