Les Deux Alpes
31st January 2026
GSY - GNB
Flying direct from Guernsey to Grenoble was as straight forward as it gets. Jasmine, Ben and I stepped off the ATR and immediately ran into Alex who had flown in via Gatwick and after the long winding passport queue we collect our bags and find Ruth in arrivals who had also travelled via London with snowboard in tow. Piling into the Citroen minivan, we head east to the beckoning alps. Arriving in darkness after Grenoble traffic jams and winding up the switchback roads the Spacetourer slows to crawl up as it scrabbles up the steep and icey back roads.
We’re split between 3 different digs, so unloading from the taxi we settle up, and I trudge through the town towards my apartment. Here I meet Charles, at check-in. Wearing flip flops. Fresh form the Caribbean, Skipper of S/V Argonaut - see previous blogs - must have had a broken thermostat. After an exceptionally convoluted check-in procedure we finally could catchup and quickly dropping off bags we head out to collect ski gear for the morning and find a beer. With Charles still in flip flops, we find Ben & Alex with James & Leah, staying warm at an outside bar top fire. Time passes but concern grows as to the whereabout of Jasmine and Ruth who should have joined us some hours ago. As it turns out, after leaving parting ways at the taxi they were still on the hunt for their AirBNB! Not in the location advertised there is a language barrier with the hosts management rep - it takes some tactful words by native French speaking Leah to get any useful information before they finally can get in from the cold!
Finally united as a group of 8, we merrily eat and drink before retiring to bed eager to properly see out surroundings and the snow conditions the next day,
Learning
Having only snowboarded previously, I was keen to give skiing a bash and had signed up to ESF group lessons in the mornings. Quickly moving on from the nursery slopes on day 3, the next group I joined was to run a blue slope. That was until cries of ARRÊTE! ARRÊTE! AVALANCHE! Looking down the piste, we can see a crowd of skiers stopped by the avalanche as ski patrol team members tear past us. One skier has been buried but is quickly dug out. We take an alternative piste and the 4/5 avalanche rating feels that bit more serious.
Under floodlights
Wednesday night brings the opportunity for something a little different. Vallee Blanche, the west mountain of Les Deux Alpes stays open past sunset with floodlights illuminating the busy icey slopes. Carved up by a whole days worth of skiers and well trafficed with skiers some fueled by apres ski make for entertaining runs down and off piste. Having been crashed into twice, it was about time to find chocolate chaud back in the town.
3400m
To get to the top of highest skiable glacier in the alps, beyond the modern Jandri cabin lifts, a funicular railway runs through a tunnel beneath the glacier. With the rails starting at a low incline, the pitched carriage floor gradually levels out as it climbs from 3100 to 3400mm. Clumsily climbing the final staircases from the funicular and emerging into the stark daylight we are greeted with distant views of Mont Blanc and seemingly endless snow covered mountains.
Having skied from the top previously in a lesson in benign sunny conditions, this time I’m with Ruth and Charles. The is somewhat comically strong as we set off in blizzard like conditions, dropping down the first piste we are slammed by gusts that almost combat gravity slowing our decent to a walking pace as we’re peppered by ice shards dislodged from the nearby drag lift.
Time to fall for another sport beginning with s…