Val Thorens Activity Review: 22nd November 2014

At least that what they said...in reality I don't think anything could have improved my technique but it certainly improved my enjoyment of the conditions and the day!

The first weekend of the season and it was only the 22nd November, it almost feels too soon for winter to begin. But it has begun and so we made sure we were out there to enjoy it in the highest ski resort in Europe, Val Thorens! In preparation for an early start on the Saturday, we made our way to the Intersport shop to get our skis on Friday evening. Being a snowboarder (amongst some very good skiers!) I had no idea what sort of skis I wanted, or needed, and so took the advice of the Intersport guys and left the choice totally in their hands.

Intersport have a fantastic range of 'girl specific' skis this year, which is great for someone like me who is fairly inexperienced and needs a more sympathetic (girlie!) ski, or indeed for those expert skiers who demand more from their skis! Plus the beauty of hiring skis is that you get to swap and change as many times as you like over the period you've hired them, so depending on the conditions you've always got the perfect ski.

Starting early in the morning just as the sun edged its way over the mountains we set off on the Head Absolut Joy skis, perfect for groomed slopes and with great edges to cut into the early morning hard packed snow. I have to say for my first day back on skis they made me feel like I knew what I was doing, really responsive and perfect to get my confidence up for the full day ahead.

We made our way over to the Portette chair and the Grand Fond cable car to get some height and get away from the crowds as much as we could. The Ski Force ski testing weekend coinciding with the resort opening meant that there were plenty of people on the slopes!

As the sun softened the slopes the better skiers in our group were getting twitchy to try some bigger skis and maybe even sample some of the off piste powder they had spotted. So we made our way back to town to the Intersport shop to see what they could offer us. Next up was the Rossignol Saffron 7's, a 'versatile all-mountain powder ski'. These were really good fun and led to a few off piste 'mini' adventures, although there were a few rocks to avoid under the soft powder! By the end of the afternoon the day of sunshine has turned the snow fairly heavy and we decided to call it a day and make our way back to the town of Val Thorens via a little vin chaud stop to enjoy the sunset of course!

I'm not sure whether day one back on skis was exhausting because the ski legs weren't quite up to it yet or whether it was because we covered so much piste in the day that the legs were physically drained...but either way it was a fantastic opening day, a great start to the season and SO good to back on some skis! Thanks to Intersport for all their help!