In my bit of Lancashire, a ginnel is the alley between 2 houses in a terrace, kinda like this: http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/walks/rail1/ginnel.jpg or a very narrow side, or back alley: http://www.ngfl.ac.uk/wards/23/Ginnel.jpg The wider, coal wagon - sized, back alleys are usually just called "backs". "Jigger" referring to an alley, is only used in Liverpool, in the "Lanky" dialect. The nearest word to it is "jiggered", which means knackered. -- Cheers! Fr Jack 96 Tiger. FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM
But nothing like as good as a proper resort. Serisouly, Nina, for a first time ski trip you should _not_ go to a bargain-basement, unreliable-snow resort, no matter how much TOG pushes it. I'm not knocking his choice, you understand, and I do often ski at similar small-scale places myself, but the first ski trip is the most important you'll ever do, and a poor experience will put you and your kids right off. [/QUOTE] I'll bite ;-)) Ace, you have never been there, have you? It's emphatically *not* bargain basement. It really, really isn't. As for unreliable snow, this ain't true either. I did mention a shorter season, which is not the same thing at all, and if someone's thinking about Xmas - I might purse my lips. I've had fabulous snow and I've had indifferent at that time. But then, I have had the same in the Alps. And Bareges/La Mongie is open *now*. http://www.pyrenees.co.uk/docs/update docs/wweatehr.html (Hm - actually www.tourmalet.fr doesn't corroborate this) It's cheaper because it's unfashionable, because there is no major airport served by the charter flights anywhere near it and because it's harder to get to for anyone in Europe living (say) east of a line drawn due south of Paris. OK, there are good connections to Toulouse, but it's not like the Alps where Geneva Airport will serve several dozen resorts. Your own SCGB report says this: "Barèges and La Mongie form the largest ski area in the Pyrenees, sharing 100km of wide, mainly easy-to-intermediate pistes on both sides of the Col du Tourmalet. The area is prone to overcrowding at weekends. Of the two, La Mongie is the better base for complete beginners, with easy slopes immediately around the resort." But this is *so* out of date. Overcrowding is less of a prob now as they've opened a lot of new lifts in recent years. Added masses of snow cannons, too. There are now over 130km of pistes. Oh, and Le Yeti has been under new name and management for three years. Clicking on the piste map at: http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/resorts/gssg/introduction.asp?intContactID=45984 doesn't tell the full story, because the info (like that on the website) is so out of date - for instance, the Pic Du Midi observatory section has been opened up to skiing in the last two years. There's a better (but still out of date) map at http://www.pyrenees.co.uk/docs/winter docs/pyrmap.html It's terribly easy to confuse the French Pyrenees with the cheap & nasties in Bulgaria, Romania and elsewhere, but it just ain't the case. Yeah, it's smaller than a gigantic Alpine resort, but then a beginner is wasting their time at a gigantic resort anyway - they're never going to ski more than a tenth of it. I know, I bang on about it, but the truth is that most of that is simply to correct misconceptions like yours. I've skied the major resorts, for decades, and I'll ski them again (probably not to your standard, mind!) but if someone's looking for something to a budget, then this is the solution.
Yer problem here is that few of them are at holiday time (you're childless - you aren't tied to school holidays like we are) and of those that are, even fewer tend to have the space for groups of more than two. They'll advertise the last minute cheapies, but there will rarely be four places all in the same hotel or chalet at the same time. Trust me on this. Really.
Wouldn't argue there! Who wants to waste four days out of a week's break in learning how to stand up?
HooDooWitch wrote: <snip> Self catering is fine for adults, but - and like I said to Champ re kids, trust me on this - it is a right PITA with kids. A skiing trip should be a holiday, and in my book that means someone else to do the cooking, cleaning and washing up.
Yer problem here is that few of them are at holiday time (you're childless - you aren't tied to school holidays like we are) and of those that are, even fewer tend to have the space for groups of more than two. They'll advertise the last minute cheapies, but there will rarely be four places all in the same hotel or chalet at the same time. Trust me on this. Really.[/QUOTE] Well, I was searching for 1 adult and two kids over Xmas, and did find a few. But I didn't dig deep.
Fr Jack wrote In the south we rather tend to refer to an alley as an alley but there you go. Yes, heard that in that context.
On 29 Nov 2004 06:05:28 -0800, TOG@toil, H, L, S & CoAT. So why do you choose it every year? Anyway, I was merely pointing out that for a family of first-time skiers it's probably not the best choice. No, I've not been there, but I've skiied a couple of other Pyrenean resorts and have a fair idea of what it's like. Perzackerly. For reliable snow at this time you wouldn't choose a resort with a historical average of only around 30cm on the lower slopes and 60cm on high over this period. First, this is a quote from Which Good Ski & Snowboard Guide, not our own info; secondly, it's wrong. Soldeu and Pas de la Casa could both have claimed that independently - now that they're a single entity (GrandValira) they have over 200km between them (some runs were counted in both areas before). I don't have any misconceptions, I'm sure. Whatever you say, it's a small, low resort with limited skiing - sort of place I'd _love_ to have on my doorstep - in fact, I have several weekend favourites - but not somewhere I'd suggest for a first-time experience. Ahh, so it _is_ bargain basement?
Lady Nina wrote: <snip> Belatedly re-reading this.... Club Med. Anywhere. If you want the kids removed from your orbit altogether, and they'll have a great time as well. Not cheap. Good VFM, but not cheap.
On 29 Nov 2004 07:51:01 -0800, TOG@toil, Or, if you want to pack them off on the cheap and go somewhere on your own, try UCPA (Union des Centres de Plein Air) - they offer stupidly cheap full-board, plus lift pass, plus ski hire, plus instruction, packages. Quick look on web page www.ucpa.fr/en shows 335 eu for xmyth, 460 for new year week. That's plus travel, of course, but _everything_ else is included, even cooked or packed lunches and use of decent ski clothing. They'll need a bit more for drinks, chocolate and the like, of course, but this is really the cheap way to do it. Normally you'd be looking at perhaps Eu90 for ski instruction, 50 for equipment rental and ~200 for the lift pass, plus anything from Eu20 upwards per day for lunch. And, TBH, there's no reason you couldn't go along too - it's by no means restricted to kids - Jude and I did a weekend there last year and had a great time. Accomodation is in 6- or 2-person bunk-bedded rooms, linen provided, shared (but clean) bathrooms. Basic, to be sure, but perfectly acceptable.
Buggered if I know about the first. The second appears to be something nautical and boozy. -- Cheers! Fr Jack 96 Tiger. FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM
Ace wrote: Pah, Even I've done that! Mostly because it was either that or sit in the bloody chalet all day. The good point was that it meant the snow was slow enough that I could do black diamonds without shitting myself. I'm in no hurry to repeat it though.
TOG@toil, , Cartered chalet then, but that's gonna put the price up. If you're doing that though and you've gone on the cheaper side, the one thing that's worth doing is to sub the wine allowance by a few quid. Get the chalet rep to get something not anything non-vin de table. 20 quid well spent.
Higgins@work bored us all completely to death with wittery prose along the lines of: Pff, I've fucking camped out in -40°C temperatures for three weeks in Norway. I was on candle-watch once, keeping an eye on the paraffin lamp (which provided heat (and light) to the tent, keeping the bottom of the tent at a cosy 0°C). The bloody thing went out on my watch and the mini-jerry can outside the tent was empty. I trogged about 15 yards to fill it up and then back to the tent to fill up the lamp, in little more than light clothing. Jeez, that was one of the worst experiences of my life. It took me 10 fscking minutes to get the lamp alight again and in the whole space of 15 minutes, the inside temperature of the tent dropped over 20°C. Popping out every so often to get the snow off the tent during snow storms wasn't fun either. Snow holes and snow caves [1] rocked for comfort though. [1] For those not claustrophobic.
I didn't realise that I was claustrophobic until I woke up at 2am in a quinzee[1], though in the contest between claustrophobia and -30C, the cold won and I stayed right where I was. [1]http://www.call-wild.com/quinzee.html
<TOG@toil>; <>; <> escribió en el mensaje Me too I remember working in Germany (2000) when there was no snow in the Alps (50cms of old snow) and there were 200cms of fresh snow in the Pyrenees. largest ski area in the Pyrenees, sharing 100km of wide, mainly easy-to-intermediate pistes on both sides of the Col du Tourmalet. The Er, wrong, French bullshit! - Andorra's Gran Valira (=Pas de la Casa+Grau Roig+Soldeu+El Tarter) should be in the 160kms, AFAIK. PdlC-GR and S-ET were each on the 80kms level. - Baqueira-Beret in Spain has recently passed the double figures after opening the Bonaigua sector, and now has 104kms. My suggestion for TOG: Google for Paul corfield report on the hotel I suggested him in the Spanish Pyrenees (Hotel La Morera, Valencia d'Aneu). From there you can enjoy Baqueira-Beret (some 15kms) and two smaller resorts, Port Aine (40+Kms) and Espot Esqui (20-30kms). The two small ones have snowbikes rental services at 30 euros/hour, better prices for half day, all day or for a two days expedition. Also nice to try is husky dogs sleigh in Espot (both activities with yetiemotions.com) Ops! If going to Baqueira avoid the holidays of the Spanish Royals, otherwise 27% of the skiers on the slopes will be members of the security service (speaking basque is not a wise idea these days).
I tried it for the first time last year. I *hate* cold and ended up taking off layers cos I was sweating my tits off. I have never been so tired after my first days ski-ing I fell asleep before and after dinner. apres ski? forget it! The ski-ing didnt hurt. the day after we got back, however, I couldnt move and didnt realise you could ache in *so* many places all at the same time. Would I do it again? maybe, sometime. -- Adie (replace spam with nickname to reply) UKRM FAQ: http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ Triumph 955iSS / GSF1200 bandit (pending) / CG125 MRO#11 BOTAFOF#7 BOTAFOT#130 DIAABTCOD#17 MIB#24 YTC#16 BOB#15 ex-UKRMMA#22 BOMB#11
