Meribel, Les Tois Vallees New Year 2000: “Ski the millennium”

 After the success of last year’s holiday in France I decided to repeat the dose with Jason and also Chris and Gina who came over from Amsterdam to meet us. Christmas was spent in London with firstly my new girlfriend, Mary and then with Al and Julie and some of their friends after which, it was off to the highest slopes in the French Alps where we stayed in le Hammeau in Mottaret. This is the first time that Flat Eric (that Selena and Katrina got for my birthday) went travelling with me.

Sunday 26^th December 1999

Got up at 3:00am for the taxi at 3:30 – got to Gatwick at around 4:00 for the 6:40 flight. Checking in was no problems, but the plane took off late because everyone else arrived at the last moment. The expected flight time was 57mins but we missed our landing slot in Lyons, because of the late departure and also because Paris airport was closed – resulted in a diversion to Geneva. We had two attempts at the runway in Geneva, but managed to land to an ovation from many of the passengers. The bus back to Lyons never eventuated and it was decided that we were to fly back, despite the weather- as the roads were very congested. After waiting an hour or so, we headed back to Lyons. Halfway back the pilot called for the cabin attendant and we discovered that there were some problems with the hydraulics and when we came into land the plane didn’t stop too fast. After whizzing past a few fire engines it was a little worry, but we finally stopped only to find that the steering had gone and we had to be towed to the terminal. Instead of arriving in Mottaret at 11:00am we got in at 7:00pm, after 3 little scrapes in the bus, a car on fire and some annoying family types behind. Tough day! We met Chris and Gina and went for a quiet beer at the le Hameau bar.

 Monday 27^th December

 Up early to find only two lifts open out of Mottaret and poor visibility, but great snow. Got back into the groove in the morning, and met Chris and Gina for lunch at a café called Rastas, then went to a few higher lifts and then over to Meribel sans Jason. Out for dinner, and decided not to have anything further to do with the package tour company. Just too English! Janey (the rep) was nice enough, but we didn’t fancy the lager louts.

 Wednesday 29^th December

 Tuesday was lots of snow, but again limited boarding because of the weather. Same again for lunch, after then Chris and I discovered a run that was excellent snow but we had no idea where we were when the trail markers ran out. We consulted trail maps with little success. We had quite a few good runs in great snow, but the visibility was shit. At night we went into Meribel where I internetted and then we went out for a fondue, which was tres average! Wednesday was a better day – in the morning, Chris and I repeated the previous days run until Chris got stuck in a huge pile of snow and ended up having to climb out. We then met up with Jas and Gina and were to have met up with C & G for lunch but Jas and I decided to over to the valley of Les Menuies for the afternoon, so after a huge wait for the usual Spag bog for lunch did that. Jasons technical ability started to improve. At night we returned to le Hammeau bar (without Jas) and I managed to spill a drink!

 Friday 31^st December

 Yesterday was a big phat powder day, with sun to boot and we all jumped on the gondola from Meribel and went over to Corchevel to get amongst it. Chris and Gina went their own way after Gina packed a sad and Jas and I got stuck in a little valley with only two pomas out of it! We managed to make up for it with a couple of runs down a virtually untracked 100% black diamond run just after it opened. Then grabbed a late lunch and went home (the trip took about an hour). Chris and I went and bought some boots that night, then back to Meribel for a game of 10-pin bowling. I found out that I am useless!! Today I spent skiing and Chris and I went to Les Menuries to ski there for the morning and returned so that the others could go snow shoeing. I skied the rest of the day in Mottaret and when the snow and fog became too thick to see, stopped and began to prepare for the last party of the millennium. We all got drunk and headed into Mottaret and watched the fireworks. I don’t remember much past midnight… some Kiwi girls wanted to kiss us, because they thought that we were French.

 Saturday 1 January 2000

 Got up bright and early and Jas and I went for a few very wobbly (still very drunk) rides punctuated with frequent stops to admire the view on the really nice day, but mostly to rest before knocking off at about 1:30 and having lunch and going into Meribel for a look. We came home, cleaned up went out for dinner and got to bed early ready for the 4:15 departure back to London the next day.