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Brides-Les-Bains Pronounced “Breed La Ban” not as I thought, Brides (as in marriage) Les (Battersby) and Bains (as in Pains but with a “B”).
The website for Brides Les Bains promises “guaranteed snow”, “inexpensive skiing holiday” and “the largest ski area in the world”. These are pretty big claims to live up to so when I saw a thread on the GB forum for a week long escapade I was signed up before you could say shredalious! |
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Brides Les Bains is part of the 3 Vallees, quoted as being the largest ski area in the world. There is a direct gondola up to Meribel but you can also reach a number of well known resorts; Courchevel, La Tania, Les Ménuires, Saint Martin de Belleville, Val Thorens and Orelle within the reach of a 3Vallees lift pass.
Ski area stats:
- 600 km of secure pistes linked up by mountain ridges
- 200 ski lifts
- Endless Off-piste skiing (including the possibility of riding down to Brides!)
- Snowpark & Boardercross areas
- 89,000 m², area lovingly looked after
- MoonPark (Tougnète area).
- Snowpark (Plattières area)
Snow Stats:
3 Vallées ski area provides very good natural snow condition due to the average altitude, aspect, and the size of the ski area which ensure high-quality snow right through to springtime.
New Years Eve!
The trip was booked for 1st January so I vowed to stay in New Year’s Eve to make sure the coach journey was not hell on earth. Whoops, messed that one up. Note to self – I must try harder to keep promises to myself.
I decided that I would go for “one drink” with a couple of friends and ended up getting home at lunchtime on New Years Day with just enough time to pack and catch my train.
I ended up doing the whole journey from Brighton, UK to Brides Les Bains, France on pure faith!
Coach
Coach Journeys aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but with the additional £25 for extra leg room I found it to be comfortable (apart from the heater under my chair!) and for £199 for 7 days actual riding and ½ board hotel accommodation I really don’t think you can complain.
We all had fun on the coach with beer at 1euro (although I wasn’t up for much drinking after the night I’d had) The drivers were cool and gave us all free neck pillows although not a lot of sleep was had. We were so excited about hitting the slopes that the time flew by.
Mornings riding at Meribel
We arrived at the hotel at around 8am on January 2nd and just wanted to check in, get changed and get on the mountain. Conditions weren’t perfect, it was quite overcast, but we didn’t care. Unfortunately we had to cram 8 of us into one room as the previous occupiers didn’t understand that check out was 8am and were still in their room; to the annoyance and embarrassment of the hotel staff.
Following our sardines style changing experience we had breakfast and then headed down on the transfer bus to the gondola.
It was a freezing morning (there was talk of minus 17) so we all wrapped up warm. After a slight issue with the hire place (only one board available, 155 when I ride a 153 and wouldn’t change my binding angles or width) we headed up.
The gondola takes around 25 minutes to Meribel centre and from there you have access to a mass of lifts. We decided to take it slow for the first couple of runs as visibility was bad and it was quite icy.
We rode down the first run and as we approached the end (literally the last turn before we hit the lifts again) I caught my toe edge, buried the nose in some snow and flipped myself onto my front the left side of my left knee taking the full impact of my fall.
I was conscious that I was at the back of the group already and so got up dusted myself off and rode down to the lifts. I knelt in the snow for a few minutes icing my knee as it was a bit sore and then we headed up for our second run.
On the chair I was glad I had my howies merino base layer (thanks Anna!) on as I was toastie even though everyone was freezing.
We stuck to blues and reds for the rest of the morning and I ignored my knee only taking one other fall the whole morning (either I wasn’t trying hard enough or I was very lucky!).
After our fourth run we decided to break for lunch as the weather seemed to be coming in at the top and visibility was getting worse. As I unstrapped to walk up to the restaurant, I got a shooting pain in my knee and it felt as though my thermals were stuck to my skin. I assumed that I had grazed it when I fell and that the blood from the graze had congealed to my base layer. When we reached the benches outside and I took a look and we were all pretty shocked at what we saw. My knee had turned into a baby alien’s head!
I don't be-knee-ve it!
Christina decided (having just had knee surgery herself) that I should go straight to the medical center and get it checked out so we headed off down the mountain. Great, first day first run – unbelievable! You can imagine how sad / angry / pissed off I was. *delete as appropriate
At the medical centre we amused ourselves by posing for photos with the ridiculously old school x-ray machine and playing with the model knee skeleton. The staff and Doctors were amazing, making jokes about how broke I was going to be when they had finished all the treatment!
After a couple of hours of waiting, examinations, X-rays etc…it was one of those “good news / bad news” situations:
- Good news - there was no permanent ligament or tendon damage and we had enough money to pay them.
- Bad news – I wasn’t aloud back on the slopes for at least 8 days!
Once back in Brides les Bains we softened the blow with a crepe (scratch out) the best crepe I have ever eaten!
Insult to injury
As if being out of action on the first day and then having to deal with the ugly bruising that follows isn’t bad enough, it decided to absolutely chuck it down with snow (much to my annoyance and everyone else’s joy).
Lucky for me there was a consolation prize of Andrews laptop with every episode of the Inbetweeners.
Now I could go on about how fun it was in my coma style induced sleep thanks to heavy duty pain killers and anti-inflammatories, how I was icing my knee and keeping it elevated and also how I freaked everyone out by shouting “but I just get so scared when they put the spiders in the boxes” for no apparent reason, but I am pretty sure you would rather look at pictures of the others riding…. So here is the montage, start cheesy 80’s music now.
        
Summary
Even though I was injured and gutted I couldn’t ride I had a great time, Bride les Bains is a lovely town with great restaurants, little shops and both types of spa (Spas and Spar). If you are looking for late bars and nightclubs you might do better to stay in Meribel itself, but if you are looking to have a great snow trip on a budget get booking now.
Big thanks to:
Meribel Medical Centre!
All my fellow GBs on the trip
Brides Les Bains Tourist office
Westbeach
howies
Tailsaver
Skiweekends
The guys and girls for fun, photos, laptops, medical assistance and fondue frollicks! |
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