Skiing Above the Clouds

A visit to the Grenoble tourist office during our first week we discovered a deal offered by the local bus company on day trips to the snow. Further investigations into these  result in us committing to booking tickets on the 8.15am bus to Chamrousse.

Chamrousse, a ski resort in the Belledonne range, 34km south east of Grenoble that has 90km of ski pistes spread over three linked resorts. We departed from the apartment in the dark at 7.30am, the earliest we'd been up for awhile. Dressed in our ski gear we lugging the ski bag and backpacks for 20min to the train station as the rising sun made a beautiful silhouette of the mountains.

Collecting our ski pass at the train / bus station, we patiently waited for our bus to arrive. It was quite busy with passengers and their ski gear all figuring out which bus headed to their respective ski resort. We boarded ours without fuss, found seats close to the front and were on our way. The bus made one stop to pick up more passengers near the University before continuing up the valley to Uriage les Bains, the halfway mark.

With 20km to go, we climbed 1200+m on a small windy road. Car or bus travel involving hairpin turns is not Ella strong point and sitting next to her I could see she was not enjoying this part of the trip. Then with about 3km and without any warning, Ella vomitted. Luckily we were in our mostly waterproof ski gear and she managed to direct her spew at the floor between our seats! I tried to catch some in the paper bag our croissants (which we had earlier consumed) had come in without much luck. Poor Ella - it was the first time she has actually been sick mostly she just gets nauseous.

Thankfully she managed to suppress any further spews by sipping water. As soon as the bus pulled up at our stop Chamrousse 1650, we were out of there apologising profusely to the driver for the mess we caused. As Andy retrieved our gear, Ella and I headed to the toilets to try to clean her up as best as we could. We emerged with Ella still feeling queasy to put on our boots and the rest of the ski stuff. Andy was busy trying to locate the public lockers so we could stow our bags and head off skiing. It was only when assisting the girls, I realised how cold it was... -5C!! With all the fussing we were all getting rather cold.

So the start to our morning hadn't gone to plan ... both girls were complaining of cold toes and hands and Ella was still recovering from her motion sickness. Luckily the first ride of the day was on a gondola straight to the top! We disembarked from the warm gondola to spectacular views. Andy and I were impressed, while the girls were still struggling to recover. From the top we could see Grenoble, the Chartreuse and Vercors mountain ranges and noticed a bank of cloud slowly creeping slowly down the Isere Valley.

Despite wanting to explore this wonderful place straight away, we were extremely conscious of trying to raise the girls spirits so we opted for an early coffee stop. This involved skiing one of the longest run finishing in Chamrousse 1750.

We retreated to the warmth of inside enjoying nutella and caramel waffles and coffee. As our toes and fingers thawed out, everyone's outlook became positive and we began to discuss potential routes and places to explore. It all began with a long magic carpet tunnel ride - just what Andy wanted!! This was followed by a long chairlift which deposited us 2/3 the way up the mountain. 

Skiing a new run we whizzed down past the chairlift to Chamrousse 1700 to catch a new chairlift. Perhaps our aim should be to try to catch all the lifts in the resorts.  On our way up, from the lofty heights of the chair, we spy an interesting route and decide to investigate.

The starting point between two foxes was called La Montagne de Teo but we nicknamed it to be Foxy Loxy. The run had numerous padded hands to bash, cow bells to ring, gongs to bash and chimes to sound testing ones control on skis! As you can see it was fun! We were back on track to having an excellent ski day!

All too soon it was lunch time although Andy was itching to continue so we let him do a run while we investigated lunch returning to our morning tea spot. Unfortunately it was packed and as an inside table was a necessity in this weather, we looked further afield. Not wanting to have a three course lunch, we spied an interesting spot which on first pass we thought it was a deli selling cheese and cold meats! We line up for a table and patiently wait. Minutes tick by but eventually were are ushered to a table just as Andy arrives! Perfect timing. 

Emerging from lunch, it's very white, the clouds have descended, and so had my heart. It was 2pm we had another 3.5 hours before our bus arrived and I was wondering how on earth I would be able to ski in these conditions. We get on the nearest chair and huddle together. At about 1800m something magical happens - we break through the clouds! It's beautiful and sunny once again. Our mood changes in an instant! We lapped up the spectacular panoramas once again, although this time Grenoble could no longer be seen.

And so for the last few hours of the day, we would ski down in the sunshine before sinking below the clouds into a world of white! Another small break for crepes helped warm us up for one last run via the gondola. The view at the top was sensational with the sinking sun spreading a warm glow over the interesting formations of waves of cloud with the summits of a few hills poking though. We bid this magical scene goodbye making our final descent to the waiting bus below. Thankfully our bus trip home was much less dramatic than our arrival. We arrived home at 8pm tired but happy.