Val Frejus, France

The last day and we had to take the day easy.. so we went back up to Val Frejus and repeated the runs of the first day this trip.

After lunch Bryon came up with Jenny ...  she was going to try skiing on the nursery slopes, getting started was easy, controlling was less so.

Jenny persisted for a while before she got fed up.

This is the way Bryon started, the girls had started with lessons, and everyone is different.

Orelle, France

Another bright day, So we decided to go back to Orelle, KT would stay in the chalet with Sue and rest her wrist.

Once we rode up to the mid station we chose to go up to the ridge line and look over into Val Thorens.

The others went back to the mid station to repeat the runs from yesterday, but M-J and I wanted to try something different. There was a black run back down from Mont Brequin, however to get there we would have to drop right down on the Val Thorens side then catch a cable car up the other side.



From the top the views were fantastic, and we took some time to have a look around.




We then dropped down the Orelle side on the black run, making our way back to the mid station, this was un-pisted, and had a lot of large moguls.


The others were not there so we took the chairs from yesterday and repeated the off-piste run.

Back at the mid-station we were admiring the descent route from the top when the others caught up with us. then we called it a day and went back to the apartment.

Orelle, France

So the rethink lead us to research and that pointed to a new lift  that had recently been build at a place down the valley called Orelle. This lift went up to the south facing side of the the Val Thorens lift system.

Not only did this go high, but would be a large new area to explore. We drove down to Modane and then headed towards Albertville.

The lift and parking are off the side of the Autoroute and took some finding, but once there we joined the queue up to the mid station.

From here we took the two chairs going up this side to Point du Bouchet. We dropped down the red and blue all the way to the bottom.

Heading back up, the aim was to cut the corners off and do some off-piste. This would later become a snowboard play park, but for now was a great safe place to play.

At one point KT fell over to one side and hurt her wrist .. it was always weak, and this just tweaked it. After strapping it up, she continued, but it brought a slight cloud over the day.

After some lunch KT stayed at the bottom and we did the first run again, before heading back to the cars.

La Norma, France

 Another clear day, but the lack of snow at Val Frejus meant we needed to look for some entertainment else where. The next door resort was a place called La Norma. Forever remembered as the "cold" mountain

We drove down to Modane and then up the next valley. The resort was a concrete purpose affair built around the Gondola station, but had loads of parking.

We took the gondola and then the the next chair, and a third ..  the first two just got us out of the trees, and we hoped the third would get us to the sun, but the sun remained behind the ridge.

We wrapped up and took the red traverse across the mountain, and when we arrived at the next lift, it still had not come out, so we headed back on the blue, as we could see the sun starting to creep around the ridge we had left earlier.

We stopped in the sun for some lunch, and thawed out, before taking the red to the bottom.

After this trip La Norma would always be remembered as a freezing cold place, that none wanted to go back to. So we just headed back for a re-think.

Val Frejus, France

Another good day and we went back up on the same slopes, and worked on much the same pistes .. the harder ones were closed from lack of snow.

We did move up to the reds but they were very icy and bare in places, but we could still get enjoyment out of it.







To finish the day off we down the long blue from the top around the track deep into the valley and back to the gondola.

Val Frejus, France

 The skies were clear and the day was going to be good .. The queues at the gondola ticket office were huge, so we went to the chair lift and got our tickets from there, and then took it up to the back of the valley.

Unfortunately the track back was very flat and we ended up polling in the shadows where it was cold...  not a great start.







Once up at the mid station we were in the sun and everything got much warmer.

We stayed on the blues down for the top as this was the first day out. the girls were fine, but both Sues needed to get their confidence.

The snow was very bare and the top ridge was very wind blown. All in all a good first day out.

2002 Ski Trip, France

This year we had an apartment in Val Frejus .. this was completely new for us as we had never been anywhere near here before.

The apartment was near the main centre and gondola station, and just up the hill from the bottom chair.

We had a big place with 4 bedrooms...  one for the girls, Dom, and Jenny, with Chris, & M-J in one , Sue and Bryon in another and Sue and myself in the remaining one.

The girls could even use the slope outside the apartment for sledging

Trip Time Line

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Val Frejus	|
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La Norma	|
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Orelle	|
	|	Val Frejus
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