Le Franco Phoney

I took this photo just a few days ago, with fresh, powdery snow covering all of La Clusaz. With so few tourists in the resort at this time of year, it took longer than usual for La Balme and the rest of La Clusaz to get tracked out. In fact, l’Etale is still pretty much untracked, as it closed a week ago.

This year has produced the best for snowfall that I’ve ever seen in the Alps, and I feel very lucky to have been here in the Aravis to enjoy it. However, my balance between sport and productivity became somewhat unbalanced, leading to late nights to catch up on work, and early mornings to catch first lifts and yet more knee-deep powder. I’m not the first to experience these imbalances. An English friend in Méribel chose a completely different path. She was struggling to find time between working, snowboarding and socialising, so she gave up snowboarding. “Something had to give,” she said, “and this year, it’s sport. Next year I might stay in more.” Having spent years as a ski bum, giving up an income so I could ski, I don’t understand the concept of giving up a snow sport. Living here would make it all the more difficult!

The French seasonal workers in La Clusaz are just as much of a mystery. They seem to leave the resort within days of their jobs ending, even with this powder falling and very few people tracking it out. These are ideal conditions, and even the seasonal workers have left! Why would they come here and endure working months of long hours in a bitterly cold and expensive place if they don’t get their own sports bonus at the end of it?

I’m certainly not complaining: it means more fun in the snow for me without the crowds.

The ski season ends this Sunday, so I’ll be back on track with work and blog entries — I promise.

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Pictured is how La Balme looked yesterday at around midday. You can see untracked powder and just one guy – my visiting friend – on the entire slope. There are a couple of people on the chairlift, but it was a very quiet day. Had this been any other month, the chairlift would be packed and the powder would be completely tracked out. This is one of the pros of skiing in April! However, there are cons. I’ve made a list of both pros and cons, below.

The Pros

Not many people bother skiing after Easter, so the rest of us get more fresh tracks when the powder inevitably falls, with no queues at any of the lifts increasing sliding time! La Clusaz and Le Grand Bornand, like most resorts, ten to produce bottle necks of traffic early in the morning and later in the day during peak times. By April, the only traffic jams are caused by deer who always appear randomly at this time of year near the roads.

April is usually warm and sunny, and at altitude, the sun is strong. Stopping for lunch involves sunglasses and stripping down to a t-shirt, ensuring plenty of vitamin D after being starved of it all winter.

The sunlight streaming in by 7am makes it much easier to get up for first lifts, and getting home after last lifts is much more enjoyable when it’s not dark and cold. Things get more sociable at the end of the season as a result of all these pros, and by mid-April, seasonal workers’ farewell parties happen almost every night.

The Cons

It’s not all sunshine, parties and powder though. The sun melts that fluffy white stuff much quicker in April, so unless you’re there soon after the snow has fallen, it will turn to mush. Hiking to areas that stay powdery for days in February tend to last just a few hours in the warm April air.

Another problem in La Clusaz is that the pistes close more regularly in April. Last year, the Fernuy télécabine, which connects one of the five peaks of La Clusaz to the rest of the resort, was closed for weeks due to the risk of avalanche taking out a pylon. Getting to any other part of the resort involved a flat green piste and then lots of lifts, or a bus back to town.

With fewer people around, I suspect the lift company is less motivated to open some of the lifts on bad weather days, which might be why I was stuck at l’Etale a few days ago. The fresh snow on the lower areas had turned to mush by midday, and the peaks were all closed due to strong wind. The usual access back to town — via the Transval télépherquie and the Combe du Juments chairlift — was impossible because of this ‘strong wind’. The alternative is a flat, green piste that crosses three roads. On a snowboard, this isn’t much fun, having to unbuckle and rebuckle, then push along with one foot most of the way on the slow, spring snow. Buses are an alternative, but at this time of year in La Clusaz, the bus service is reduced, and rather than wait for an hour and a half, I hitched back to town.

I haven’t talked about the biggest pro of all, which makes all the cons worth it: the Defi Foly. The final weekend here in La Clusaz is all about people throwing themselves into freezing cold water at Les Confins to see who can get the furthest. The event ensures a festival atmosphere and a distraction from the sadness (and denial) that the ski season is finally over. What better way than to end the season on a high?

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If you look hard enough at this photo, you’ll see someone in yellow ski pants climbing what appears to be a concave piece of cliff to the top of Le Croix (“The Cross”) up at La Balme in La Clusaz. That’s local hero Candide Thovex. He climbed to the top with his skis and poles, then cruised down, making the descent look easy. It’s not.

Candide has been to lots of places around the globe to introduce his film, which talks about how he grew up loving moguls, then adapted traditional ski jumping into his own style, becoming the World Champion Freestyle Skier, breaking his back on Big Bertha (a jump at La Balme built each year for the Candide Invitiational), recovering, and becoming the World Champion Freeride Champion just two years later. It’s an interesting and inspirational story, with lots of La Clusaz moments.

After months of introducing his film in different countries and cities, Candide returned to his hometown, where La Clusaz aired the film for free on two separate nights. This is a guy who is pretty famous around the world, and hoards of locals and tourists lined up to watch his film. I was in the crowd, although I’d already seen the film on DVD. The mountain shots are massive, and a big screen is best for viewing!

The film was great, but the kids were pretty entertaining too. Candide was there to introduce the film in his usual down-to-earth way. He then mentioned the giveaways, producing hats, t-shirts, a helmet and a few other goodies. The front of the cinema became a gaggle of kids running around saying “cadeau!” (“gift”) and demanding the goodies. Candide seemed to think it was pretty entertaining too, throwing items into the crowd with a big smile on his face.

But back to the film. If you get a chance to see Few Words on the big screen, take it. The filming is truly beautiful, and the talent and ability of that French man simply enhances it further.

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Public services in France, like most countries, vary in quality and accessibility.

This advertisement in Annecy displays the faces of local public servants — lovely smiling faces, like Sebastien’s, above. Just last week, I had a positive experience at the Annecy prefecture (council), where the new kid handed me the forms I needed without making me to take a number for the queue, then complimented me on my spoken French.

However, that’s the first positive experience I’ve had at the prefecture, with most visits taking longer than expected: someone once jumped the queue and took my spot, and the reception lady always tuts about incomplete paperwork, then gives in with a sigh when I insist I have everything listed on the official paper in front of her. Twice, I’ve arrived to find a sign that says the office is closed due to exceptional circumstances. Opening for those four-and-a-half hours per day is too long, perhaps?

Sebastien here is probably sneering, thinking of ways to make a simple request from the member of the public into a week-long effort for that person.

But that’s just the prefecture, and I do feel for public servants who have to answer the same old questions day in, day out. So what’s the excuse for La Clusaz?

The ski resort opened for the weekend of 1-2 December due to so much snow, and they had the busiest opening weekend ever. They must have expected a similar situation last weekend after more snow fell during the week, so you’d think they’d get the roads as clear as possible the night before, then start work early in the morning to remove the overnight snow. Yet the roads were clogged not only with snow, but with snow-clearing trucks and tractors which caused a hold-up of traffic through town before the lifts had even opened. Carnage continued outside the town centre, with the roads so poorly cleared that a truck was stuck on a corner near the La Balme ski area, and cars lost traction on the alternative route up, blocking it too. No worries: the top section of La Balme never opened, and the bottom section opened closer to 11am than 9am, and those waiting couldn’t even access the few other areas open because the Fernuy lift didn’t open until after midday. But the (non-public service) ticket office were still charging people €28 for a day ticket. Safety is obviously a priority, so piste closures were inevitable, but if you’re advertising an early opening to the public, at least prepare all the roads before 9am, and offer a price that reflects the limited skiing options.

That grin on Sebastien’s face is perhaps his relief that he had to work on Saturday morning instead of navigating the roads in La Clusaz. Wait; the prefecture isn’t open on weekends either. So, well done to the person who put this poster up. It’s now soggy and flaky, which seems like the perfect advertisement for public services around these parts.

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With snow on the ground here in Saint Jean de Sixt, and the partial opening of La Clusaz happening this weekend, the locals are happy. The man driving this car was particularly happy when he arrived home and parked his car. He did three fantastic donuts on the road, which was covered with a layer of ice, then powdery snow on top of that — perfect for making snow donuts.

He can keep his snow donuts: I’m off to La Balme to check out the snow. Happy Saturday!

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As the season in La Clusaz draws to an end this Sunday — ending with the Defi Foly competition and hopefully good enough weather for the BBQ not to be needed as an outdoor heater — something else in La Clusaz has just arisen, like a marmot fresh from hibernation.

It’s Candide Thovex’s teaser for his latest crazy film, ‘Few Words’, filmed here in La Clusaz. From around 2 minutes 40 seconds in the video below, Candide can be seen jumping in the La Balme area of La Clusaz, where he built the jumps with some buddies just a few weeks ago. A friend and I tried to stay on the piste to watch the jumps but a pisteur came and shooed us away, leaving Monsieur Thovex and his posse with the entire ski area for themselves after closing time, just as the sun was giving out some nice light to shoot footage in. Take a look for yourselves:

My friend wanted to take a white sheet up the next day and hide under it after last lifts and until the pisteurs had all gone, leaving us alone with Candide, but I chickened out for fear of getting the pisteurs angry and for ruining Candide’s beautifully empty (except for him) shots of the area. The full-length film is due out in October 2012. If it features any scenes showing the pisteurs on the balcony of the Bergerie restaurant at La Balme, helping a screaming girl called Naomi whose knee cartilage folded up on itself while she ate lunch, look for me just next to her. I’m the one who looks unsure whether to shake her fist at the helicopter making so much noise above us while her friend was in pain, or wave at Candide’s film crew inside the helicopter. Even if our balcony scene is missing from the final cut, I’m guessing this movie is going to make Candide Thovex even more of a ski hero both locally (if that’s possible) and all around the globe.

Incidentally, my friend with the knee cartilage problem was hitchhiking up to La Clusaz from Saint-Jean-de-Sixt about a month ago, and guess who stopped to give her a lift. Yep, Candide. I wonder if he recognised her on the footage from the helicopter. In case you’re reading, Candide, two shots of Morphine and they managed to unfold her cartilage and she’s been fine ever since.

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What a funny old season it’s been. January, usually a dry month, buried rocks and trees with metres of snow that just kept on falling. February brought both antarctic cold and French Riviera warmth, causing the rocks and trees to prematurely resurface. March brought out the tulips in my garden, and now April has snowed all over them — consistently. The sun has disappeared.

With the ski resort of La Clusaz due to close fully at the end of April, the locals are getting impatient. Town is quiet, business is slow, and they finally have time to wind down and enjoy some hours on the mountain. Normally, the season ends with at least a few warm, sunny days for us all to enjoy, but not this year. The constant fog and flat light of the past week looks set to continue, much to the dismay of those of us trying to squeeze in as many days skiing as possible.

Yesterday, for example, I was with a friend at the top of La Balme. The fog was thick and we decided to wait to see if it would clear. Ten minutes passed and there was no change, apart from the arrival of another friend with some of his friends grumbling. They were the only ones at the top with us for the whole time we chatted. One of the guys said he wanted to wait with us rather than face the fog. Imagine closing your eyes and trying to walk in a bumpy field without falling over, then add in so many cold, wet snowflakes hitting you in the face that they cause a constant sting, and that’s what the mountain has been like lately. Don’t get me wrong: we were there because the draw of the fresh powder outweighed the stinging faces and uncertainty during foggy moments. The rocks and trees are once again covered. The mountain — when visible through all the fog — looks like early winter, with the promise of great snow coverage for weeks.

So, for the first time that I remember, there is too much snow falling in the French Alps! And when May begins, I’m pretty sure a whole lot of us will be looking at the glowing white snow on the closed ski runs and cursing Mother Nature just a little bit for taunting us so. Either that, or we’ll be trying to justify paying ridiculous prices to go to resorts that a high enough to stay open all year round. Zermatt, anyone?

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I’d hate to be a bus driver in La Clusaz. The roads are windy and sometimes narrow. Add in snow and a few obstacles such as a broken-down truck and a police car, pictured, and the bus drivers really have their work cut out for them.

They also have to deal with customers who are annoyed that their full-day lift pass doesn’t cover their bus journey from one ski area to another. These customers, who have already held up the queue by arguing with the bus driver, have to rest their skis and poles somewhere, take off their gloves, find some money, then put their gloves back on, pick up their skis and move up the aisle. Filling a bus in La Clusaz can take some time. People with a lift pass that covers more than a day can use the buses for free, as can the holders of the French Carte d’Hote (hotel card) Why aren’t the buses just free? Most people get on for free anyway. Why not extend it to the few who have day passes or are just pedestrians?

But it gets even better. By April, most of the tourists have left and the bus timetables change. Services are reduced, and some lines are cancelled altogether. From Saint-Jean-de-Sixt, the buses that normally run twice every hour to both La Clusaz and Le Grand Bornand ski resorts switch to once an hour, with a long lunch break in between. By the way, a season pass is the only type of lift pass that can be used on this bus. Those without who don’t hold a Carte d’Hote have to pay in each direction. But I digress.

I took this bus to La Clusaz a few days ago, then skied to La Balme — the highest area of the resort with the best snow. The main access via Fernuy was closed after an avalanche late last week, leaving just the slow green run to La Balme. I discovered later that day that the only way back to the village of La Clusaz was via the bus (Fernuy lift was closed and the green piste back had no snow on it). The queue for the bus was massive. Easter holiday-makers were stranded like me, and after fifteen minutes, a bus on the reduced timetable finally turned up. Yes, there’s absolutely no other way back to the main resort, and it’s Easter holidays, but La Clusaz hadn’t thought to put on any extra buses. Not everyone squeezed on the packed bus, but at least the driver didn’t insist on seeing everyone’s lift pass. By the time it made it back to the La Clusaz bus station, the bus for Saint-Jean-de-Sixt had already left, with the next one an hour away.

I learnt my lesson. Yesterday, a friend and I drove to La Balme instead, potentially saving ourselves hours in waiting for buses and feeling like sweaty sardines. We found a great car park just near the lift, and we booted up. Then we discovered the whole area was closed because of high winds. Fed up with trying to find the best snow in the resort, we took our boots off, got back in the car, swore a bit and had lunch in town instead.

The moral to this story? Go to a resort where the buses are free and often!

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This is a familiar sight outside bars and restaurants all over the Alps. Everyone piles their skis up against a wall or fence and someone accidentally knocks them all down. The guilty person usually scurries away hoping nobody has noticed, despite the huge clatter as the skis hit the deck. What I love about this photo is that someone came along after the skis fell and still leant some skis against the fence, unperturbed by the skis strewn between him/her and the fence.

I took this photo last week at the restaurant at the base of the La Balme ski area of La Clusaz. The restaurant is right next to a car park, making it easy for thieves to roll up in a car, load up the skis while the owners are too busy eating to notice, and drive off with thousands of euros-worth of skis and bindings. It’s just too easy. I’m not aware of any insurance policy that covers stolen skis unless they were locked up, which means if someone pilfers your skis, you’re left out of pocket. So, last year, just metres from this fence, somebody installed these great ski lockers that are free and simple to use. Each person’s electronic ski pass acts as the key for a lockable ski or snowboard slot, and only their pass will re-open the slot. The skis are in full view of prospective thieves, but they remain secure and safe. Let me say it again: it’s totally free to use!

It baffles me as to why people prefer to leave their skis against this fence, practically inviting nasty people to steal them, or at the very minimum knock them over as pictured, when the ski lockers remain mostly empty. If you come to this part of the French Alps, don’t forget to try them out.

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Pictured below is the map of where some crazy unranked skiers and snowboarders will be doing cool tricks and daring descents right here in La Clusaz, France, tomorrow in the lead-up to the Radikal Mountain competition. Those who qualify will get to do it all again at the weekend further over on the l’Etale peak with some of the world’s upcoming freeride champions. After the Candide Invitational stopped a few years ago (although Candide Thovex still lives here and is still awe-inspiring to watch as he flings himself with ease over kickers at La Balme on random days), La Clusaz has struggled to come up with a worthy replacement. Evening jib sessions proved the most popular and accessible for locals and tourists alike, but last year’s Radikal Mountain was a major let-down — mostly due to the lack of snow. Although it was probably more challenging for the riders and perhaps more likely to show who can really ski in any conditions, its position on a peak near l’Etale made viewing a bit difficult. As the map below shows, this year’s qualifying competition will take place up at La Balme, in the Torchere valley, allowing a better view of the action. It’s a pity the final competition isn’t taking place there too.

With more than two metres of snow at the altitude of the competition (and even more up higher!), the whole of La Clusaz has turned into a winter sports haven for all of us. No new snow is predicted for the weekend which is unfortunate, but with so much snow already there, the competition is already likely to be ten times more interesting than last year. You’ll find me camped out nearby with a sandwich and some awe.