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The largest provider of private airport transfers in the Tarentaise Valley servicing the airports of Geneva, Lyon, and Chambery and these resorts: Tignes - Val d’Isere - Les Arcs La Rosiere - Ste. Foy - La Plagne Courchevel - Meribel Les Menuires - Val Thorens We have been operating for 18 long years and run a fleet of 24 eyecatching Volkswagen Caravelles and 3 carbon emission free, Tesla Model X’s. You can book your private transfers on our site thecoolbus.co.uk and pay online with instant confirmation. We also do fun stuff in the summer mainly involving bikes and road trips!

Editor: Rob Forbes Writers: Rob Forbes, Lauren Little and Jemma Harrison Design: ryanmitson.com Contributors: Alf Anderson and Rod Lynn Advertising Sales: rob@thecoolbus.co.uk Thanks to: The Tourist Offices of Val d’Isere, Tignes, Les Arcs, La Plagne, La Rosiere, Ste. Foy, Courchevel Winter Cover: Freeski Academy Ugo Troubat jumping the Col du Petit St Bernard Summer Cover: Rob Forbes Sam Morris threading his way down from Grand Perron

Copyright SARL Cool Bus. All material in this magazine is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved by SARL Cool Bus. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of SARL Cool Bus IMPORTANT NOTICE: Whilst we have done our best to ensure all the information presented in this magazine is correct at the time of going to print, we take no responsibility for any inaccuracies or omissions. If you do notice a mistake please let us know by emailing mag@thecoolbus.co.uk

AND THEN SUDDENLY IT’S WINTER AGAIN AND I’M SAT WRITING THE INTRO TO THE

7 edition of th

THE COOL BUS MAGAZINE! Yet another busy year at Cool Bus HQ. Whilst the size of our operating fleet remains the same as always (24 vehicles on the road in the Tarentaise and 2 down in Sospel) we continue to expand into other areas, supporting teams, athletes, clubs and events and just generally getting involved in stuff that we think is fun and rewarding. For the last two years we have been supporting the Les Arcs Freeski Academy by providing them with two minibuses to transport their team around. You’ll see their vans on the front cover. The pic was taken in May 2018 on the Col du Petit St. Bernard road gap and yeah, we did have a go at jumping it ourselves and it was pretty scary! You can read all about this amazing local club on page15.

Last summer saw a black and yellow liveried superbike take to the racetracks of Europe, piloted by local legend Rod Lynn. Some five years ago Rod was one of our drivers but the skills that make him an incredible motorbike racer don’t necessarily translate to airport transfer driving if you get what I mean? We parted ways professionally but remained firm friends and were more than happy to get involved when he announced plans for a comeback to racing. Get the lowdown on page 20 in the summer section.

Photo: theshdwcreator Rider: Charlie Ward

Our Cool Bus FM Mobile Disco continues to pop up at more and more events in the valley. We’ve supported the Winter Film Festival for the last two years and this winter you’ll also find us rolling out the tunes at the Electronic Peak festival in Les Arcs. Find out about these and many other events inside these very pages. July was a particularly busy month that saw the Mobile Disco keeping the crowds entertained as the Tour de France rolled through town and also helping the local residents celebrate into the night after France won the football World Cup! We’re continuing to push our electric transfers through our ZEAT brand and our third Tesla Model X is due for delivery this week! It’s fair to say that climate change has never been more in the public eye than it is right now and as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon emissions we have also partnered up with Protect Our Winters UK. Read all about it on page 44. Somewhat paradoxically (but not contradictorily - it was still warm at lower altitudes), last winter goes down in history as the snowiest we have seen since moving to the valley in 2001! The amount of base in most resorts reached highs not seen in decades. To get the full stats and

also predictions for this coming winter we hooked up with SnowForecast.com. Read all about it on page 24 along with some stunning images from last winter from local photographer, Pierre Depont. Also in July, we continued what has become something of an annual event - the Cool Bus Summer Roadtrip. This time we made our way across Greece, the Aegean and into Turkey. Plans for 2019 should take us right into Asia. You can read all about our first ever big summer drive which took place back in 2014, on page 38 of the summer section. Elsewhere in the mag you’ll find articles on fine dining in the Tarentaise, point-to-point mountain bikes tours, our favourite eco-brands, electric bikes and more. And as if that wasn’t enough we’ve even included a pack of Top Trumps to keep you entertained! Yep, that’s right, flick to page 69 (dude) then cut out the deck of cards featuring the vital stats of 27 members of our driving team. How much entertainment can you squeeze into one magazine I ASK YOU!

RESORT GUIDE 15

FREESKI ACADEMY

50 YEARS OF LES ARCS

VAL D'ISERE

DUMPAGE

SNOW-FORECAST.COM

PIERRE DEPONT

Enjoy, Rob. Rocking marquees in November

Waking up on deserted beaches in July

Rolling through the snow in March

BOURG ST MAURICE & LES ARCS

RESORT GUIDE

SAINTE FOY

RESORT GUIDE

LA PLAGNE

A STITCH IN TIME

PROTECT OUR WINTERS

TIGNES

GOURMET YOUR HOLIDAY

SAPAUDIA BREWING CO

3 VALLEES

LA ROSIERE

RESORT GUIDE

RESORT GUIDE 69

TOP TRUMPS

rentals

snowboards is

skis - bikes

skateboards hardgoods streetwear splitboardsseal skins workshop

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Tignes Le Lac Rue de la Poste 04 79 06 39 92

Av. du Stade Les Jardins de Rochefort 04 79 07 07 61

and many others

Place des Villards Les ArandeliĂ¨res 04 79 07 56 37

COLLECTIVELY LES ARCS, PEISEY-VALLANDRY, VILLAROGER AND BOURG ST. MAURICE MAKE UP ONE HALF OF THE HUGE PARADISKI AREA. It is also the local resort for most of the Cool Bus team so it goes without saying, we love it!

Photo Merci l’Agence

Les Arcs 1600 and 1800 were built in the 1970’s with Arc 2000 following in the early 80’s all using a similar ‘unique’ style of architecture! You can read more about this in our 50th anniversary article on page 16. The more recent village of Arc 1950 was completed just over 10 years ago by Canadian company Intrawest and this influence is clearly seen in its architecture. Vallandry certainly wins the award for the most attractive village in the area and has a unique, central position in the heart of the Paradiski meaning it’s just as easy to head to La Plagne for a few hours skiing as it is to spend the day in Les Arcs. The smaller villages of Peisey-Nancroix and Villaroger have developed from farming hamlets and as such retain a charming traditional feel but lack some of the amenities of the larger villages. Then down in the valley, the hub town of Bourg St. Maurice links to Arc 1600 via a very efficient funicular railway which takes just 7 minutes to whisk you up the 800 metre climb! Bourg is more of regular town and as such has more amenities than you might expect from a place of its size! A great place to stay and a good deal cheaper than accommodation up in the ski area and you might even bump into a Cool Bus driver or two!

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The area has a great mix of pistes for all abilities. Each village has its own nursery slopes but our favourite is probably in Arc 1800, accessed by the new Villards bubble lift which is part of the Mille 8 area. For beautiful treelined pistes head to Peisey-Vallandry and Arc 1600. Arc 1800 and 2000 have some great red and blue pistes for blasting down. Snowboarders and skiers looking for some good cruising runs with fun jumps off to the side won’t regret a few laps of the Derby and Grizzly chairlifts! There is an excellent Snowpark between Arc 1600 and 1800. No half-pipe but the kickers and other features are beautifully shaped and maintained by the snow park crew. There’s a line of blue jumps for beginners, red line for intermediates and a black line which really is only for advanced skiers and snowboarders. Additional features change from year to year but there’s likely to be a quarter pipe, hip jump, rails and boxes of varying degrees of difficulty, an air bag and the famous waterslide outside the Altiport restaurant! There is some incredible off-piste to be had in Les Arcs. Some of this is easy to access and very obvious from the piste and consequently gets tracked out very quickly. To get to the harder to find stuff we would absolutely recommend hiring a guide for the day. If there’s a group of you it can work out pretty cheap. Either way, if you are heading off the piste please make sure you are carrying an avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe as an absolute bare minimum, and that you know how to use them.

NEW BEER CORNER AND FRESH FISH ON FRIDAYS. - Bio and gluten free products - English products - Italian Food - Goat Cheese

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- Summer Beaufort - Artisanal Jams - Wine cave - 250 m2 general store

Monday to Friday 8.30-12.30 / 16-20.00 Saturday and Sunday 9-12.30 / 16-20.00 coolbus-fm

Photo www.TristanShu.com

New Generation Ski & Snowboard School (www.skinewgen.com) in Vallandry is a British run, award winning school that provides group and private lessons for children and adults of all abilities. You can also choose an Adventure day to explore more of the Paradiski area or book a ‘Developer’ session if you’re at an intermediate or advanced level.

AIM Snowsports are a British run ski school offering private ski and snowboard lessons to all ages and abilities. Their instructors are friendly, experienced professionals who are expert in giving you the best experience possible on snow. www.ski-aim.com

LES ARCS / BSM RESORT GUIDE

These days, most French ski resorts have an Ecole du Ski Francais (ESF) and as opposed to years gone by, most have English speaking instructors. It is worth bearing in mind that group lessons can often be large in number, especially during the peak weeks of the holidays. Another French ski school growing in popularity in most resorts is Evolution 2. As with the ESF, Evo 2 (www. evolution2-lesarcs.com) go beyond the normal ski and snowboard lessons as they have fully qualified high mountain guides if you are looking for an off-piste, wilderness adventure. In Les Arcs you can find a branch of both ESF and Evo 2 in nearly all villages across the resort. Fancy a new challenge? Try learning to Telemark with the Ecole du Ski Internationale (www.arc-aventures.com).

Up in Arc 1800, BKM has made something of a name for itself thanks in particular to their gourmet burgers. Check their reviews on Trip Advisor. It also happens to be one of our favourite bars! The Mountain Cafe at the Charvet end of Arc 1800 is an excellent Tex-Mex style restaurant with a great atmosphere and very popular with the locals. Two other great burger joints in 1800 are Roster and La Popote, both highly recommended! Special mention to the renowned l’Ancolie restaurant down in Nancroix below Peisey. If you’re looking for an incredible menu served in beautiful surroundings by friendly, welcoming staff then this is the place! Just up the road from here, on the very edge of the Vanoise National Park is the newly opened Le Petit Hibou. Offering a refreshing and imaginative menu, in house craft beers and great service which has very quickly garnered an excellent reputation amongst locals in the valley. Up in Arc 2000, Whistlers has a great menu that is also available to take away. The Kilimanjaro is popular for evening food and thecoolbus.co.uk

serves up local speciality dishes. Next door in Arc 1950 the Nonna Lisa offers traditional French and Savoyarde food in the Refuge du Montagnard including the local holy trinity of fondue, tartiflette and raclette! With an attractive wooden interior its a great spot for big groups and family meals. Brasserie Le 1950 is tipped for good food with a sleek and typical ‘brasserie’ interior, located within the Manoir Savoir residences. Chalet Luigi is popular with families and offers lots of pasta as the name suggests. Situated on the Marmottes piste as you enter the village, it’s a good place for lunch or dinner.

Photo Raj / AB Tourisme

Up on the mountain, the Bulle Café is a great spot to grab a snack or a full blown fresh fish platter during the day. Situated underneath the Arcubulle chair lift in the Arc 2000 sector, it’s right on the piste and is a dome shaped structure which you can’t really miss unless you’re skiing with your eyes shut! If you’re after something quick to eat head into Arc 1950 head to MeliSnack. You can literally ski up to the door, wolf down an american sandwich and then ski off again!

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Le Sanglier qui Fume located underneath the MontBlanc chair lift, just out of Arc 1600 opened recently and has fast become the place to go for lunch and more sophisticated late afternoon/après drinks with tasty bites

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to choose from the menu to go with your well earned wine and beers at the end of a hard days skiing. In Bourg St. Maurice we really are spoiled for restaurants and the variety of what’s on offer might surprise you. For what has to be the absolute best coffee in Bourg (or Les Arcs for that matter), head to the Pause Cafe on avenue du stade. They also serve snacks including delicious Kurtos which is a bit like a massive curly doughnut! We also hear Pause will soon also have a new cafe in Annecy town centre! For a delicious tajine you can’t go wrong with l’Oasis. They have an extensive, authentic Moroccan menu including couscous, kebabs, sweet pastries, wines and teas. For some asian delights head to Cherry Garden with its great Thai Fusion menu. When the weather’s good you can also eat out in the garden which is ideal if you’ve got kids in tow. We also love Charly’s Factory next to the funicular, the cosy Montagnole, the Michelin starred Arssiban, and if you absolutely must have some cheesy Savoie goodness then you can’t go wrong with Le Refuge on the high street.

LES ARCS / BSM RESORT GUIDE

Photo andyparant.com

If you are staying up in 2000 then don’t miss Whistlers. As well as being a legendary bar they also have a great food menu (also available as take away or delivered) and live music. They stay open late into the night and its a great spot to catch that all important football match! Just down the road in Arc 1950, you’ll find the only Irish bar in Les Arcs - La Belle Pinte, which is a great spot for a social pint of Guinness. Bar King Mad or BKM as it’s become known, is the seasonnaires bar of choice in Arc 1800 (Place de Villards). Excellent food and cocktails, DJs and bands. The huge glass doors open up in the spring to join the interior with the outside terrace. Great spot for spring apres DJ sessions and a gourmet alfresco burger! Another favourite just next door to that is the Red Hot Saloon. At the other end of Arc 1800 is Chez Boubou’s, a popular and often rowdy little bar which attracts French locals and seasonnaires alike. The legendary Bar Mont Blanc can be found in Vallandry right next to the piste below the Grizzly lift. Whether it’s something on Sky Sports you just can not miss, a game of pool, an apres beer on the sun deck or live music you’re after,

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+33 9 70 95 71 04 pausecoffeekurtos@gmail.com @pausecoffeekurtos Free Parking in Bourg-Saint-Maurice

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The Mont Blanc is where it’s at. If you are staying in the lower villages of PeiseyNancroix make sure you pay a visit to Greg’s Bar, a cosy underground drinking spot with a friendly atmosphere. There are many good bars down in Bourg St. Maurice but don’t miss l’Entrinque, next door to the Kosy restaurant. It’s a great little bar with a friendly atmosphere, big football and rugby matches showing on the TV and our favourite Signal beer on tap (amongst others)! Also an exhaustive wine menu and they frequently have live bands playing. The Cool Bus FM Mobile Disco has even been known to put in an appearance on their front terrace! Our other Bourg favourites include Le Central Bar (aka the Spot) and Le Tonneau but for an apres beer right next to the funicular head straight to Charly’s Factory who also have an excellent food menu. Don’t miss the Cherry Garden which is the nearest thing you can find in Bourg to an English pub garden! They have ale on tap and an excellent Thai food menu.

Photo Manu Reyboz

Part of the world’s 2nd largest inter-linked ski area 70% of all pistes above 2000m 6 ski in/ski out villages 425km of pistes, 132 lifts Skiing from 1200m to 3250m Opens 15th December 2018 and closes 27th April 2019 Ski pass Les Arcs Adult - 60 euros/day or 305 euros/6 days Nearest airport – Chambery (120km) but most popular Geneva (155km) 12

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In spring, grab a pack of beers, a baguette and some sausages from the Sherpa in 1800 then jump on the Villards bubble. From the top, walk or ski down the short distance to “Les Cabanes” where you’ll find an open sided chalet with a supply of wood and a metal fire bowl with grill. A perfect spot for an alfresco barbecue and the chalet faces directly towards the setting sun! The Villards bubble runs until 8pm or you can simply ski back down the floodlit piste into 1800 once you’re done. coolbus-fm

Other attractions at Mille 8 include a fun beginners piste with obstacles for the kids (which is also floodlit in the evenings) and an easy skier-x course. Access is via the Villards bubble lift which runs until late and a you’ll also find a decent bar and restaurant at the top!

The Grotte de Glace (120m long ice caves) at the top of the TransArc bubble is a cave full of icy sculptures and well worth a visit. There’s a restaurant nearby too. The Outdoor Ice Rink in Arc 2000 is chilly fun for the family. If all that sounds a bit cold then the new 3800m² Centre Aqualudique in Arc 1800 is an indoor pool with water fountains, spa area and a waterside for the kids!

LES ARCS / BSM RESORT GUIDE Photo Manu Reyboz

A great off-snow activity to try is the Laser Game in 1800. You’ll find it at the Charvet end of town, just down the stairs from Boubous bar. We’ve tried it and its great fun for kids and adults alike! Open every day from 4pm.

Photo Kab Kareem

The Rodeo Park is a 3km toboggan run at 2000m! It’s open to kids and adults over the age of 12 with a valid lift pass as it starts just below the top of the Transarc and Arcabulle lifts. There’s also a shorter but very fast toboggan run in the Mille 8 area, in Arc 1800, which finishes through a tunnel with strobing rainbow lights! They even play the music from Mario Karts so it feels a bit like being in a computer game!

Fancy dinner or a night in an igloo? Head to the Igloo Village near Arc 2000 (village-igloo-arcs. fr). You’ll also find a really cool igloo ice bar and ice sculptures. A great place to hang out for a few hours if the weather closes in!

ELECTRONICPEAKFESTIVAL.COM

19 > 22 MARCH

Techno Dj set

and more

9pm: Salle Bernard Taillefer / Arc 1800 Presales 17€ - On door 22€

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LES ARCS / BSM RESORT GUIDE

This year marks the 50 year anniversary of Les Arc with a programme of special events and celebrations. For little look at the history of Les Arcs head to page 16.

November in Bourg St. Maurice. Two days and three nights of outdoor sports films shown across two screens. Plus an expo village, seminars bands and the Cool Bus FM Mobile disco!

10th Edition of the Festival de Cinema European des Arcs

Photo Raj / AB Tourisme

Winter Film Festival - takes place in early

15th to 22nd December The winter season has barely kicked off but possibly Les Arcs’ most important showcase is the European Cinema Festival for which Cool Bus are the official transport supplier! A week long event with films shown throughout the resort, this year focusing on Poland.

25th until 27th January This event is an unmissable gathering for those that love ski-touring. Three very different tours on consecutive days and open to everyone.

Freeride Week 28th January until 3rd February The week kicks off with a round of the Freeride Junior World Tour and ends with the Senior Freeride World Qualifier. Throughout this period there will be demo’s and tuition in avalanche safety and probably the odd soiree!

Photo Merci l’Agence

The Big Up And Down

March 19th until the 22nd A new event which premiered last winter (electronicpeakfestival.com). Expect DJ sets at the Bulle Cafe above Arc 2000 and other venues during the week, culminating in a big party at the Taillefer centre in 1800 on the Friday which will keep revellers dancing late into the night! CoolBus support the event and you may even catch our Mobile Disco at some point!

Ski2Bike 20th - 21st April A relay competition that takes place as the ski lifts close on the final day of the season. Starting from the top of the Arpette chairlift, competitors set off en-masse with a Le Mans style start before clipping into their skis and racing down to Arc 1600. Here they tag their team mate who then races down to Bourg on a mountain bike. We’ve done it for the past two years and highly recommend it! Here’s our video of the race so you can see what to expect vimeo.com/214579335 14

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Photo Merci l’Agence

Electronic Peak

COOL BUS HAS BEEN SUPPORTING THIS LOCAL CLUB SINCE 2016, INITIALLY BY LOANING VANS WHEN WE HAD THEM AVAILABLE AND THEN, LAST WINTER, PURCHASING TWO 4WD VW CARAVELLES FOR THEIR SOLE USE. Olympian, seven time X-Games medallist and all round local hero, Enak Gavaggio is the club president (aka Rancho - check his web series here www.ranchowebshow.com) but the real driving force behind the Academy comes from the co-founders Xavier Troubat and Laurent Niol. Both grew up in the valley and went on to have successful skiing careers which included world cup podiums in freeskiing and moguls respectively and even an Olympic Games for Laurent. Now settled down with families, they soon realised that the area lacked a club which catered for kids who wanted to learn to ski freestyle and freeride. Like most resort towns, Les Arcs/Bourg St. Maurice has a thriving ski racing club but charging fast through slalom gates isn’t every kids idea of fun. And the Freeski Academy is most definitely about fun! They take kids from age 8 through to 18. For the younger children the priority is getting them up into the snow regularly and showing them how much enjoyment there is to be had messing about on jumps and in powder. They make a point of not pushing them too hard, allowing their skills to develop naturally. Their team of seven coaches are on hand to provide 250 ski sessions per season. It doesn’t stop there either as through the spring and autumn they also take them to

the fantastic French National Training Center in Albertville to practice spins and flips in (relative) safety on trampolines and foam pits. For the teenagers there is certainly the possibility for things to get a bit more serious and they attend various events throughout the season. Last year this included seven stages of the Freeride Junior Tour where team members scored three podiums and eight top five results. In 2016/17, team member Hugo Hoff actually won the Freeride Junior Tour outright! For the 2018/19 season, two riders from the team have already qualified to compete. They are also supported by talented local videographer Nico Secerov. Short edits regularly pop up on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ pg/lafreeskiacademy) throughout the year and longer movies have appeared on the big screen at the Winter Film Festival in Bourg and High Five in Annecy. Knowing many of the kids in the team personally (including my son!), I can testify that they absolutely love it and it’s something that we at Cool Bus, are very proud to be a part of. If you’re skiing in Les Arcs this winter and you see a bunch of short people in matching kit tearing up the off-piste and snowpark there’s a good chance it’ll be these guys!

For more information on the Freeski Academy visit: www.facebook.com/lafreeskiacademy

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EXPECT BIG CELEBRATIONS IN LES ARCS THIS WINTER AS ONE OF THE VALLEYS YOUNGEST RESORTS MARKS ITS HALF CENTURY! A LITTLE LOOK BACK IN THE HISTORY BOOKS SHOWS US WE HAVE THREE KEY CHARACTERS TO THANK FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED SKI RESORT THAT WE, AT COOL BUS, CALL HOME

R OG E R G O D IN O

ROBE RT BLANC

C HARLOT T E PE R R I A ND

THE E NT RE PREN EUR

T H E D R E AM E R

T H E D E SI GN E R

A young and ambitious businessman who was a native of the Savoie capital, Chambery. He loved skiing and fortuitously met Robert Blanc in the 1960’s. They both recognised that the ski industry had the possibility to revitalise the Tarentaise valley and made it their mission to ensure that the mountains above Bourg St. Maurice would be part of this approaching economic boom.

Something of a local legend, Robert Blanc was born in a small village just a few kilometres from Bourg St. Maurice called Hauteville Gondon. He came from a farming background (the staple industry in the area in those days) and spent his youth looking after cattle on the local mountain pastures. He later went on to become a mountain guide in Courchevel but in the back of his mind lurked the idea that the slopes he had once walked as a cowherd might one day shape the pistes of a ski resort.

Madame Perriand had been designing weekend homes and refuges in response to the expansion in the mountain leisure sector since the 1930’s. In Les Arcs she found a project that became her life’s work and something that she played an active part in until the age of 86! With her team, she developed the villages of Arc 1600, 1800 and 2000 based on, what was at the time, a completely revolutionary ethos.

LES ARCS 1964

Fusion of the communes of Hauteville Gondon and Bourg St. Maurice paves the way for a new development

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1973

1975

Completion of Arc 1600 village

1968

Opening of the first ski lifts and hotel in Arc1600 Les Trois Arcs

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1980

Inauguration of Hotel du Golf in Arc 1800 (at the time, the largest in the Alps)

1974

Cable car built linking Bourg St. Maurice to Arc1600

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1979

Opening of Arc 2000 and the Club Med

Robert Blanc sadly dies in an avalanche near the current site of the Comborciere chairlift, whilst searching for some tourists who had gone missing during a storm.

Their design brief was centred around minimising the impact on the mountainside, keeping the villages as contained as possible whilst giving visitors the sensation of being immersed in the alpine environment. Rather than building hundreds of small chalets sprawling over the mountain, they designed larger buildings filled with apartments and clustered together which contoured the slopes. They aimed to ensure each apartment had a mountain view and balconies that did not impede on each other and allowed for plenty of sunshine. Although many buildings were multi-storey, they certainly could not be described as high-rise and roofs were inverted to ensure they held the snow to help them blend in with the surroundings. Likewise buildings were clad with dark wood to match the forests which framed these villages. The areas designated for skiing, for pedestrians and for cars were positioned away from each other to enhance everyones enjoyment of the mountains. This completely new style of resort positioned Les Arcs at the forefront of ski development and it is no surprise that it in turn influenced the people that lived and visited the area. Through the 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the resort was one of the first to welcome snowboarding and many other new disciplines such as speed skiing and this did not stop with the winter. It very quickly made a name for itself as a summer mountain bike destination and the Isere river in Bourg St. Maurice played host to the World Canoe Slalom Championships as far back as 1969 - truly a year round destination for a wide range of mountain activities. This mix continues to this day, attracting tourists from across Europe and the world just as much as it did back in the late 60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. We at Cool Bus, raise our glass in toast to Les Arcs at this landmark birthday and look forward to another 50 years of skiing, snowboarding, biking, kayaking, flying and partying in our favourite resort!

TIMELINE

1982

1989

Aiguille Rouge cable car completed

1983

First Apocalypse Snow movie is filmed in Les Arcs, heralding the arrival of snowboarding in the valley

The funicular linking Bourg with Arc 1600 in just 7 minutes is completed

1996

1992

Arc 2000â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flying kilometre is used in the speed skiing demo event at the Albertville Olympics

2003

Arc 1800 is completed with the construction of Charmettoger village

Vanoise Express opens linking Les Arcs with La Plagne and thereby creating the huge Paradiski area

2003

Creation of Arc 1950 by Intrawest

2018

Opening of Club Med Panorama above Arc1600, the largest Club Med in the Alps thecoolbus.co.uk

Photos courtesy of Val Disere Tourist Office

RIGHT AT THE VERY TOP OF THE TARENTAISE VALLEY, VAL D’ISERE IS ONE OF THE MOST WELL-KNOWN SKI RESORTS IN THE WORLD. It has a reputation like no other for its world class accommodation, après-ski, fine restaurants and shops and, together with Tignes, makes up the huge skiing area formerly known as the Espace Killy (they’ve recently dropped the Killy name - don’t ask!). It is one of the oldest and most attractive towns in the area. The local church dates to the late 17th century and skiing took off here way back in the 1930’s! Mainly consisting of free standing chalets built in traditional style and nestling in a stunning valley at the head of the Isere river, a holiday in Val does also carry a price tag, as it’s one of the most expensive for accommodation and food & drink.

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Despite being well known for its steep blacks, Val d’Isere still caters for the beginners out there! The Solaise area has a large beginners slope with plenty of space for veering off to one side and several green and blue runs, perfect for progression. As the name suggests, these runs catch the sun whenever it makes an appearance, so are great in January when temperatures can be low. The long pistes running from Toviere down to la Daille are a great way to rack up the miles and will have your legs burning by the end. The glacier at Le Fornet provides some of the best cruising runs, especially if you go from the top of the glacier, all the way down to the village in one go! Any time the visibility disappears, it’s time to

head over towards the forested areas of Laisinant and Le Fornet. There’s always somewhere to ski/ride in the Espace Killy, no matter what the weather. Even on a clear day, the tree-lined runs between Val d’Isere and Le Fornet will offer some of the most fun pistes of your holiday, especially if the powder is stacked up! The Tour du Cugnai and Tour du Charvet are classic, famous offpiste routes in Val. Whilst they can get busy later in the day, the views and snow are amazing if you get there earlier. Guides are essential when going off-piste in Val d’Isere, due to the steep terrain, cliffs and avalanche danger. There are plenty of day touring routes also, with mountain huts positioned in the most beautiful locations. If you have good weather and can hire a guide, this is definitely worth a day of your trip and will allow you to explore the real off-piste of the Espace Killy.

A range of accommodation from budget apartments to some of the world’s most expensive chalets Skiing from 1500m up to 3450m 146km of pistes in local area with 300km total including Tignes 15 green runs, 32 blue, 21 red, 13 black & 1 snowpark Opens 24th November 2018 and closes 1st May 2019 Adult lift pass price - €59.00/day €294/6 days for the whole of Espace Killy Nearest airport – Chambery (145km) but most popular Geneva (180km)

2018

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If, like us, your main priority after skiing is good grub then Val d’Isere is definitely the place to come. You cannot expect to pay ‘normal’ prices for food here because, well it is Val d’Isere after all, but that shouldn’t put you off because it is definitely possible to get your money’s worth. There are options for everyone – plenty of ‘snack shack’ style establishments, posh burgers that won’t break the bank all the way up to Michelin starred tastiness.

Thanks to its influx of British holidaymakers in the winter, Val has a plethora of English speaking ski schools to choose from: SkiBro is an innovative platform that enables you to find your perfect instructor or group lesson, with profile videos, bios and customer reviews... and book instantly, either online or via the SkiBro app. Whether you’re a first-timer or seasoned skier or snowboarder, SkiBro takes away all of the hassle of booking lessons or a guide and makes it easy to do last minute 24/7 in resort. Book at www.skibro.com or download the app in the App Store or Google Play. Speak to your driver for a discount code or use code COOLBUS at checkout TDCski (tdcski.com) provides quality ski coaching for people who really want to improve their skiing by going further than just regular ski school and traditional lessons. They offer small group coaching sessions with dedicated English speaking ski instructors so you can make lasting breakthroughs in your skiing performance. 20

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Leading Edge Ski School (leadingedgeski.com) is a new, British-run establishment and the guys there offer friendly tuition, aiming to give you the best experience on the mountain. Whether you’re a total beginner or you want to explore the nether regions of the Espace Killy, Liam or Chris can help. New Generation Tignes (skinewgen. com) is a another British run ski school that offers high quality tuition. Probably the most well known amongst Brits is BASS - the British Alpine Ski & Snowboard School (bass-skischools.com). With 25 successful years teaching in the Alps, their school in Val offers individual lessons and courses to brush up freeride skills and more. Progression Ski and Snowboard School (progressionski.com) is ‘Val d’Isere and Tignes’s leading ski & snowboard school’ and they offer the full range of lessons in both disciplines plus heli-skiing options, telemark instruction and corporate trips. coolbustransfer

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L’Avancher (avancher.com) is a great place to go on chalet night off or for a treat, serving quality French bistro cuisine and local speciality dishes mainly involving lots of cheese. Located in the centre of Val in the Galerie des Cimes, there’s a really quirky eatery called Dans le Jardin des Alpes where one could be fooled into thinking that they are dining a l’exterior because of the garden under the stars theme. You can pick up a tasty 900g sandwich called Le Hunger Breaker from the sandwich bar or grab something from the delicatessen for dinner. La Taverne d’Alsace located within the Kandahar Hotel (hotel-kandahar. com) La Taverne which translated means pub does definitely have that old pub feel and is warm, cosy and comfortable. Plus the food is a mix of French and German with the Alsace connection - think Duck Shepherds Pie, Veal Ribs or maybe Calf’s Head and Alsace specialities such as Sauerkraut with varying accompaniments. For food up on the mountain, the first and very obvious suggestion is La Folie Douce (lafoliedouce. com) which is pretty much world famous for its during/après-ski party on the piste. A large building with an even larger terrace includes

La Folie Douce is the collective name for the restaurants and the bar/ terrace which is just one big lively, happy place! It’s not the type of establishment you go to for a quick lunch or one drink really, it’s like a little trap of good food and lots of alcohol. You can eat from 12 noon and the bars stay open until 5pm (they only close because there is so much carnage that everyone has to be ushered off the mountain before the pisteurs can go home). In between there’s dancing on the tables

VAL D’ISERE RESORT GUIDE

two restaurants. The best (and most expensive) is La Fruiterie which takes inspiration from old mountain dairies and the second is called Nuvo Self which is probably one of the ‘trendiest’ self-service establishments in the Alps - it does have a DJ booth!

and spraying of champagne guaranteed! La Folie Douce is located at the top of the Daille cable car and is also accessible for those who don’t ski, as you can buy a return pass for that lift alone for around 10 euros. Another few restaurants on the hill in Val worth visiting include La Peau de Vache which is half way down the famous La Face run above the town. Its burgers are something special and the place is also known for its welcoming, friendly host. You can’t miss Le Signal (lesignalvaldisere.com) as it’s a strange looking wooden cube-like building, so why not head there for lunch? Decorated with a freshness in comparison to most French mountain places, this great mountain top restaurant is right near the glacier and can

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be accessed by foot from the cable car. It’s pricey but worth it for the location, service and a varied, different menu. Les Tufs (lestufs.com) is a dining experience right on the slopes, located at the bottom of the Funival just a stroll up from the Telecabine de la Daille. The décor is clean in a ‘neutral chalet’ style and the terrace is a lovely spot for lunch when the sun’s out. Pizzas start at €14 and there is a reasonably priced ‘Tufs’ menu for €21.

Dicks Tea Bar (dicksteabar.com) is something of a Val d’Isere institution! The debauchery has run riot here since 1979 and the place is still as popular as ever. Expect the usual mix of booze, beats and bodypoppin’! Le Petit Danois (lepetitdanois.com) sells itself as the No.1 party bar in Val and lives up to that name by providing après-goers with live music or a DJ every night of the week, 2 happy hours a day and a free shot for every drink bought between 5-7pm… sounds dangerous! Saloon Bar (saloonbar.com) underneath the Hotel Brussels is a popular bar on the snow front that you can ski straight to. If you’re so up for après that you don’t have time to drop your skis back at the chalet then no need to worry, the Saloon will take them in and look after them for you, rather like a cloak room in a nightclub back home. Handy! 22

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Café Face (cafeface.com), La Folie Douces’ presence down in the village of Val is a well-priced spot, with chilled music to start après and getting livelier until closing at 2am. Regular DJ nights are on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Doudonne (doudouneclub. com) has steadily made a name for itself over the last few years and has played host to some pretty big name DJ sets including the Freestylers, A-Skillz and Rudimental. We are certainly looking forward to see who they can bring in this winter! Cocorico (cocoricovaldisere.com) is the Doudonne’s apres-ski bar and you can ski right up to the front door at the foot of the Face black piste at the centre of the Val. The huge sunny terrace has been extended over the summer so that even more people can dance on the tables in the sunshine! coolbustransfer

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New this December is the Le Refuge de Solaise (lerefuge-valdisere. com), perched up at 2551 metres at the top of the Solaise lift. This year they will be opening a restaurant with a menu featuring dishes mixing regional basics and generous classic, followed by a full hotel opening in time for winter 2019/20. As you might expect, the views will be stunning!

December 8th-16th The opening event of the international ski racing calendar!

VAL D’ISERE RESORT GUIDE

Criterium de la Premiere Neige

Festi Light Every Thursday night from 31st December until 7th March Night-time entertainment on the main street with jugglers, musicians, DJ’s, stilt walkers and dozens of illuminations.

Alpine Skiing Europa Cup 30th & 31st January

Classicaval Music Festival 21st – 24th January and 11th-12th March The classical music festival’s 26th anniversary

La Scara 2nd - 5th April Slalom and Giant Slalom competition for international junior racers between 12 and 15 years Aside from skiing there are plenty of other activities on offer in Val. Most non-skiers might like to head to the sofas and sun-loungers of the bars and restaurants overlooking the snow front but there’s certainly more to Val than that! As you come into the town itself, look out for the Val d’Isere Ice-Driving Experience (valdisereice-driving.com) on the right. It’s a specially made driving circuit (sponsored by BMW) where you get to slide and skid around in their 4x4 vehicles on the snow. More recently they have also added electric KTM motocross bikes for you to try your hand at. There’s also Ice-Karting, a

driving simulator and you can even have a go at driving a piste basher! The recently up-graded, indoor Aquasportif Centre (centreaquasportif.com) in town, just next to the massive L’Olympique gondola lift is a really impressive building that includes all sorts of alternative activities for both adults and kids. You’ll find pools, spas and wellness areas and an incredible climbing wall. There’s also a gym and a weights room if you really want to beast yourself whilst on holiday! Try the golf simulator if you’re a fan.

International Adventure & Discovery Film Festival 15th–18th April Exhibitions, first hand accounts and eleven adventure films to catch at the conference centre auditorium For the most up-to-date details go to valdisere.com

New for the 2018/19 season is the ValKids play area. Designed for children aged 4-10, this miniature ski area gives children the chance to learn about snow-making, grooming and even ‘drive’ a cable car. Situated below the beginner Sunny Ride piste on the Solaise. thecoolbus.co.uk

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ver the previous three years (2014-2017) Europe had experienced relatively warm and dry winters. During the summer of 2017 several summer skiing resorts closed completely due to a lack of snow covering the glacial ice. As such there was a good deal of apprehension going into the 2017/18 winter season. The main culprit behind the previous dry conditions was the Azores high pressure zone drifting over onto Europe which brings with it light winds, clear skies and high daytime freezing levels. Many forecasters also point to the extended El Niño years between 2014 and 2016, however the jury is still out as to exactly how much effect this has on conditions in Europe. The 2017/18 season saw a dramatic end to this as reliable snowfalls returned to Europe to an extent not seen since before snow-forecast.com first began back in 1998! 2017 saw the return of La Niña but this time the snowfalls were primarily driven by warm sea temperatures in the North Atlantic and Baltic through autumn and early winter. Warm water makes for increased evaporation and more cloud resulting in snowfall.

The 2017/18 winter season will surely go down in the history books. It was comfortably the best winter for snow since Cool Bus started business some 16 years ago, but it’s fair to say that it also brought its fair share of problems. Regular snowfalls on or around the weekends meant we experienced 3 of our 4 toughest ever transport weekends in 2018. Up in resort, snowfall got so deep in January that resorts had to close for days at a time and on occasion, even banned people from leaving their chalets! Later in the season it continued to come down but in much more manageable volumes allowing us to enjoy some incredible conditions. We were still scoring powder in the spring, just look at this short video we took in Les Arcs mid-May - vimeo.com/269845298 To find out a bit more about how, where and why, we caught up with the knowledgable people at snow-forecast.com .

While some wet winters in Europe are dominated by southwesterly wind, the last one was a mix of westerly or north westerly winds and a few easterly cold spells (remember the “Beast from the East”). The cold easterlies were driven by low pressure forming over Greenland and some climatologists think this may even have been due to global warming and snowmelt in places like Baffin Island, leading to a decline in the Gulf Stream which usually keeps Europe warmer than its latitude dictates. Snow started falling above 300 metres as early as late summer last year and many glacier areas that had been worried about their snow cover in August were opening in the first few weeks of September after more than 60cm fell up high. But it was January that saw the huge snowfalls which unfortunately led many resorts to have to close their slopes temporarily due to logistical problems and high avalanche danger. Snow reporters noted that this was the biggest snowfall for 10, 20 and then 30 years. Eventually Zermatt, which was forced to close overland access on multiple occasions due to extreme avalanche danger, announced it was the most snow they’d had since the 1940’s! The snow led to some remarkable totals, with Engelberg in Switzerland posting the deepest base in the world for most of the year, passing the 7 metre mark on its Titlis glacier in March. Resorts in France reached bases of 5 metres, again numbers not seen for many years. But the avalanche danger remained a constant worry with Switzerland assuming a very rare level 5 (of 5) danger warning and the French Savoie region adding ‘extreme’ to their level 5 rating. Skiers in resorts like Chamonix, Val d’Isere and Val Thorens who had already suffered long journeys into resort due to the snow were then told to stay in their chalets for days thecoolbus.co.uk

on end due to the risk of venturing outdoors. Skiing was certainly out of the question! Snowfalls persisted in more manageable volumes through the rest of the season and in many areas right the way through to the beginning of the summer. One of the latest non-glacial resorts to close was actually Glencoe up in Scotland where cold temperatures meant that most resorts were open every day through the 2017/18 winter. Portugal’s only ski resort, Serra da Estrela, also experienced previously unheard of levels of snow

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that allowed them to open into May. Val d’Isere’s published accumulative total of snowfall topped out at a whopping 889cm which is 50% higher than its previous 5 year average of 5.5 metres provding the resort with 65 powder days through the winter! As a result they were able to open non-glacial pistes to skiers in June 2018 for the first time in its 82 year history!

There is currently about 75% confidence that there will be a return of El Nino conditions by Christmas but the current model is picking this to be a weak El Nino event anyway. People wildly overestimate the El Nino effect in Europe. In Western Canada and California, it is a predictable driver of winter conditions but Europe is very far from there. For the Alps, a far more important driver of climate is the Arctic Oscillation. This is a measure of the temperature of the stratosphere over the Arctic. In its positive phase,

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when the stratosphere is colder than usual, it increases storminess in the north Atlantic which effectively confines the cold polar air. Scotland and Scandinavia get a battering from stormy westerlies and the Alps tend to suffer long periods dry conditions. In its negative phase, characterised by warming of the stratosphere over the Arctic, winter storms travel at much lower latitudes bringing snow to the Alps with cold Arctic spreading deep into Europe. On a weather map, the best indicator of a negative phase is persistence of high pressure over Greenland and Scandinavia. The AO index was strongly positive in the early 1990’s compared to the previous forty years (it hardly ever snowed in Southern Britain then) whereas

the value of the AO has been low and variable for the last nine years, leading to generally much better winter conditions for the Alps. Unfortunately, whereas El Nino and La Nina can be predicted in advance by studying sea temperatures in the Pacific, the Arctic Oscillation is tricky to forecast so we can’t predict the Alpine winter in the same way that we can predict how things will shape up in North America. Sometimes, sudden warming of the Arctic stratosphere takes everyone by surprise. There have been tentative suggestions that a very weak solar index (the sunspot cycle) makes the AO more negative and recently an idea that global warming and fresh water pouring into the Arctic play a big role so in the short term at least the Arctic can

warm up at an alarming rate while winters in Europe become cold and snowy, at least for a few decades. That’s the kind of devil in the detail that caused Global Warming to get renamed Climate Change even if overall the world is on a warming trend. Even without any modelling at all, just by looking back at decades of snowfall history across the French Alps, it is unusual to see a really good season followed by a very poor one. Instead, it seems to take about 5 years to transition from a run of good seasons to a run of poor seasons.

By that statistical argument alone it seems likely that this season will be somewhere in the range good to excellent! thecoolbus.co.uk

now-Forecast.com has been the world leader for snow predictions for the last twenty years and boasts over 12 million users per year. It was founded back in 1997 by Rob Davies, Rob McDonald and Nick Russill. The team was originally based in South Wales, but is now spread over three continents. Their background in geophysics and computer programming led to the software that powers the site and was originally borne from a need for finding snowboarding destinations in New Zealand and South Wales. It was only when the concept caught the eye of other snow sports enthusiasts around the World that the website was created. Essentially what they do is combine a global elevation model with a public domain weather model from the USA National Weather Service (called GFS) to give three different weather forecasts for each ski resort location. This is presented as top, middle and bottom lift forecasts for morning, afternoon and night periods (or 3-hourly periods for subscribers) and differs from most other forecasts to be found online where forecasts are given for approximate surface values or nearby population centres and therefore not much use for

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mountain weather. Their forecasts cover some seventy different countries totalling almost four thousand ski resorts and even some other exotic locations besides. Need a snow report for Mauna Kea in Hawaii? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on there. Planning a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania? Check the conditions beforehand on snow-forecast.com! Their latest developments include a mobile app that features all the usual snow-forecast data plus interactive mapping, the ability to share your position on the mountain with friends and to track your adventures and you can even send in live snow reports. It is this last feature that is used by hundreds of people every day to improve the quality of the information presented to other users of snow-forecast.com. A brand new web feature for the 2018-19 season is the facility to view historical data for different resorts. The thinking behind this new tool is that it allows you to research resorts before you book your holiday. You can see how many powder days a resort had in each month of the season based on archived data over a ten year period, average snowfalls each week, how many snowy days and the average temperatures.

Pierre Depont, whose beautiful pictures grace these last six pages, is a talented local photographer and long time friend of Cool Bus. As he explains below, he has been calling the Tarentaise home for many years… I first started visiting Peisey-Nancroix in the late nineties on day trips from Tignes. I quickly fell in love with the terrain, small village feel and the amazing tree skiing. This led to a few of us getting together and buying an old rundown hotel in Vallandry. There were very few Brits in the area at the time but I remember how friendly and welcoming the locals were, and the hotel bar (Bar Mont Blanc) had a great mix of locals and tourists alike. With the installation of the Vanoise Express, connecting Les Arcs and La Plagne and putting Peisey right at the heart of this huge combined ski area, the bar quickly got a lot busier so I decided to move on to a new project with my partner and her sister - a restaurant in Plan-Peisey. La Vache quickly earned a great reputation and was very successful but all good things come to an end and last year we left La Vache. Since then I’ve been focusing on my biggest passions which are photography and travelling. I’m always drawn back to the mountains though, it’s such a beautiful seasonal place to live and so photogenic. Peisey-Vallandry tourist office use my photos of the local area for their promotions.

A few years back my travels and curiosity led me to North Korea. There really is no other place like it - as if it’s from another time! I’ve been there 10 times now. From the moment you arrive, there’s something all absorbing about the place. Maybe it’s partly due to having no phone or internet, and no advertising to remind you of what you could or should be. In fact there’s nothing there to remind you that anything exists outside the DPRK. Over the years I’ve made some great friends there and, more than anything, it’s the people that draw me back. Life is hard and sometimes cruel for lot’s of Koreans yet they possess a togetherness that you wont find anywhere else. Photography in North Korea does have its limitations though and I’ve had some pretty scary times out there! Like when I got caught taking photos in a market (a definite no go) which nearly led me to a detention of sorts. I’ve also had people unexpectedly rock up and start scrolling through my photos and deleting some. The bottom line is that the state wants complete control on images and information that leaves their country. This winter will be the first winter away from the French Alps for me for over 20 years, I’m going to Bangladesh and then heading overland to the Himalayas.

Guess I’m always drawn back to the mountains!

Pierre’s work has been published in the Petit Journal, Guardian, BBC, Vice and GQ www.pierredepont.com pierredepont Pierre also sells prints: /alpinemountainprints thecoolbus.co.uk

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A QUAINT, TRADITIONAL SKI VILLAGE THEN SAINTE-FOY ABSOLUTELY FITS THE BILL. It’s a small, friendly resort with an abundance of amenities and is particularly ideal for families on their first or second ski holiday - when you are still learning to ski you really don’t need to spend 250 euros on a pass to access a huge ski area! For the more adventurous it also has world renowned off-piste and acts as a perfect base for exploring other resorts, being just opposite Les Arcs and only 15 minutes drive from Tignes, Val d’Isere and La Rosiere.

Photos courtesy of Sainte Foy Tourist Office

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Ste. Foy has an excellent beginners area with two magic carpet lifts (surely the easiest way to get back up the slope when you are learning) which you can use for free! Above this four chairlifts feed twenty odd, top notch pistes. There’s some good easy blues for beginners to advance on and some harder but fun blues and reds for cruising down, a lot of which are treelined. Higher up you’ll find some harder reds and blacks that do not get groomed giving you the chance to get some powder turns after a recent snowfall. It’s off-piste where Ste. Foy really excels and for which it has gained a big reputation in recent years. There is good terrain just to the side of most pistes but under the Marquise chairlift in particular, you will find a huge expanse of untracked mountain. If you want to take things a step further, hiring a guide for the day will allow you to really get the best out of the resort (a bit of local knowledge here goes a long way!) but, as always, don’t think about going off-piste without all the appropriate safety equipment. There is some epic terrain to find and with a bit of hiking you can easily rack up over 1500m of vertical descent. We regularly come here for day trips. For a taste have a look at this edit on our vimeo channel vimeo.com/125559705 One of the most recent additions to the resort is the Camp Filleul piste. Named after a military barracks whose ruins can be spotted near this new run, Camp Filleul is graded red and leads off to the left of the Marquise lift. Its length is around 1500m over 305m vertical.

A firm favourite with locals and holidaymakers alike is Le Sainte Germain. This lively little bar boasts an excellent selection of wines and beers and an incredible tapas menu made with local ingredients. Yeti Boots (www.l-iceberg.fr) is conveniently situated near to the ski school and is another popular après ski bar. Serving delicious snacks, it’s the type of après establishment that you can ski straight to and end up dancing the night away in your ski boots! Over in La Bataillette (the left side of Ste. Foy as you look uphill), the Black Diamond is a fantastic apres bar with snacks and live music.

An off-piste Mecca of the Tarentaise valley 4 chairlifts, 2 magic carpets Most accommodation in the village is ski in/ski out Skiing from 1550m to 2620m Resort opens 15th December 2018 and closes 14th April 2019 Adult lift pass prices - €32.20/day €174.20/6 days Nearest airport – Chambery (125km) but most popular Geneva (160km)

For a small resort, Sainte-Foy and its surrounding villages are surprisingly well appointed with excellent restaurants. L’A Coeur has earned itself a great reputation for its tasty menu and is also a good spot for après and evening drinks. The Black Diamond also has an exceptional restaurant which scores highly on Trip Advisor. Further afield you’ll find Le Monal, (see page xx) which is situated in the lower, original village of Sainte-Foyen-Tarentaise. An institution for 130 years, this restaurant serves traditional dishes with a twist and has a substantial wine cellar. Chez Mérie is located in the hamlet of Le Miroir and is well worth a visit with some delicious dishes cooked in a wood fired oven. For food on the mountain try the terrace overlooking the monstrous mountain of Mont Pourri at Chez Leon. Warm up with a traditional dish like tartiflette, or go for gratins or lasagnes also cooked in a wood oven. Brevettes is next to Chez Léon at the top of the first lift out of Sainte-Foy and offers a rustic atmosphere in a busy setting, you can’t be in a hurry during the lunchtime rush! For a quick bite and conveniently located at the top of the Arpettaz lift is the Fogliettaz Snack Hut which serves up hot food like paninis and good hot chocolate. You’ll find Les Marquises restaurant unsurprisingly close to the foot of the Marquise chairlift! This is a great spot for lunch on the mountain offering both proper sit down meals and an outdoor snack-bar. 32

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SAINTE FOY RESORT GUIDE

Relax and unwind in Sainte-Foy at the Ô Pure Spa which is a serene place to escape from the hectic slopes and the cold of the winter. In fact, there is a special winter treatment called the ‘Grand Froid’ for face and body with warm oils, alternating stretches and deep movements for intense muscular recuperation. Mountain Equilibre (www.mountainequilibre.com) is an English run company offering exercise sessions off the piste including reflexology, pilates and massage. Contact Sarah on +33 (0)687 82 33 36 for more info and bookings. For the whole family Igloo Outings can be arranged through with Snocool. Tarentaise-Tours.com are also an excellent choice for all things mountain based. Snow-shoe walks, ice-climbing initiation, bobsleigh initiation and chopper flights around Mont Blanc are just a few of the possibilities on offer to make your stay even more memorable.

New Year Eve 31st December Fireworks and hot wine on the snow front Les Balcons.

La Montee de Sainte-Foy 19th January The 4th edition of this night-time ski touring event For complete up-to-date listings head to saintefoy-tarentaise.com thecoolbus.co.uk

DID YOU KNOW THAT BASED ON SKI PASS SALES LA PLAGNE IS THE MOST POPULAR SKI RESORT IN THE WORLD? True fact! Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s linked to Les Arcs via the Vanoise Express double decker cable car (the biggest of its kind in the world) and combined they make up the Paradiski, one of the largest linked ski areas in the world (435km of pistes in total). Blimey, someone phone Norris McWhirter! The resort of La Plagne is made up of a number of high altitude, purpose built, ski in/ski out villages and a few smaller, traditional farming villages including Champagny-en-Vanoise, Montchavin-Les Coches and Montalbert. All of these provide us with hundreds of kilometres of on and off-piste skiing, some great restaurants and bars and loads of off-the-slope activities. What more could you ask for?

Photos courtesy of La Plagne Tourist Office

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La Plagne has, for some reason, gained a reputation as a resort for intermediate skiers which is best avoided by snowboarders unless you like unclipping and walking a lot! Well we reckon this is far from the truth and to be honest, we love the place! There are some flatter linking pistes where you can run out of steam but as long as you look far ahead enough you can usually charge through these and there is more than enough terrain to keep advanced skiers and snowboarders happy if you know where to look. The lower villages have an abundance of beautiful tree-lined pistes ranging from nursery slopes to roller coaster reds! The greatest concentration of these would have to be over in the Montchavin-Les Coches sector. Throughout the central La Plagne areas and further afield towards Champagny you will find a host of fun, undulating blues and reds that criss-cross each other giving the opportunity to switch between runs at will. Wider, motorway style pistes can be found up at the higher

altitudes around Plagne Bellecote and Belle Plagne which are great for charging and carving huge turns. Whilst similar to neighbouring Les Arcs in terms of the total length of pistes, La Plagne is actually much larger in square kilometres. What this means is thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tons of terrain for the more adventurous to explore between the pistes. The ultimate backcountry playground in La Plagne has to be that found from the top of the highest mountain in the area - the Bellecote. If you wish to explore up here a guide is not just advisable it is absolutely essential as is a full compliment of avalanche safety equipment and the knowledge of how to use it. There have been numerous fatalities up here over the years involving even the most experienced of locals who have been caught in freak avalanches. Of course it goes without saying that all the villages have their own nursery slopes as well and there is a good selection of green pistes and easier blues to take your skiing or riding to the next level.

w for Book no lusive your exc iscount d s u b l o Co 8/19 at

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Welcome to Rental Republic, the personal ski and snowboard butlers. Book your ski and snowboard hire with us, sit back and relax in your Coolbus transfer, and our ski technician will bring your equipment to you at your chalet, either the day of your arrival or early the next morning in time to get you on the first lift. We will pick up all the ski and snowboard rental equipment after your last afternoonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skiing, so there really is no hassle or struggle with your hiring needs, from beginning to end.... We offer on call support during your stay, so if you feel you need any help or advice about your equipment simply text us and we will arrange a suitable time to pop up and help you out.

0044 (0) 203 58 800 16 mail@rentalrepublic.co.uk

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British run outfit New Generation (skinewgen.com) have a team of fully qualified, English speaking instructors on hand for group lessons for the kids, a technique refresher, and anything inbetween and have the local knowledge and skills to help you get the most out of your skiing holiday.

ESF (www.esf-plagne.com/ski-school-la-plagne) is the largest ski school provider in La Plagne. Oxygene Ski School (www.oxygene-ski.com/en/ la-plagne) is also a favourite in these parts too. Olivier at Evolution 2 (evolution2-montchavin.com) in MontchavinLes Coches speaks excellent English and will provide some great off-piste guided adventures should you so wish. El Pro (elpro.fr) is a small independent school in Belle Plagne which has been established for 20 years. Local outfit, Reflex Ski School (www.reflex-skischool. com/en) have a great reputation and guarantee no more than eight people per group. They are currently number 1 on Trip Advisor!

A large resort linked to Les Arcs by the one-of-a-kind Vanoise Express Over 50,000 beds in resort 134 pistes – 9 green, 72 blue, 34 red and 19 black with 225 km of runs Snow-sure, high altitude villages Skiing from 1250m to 3250m Opens 15th December 2018 and closes 27th April 2019 Adult lift pass price - €52/day or €269 for 6 days (La Plagne only) Nearest airport – Chambery (120km) but most popular Geneva (150km)

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LA PLAGNE RESORT GUIDE

Up in Plagne Soleil the best restaurant in the whole resort in a lot of peoples opinion is Au Coin du Feu. Expect a traditional French menu including snails, duck, gratins and roasted bone marrow! In most French ski resorts there seems to be a restaurant called Le Refuge and La Plagne is no exception! Serving traditional and local dishes, the one in Plagne Centre is an excellent choice with a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Le Grizzli (grizzli-laplagne.com) is another favourite for French specialities in Plagne Villages. Over in the lower village of Montchavin you will find the Hotel de Bellecôte (hotelbellecote.fr) which has a superb restaurant that is popular with locals and holidaymakers and is known for its local dishes. Le Plein Soleil (lepleinsoleil.com) on the pistes of the Montchavin-Les Coches sector has long been a favourite for mountain food stops. With both traditional French food and French/German Alsace influences, notably the Strudels, it’s well worth a visit.

In Plagne 1800 you’ll find Bar La Mine (bar-lamine.fr) which, as the name suggests, has a mine theme! The bar is decked out with old lights and mining tools in an English pub style which is kind of a novelty in these parts! It’s a really cosy, dimly lit place, that has played host to some pretty serious parties over the years! Spitting Feathers (spitting-feathers.com) has fast become the place to go in Plagne Bellecôte not least because the guys there provide a shuttle service to pick you up and drop you back to your accommodation! In Belle Plagne, La Tete Inn (barslaplagne.fr) comes highly recommended for its happy hours, live music and DJ nights. Doors are open from 4pm until 2 in the morning. If you’re in Plagne Centre, the resort’s busiest village for nightlife, be sure to check out Igloo Igloo in Galerie du Pelvoux which provides tasty cocktails and a funky atmosphere - think penguins and polar bears in an Igloo shaped room! Also in Plagne Centre and popular with seasonnaires and young holidaymakers alike is the British run Scotty’s Bar. Definitely the kind of place you go to for après and end up leaving in the early hours of the morning!

At the bottom of the half-pipe, just above Plagne Bellecote, is Les Chalet des Colosses restaurant. Known for its good old British post box and varied international menu, it’s a good spot for lunch on the terrace which over looks the Bellecôte snow front. On the pistes above the village of Champagny, right on the edge of the resort of La Plagne and overlooking the pistes of Courchevel, you will find an excellent selfservice restaurant with adjoining snack bar called Le Roc des Blanchets. The food and the views are both impressive. The big news over in Montalbert is that British Michelin starred chef Phil Howard opened a new restaurant called Union last season and is opening it’s doors again this year! Far from the city the idea is to cook meals that will satisfy the ravenous skier (or non skier) in his relaxed 35 cover restaurant. We went last season and loved it! (see page xx) thecoolbus.co.uk

LA PLAGNE RESORT GUIDE

Red Pompon Night

If there’s one thing you must do whilst holidaying in La Plagne, it’s visit the Blacksheep Igloos (blacksheep-igloo.com) up above Plagne Villages. You can choose to stay the night or just eat a traditional fondue meal in one of the fully equipped ‘restaurant’ igloos. Prices start at €59 for the evening meal or €99 for the evening meal and a night in a fully equipped (think comfy cushions, furs and candles) ‘bedroom’ igloo.

31st December Every year the New Years Eve festivities get better and more spectacular in Plagne Bellecôte, with fireworks, special effects and DJ’s until the early hours.

Grand Odyssee Savoie Mont Blanc

Need an adrenaline alternative to skiing or snowboarding? How about a different form of snow sliding? Plagne Bellecôte and Plagne Centre both have ‘parks’ specially dedicated to sledging. The Eldorado and Colorado parks are open Tuesday through to Saturday afternoons.

18th January For the 3rd year running La Plagne is hosting a stage of this exceptional dog sled race. 25 competitors race with their 450 dogs for a stage starting and ending in Montalbert.

The Grotte de Glace or Ice Caves on the Bellecôte glacier are a little more chilled, literally! Check out ice sculptures and more, high up in the mountains.

Gorzderette Tournament 1st - 3rd February A multi-activity event involving all sorts of snow related disciplines such as ice climbing, hay sledging and nordic skiing. All the action takes places around Champagny-en-Vanoise.

In Champagny-Le-Haut an artificial 24m high ice tower is constructed each winter for ice climbing. Believe it or not this is open to all. Even if you have no climbing experience whatsoever you can still book yourself onto an initiation session with their experienced instructors. If clinging to a vertical ice face by just the very points of two ice axes and a pair of crampons sounds a bit much to you it’s worth stopping by for a look anyway. It’s quite a spectacle, particularly at night when the tower is floodlit.

Ice Climbing World Cup 7th - 9th February Taking place on the Champagny-le-Haut ice climbing wall

Sublicimes

Did you know? La Plagne has an Olympic Bobsleigh track and you can have a go! If you enjoyed the film Cool Runnings then you’ll love the Bob Experience! Try hurtling down this 1.5km long track that has 19 G-Force filled bends.

10th - 18th April End of season festivities with a different theme at each summit in the resort. This year look out for Zen, Adrenaline and Yeti themes amongst others! For up-to-date listings head to la-plagne.com

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Switcher MIPS .Our most ventilated helmet. Yet. sweetprotection.com

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As I write this the climate change boffins are telling us we have twelve years (twelve years!) in which to ‘save the planet’ from the effects of global warming. It’s pretty safe to say that having heard the warning, governments and big business will make all the right noises and then continue as usual, exploiting resources with little concern for anything other than the bottom line (it makes you wonder if politicians and captains of industry actually have children to who they are bequeathing this f****d up planet; but that’s another issue…). So, in the midst of all this pessimism and uncertainty, it’s quite heart-warming to come across at least one company that is making a constructive attempt to deal with the problem in some small way. In 2017 Patagonia introduced its ‘Worn Wear’ programme (yes, it should read ‘program’ but this is not an American publication). The concept is quite simple and is summed up nicely on the Patagonia website – it aims to ‘keep your gear in action longer through repair and reuse and recycle your garments when theyre beyond repair’. Just think about that for a moment – no more buying a new ski jacket every season (like we can all afford to anyway) as styles and colourways come in and out of fashion or when a seam unravels or a zip stops working; instead, you make your favourite jacket/pants/ fleece last as long as possible by repairing it, and when it finally gives up the ghost, it goes for recycling. And Patagonia will do all this for you, free of charge. Here’s a personal

example: my favourite ski pants are, as it happens, made by Patagonia, and after the first season of use one of the boot gaiters tore. So, I packaged them up, sent them back to Patagonia and they repaired them free of charge. They did the same thing when I tore the gaiter a second time; and a third. No questions asked (although I do question myself on why I’m so hard on my boot gaiters…) and no charges levied other than the postage to send the pants to Patagonia (they cover the return postage). When a pair of top-quality Patagonia ski pants can set you back £300 or more it makes good sense to get them repaired, but it’s not just the financial aspect of the whole concept that is important. I can’t be the only skier to develop a ‘relationship’ with my favourite bits of kit and feel a pang of regret when I have to throw it out - after all, it’s probably been with you on some of your best (and maybe worst) days in the mountains and is a reminder of those experiences every time you slip it on. The Worn Wear programme allows you to keep that favourite piece of gear going for longer and even when the time comes to finally ditch it you know it will be not be dying in vain since you can get it recycled by handing it in at any Patagonia store; and if it’s a Patagonia item you can even trade it in for a credit to put towards another Patagonia garment. It’s an integral part of Patagonia’s eco-friendly approach to manufacturing – as Alex Weller, Patagonia Marketing Director Europe told me:

“It’s a combined approach which encompasses functionality, minimalism, simplicity and being built to last and to be repaired”. thecoolbus.co.uk

He explained that minimalism and functionality ensure there’s less to go wrong with a product, and helping people keep their gear in use reduces its environmental impact. Patagonia also provides the tools online to allow you to repair damaged items or find ways to reuse or recycle them when they have reached the end of the line – this includes everything from instructions on how to replace a zip to more prosaic but equally useful information on how to best wash down and waterproof products. As the website points out:

“One of the most responsible things we can do as a company is to make high-quality stuff that lasts for years and can be repaired, so you don’t have to buy more of it”. You can return any Patagonia product bought within 100 years of the date of receipt of the item (!) and the service covers faults and general wear and tear and if the item is deemed irreparable, Patagonia may, at their discretion, replace it or send a credit note for the purchase amount, provided damage is not due to improper use. The irreparable kit will be recycled, or if it has sentimental value, and you would like to have it returned to you rather than being issued a credit or replacement, they’ll do that instead. It’s also worth checking out the Patagonia Worn Wear tours, on which professional seamstresses will repair damaged gear for free (they’ll even repair products from other manufacturers too). I attended a summer tour in Newquay last August for where it was quite fascinating to watch worn clothing and wetsuits being repaired and to talk to the people fixing the kit. My father was a bespoke tailor, so I have a kind of natural interest in how clothing is made, and if you’ve never seen a professional at work I urge you to check it out – the skill and speed with which a trained seamstress can fix an otherwise ruined piece of gear is phenomenal. Of course, however innovative and 42

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well-meaning it may be, Patagonia’s Worn Wear programme isn’t going to reverse two centuries of fossil fuel burning and pollution, but it is at least heading in the right direction. And it also helps to encourage us as consumers to take a reality check, for as Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard said in a recent interview:

“The reason why we won’t face up to our problems with the environment is that we are the problem. It’s not the corporations out there, it’s not the governments, it’s us. We’re the ones telling the corporations to make more stuff and make it as cheap and as disposable as possible. “We’re not citizens anymore. We’re consumers. That’s what we’re called. It’s just like being an alcoholic and being in denial that you’re an alcoholic. We’re in denial that each and every one of us is the problem. And until we face up to that, nothing’s going to happen. So, there’s a movement for simplifying your life: purchase less stuff, own a few things that are very high quality that last a long time, and that are multifunctional.”

wornwear.patagonia.com

Photo: Tommy Pyatt

Of course, Patagonia aren’t the only brand out there striving to do business more ethically. Here are a few local companies that are also doing their bit…

Planks clothing

Funi Headwear

was set up by ex-pro freestyle skier Jim Adlington in Val d’Isere nearly a decade ago. They very quickly established a local following through their ‘Drop Cliffs Not Bombs’ tees and then went on to develop a full range of outerwear and accessories which they have since launched globally. Over the last few years Planks have put considerable effort into featuring as many eco-friendly materials in their products as they can. They work with both Bluesign fabrics and Repreve, who are the world’s leading recycled yarn manufacturer (they take plastic bottles that would otherwise be destined for landfill or the ocean and use them to create yarns for garment production). Recycled materials now feature in over half the Planks product line.

who celebrate their tenth birthday this year, started life in Bourg St. Maurice (their name comes from the slang term for the funicular railway that whisks skiers from Bourg up to the slopes of Les Arcs). Right from the off their ethical approach was apparent from their work force, which consists of a team of knitting pensioners in the north east of England - no sweat shops here, just good old-fashioned granny power! More recently the company has abandoned the use of acrylic yarns in favour of merino wool and now even offer a ten-year warranty on their beanies - so if your pompom falls off fear not, they will be on hand to fix it up for you free of charge. It’s the best way to keep your head warm and conscience clear this winter!

For more info on the Worn Wear programme and how to take advantage of it, and for details of this winter’s European Worn Wear Tour, where you can get your kit repaired for free (whether it’s Patagonia or not) check out the Patagonia website. patagonia.com

ZEAT have been providing emission free airport transfers in their Tesla Model X SUVs since 2016 – and in case you didn’t know, ZEAT is part of the Cool Bus brand. So far ZEAT has racked up over 130,000km of fully electric transfers and the fleet is set to be

increased again this year with a target of reaching a quarter-of-a-million kilometres of electric transfers by next summer. You can read more about ZEAT and their new partnership with Protect Our Winters on the next page. thecoolbus.co.uk

ack in 2016, aware that the business weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re involved in brings with it considerable impact on the environment, we purchased a Tesla Model X to replace one of the diesel powered Volkswagen Caravelles that our fleet consists of. In doing so we became the first company to offer a regular carbon emission free transport option between Geneva airport and the French ski resorts. In 2017 we bought a second Model X and along the way won the Transport Innovation category at the World Snow Awards. As of 18th November 2018 (two years to the

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day since we took delivery of our first car) the total electric powered kilometres we have racked up stands at 132,766. With a third Model X due for delivery on the 21st November we have set ourselves a target of achieving a running total of a quarter of a million kilometres by the end of this winter. Climate change has never been in the public eye as much as it is right now and current forecasts predict 70% less snow in the Alps by the end of the century if we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take action immediately. As such we thought it was high time we established a partnership with Protect Our Winters UK.

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The original POW was founded back in 2007 by snowboard legend Jeremy Jones after he noticed that more and more resorts he usually relied on were closing due to lack of snow. In the intervening ten years the results of climate change have become steadily more apparent and, while certain world leaders continue to deny that we are at fault, the huge majority of climate scientists (97% or 99.9% depending on who you are talking to) are certain the blame lays squarely at our own feet and public awareness has never been higher. And it’s groups like POW that have been at the forefront of spreading this realisation. Their over riding aim is to mobilise the outdoor sports community against climate change. They try to achieve this via three steps:

• Engage individuals and organisations through their passion for outdoor sports • Educate them on the risks of climate change • Provide the support they need to take effective action We decided to partner with the UK branch of POW. While we are based in the French Alps, the huge majority of our customers are from the UK and as such we share the same audience. We’re very proud to be the first transport related partner onboard.

There’s a ton of information on both the protectourwinters.org and protectourwinters.uk websites to help you make a difference. POWuk like to break it down into four stages based around the easily recognised piste classification colours:

What steps can I take personally? How can I influence those around me to do the same? How can I affect businesses to do their bit? How can I influence money? Below you’ll find a few very straightforward actions from the first stage that you could take right now:

• Switch to a renewable energy provider (try bigcleanswitch.org to find suppliers in your area) • Eat less meat (find out just how much difference this can make by watching this short animation youtube.com/ watch?v=tUJUwxQd9B4) • instead of buying a new ski jacket this winter fix your old one (Patagonia can show you how - eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/ worn-wear-repairs/)

132,766 ZERO EMISSION KMS Already ticked all these boxes? Want to do more? Head over to the POWuk website to find out more and sign up to their mailing list protectourwinters.uk/join-pow thecoolbus.co.uk

Tignes has long been a favourite amongst both British and French snowsports lovers and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s little wonder what with its high altitude location, snow-sure villages, glacier (which is open for summer skiing too), both freestyle and freeride scenes and a lively aprĂ¨s/nightlife vibe! The resort is split over several villages. Tignes Les Brevieres is down below the dam and the only spot low enough to feature some treelined pistes and more traditional style chalets. Tignes 1800 at the top of the dam has recently been expanded with a couple of new hotels and its own wellness area with a pool. Tignes Le Lac and Le Lavachet are adjacent to each other up above 2000 metres and consist mainly of large apartment blocks as does Tignes Val Claret up at the head of the valley.

Photos courtesy of Tignes Tourist Office

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The terrain throughout the resort of Tignes really does offer something for everyone, boasting a glacier, tree-runs, pistes ranging from beginner slopes to black moguls, progressive freestyle parks and world-class back country. Tignes hosts the Freeride World Qualifying tour each season, and was chosen as the venue for the European Winter X Games for three successive years. With several areas specifically for beginners, and a host of cruisey green and blue runs for progression, Tignes is the perfect training ground for those new to snowsports. The beginner slopes in Tignes Le Lac and Val Claret are serviced by gentle chairlifts and provide a decent length of run, allowing for maximum practice time. The beginner run in Tignes Le Lavachet is serviced by a button lift and gives access to the lac slope. The beginner run in Tignes 1800 is

also a big favourite especially with the new cafe nearby for pit stops! There are several blue run areas in Tignes, the cruiser’s paradise. These also double up as jib-heaven for all the freestylers out there, as perfectly moulded side hits are formed after each snow fall. The runs are super wide and provide plenty of space for everyone, even during the busy new year and February holidays. Palafour and Grattalu are the popular spots on the ‘sunny side’ above Tignes Le lac and Val Claret, and for good reason! With consistently excellent snow, the runs on the glacier also provide a great playground of blue runs, with the red ‘double M’ run becoming a little steeper as it heads back down to Val Claret. When the heavy snow days roll in, head down to treelined runs in Les Boisses or Les Brevieres. Make sure you avoid the multitude of cliff faces just off the side of the piste though. It’s best to stick to the marked runs in this area. If you do plan to head off-piste it is

absolutely essential to hire a guide and carry all the appropriate safety gear. The faces here are steeper than in some other resorts, which leads to some serious avalanche danger. However, there are some un-pisted black runs, which can prove to be great fun after a fresh dump of snow! ‘Bus stops’ tracks the face on the sunny side of Tignes, from the top of the Merles chairlift down to the lake, whilst the couloirs off Mickey’s Ears are excellent when the conditions are primed.

2018

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Part of the large and very famous Espace Killy area Tignes boasts the 4th longest funicular in the world! There is a sunken village underneath the Lac du Chevril Skiing from 1550m to 3450m 150km of pisted runs with 87 lifts to get you to the top 21 green pistes, 65 blue, 44 red and 24 black 5 free lifts to give beginners a taste of what’s to come Opens 25th November 2018 and closes 1st May 2019 (also partial opening outside these dates) Adult lift pass price - €59.00/day €294/6 days for the whole of Espace Killy

SkiBro is an innovative platform that enables you to find your perfect instructor or group lesson, with profile videos, bios and customer reviews... and book instantly, either online or via the SkiBro app. Whether you’re a first-timer or seasoned skier or snowboarder, SkiBro takes away all of the hassle of booking lessons or a guide and makes it easy to do last minute 24/7 in resort. Book at www.skibro.com or download the app in the App Store or Google Play. Speak to your driver for a discount code or use the code COOLBUS at checkout Perhaps different to nearby resorts, Tignes has a genuine snowboard vibe and there are a couple of really good, snowboard only schools here so it could definitely be the place to learn. Fresh Snowboarding (www. freshsnowboarding.com) offer group or private sessions for beginners to experts, in freestyle, off piste & kids courses. Or you could ‘join the Rebel Alliance’ with Rebel Alliance Snowboarding (www.rebelalliancesnowboarding.com) who run operations in both Tignes and Argentina with English speaking instructors. The guys here specialise in performance courses and freestyle and off-pistes sessions. Back to skiing and there are plenty of schools to choose from. New Generation Tignes (www.skinewgen.com) is a British run ski school that offers high quality tuition. BASS (www. britishskischool.com/BASS_Resorts/Tignes) provide instructors with the highest level of qualifications to satisfy your every needs on the slopes. Ultimate Snowports (ultimatesnowsports.com) run group lessons for all levels of ability, but also offer private sessions if required. 48

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Photos andyparant.com

TIGNES RESORT GUIDE

The guys at Tignes Spirit (based in Tignes le Lavachet) are the most knowledgable in the area when it comes to repairs and servicing. They also provide the highest quality equipment throughout their fleet of skis, snowboards, touring kit, splitboards and anything else you might need during your holiday. You can buy or rent at massively reduced prices, and their friendly technicians deliver and collect the equipment from your holiday accommodation free of charge. The complete service!

Each ‘village’ in Tignes has its own little scene and there are busy bars in whichever village you are staying. Starting in Lavachet, there a few options to choose from. Just up from the Tignes Spirit shop, SoBar is a cosy little place serving quality spirits and wines and with dart board backed by skateboards, it definitely has cool decor! Just next door you’ll find the Box Cafe Bar. This only opened last winter but has very quickly built a great reputation amongst locals. Onto Tignes Le Lac and the first place of choice amongst many is The Loop Bar which has a great après atmosphere that continues late into the night. There’s always something going on here and the live music they provide is probably the best you’ll find in resort. Up on rue de la Poste 00 thecoolbus.co.uk

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near the bottom of the Palafour lift you’ll find The Marmot Arms which has proper ales on tap! They serve up some incredible gourmet burgers. It’s a great spot for cheap apres drinks and they often have DJ’s on until late. Just around the corner you’ll find the infamous Jack’s Bar, a bowling alley and nightclub rolled into one. Nights here are guaranteed to leave you with a hangover next morning! High up in Val Claret is the Couloir which has had a refurb and is a bit more swanky nowadays. Carefully selected wine and good beers on draught too. Open until 4am are the Melting Pot and Blue Girl nightclubs in your typical French style! The Planks shop/cafe/bar which is a great spot for apres drinks, sitting as it does, right at the foot of the pistes near the funicular.

In Le Lac try the Gentiana for traditional French food reinvented by their chef! You’ll find it just up the hill from Hotel Le Refuge. Rendez-vous is a Savoyard speciality eatery which also serves good steaks. Tignes Cuisine is a great little take-out where you can grab some Asian delights. The noodles and Thai curry are spot on! They will even deliver to your door if you’re too shattered after a day on the hill. Le Brasero is a ski in/ski out bar and restaurant in Le Lavachet with outdoor seating in a great suntrap. If you want quality food and chilled 50

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Photo Stephane Cande

Down in Tignes Les Brevières head to Le Moose for après drinks and the rest! Open until 2.00 am expect lots of live music! Vincents is also a buzzing spot, and the go-to hangout for a few beers after a day on the slopes.

après drinks at affordable prices then look no further. Their excellent menu includes savoyarde, crispy fries, juicy steaks, seafood, poultry and loads of wonderful desserts. Just opposite, La Queue du Cochon is great for posh-nosh in a cosy setting. As the name suggests you can even get roasted pigs tails! If you’re in Val Claret or fancy getting the bus up there to eat of an evening then head to Saint Jacques which may set you back a bit, but is well worth the cash in our opinion. It’s been a favourite with locals for a long time, maybe because it has such an extensive Belgium beer selection! With a big (hopefully sunny) terrace at the top of the Chaudannes chair lift from Tignes Le Lac, Lo Soli is a good coolbustransfer

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option for daytime dining. Their selfservice restaurant offers Savoyard specialities and also has a warm and cosy inside dining area. L’Alpage is also at the top of the Chaudannes lift and is a big stone, chalet-esque building where you can eat gourmet regional dishes. You can’t get much higher in altitude (3032m) than Le Panoramic, a restaurant on the Grande-Motte glacier which is a real culinary treat. The stunning panoramic views are a definite bonus too. It’s pretty cool to see all of the friendly staff decked out in their traditional Savoyard berets! There is a snack bar too for those on-the-go.

TIGNES RESORT GUIDE

31st December If you’re in Tignes on New Year’s Eve then you won’t really be able to miss the fireworks but it’s worth heading to the snow front in Le Lac to take the experience it properly and welcome the New Year in, in style!

Half pipe Final World Cup

Photo andyparant.com Photo andyparant.com

18th-21st March The best riders on the planet showing off their best tricks. Taking place in Tignes huge super-pipe up in Val Claret.

European Snowpride & Gay Pride 13th - 23th March Waving a great big rainbow flag it’s the week long gay pride festival on snow! Tignes is incredibly proud of its reputation of acceptance and welcomes the festival once again with open arms. The line up so far includes Barry Harris, Katrin Quinol from Black Box and many more….

Live in Tignes by Francofolies 16th - 18th April 4 days of music concerts across 3 outdoor stages, a big event with an awesome atmosphere.

Bass Station

Photo evo 2

If you’re looking for something very different to add to your winter holiday experience then it can’t get much cooler than an Ice Diving! This can be organised by Evolution 2 Tignes (www.evolution2. com/tignes/en/adventure) and involves lowering yourself through a hole cut out of the frozen Lac de Tignes, with an instructor by your side, in order to marvel at the underwater ice formations below. Day or night dives are available from €95. Sounds blooming freezing!

There are too many free music events to mention that happen throughout the season in Tignes. Be sure to pick up a programme of events from the Maison de Tignes or out and about around town on your arrival in resort.

NYE Fireworks

Photo andyparant.com

The Lagon Centre is a popular indoor swimming pool ‘complex’ that is located in Le Lac, right opposite the Maison de Tignes and next to the Tovière lift. A wellness centre, gym and fitness suite together with the swimming pool, water slides, bubble pools and water jets here and there means both kids and adults can enjoy some aqua fun. Also in Le Lac there’s Jack’s Bowling Alley which is actually in the bar/ nightclub of Jack’s just next to the sports centre.

Photo www.nicoschlosser.com

TIGNESPACE (www. tignespace.tignes. net/en) is a new sports centre in Le Lac which offers awesome climbing facilities. Different sections of the wall are reserved for different levels with a sixteen metre high wall for the pros! You can also rent out the huge trampolines by the hour, badminton courts and football pitches, if you still have energy at the end of the day!

Regular events throughout the season at the Melting Pot in Val Claret featuring visting DJ’s and acts from the UK. Last seasons highlights included A-Skillz, the Ragga Twins and Skitz and Rodney P! thecoolbus.co.uk

THE CHEESE BOARD AT L’ATELIER D’EDMOND

Cool Bus friend and chef Jemma Harrison has been tasting all the Tarentaise has to offer giving you the locals view on where to eat if you’re over cheese and need a posh nosh fix.

n the name of research, and because I’m totally dedicated to my craft, I selflessly threw my all in to this year’s foodie entry for the Cool Bus magazine. “Savoyard” and “fine-dining” aren’t words that are often seen side by side, so I set off on a mission to prove everyone wrong, spanking the work credit card and getting a bit fat on the way. I’ve been a private chef cooking for rich folk for over a decade. Using Bourg St Maurice as my base I work in villas, chalets and on Superyachts and this was a great excuse to have a look at where my clients go on the nights they cheat on me. It turns out I seriously need to up my game. The top restaurants here in this corner of the French alps are incredible. Genuinely and surprisingly incredible, with Michelin stars glittering in every resort.

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The traditional cheese-based restaurants you see in everywhere have their place and sometimes a greasy tartiflette and a cheap red are exactly what’s on order after a big session on the slopes. But, as I discovered, local mountain food can be so much more. Don’t get me wrong, I love a cheese coma as much as the next person. Fondu is a weekly staple in our house. Yet as I ate my way up and down the valley I was delighted again and again with how progressive and dynamic the menus of our top restaurants are. From the dainty Raclette amuse-bouche at 3 Michelin star La Boitte in St Martin de Belville to the Miso-Glazed Beef Fillet at Le Petit Hibou in the Nancroix valley, chefs across the region are pushing at the traditional Savoyard boundaries.

T Our writer Jemma, full and happy, getting won over by Chef Benoit Vidal from L’Atelier d’Edmond.

he start of my gastronomic tour began in Val d’Isere midway through last season. Myself, Mrs Cool Bus and a couple of chums went to visit the charming Chef Benoit Vidal at his 2 Michelin starred L’Atelier d’Edmond. Now you may think twelve courses, paired with almost too much wine, on a Tuesday lunchtime is excessive. And you’d be quite correct. But you haven’t met my stomach… because at this place I could have stayed all afternoon and done twenty. Nestled at the top of the picturesque village of Le Fornet, with dramatic peaks shooting up either side, you really feel in the heart of the mountains. Vidal’s food and the feel of the workshop-style restaurant truly reflect that. When you enter it’s like taking refuge. Warm, peaceful, welcoming… any type of comforting adjective could be used here. His produce is mostly from the local area, but there’s the odd hint of Mediterranean smattered here and there. Playful textures and twists on the traditional really added to a fun few hours, despite us being the only

ones there for the last few courses. I was a big fan of the farm-fresh milk hay ice-cream in particular. It was like eating a whiff of a barn, except in a good way. The meal itself was attended by endlessly patient and charismatic waiters, who, let’s face it, would rather we eat up and sod off so they could get out on the hill. But this is what makes the place so special, nothing was too much to ask, and we got a great tête-à-tête with Chef Vidal afterwards too. He is passionate and polite and made a cackling coven of girls very happy indeed. But Le Fornet does not hold the only gourmet mountain gem of L’Espace Killy, as something rather wonderful has been growing in Tignes Val Claret. If you like mountains, nature and forests - along side your posh food and fine wine - then I’d recommend a visit to the Restaurant Ursus inside the 5* Les Suites hotel. Chef Clément Bouvier’s latest concept has diners eating within 380 trees “planted” around the restaurant. The menu reads like a forest walk and the predominately woodland based dishes are a delight.

Noisette of roasted deer roe at L’Atelier d’Edmond

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SIMPLE, STUNNING AND NOURISHING FOOD AT UNION RESTAURANT IN MONTALBERT

f, like me, you prefer not to spend your salary entirely on gluttony then there are still plenty of incredible restaurants to get your posh-nosh fix elsewhere in the Tarentaise. Union restaurant in Montalbert at the bottom of La Plagne has made it’s mark on the local food scene in just one season. Dishes such as truffled chicken broth or terrine of wild boar with Armagnac soaked prunes are both nourishing and fancy in equal measure. If you’re a Brit you may recognise Chef Philip Howard - former chef and owner of The Square in London - which held 2 Michelin stars. Well, this is his latest venture and it’s a cracker. Warming, simple and delicious food.

Chef Philip Howard has created a welcoming space in Montalbert

imilar to Union and impressing the locals in a very short time, Le Petit Hibou over in Les Arcs has only been open for a few weeks but has already made a mark. Nestled in the Nancroix valley in the Vanoise National Park, the boutique chalet offers amazing views only surpassed by the outstanding food. Caz, a Kiwi former yacht chef, has 25 years of culinary experience from all over the globe. Her menu - which changes regularly - reflects her worldly view on cuisine, blending bold and creative flavours together. It’s also one of the only places in the whole Paradiski that can do a decent brunch and coffee. Oh and they have their own micro-brewery too with co-owner Dave carefully tending the hops.

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Caz, chef from Le Petit Hibou, draws inspiration from her world travels

rom great beer to great wine - my pick for a perfect glass of plonk would be Le Monal in Sainte Foy. Their impressive new 100m squared cellar has over 300 quality wines and the sommeliers know their stuff. It’s on the main road that links Bourg St Maurice to Tignes / Val so is perfect to stop in on transfer day, or if you need a bed out of resort they have hotel rooms. Meat there is cooked on a big open fire (delish) and the menu isn’t extortionate. If you are lucky enough to be going off-piste in Sainte Foy and doing the Foglietta run, then this is the place

to flop in to afterwards. Sink back on one of their lush sofas and enjoy a nice Bordeaux. Chez Merie - another restaurant not far away - is also worth a mention here. A bit harder to get to, you’d have to drive to Le Mirroir just behind Sainte Foy, but the ambience, the decor and the perfectly charred steak make it unforgettable. It’s actually my favourite restaurant in the area. The kind of gem of a place you want to keep to yourself. So if you go, don’t tell anyone. It’ll be our little secret. Wink wink.

f it’s Michelin stars you’re after though, they glitter the brightest in Les Trois Vallées. There’s more bling in this resort than the average Russian one-piece. Twenty one stars divided between twelve magnificent restaurants in fact. Family-run La Boitte in a small hamlet between Les Menuires and St Martin de Belleville picked up the first 3* of the Savoyard, closely followed by Cheval Blanc in Courchevel 1850. You really are spoilt for choice, however, choose we did. A trip to the afore mentioned La Boitte may set you back 3 months wages but for a self-taught chef like me it was an eye opening experience. Father and son duo - Chefs René and Maxime Meilleur - have no formal academy training and have learnt as they go, with outstanding success. Apparently a trip to the late Chef Paul Bocuse’s house (prestigious French chef - an innovative perfectionist) was the turning point for René - changing this fondu-serving inn into the modern thinking classy establishment it is today. However the family’s passion for progress and new techniques has not let them forget the simple pleasure of really great produce. Forget everything you think about traditional Savoyard food, each course here is delicate, unusual and new. And the cheese trolley… don’t get me started on that, it’s taller than you or I. Phenomenal. So that’s my restaurant recommendations for your dining pleasure up and down the Tarentaise. We’re all pretty good eaters here at Cool Bus so if you’ve any glowing endorsements of your own then send them our way. I’d be happy to pop another dinner or six on the company credit card and tell you all about it next year.

A place to sink a few bottles of wine at Le Monal, Sainte Foy Tarentaise

Happy Eating! thecoolbus.co.uk

WHEN IT COMES TO BEER, THERE IS A HISTORICAL AND PERSISTING SHORTAGE OF BOTH QUALITY AND CHOICE IN THE ALPS AND ITS RESORTS. The reasons are myriad but if anyone were to deny it, you would no longer have to send them to Seattle or Shoreditch for an education on what beer means today compared to 10 years ago;

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or Chambery might have given us more space or lower rent but we’d have been too far removed” But proximity doesn’t just make distribution feasible in-house, it also goes some way to answering environmental concerns, as Tim goes on to explain:

“We’re concerned about the carbon footprint of what we produce and are therefore looking for shortest possible road distance traveled from the fermentation tank to the bar tap. In the same vein, locally sourced ingredients are something we will strive for.” Pure Alpine water from right above Sapaudia’s brewery is a given and, whilst malt from nearby is currently a distant hope, rumour has it that locally grown hops are a realistic prospect for the near future. ig changes have taken place just 150km away in Lyon but that wave still hasn’t quite reached the mountains. The wave still hasn’t quite reached the mountains though. Sure, there are always exceptions. You’ve long since been able to get a pint of clean Pilsner or wholesome Weizen from that one specific slope-side bar in Val d’Isère or Meribel. And there are now some quality British pales and IPAs being brought in by local distributors. But it’s still way too few and far between unless you know exactly where to go and are prepared to pay even more than you expected, in order for the middle man to cover his margin. Enter Tim Longstaff & Ash Smith, armed with pioneering spirit and Northern grumpiness in equal measure. Creators, 100% proprietors and tea boys at Sapaudia Brewing Co., a brand new, fully independent microbrewery in the heart of the Tarentaise Valley between Aime and Moûtiers.

“We basically got annoyed into starting a brewery; we love this valley to bits but finding decent beer is something that we had grown tired of”, complains Ash. Their objective is very simple: to produce a concise range of tasty, locally-brewed beers and make them widely available across the Espace Killy, Paradiski and 3 Vallées. Moreover, in a bid to keep end-consumer prices fair, the lads will be managing their own distribution.

“We’re cutting out the middle man and working directly with bars & chalets, which is why it was critical for the brewery to be located so centrally at the base of the ski areas where we want our beer to be available. The industrial outskirts of Lyon

www.sapaudiabrewing.co

Named after an infamous Val d’Isère drag lift, Signal (Alpine Blonde Ale, 4.9% ABV) is Sapaudia Brewing Co.’s first commercially available beer. Officially an ale owing to how it’s made but, in terms of feel, not a million miles from a craft “lager” that you might find on the continent. Florally aromatic, slightly fruity in the mouth, and a totally unchallenging aftertaste are Signal’s key characteristics making it, as the lads put it, “dangerously drinkable”. Cosmique (IPA, 5.5%) will follow in early 2019, with a Bavarian Helles rounding out the core range in the Springtime. Watch this space.

@sapaudiabrewing.co

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LES TROIS VALLĂ&#x2030;ES IS FIRST AND FOREMOST THE WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LARGEST SKI AREA AND CONSISTS OF NINE RESORTS. The three villages of Courchevel make up the most easterly valley. La Tania sits halfway between this and the Meribel valley which also contains Mottaret and has Brides-Les-Bains at its base. The most westerly valley contains St. Martin-de-Belleville, Les Menuires and Val Thorens. But wait for it - there is a fourth valley! Orelle sits over the back of Val Thorens in the Maurienne valley. There are obviously some big names in there as well as some you may not have heard of before but they all certainly offer excellent skiing, and there is something for absolutely everyone in this world famous area.

Photos courtesy of Val Thorens Tourist Office

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As you might expect from such a huge area, the 3 Valleys has an abundance of every possible type of skiing. Most people are more than happy to spend the majority of their holidays exploring their local valley and then have just one or two days venturing further afield. For certain you’ll find every type of skiing present in each area but for the record, here’s a few of our favourite spots! Our favourite tree runs have to be over in Courchevel and La Tania (the two are adjacent), not surprising given that this is the lowest part of the whole ski area. You’ll find some awesome blue and red runs here threading their way through the forest all the way down to 1300m altitude. Best for cruising or out and out blasting would have to be over in Les Menuires and Val Thorens. Up here you are well above the tree line and the pistes are wide and well groomed, perfect for carving big turns! There are huge tracts of off-piste to be had between the pistes of Mont Vallon at the head of the Meribel valley and some more difficult lines from the top of Saulire between the Meribel and Courchevel valleys. As always, don’t venture out of bounds without all the necessary avalanche equipment and the knowledge of how to use it and we’d also highly recommend enlisting the services of a guide.

(www.britishskischool.com/BASS_ Resorts/Meribel) who are both well established and offer the full range of lessons and courses. On a smaller scale but no less professional is Ski Marmalade (www.skimarmalade. com), if ever there was a name that stuck! An all British line-up of instructors, these guys cover the resorts mentioned above too. In Val Thorens and Les Menuires there’s the French/English speaking Prosneige (www.valthorens. prosneige.fr/english) who have some rave reviews to be found online. Whilst working as part of the ESF, David Mitchell (www.davidmitchell-ski. co.uk) is Val Thorens’ only native English speaking instructor and he can provide private lessons with himself or if you’d prefer, he can arrange group lessons for you through the ESF so that you don’t have to worry about speaking French! thecoolbus.co.uk

Amongst the many villages of this huge ski area, there are certainly those that have more of a party atmosphere. Courchevel and Méribel are known for their active nightlife and more expensive drinks, whose prices seem to go up with the altitude of the bar, for example, Courchevel 1850 is generally more expensive than 1650. So, let’s start at a lower altitude! The Drop Inn is located in the basement of a Pleisure Holidays chalet in La Praz. It’s open to everyone and serves up well-priced drinks and proper toasted sandwich snacks, a rarity in these parts! ‘The place to be’ in Courchevel 1650 (or Courchevel Moriond as it’s now known) has to be the Funky Fox which offers no less than four Live Music/DJ nights per week, and a lively atmosphere and top tunes are always guaranteed. They have comfy seating for you to relax in for your well-deserved après ski drinks, watch sporting events from, or even for tasting some of delicious home-made meals. In 1850 for an expensive cocktail or bottle of champers, head to The Caves. Their drinks selection and prices won’t disappoint if you’re looking for a lavish evening. There are Parisian cabaret acts for entertainment too!

Skiing from 1300m to 3230m 2000 snow making machines! Opens 15th December 2018 and closes 22nd April 2019* 330 marked runs – 13% green, 39% blue, 38% red and 10% black. 600km of pistes 180 ski lifts

Adult lift pass prices - €62/ day €306/6 days for the whole of the 3 Vallees Nearest airport – Chambery (110km) but most popular Geneva (140km)

*some parts of the resort are open from the 18/11/18 please see www.les3vallees.com for further details. 60

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Over in Méribel the Rond Point or ‘The Ronnie’ as it’s affectionately known, is a popular après ski destination which can be reached straight from the slopes, on foot or by bus. There’s a huge terrace and many an evening can be spent dancing on the tables! Le Pub is a British-run place in the centre of town and is a firm favourite for lively après and music. Jack’s Bar near the Chaudanne also never disappoints! For late nights in Meribel our favourite spot is O’Sullivans down in Mussillon. They have seem awesome resident DJ’s and regularly have big names out from the UK including the likes of Norman Jay, Krafty Kuts and Benny Page. Val Thorens has the ‘Highest Pub in Europe’ in The Frog and Roastbeef which is also the only English pub in town and the prices here aren’t so bad.

3 VALLEES RESORT GUIDE

Way too many great eating places in this huge resort to mention but here’s just a handful of our favourites. In Méribel, head to L’Igloo which serves up good burgers and pizza and is well-priced. Down in Méribel Villages towards La Tania you’ll find the Lodge du Village and La Terrasse right next door. Both lively with apres, so ideal places to get the drinks in while still in your ski boots. The food at La Terrasse is excellent. La Gallette is a small place in the centre of Meribel and offers some pretty tasty savoury pancakes. For more expensive options there’s Aux Petit Oignons in the direction of the Altiport at 1600m. This little onion is still in the mid-range price bracket with mains at around €20+. For a special treat, try La Grand Coeur which has starters from €29! Staying in Courchevel (being one of the most expensive ski resorts in the world) can make it difficult to find a table in the cheaper places to eat. Don’t get caught short if you’re on a budget, book in advance otherwise you may have to eat in the 2 Michelin Star restaurant – Chabichou where you can’t really get a plate for food for under €75! For Savoyard specialities, as the name suggests, the Petite Savoyarde in 1650 or Moriond as it’s now known, has a traditional menu of main courses from €13. Elsewhere across the resort, La Ferme de Reberty has always been a ‘ferme’ favourite but is really only accessible if you’re staying in Reberty village (Les Menuires) or if you’re skiing past during the day of course. John’s American Restaurant further up the valley in Val Thorens doesn’t have the most original name but is a very popular Tex-Mex place serving up some great steaks. Le Montagnard has to be the go-to in St. Martin de Belleville and La Bouitte has a unique style. For food on the mountain try Chalet de la Marine in the Val Thorens sector. It’s a large, picture-perfect chalet on the blue Dalle piste off the top of the Cascades chair lift and offers a huge terrace over looking the slopes and a large, varied menu for lunch. Choose from the traditional restaurant or the selfservice bistro. A traditional spot for lunch in an old farmhouse is The Bergerie, situated on the Bellecôte piste on the slopes of Courchevel 1850. The Bel Air above 1650 is good value for mountain food in these parts. In Meribel, lunchtimes are popular at La Folie Douce which is the newest addition to it’s collection of restaurants in the Savoie. In the 3 Valleys you’ll find it at the mid-station of La Saulire bubble which makes it convenient for skiers and nonskiers alike. After lunch here you can join in the late afternoon debauchery in the bar! At the foot of the slopes in Meribel 1650 there’s the Télébar Hotel which houses the cutely named Cookie’s Club where you can sit on the south facing terrace and eat well for not too much cash. Ski in, ski out, that’s what you want at lunchtime! thecoolbus.co.uk

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3 VALLEES RESORT GUIDE

Scattered around the area of The 3 Valleys there are plenty of Spas and wellness centres to ease those ski legs. In Saint Martin de Belleville head to La Bèla Vya to enjoy mountain inspired treatments using milk and honey.

Just a small hand full…

Ski Cross World Cup Val Thorens 4th - 9th December

Audi FIS Alpine Ladies Ski World Cup Courchevel 21st-22nd December

New last year is the Aquamotion Centre over in Courchevel. This expansive building close to Courchevel-Village at 1550m, has pretty much everything you can imagine including pools, spa, gym, climbing wall, waterslides and even an indoor surfing wave! Absolutely perfect to keep the entire family busy on those bad weather days.

International Festival of Pyrotechnic Art 14th February - 7th March Watch hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of fireworks explode in all their glory! Teams from around the world come to compete against each other with routines to music. It really is a spectacular show that runs every Thursday through the festival period and on the white of the pistes of Courchevel with the mountain backdrop, it’s worth a watch.

Ever tried mountain biking on snow? Like doing skids? Who doesn’t! Roc n’Bike in Les Menuires provides the chance for everyone to try it and there’s 8km of piste to ride. Head to La Croisette and sign up in order to learn how to slalom and of course, brake!

Piste Bash Festival Meribel Valley 11th - 15th March Loads going on during this week long event with bands, DJ’s and comedians playing at venues across the resort. Last year we managed to catch DJ Yoda, DJ Format and Marcus Brigstocke all in one day!

You can learn to fly in Courchevel! Or you can just go on what promises to be one of the most beautiful flights you’ll ever take. The specially designed small snow plane will fly over Courchevel and the rest of the 3 Valleys and the views of Mt. Blanc promise to be stunning! The airport in Courchevel 1850 is very unique in its altitude, it is in fact the highest International mountain airport. There are a good few companies that offer plane flights, helicopter flights and even parachuting but we recommend getting in touch with Aéro Club Courchevel for flights and lessons and with prices starting at €150 for a 3 person voyage, it’s not too expensive. Air Mauss Parachutisme seems the goto for parachuting, they will entice you out of the door of that plane if it’s the last thing you ever do! 62

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3 Vallees Enduro 1st April Open to all, in teams of three, the 3 Vallées Enduro is a fun event which is in its 13th year and has become the world’s largest gathering of amateur skiers over the years. It’s all in the name of discovering the 3 Valleys and to endorse the fact that it is accessible to everyone. Check out more at: www.les3vallees.com/enduro For full listings head to: www.courchevel.com www.meribel.net www.valthorens.com www.lesmenuires.com coolbustransfer

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A UNIQUE RESORT IN THE TARENTAISE IN THAT IT’S THE ONLY ONE WHERE YOU CAN SKI INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY!

Photos courtesy of La Rosiere Tourist Office

La Rosière is a high altitude village (1850m) that gets a lot of sun due to its south-facing aspect. Built in the 1950s, it is a purpose-built resort which also holds a lot of war history. At the Fort de la Redoute you’ll ski past the ruins of an old border fort which was built to keep out the Italians and Germans many years ago. The town probably has the best panorama in the valley with views both down towards Moutiers and up towards Val d’Isere. The resort of La Thuile over in Italy links seamlessly across from La Rosiere via pistes and ski lifts across the Col du Petit St. Bernard. Situated in the Aosta valley, this side of the Espace San Bernardo (as the two are collectively known) is affected by a completely different weather system. As such it is not unusual to find white-out conditions in La Rosiere and clear blue skies in La Thuile or vice-versa. The difference really can be that pronounced.

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La Rosière is perfect for beginners because of its gentle slopes, beginner areas and plateaus. Intermediates and advanced skiers will definitely want to buy the Espace San Bernardo pass because there’s more challenging terrain over the border and down towards La Thuile. There are some great areas of off-piste on both sides that do not get tracked out too quickly. 2018/19 sees expansion in La Rosiere with the opening of the Mont Valaisan ski area. This includes five new red pistes accessed by a new 6 seater chairlift, reaching an altitude of 2800m and should offer more technical terrain for intermediate and advanced skiers. The run down through the forest from La Rosiere to the lowest chairlift in Les Ecudets at just 1200m is loads of fun when there’s sufficient snow (here’s a little video of us enjoying some freshies on that very piste last November! - vimeo.com/191301824). This is also a great lift to use to access the resort if you are here for a day trip as its only a five minute drive up from Bourg St. Maurice! La Thuile has more than its fair share of treelined pistes lower down. Later in the season the snow on the Italian side tends to hold out better due to its north facing aspect.

Linked with the Italian resort of La Thuile 166km of pistes 21 lifts in La Rosière area which rises to 41 in the whole Espace San Bernardo Skiing from 1176m to 2800m Resort opens 15th December 2018 and closes 26th April 2019 Lift pass price adult - €45.50/day €222.00/6 days (Espace San Bernardo) Nearest airport – Chambéry (130km) but most popular Geneva (165km).

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LA ROSIERE RESORT GUIDE

There are some lovely restaurants in town, whether it’s traditional French mountain specialities, local cuisine or just a burger you’re after. Talking of burgers, Le Comptoir is a good choice and is very child-friendly. There are always a few establishments in French resorts that are known for their cheesy delights and in La Rosière for these you should head to the Le Genepi or Les Marmottes.

Within the Hyatt Centric Hotel there are a number of contemporary eateries - the H40 brasserie restaurant, where you can enjoy French cuisine at lunch and dinner and La Tavola, an Italian style trattoria, inspired by the Aosta region which offers organic and healthy cuisine. If you’ve eaten too much Tartiflette at lunchtime, the pancakes from Crêperie Le Pétrin could be ideal for you. Sweet or savoury, eat in or take out, they are delicious! Something new for this season is the Igloo Village, a giant 130m2 snow carved igloo where you can enjoy a drink at the Ice Bar or have lunch. A fondue evening is also offered every Wednesday by reservation. While holidaying in La Rosiere, a lunchtime visit to La Thuile in Italy is an absolute must. Even though it’s only a couple of chairlifts away, dining in La Thuile is a very different experience to the traditional French resorts nearby. Think heaps of home-made pasta, proper pizza and Tiramisu plus a shot of Limoncello to wash it all down. Expect to be stuffed on your ski back to France! In our personal opinion, some of the best pizza ever tasted comes out of the snack stop, Pizza Al Taglio. They serve excellent deep-pan pizza slices, whole pizzas plus other fast food options and if you’re lucky the nice Italians in there may give you a free slice to try! This is a friendly, convenient and fast place for lunch or dinner. Also try La Clotze next to the Chalet Express chair lift for a convenient lunch on the mountain and Maison Neige for a special dining experience in an old military barracks, right out in the middle of nowhere. Maison Neige is a ski lodge with 12 bedrooms but the restaurant is open to all and has a warm fire-filled atmosphere and awesome views over the snow. Maison Carrel is worth a visit too for its beautiful interiors. For food on the mountain on the La Rosière side, be sure to try L’Antigel situated off the Tetras piste. It is thought of by most as the best mountain restaurant in the area. Le Plan du Repos up there in the wilderness at 2100m has spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. It’s also possible to walk here from the village of Les Eucherts as it’s located on the piste just above. thecoolbus.co.uk

Not renowned for its nightlife as much as nearby Val d’Isere for example, there is nonetheless a good little selection of bars and a nightclub or two should you want to ruin your next mornings skiing! Le 1850 opposite the Tourist Office in the village centre is a cosy little bar which serves tapas to enjoy with a good glass of vin. Free WiFi is on offer and there is often live music too.

La Rosière is a great place to stay with a family and whether you have family members who don’t ski or just fancy a day off the slopes, there are loads of non-skiing activities available.

Over in Les Eucherts village, Le Skifood which is located within Les Balcons residences is a popular spot. There’s a games room too so you can shoot some pool with a beer or whilst waiting for a snack or a take-out pizza. For late night partying, also in Les Eucherts, is the Moobar Night Club. Open for après and onwards into the night, this large space turns into a ‘disco’ with DJs and is open until 4am.

Snow shoeing and local area hikes are popular in and around La Rosiere as there are a lot of pretty chapels, landmarks and history. Tarentaise Tours (www.tarentaise-tours.com/ welcome) will organise day trips to a variety of interesting sites and much more for that matter!

As well as being a great place for some quick ‘pub grub’ Le Comptoir can be a lively bar of an evening. There may be a DJ playing après-ski too.

VIP First Tracks allows you the opportunity to ski on 10 freshly groomed pistes at sunrise with a small group of skiers accompanied by an instructor..along with a gourmet breakfast stop to fuel you for the day.

For a a great coffee and cake try Cafe Lattee or Snodroppe. Both serve breakfast, lunch snacks and coffee and can be found on the main road through the centre of the resort.

The Hyatt Centric Hotel features a fully fledged spa and well-being centre, which is being run by local outfit Massage Me. They have been providing massages in the valley for well over ten years so expect good things! For après-ski activities that don’t involve drinking, La Rosière has bowling, ice-skating and the Ruitor Cinema showing English speaking films (occasionally) so there’s no shortage of stuff to do. Most of this is located in Les Eucherts village on the right-hand side of the main resort which is only a short (free) shuttle away if you are staying in the centre.

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15th & 16th December The grand opening of the new Mont Valaisan lifts and slopes. Music, torch lit descent and an evening concert by Sugar Lady.

LA ROSIERE RESORT GUIDE

Mont Valaisan Opening

Torchlit descent presented by ESF La Rosiere Starting at 6pm, the torchlight descent is always popular and happens on Monday nights from this date, most weeks of the season.

Feux dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Artifices Outdoor Mix 31st December Fireworks and DJâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s out on the snow to celebrate the New Year!

Freeride Senior Tour 12th January Evolution 2 La Rosiere host a stage of the Freeride World Qualifier where riders tackle the north face of Mont Valaisan.

La Balade Du Roc Noir February 2019 A ski mountaineering race held in the dark. The challenge is a 7.5km uphill climb from Les Ecudets to La Rosiere followed by a well deserved dinner.

Mardi Gras 5th March Carnival time in resort. Put on your best fancy dress and take to the streets of La Rosiere to celebrate Mardi Gras.

Freedride Junior Tour 16th March A stage of the junior tour for skiers and snowboarders aged 14 to 17. An unmissable event where the best junior riders battle for the title of French Champion.

Freeski Playoffs 2nd - 4th April The best skiers from around the world launch themselves off a 20 metre kicker in a series of one on one battles. A spectacle not to be missed that happens right in the centre of town.

La Gouille April The end of the season sees the annual water slide spectacle. Open to all; skiers and snowboarders are invited to glide across the specially-created water jump at the bottom of the slopes in front of a supporting crowd. A fantastic way to celebrate the end of the winter season! thecoolbus.co.uk

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CELEBRATING A VERY HAPPY 10 YEARS OF KNITTING

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This Way

When in Tignes I always shop at Carrefour Montagne - it has everything I need and moreâ&#x20AC;Ś Open 7.30am to 10.00pm Free hire of 7 days a week fondue & raclette kits when you buy your meat & cheese, for a cosy night in! Rue de la Poste, Opposite the pharmacy, Tignes le Lac 04 79 00 99 10

carrefour.montagne.tignes@gmail.com

OPEN ALL YEAR

Fresh bread baked in store daily The best choice of fresh fruit and vegetables Home deliveries Home fondue/raclette kits available

Welcome to the summer section of

THE COOL BUS MAGAZINE. If you were looking for winter based articles and reviews you’ve come to the wrong place. Flip this magazine over and try again because this side is all about what happens after the snow has melted! At Cool Bus our main passion during the summer months is mountain biking. Each year we’ve produced this magazine we’ve found more and more bike related stuff creeping in and this year is certainly no exception!

First oﬀ you’ve got our ten page guide to the bike parks of the Tarentaise. All you need to know about how, when and what to ride in the resorts of Les Arcs, Tignes, La Thuile, Meribel and their close neighbours.

We’re well aware that the ski lift access season is woefully short around here, topping out at around 9 weeks through July and August. That’s why we run bike uplifts throughout the spring and autumn. But there are other alternatives! Cue our article on Les 7 Laux (page 16), a resort just an hour or so away from us that runs its chairlift at weekends for bikes whenever the snowline will allow. There’s also some info in there about other resorts that do similar. Another way to assist your ascent up these mountains is relative newcomer, the e-bike. Flick to page 28 to find out all about this new growth area of mountain biking. Of course, there are still plenty of people out there that prefer to mix in a bit of good old fashioned pedal power with their uplifts. We tagged along with a group trip organised by Bike Village across the Northern Alps. Annecy to Briancon over 6 days. Read all about it on page 31. Still on two wheels but swapping mountains for the racetrack, we catch up with local boy Rod Lynn to hear all about his recent comeback to Superbike racing on page 20. And last but not least, it’s the 4th instalment of our ‘Tales of Cool Bus Past’ series. This time it’s 2014 and we’re following four pals as they make their way from the Alps to Istanbul. Pretty sure not a single bike is mentioned in this article but I could be wrong! If you’re here for the summer, here’s hoping you have a wonderful trip with action packed, sun filled days. Don’t forget that if you’re looking for bars and restaurants in the area you’d do well to have a flick through our ski section as a lot of them are open during the summer too.

If you’re reading this in the winter, take the hint and book yourself some mountain time next summer. You won’t regret it!

BIKE GUIDES

LES ARCS & LA PLAGNE BIKE GUIDE

TIGNES & VAL D'ISERE BIKE GUIDE

SAN BERNARDO BIKE GUIDE

3 VALLEES BIKE GUIDE

LES 7 LAUX

ROD LYNN RACING

ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC? BIKE VILLAGE ALP PACKER TALES OF COOL BUS PAST

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ORANGEBIKES

Three of the biggest ski resorts in the world sit in our little valley so it's no surprise that, come summer, we find ourselves spoilt for lift accessed bike parks. Each has its own merits, from manicured berms in Tignes to ancient rocky hairpins in Les Arcs and from brand new Enduro World Series trails in La Thuile to World Cup downhill tracks in Meribel. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truly something here for everyone, even first time bikers if you look hard enough. Over the next 10 pages we break it all down for you so you can decide which resort is best for you, what trails to ride and where to source equipment, guides and more!

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PA R

S A RCS

Over the last twenty years Les Arcs has steadily forged a reputation as one of the leading bike parks in the French Alps, second only to Portes du Soleil. The riding here however, is in stark contrast to the largely man made trails you see in Morzine and Les Gets. It is the network of ancient walking tracks that criss cross the mountain, in particular below the tree-line, that have helped establish Les Arcs as a leading name. It is worth mentioning that many of these trails do not feature on the Bike Park trail map which makes hiring a guide a worthwhile investment. To give you an idea, there are at least a dozen trails that run through the lower forests into the valley around Bourg St. Maurice. Of these, only two are shown on the official trail map!

ADISKI

AG & LA PL

When we talk about the mountain biking in Paradiski we are essentially referring to the trail network contained in the Les Arcs Bike Park. This includes all the Les Arcs villages, Peisey-Vallandry, Villaroger and MontchavinLes Coches. There are trails over in central La Plagne but the riding there is very limited and for now access from the bike park is far from straight forward and involves a long pedal across a traverse/climb from Les Coches.

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Having said that there are more than enough marked trails on the Bike Park map to keep you busy. These include a good mixture of old walking tracks and more recently built bike park style trails. One of the most important things that makes Les Arcs work so well is its lift network. You can access a huge amount of the area with virtually no uphill pedalling. The starting point for a lot of visitors to the area is the funicular railway from Bourg St. Maurice. This runs every half hour and whisks you up 800 vertical metres to Arc 1600 in less than 10 minutes. It runs from 8am until 7pm meaning you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to rush out early in the morning to get a full days riding in! From there the Cachette chairlift gives you access over to Arc 1800 and then beyond to Arc1950/2000 and Vallandry via the Trans Arc gondola.

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Photo andyparant.com

SFERS

The most famous trail in the park has to be ‘Le 8’ or ‘Black 8’ as it is known to most anglophones. This drops 800 metres over 9km from the top of the funicular station in Arc 1600 all the way down to Bourg St. Maurice. People have been coming to Les Arcs just to ride this trail since long before the concept of the bike park was invented! A couple of years ago work started to replace the huge water pipes that run down the mountain from Arc 1600 to the Hydro Electric plant in the valley (believe it or not these pipes are actually supplied by water from the dam 18km away in Tignes!). As a result large parts of Black 8 became inaccessible but the new replacement sections that were added to the trail have only improved it and added to the technical difficulty. Make no mistake, this is graded black for good reason!

LIFTS

ALP

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Photo andyparant.com

DAY TRIPS TO:

CLASSIC UPLIFTS ROUTES:

TIGNES/VAL D’SERE LA THUILE PILA ARCHES/BEAUFORT

3 VALLEYS RIDGELINE UPPER TARENTAISE ENDURO BOZEL ENDURO TARENTAISE BACKCOUNTRY

Full details on the Cool Bus website

www.thecoolbus.co.uk pics on our Instagram page

www.instagram.com/cool_bus and videos here

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Open from 6th July until 31st August 2019 (pre-opening weekend also on 28/30th June) 177 km or marked trails between 800m and 2600m in altitude 23 trails including: 8 Downhill (1 green run, 3 blue runs, 2 red runs, 2 black runs) 5 Enduros (3 blue, 2 black), 2 Cross country, 7 liaisons. 5 practice parks (these are small areas with ramps and other obstacles - good for kids!) 1 freestyle area (in Arc 1600) which includes: 2 northshore style lines, a slopestyle course and a 4X course (though we are not sure sure how you would manage to fit four people down it at once!) Photo Merci l’Agence

New for summer 2019! Will be a tarmac pump track and dirt BMX race track in Bourg St. Maurice next to the skatepark! 1 funicular railway, 1 double decker cable car (biggest in the world!), 3 gondola lifts, 4 chairlifts and 1 lobster pot lift!

OTHER STAND-OUT TRAILS INCLUDE:

Day pass 22 euros - 7 days 72 euros (82 euros including access to Montchavin-Les Coches)

Marsupilami from the Trans Arc mid-station which is a string of beautifully built jumps and berms. This has an incredible flow to it once you have learned the best lines

Need a decent bike shop? Try Labo with their huge shop next to McDonalds in Bourg, stocking a large range of bikes for hire and sale as well as parts, accessories and a work shop service. Also in Bourg you’ll find Gravity Lab on the main road through town next door to Chevalier bakery and Revolver behind Super U.

The green trail La Trank’s is ideal for kids or people new to the sport. It starts from the top of the Trans Arc gondola. There’s no easy trail down from here towards 1800 or 1600 so once you’ve ridden Tranks a few times its best to down-lift on the Trans Arc. We’ve seen kids as young as 5 ride this trail and absolutely love it!

Need uplifts outside the lift opening dates or to rid our amazing trails outside the bike park limits? Call us! +33 632 192962

The red and black forest trails around Montchavin-Les Coches

Need a guide? Try Emily Horridge çmtnbikeguide@gmail.com

Rock N’ Arolles from the top of the Cachette lift in Arc 1600 is a fun, pedally red downhill trail. It takes a while to learn all the lines so you can carry your speed through some of the blind corners but once you’ve got it you’ll be grinning from ear to ear! Woodstock in Peisey proves the point that more often than not, its the blue graded man made trails that can be the most fun! 08

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Download the trail map at lesarcs.com coolbus-fm

For restaurants and bars in the area have a look through our Les Arcs/ Bourg St. Maurice & La Plagne resort guide at the other end of this mag. The majority of establishments mentioned are open all through summer too.

MOUNTAIN BIKE HIRE IN:

TIGNES, VAL Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ISERE, LES ARCS, LA PLAGNE, ST FOY, MORZINE & LES GETS

BIKE SALES ENDURO, DOWNHILL & KIDS BIKE HIRE AND SALES BACK COUNTRY ENDURO GUIDING AND LIFT ASSISTED TRIPS BEGINNER - EXPERT LESSONS WOMEN & KIDS SPECIFIC LESSONS ACCOMMODATION CORPORATE & CHARITY EVENTS

INFO@STARTLINEMTB.COM - WWW.STARTLINEMTB.COM SHOPS IN TIGNES, MORZINE & LES ARCS

Photo Tristan Shu

P A C E K I L LY

SE ES & VA L Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;I

Tignes bike park has developed gradually over the last ten years with considerable investment from the company that runs the resort. Initially building downhill trails around the the Palafour chair and Toviere bubble lifts, they enlisted the help of french mountain bike legend, Karim Amour to help with the design. Since then they have steadily added more trails to their network each summer and in 2012, to coincide with hosting a round of the Downhill World Cup, Val dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Isere joined Tignes to create one fully connected bike park. As of 2017 the area boasts over 150km of downhill and enduro trails spread between the two towns, all linked up via 5 lifts and a shuttle bus service.

The majority of trails on the Tignes side are well above the treeline and are man-made with big berms and jumps. These range from easy greens right through to full-on, steep blacks. Some of the most fun of these are the blue trails, in particular Kangooride and Gunpowder which you can blast down with very little input in terms of braking or pedalling. There are also some excellent red trails on both sides of the valley including Funky Tufs. The black trails here definitely have the hardest grading for a reason! In places some are incredibly steep and can be a case of simply slamming the brakes on full and hanging on for dear life! The best example of this is probably Moustache. The black graded Kamasutrail leads you through a free ride park on the Toviere side which is well worth a look. It has some very original features including a big floaty step-up jump and a 360 degree wall ride around an inverted cone shaped natural mountain feature. There are several really good enduro trails over in Tignes 10

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as well, the majority of which head down towards Tignes Les Brevieres which is below the dam. This gives you the chance to ride down into the treeline and as such offers a different, more natural riding experience to that higher up. Many of these enduro trails criss-cross each other giving you a few different permutations. Highlights include the excellently named Forest Bump and the scree slopes of Rocky Trail. From Les Brevieres you’ll need to get the shuttle bus back up to Tignes Le Lac so its well worth checking the bus timetable before you commit! A couple of very fun blue trails link between the two resorts - Borsat Attack for riding from Tignes down to Val and Sweet Sweet for the opposite direction. The town of Val d’Isere is 250m lower than Tignes Le Lac. This is enough to drop you into the treeline and a few of the trails over this side take good advantage of this including the red Rhododendrons and fun green, Popeye. There’s also a few good enduro trails including the 8km long Into the Wild! If all that isn’t enough to keep you busy there are also pump tracks and skateparks in both resorts along with a host of other activites. Tignes probably has the most original of these with various elements dotted around its lake. Some are verging on the ridiculous and have to be seen to be believed so try searching ‘Tignes Hot-Jump’, ‘Tignes Blob’ and ‘Tignes Flyboard’ on youtube!

Open 29th June until 1st September 2019 Riding from 1550m to 2800m 3 chairlifts, 2 bubbles 165km of trails including: 65km of downhill trails - 3 green, 9 blue, 5 red, 4 black 75km of enduro trails 2 blue, 4 red, 6 black 25km of cross country loops 1 pump track, 2 skateparks, 1 Airbag 1 shuttle bus route (Tignes Les Brevieres to Tignes Le Lac) Lift Tickets Free if you are staying in Tignes and your accommodation provider is a partner of Tignes. Otherwise 10 euros per day and this also allows you to do 2 additional activities per day Need to hire a bike or looking for lessons? Try Startline in Val Claret www.startlinemtb.com

Need uplifts outside the lift opening dates or to ride our amazing trails outside the bike park limits? Call us! +33 632 192 962

Photo Tristan Shu

For restaurants and bars in the area have a look through our Tignes/Val d'Isere resort guide at the other end of this mag. The majority of establishments mentioned are open all through summer too.

Download the trail map at Tignes.net thecoolbus.co.uk

N SA

BERNARD

Espace San Bernardo is the collective name for the linked areas of La Rosiere in the Tarentaise and La Thuile in Italy. In the winter these two ski resorts link together seamlessly to make one large ski area. In the summer it requires a little more effort to link the two by bike but it is still very feasible to ride both in one day. It’s worth knowing, however exactly what’s involved in terms of pedaling:

From La Rosiere to La Thuile, ride to the top of the Plan Repos chairlift then pedal up the fire road climb for 20 minutes (100m vertical) up to the Fort de la Redoute (worth a look in itself!) before dropping onto the piste towards the Col de Petit St. Bernard and follow the vague looking singletrack right towards the Col. From there you can follow the road down until you see the first bike trail heading off to La Thuile From La Thuile to La Rosiere ride the Chalet Express chairlift to the top then pedal the fire road climb for 30 minutes (180m vertical) before taking the fire road descent to Col de Petit St. Bernard. From the Col you can roll 8km down the tarmac road back to La Rosiere. If all this sounds like a lot of effort Cool Bus actually run a day trip where we drive you to the top of the Col de Petit St. Bernard from Bourg and drop you off at the trail head down to La Thuile. When you’ve had your fill of riding the trails over there we shuttle you back up and over and drop you at the top of the Dream Forest trail. This drops you out back down in Seez, from where it’s just a quick roll down the road to Bourg. The cost of this day trip is 200 euros for up to 8 riders but you only need to buy a La Thuile lift pass saving you nearly 50 euros (over the San Bernardo pass for a group of 8) and an hour of pedaling! 12

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But what about the riding?!... La Rosiere has a selection of very well built man made trails. The downhill trails total around 25km. Over half of this is above the treeline consisting off nicely built berms and jumps. Our favourite however, would have to be the above mentioned Dream Forest. This is nearly 6km long and runs through the dense forest from the resort back down to Les Ecudets. Whilst it is man made with plenty of banked corners it still has a much more natural feel compared to the rest of the bike park. You’ll need to take the shuttle bus back up so check the timings before you go!

Day Ticket San Bernardo 28 euros La Rosiere: 1200m to 2250m Day Ticket La Rosiere 17.50 euros Open Dates 7th July until 1st September 09:40-12:15 & 13:30-16:45 1x chairlifts & 1x shuttle bus (Bourg-Seez-La Rosiere) 5 downhill trails - 1 blue, 2 red, 2 black

Over the last ten years La Thuile has established itself as one of the leading bike parks in the area, something which has resulted in it being used for a round of the Enduro World Series on many occasions since 2014. The trails here are numerous and the vast majority run below the treeline. Some use modified walking trails and some have been built from scratch. What makes these trails stand out is the balance between retaining a natural feel whilst still maintaining a good flow. Corners are wide enough and sufficiently banked to enable you to carry speed which is something you don’t get with the 100% natural trails in the area which are generally dotted with speed killing hairpins! The emphasis in La Thuile is certainly towards the harder end of the trail spectrum and its intermediate to advanced riders that will get the best out of a trip here. A quick look at the stats shows that half of the trails are graded black. Expect your forearms to get a good workout from the relentless tree roots and steep chutes!

La Thuile: 1400m to 2300m Day Ticket La Thuile 22 euros Open dates 29th June until 1st September Every day from 09:30 until 17:00 2x chairlifts 220km of trails in La Thuile including 2 blue downhill trails, 3 reds and 5 blacks Need a decent bike shop? Try Labo with their huge shop next to McDonalds in Bourg, stocking a large range of bikes for hire and sale as well as parts, accessories and a work shop service. Also in Bourg you’ll find Gravity Lab on the main road through town next door to Chevalier bakery and Revolver behind Super U and new for 2019 - Startline.

Other highlights of La Thuile have to be the welcoming friendly Italian atmosphere and the chance to have pizza, Peroni, gellato, espresso and limoncello for lunch for the same price as a McDonalds in France!

Need uplifts outside the lift opening dates or to ride our amazing trails outside the bike park limits? Call us! +33 632 192 962 Need a guide? Try Emily Horridge mtnbikeguide@gmail.com

Photos Propaganda73

For restaurants and bars in the area have a look through our La Rosiere resort guide at the other end of this mag. A lot of the establishments mentioned are open all through summer too.

Download Trail maps at www.larosiere.net thecoolbus.co.uk

ALLEES 3 V

Les 3 Vallees is a huge mountain bike area. In terms of square kilometres it is easily the largest lift linked bike park featured in this magazine. For those that are unfamiliar with the area, the valleys, from east to west, are Courchevel, Meribel and the Belleville valley which includes Les Menuires, Val Thorens and St. Martin-de-Belleville. Each has sufficient trails to keep you busy for several days but combined they make an awesome venue for a week long holiday. In Courchevel youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find some incredible natural trails through the lower forests, particularly down towards Le Praz. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s possible to ride all the way down to St. Bon or even Bozel, way down in the valley at 750m altitude. Probably best to invest in an IGN map (like OS in the UK) if you want to do this as a lot of the trails donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feature on the bike park map. There is a free shuttle bus with bike racks for 8 bikes that runs half hourly from St. Bon and a couple of times a day from Le Grand Carrey all the way back up to Courchevel 1850. Do check the timetable beforehand though and be aware that if you turn up at a bus stop and see eight other riders waiting you might be out of luck! Higher up you will find some good purpose built trails above the treeline at 1850 and up around the Saulire peak. This is also where you need to head if you want to drop down into Meribel.

If there is an undiscovered gem of mountain biking in the Tarentaise then it has to be Les 3 Vallees. Despite Meribel hosting the final round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 2014 it still remains very much off the radar as far as mountain bikers are concerned. We spent a whole day in the Meribel valley on the closing day of the resort last summer and saw just four other mountain bikers on the 40km of incredible trails that we rode! No surprise then that their trails are in such fantastic condition!

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The Meribel valley features some great natural trails lower down and purpose built trails higher up. The DH4 downhill trail that runs from the top of the Tougnette

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Largest linked bike area in the Tarentaise 300km of marked DH and Enduro trails between 2700m and 700m including:

chairlift is not to be missed. Really well built making the most out of the mountain with very steep berms and nicely shaped jumps which all flow together beautifully. This was a new trail back in 2015 but doesn’t see much traffic and therefore still rides ‘as new’! Our favourite route in the whole area has to be the trail that follows the ridgeline between the Meribel and Belleville valleys, so much so that we offer this as an uplift out of season. It has also featured in the Trans Savoie bike race in the past. From the Pas de Cherferie there is a fairly brutal climb up the steep fireroad and piste up to Le Verdet at 2294m. It is well worth the effort though as what follows is an epic ridgeline descent that can take anywhere between 2 and 3 hours depending on how much of a hurry you are in! Near the top the trail is undulating with some fun, rocky descents interspersed with very short climbs. Just as you drop into the treeline the trail starts to really flow with sweeping, naturally banked corners. Further down expect some rooty sections and then fairly exposed forest singletrack towards the bottom. Some of the trail is marked up as E7 on the Meribel trail map but we have tweaked our own version to include some more cheeky singletrack and to finish all the way down in the valley at Moutiers. Have a look at the edit of the trail on our vimeo channel vimeo.com/99338416 Of the 3 valleys, the Belleville side probably has the smallest concentration of good trails mainly due to its higher altitude. The only trails that run below the treeline are the lower parts leading into St. Martin-de-Belleville. As such Val Thorens or Les Menuires wouldn’t be the best location to choose for a holiday but if you are over in Meribel or Courchevel for the week its definitely worth popping over for a day. There are several really well built downhill tracks with huge berms and jumps running down towards Les Menuires and St. Martin-de-Belleville that are well worth the trip.

6 green, 11 blue, 12 red and 15 black 6 marked cross country routes 12 gondola lifts, 2 chairlifts and 2 shuttle bus routes with bike carrying capacity to bring you up from the base of the valley Open 6th July until 30th August 2019 for the full 3 valleys but some partial opening outside these dates Day pass 17,50 euros, week pass 82 euros for all 3 Valleys Need a guide? Try Emily Horridge mtnbikeguide@gmail.com Need uplifts outside the lift opening dates or to ride our amazing trails outside the bike park limits? Call us! +33 632 192 962 For restaurants and bars in the area have a look through our 3 Vallees resort guide at the other end of this mag. The majority of establishments mentioned are open all through summer too.

Download the trail map at meribel.net

thecoolbus.co.uk

SEASON IN OU T O F

BY LAUREN LITTLE Enduro is cool and everything, but what if lift riding is your thing and you want to ride in France outside of the peak summer holidays? Most European resorts have a lift-life-span of only two months during July and August. Whilst the amount of people taking summer mountain and activity holidays has increased in recent years, many resort towns are still traditionally seasonal. So, where can you extend your summer in the Alps?

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Photos Stephane Cande/Red Bull Content Pool

ecently we took the short drive (around an hour and a half from the Tarentaise valley) to the small local haunt of Les 7 Laux, located within the Isère region. Here, a crew called Le Pied a Terre keep the bike park trails alive every weekend as long as the snow holds off. On the Prapoutel side you’ll find the bike park with just one liftie-come-passoffice-man at the bottom and it’s up to you to get your bike and yourself on the lift as swiftly as possible. It’s a long way up to the top of the one and only running lift out of season, the Chamois chair. At the top the views are somewhat spectacular and you can see for miles, with hazy Grenoble down in the distance, it’s a contrast to those views in the Tarentaise that we’re used to as the mountain topography is quite different. In fact, the first berm off the lift is pure Instagram gold, one of the most scenic in the Alps, as 2017 downhill World Cup Champion Myriam Nicole proves here! The trails themselves are varied as is the terrain from top to bottom and this place is really different to your typical high-altitude bike parks like Tignes, Alpes d’Huez, La Plagne etc. You have a mix of natural, technical yet flowy singletrack and there are lots of roots… Lots! So much so, one of the blacks is aptly named Bloody Roots… Generally, it’s a pretty challenging bike park with more reds and blacks than greens and blues, and perhaps not the easiest place to start your MTB career. However, that’s not to say that less experienced riders can’t enjoy this place. The long Bel Dina blue is huge fun for everyone with plenty of nicely maintained berms and varying sized jumps and features to play on. The trail weaves through loamy forest where you’ll find lots of intersecting trails. This means there’s loads thecoolbus.co.uk

SEASON IN OU T O F

of line choices and options for mixing it up and it’s really fun to fly through the trees almost sideby-side with your mates at some points. Big trees have big roots so in the wet things get interesting, and in November it’s often wet, frosty and sometimes a bit snowy. However, the beauty of the Alps means that there could quite easily be a foot of dust under-wheel so be prepared for anything. Whatever the case, it’s a blast! Things get more serious with the reds and blacks. I mean, what do you expect with names like Psycho Pat and Bloody Rock? And crikey, Psycho Pat is definitely psychotic… Just don’t do it after lunch at Le Kaktuss restaurant (next to the Chamois lift) because the portions are huge and coupled with the rough and rooty nature of the P.Pat, that delicious lunch might want to come back up pretty sharpish… Speaking from experience… Coming to Les 7 Laux at this time of year, you shouldn’t be surprised to see French World Cup winners like Myriam Nicole and Amaury Pierron training on these trails. That’s really a testament to just how varied the terrain is on this hill, how challenging the reds and blacks are, and of course, the way everything is maintained so well. If it’s good enough for the world’s best, it’s good enough for us!

600M+ vertical descent from top trailhead back down to the lift 14 trails in total; 1 green, 3 blues, 5 reds, 5 blacks OPEN WEEKENDS ONLY (after 1st September) 17€ for the day or 30€ for 2 consecutive days 18

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GOOD TO KNOW Out-of-season you won’t be able to rent bikes or equipment in the village. Open amenities are limited at this time of year but there are always one or two restaurants open during the day.

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Last but not least, and really demonstrating how much time and effort goes into the building and maintaining of this bike park, be sure to give the north shore/skills area a go. Practise your cornering, skinnies and step-ups on the black Chevre Shores and red Mini Shores. Just remember to take note of the signs (the whole park is signed very efficiently) and check out the size of those airs before you go hurtling off, some of them are pretty big!

Whilst Les 7 Laux is definitely the most convenient out-of-season spot to catch a lift close to our home region of the Savoie, there are indeed a couple of other places you can ride before everything turns white.

I MEAN, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WITH NAMES LIKE

PSYCHO PAT & BLOODY ROCK?

Better-known for its winter activities but also becoming ever more popular as an MTB destination in the summer is Verbier in the Swiss Alps. A bit of a trek from Cool Bus HQ, thankfully we have the means to travel there in comfort and style and anyway, what’s three hours of driving for a day in a bike park in November? Well worth it! Much like its reputation in the winter, Verbier trails are renowned for being challenging and you do hear the word gnarly being bandied around when people describe this bike park. You’ll find 7 DH tracks between Fontanets and Verbier and there are 23 (23!) enduro routes if you fancy a bit of exploring. Opens in EARLY JUNE and closes 29th October (weather depending) LE CHÂBLE-VERBIER opens weekends only/ VERBIER-LES RUINETTES (enduro) open throughout the week and weekends PRICES – EXPENSIVE! This is Switzerland remember… You’re looking at around 37CHF FOR ONE DAY Finally, perhaps the most popular winter (and summer skiing) destination out of the lot is Les 2 Alpes. If you so wish, it’s even possible to ski in the morning and ride bikes in the afternoon which is a novelty! Officially closing 31st August, some of this high-altitude bike park can be open later if the weather permits. The park also opens earlier than most in mid-to-late June. Obviously, there’s loads and loads more to see on your bike in and around the Rhone-Alpes region and if you have a week of riding holiday time, it would make sense to throw in some pedalling as well. Or maybe not… But combining a few up-lift and enduro days could make for the perfect balance of Autumn riding. And don’t forget, you can always count on a Cool Bus up-lift Autumn experience in and around the Tarentaise and beyond. If you’ve never spent time here in Autumn, then you’re missing out! thecoolbus.co.uk

Racing All photos by Lucy Morton-Haworth unless otherwise stated

Rod has been a part of the furniture in the Tarentaise Valley for many years now. Many of us had heard tales from his chequered past, often after a few too many Kronenbourgs, and most were aware that he had some history in motorbike racing. Five years ago Rod came to us with a sponsorship proposal that he hoped would see him back on a bike again for a few races. Things didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite work out that time around but come spring 2018, the plan was back on and Cool Bus was onboard for what turned out to be quite a ride, as Rod explains belowâ&#x20AC;Ś

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WELL WHAT A YEAR THIS HAS BEEN... Stemming from a lot of late night chats in the depth of winter, normally fuelled by me having a few too many and getting emotional over bikes. What might have been, angry rants about never having a decent chance and always having the rug pulled anytime I did. The misty-eyed descriptions of the feeling of riding a bike as fast as you can into, around and out of a corner, blabbering about having my time again. All the usual drivel self obsessed ex-racers blurt out on the “mothers ruin”. Always patiently listened to by the now glazed over other half. Ahh, if only. The only difference was, this “other half” doesn’t take well to “what if’s”, “but’s” and “cant’s”. She’s more of a “Shut up and get on with it” type of person and, to my amazement, instead of talking me down or saying “Ahh don’t worry at least you tried” etc etc… she said “Stop banging on, you’re not too old, you can do what ever you want if you put your heart into it. If you miss it that much and you really want to do it, stop watching bikes on TV and crying to yourself and get on and do it. If it came to the day where you really couldn’t physically do it anymore and didn’t do it when you could, then you’ll seriously have something to cry into your gin over!” So, here we go then. Come back time, second time round in the past eight years.

STOP BANGING ON, YOU’RE NOT TOO OLD! I made a call to Wurz, my long suffering mechanic from the BSB paddock and the TT days. A couple days later I was picking him up from the airport with him asking “Eh up soft lad. What’s all this comeback talk about again? (snigger)“. Yeah, he’s got a flat cap. So after a few days of him chucking himself down the hill and a few nights of talking the old days and listening to me talking rubbish about racing, he told me to shut up, carry on playing my driving game and him and Lucy will come up with a plan. We needed a bike first, it had to be something current and it had to be as near to a 1000cc Superbike as possible. The bike we went for was a 2016 exBrookes chassis Yamaha R1M. It was beautiful - trick suspension, wheels, brakes, chassis and exhaust but a more or less stock motor. The aim was to do as much riding as possible this year, kind of off the thecoolbus.co.uk

radar, just as many laps as possible, so I needed the adjustability and the feel but not something that needed loads of money on engine maintenance. The point was to try and make up for the time off a bike and see if I could get back to any sort of speed. The previous comeback was 2014, that ended with basically a load of bike development and few tests and stuff in the UK and then the rug got pulled again. That episode was also after another four years not riding anything! Basically it was always going to be a tall order, the last time I was riding/racing anything competitively was in 2008/09, so for all I knew it was all over anyway, irrelevant of my ramblings over the winter. So with the cosy snowy safety of the winter fading in to the distance and bike sat oop norf in the UK int’ Wurz’s

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garage waiting for me, the reality of getting back on a track was actually coming true. I made a call to RST and got myself a new power ranger outfit, Arai, for a new lid and to Coolbus for a big box full of stickers and we set

EH UP SOFT LAD. WHAT’S ALL THIS COMEBACK TALK ABOUT AGAIN? off for Brno in the Czech Republic. That all went well, slowly, slowly tried to learn to ride again. Essentially it’s like learning from scratch after not riding for so long. The bikes

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have changed a lot so rushing into it would have not worked but after a few sessions, it started to come back. Mind you, brake failure at 150-odd mph and ending up back in the gravel trap was a familiarisation exercise that could have waited until later on in the comeback, but we bounced back and ended up semi-fast and bagged a 5th, so the decision was made to see this silly idea through (secretly chuffed). Next on the list was a bit of an opportunists thing as we ended up getting a track day at Donnington and then Cadwell Park whilst back to the UK for a visit. That all went well, although Cadwell park after that much time off seemed to be a lot narrower than I remember. After that we got back on the road and headed for the Redbull Ring in Austria, an amazing facility - super fast track - but by this

time we were making progress with the bike so I wasn’t feeling like too much of a total novice. We were decent from the off and by the end of the event we came away with an 8th and then a 5th.

off a few brain-cells. The end result though was we came away with an 8th but it was a different story as far as the feeling goes. This place for me was the first that showed me personally that I could be competitive again in the UK paddocks. The guys that finished in front of me we the real deal, fast Italian racers in their back yard, so the result for me was an important one.

fact that we weren’t going to able to raise 150 odd thousand pounds to race in the Superbike class first year back, and in all fairness to try and do that from total obscurity was probably not a realistic goal. So anyway after my message, I received a reply from Steve Plater, basically saying, “Look if you’re serious about it and want a ride, here’s the name and number of a team who might be able to offer you something, give them a ring.” Shit, is this really happening? What have I got myself into here? It’s all very well the journey so far but this is different gravy - the BSB paddock, irrelevant of what class your riding in, is the best of the best. They aren’t there to “just do laps” or “have a bit of fun”, these boys are there for one thing only, to race and to race as hard and as fast as humanly possible. If I do this there’s no hiding but, like all of this little adventure so far,

IF I DON’T ACT ON THIS, I’LL REGRET IT

Finally, the last European race was Mugello - the steeped in history, world-famous Italian bike racing stronghold. By this time I felt I’d really clicked with the bike and the next thing on the agenda was to try and learn set up a bit more because that takes a lot to remember. All the little “ins and outs” of changing the bike to make it do what you want it to - it’s a dark art! The track rustiness, as far as being around other fast moving bikes was concerned, was now gone. I arrived feeling confident and we really did start riding well there, although the temperature was so stupidly hot I think it may have boiled

So the final chapter in what was probably the most emotional, fun and satisfying year of my life had arrived. I had to see before the winter came back and the doubts started to creep in. I had to know how I’d measure up against UK racers. I made a call to the Tri-Options cup, (a support class in British Superbikes) just to see if maybe there was a possibility of a one off ride or a test even. By this time we had come to terms with the

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Photo by Peter Berger

I thought, “Why not? If i don’t act on this, I’ll regret it”, so I made the call. On the other end of the line I got Pete “The Dazla” Hasler. Him and his team are stalwarts of the BSB paddock. They have had a team in the Ducati Tri-Options Cup almost since it’s inception, with consistently top spec, beautifully presented bikes and some really top riders. If I was going to do this I knew this was the perfect team to do it with. After talking to Pete my nerves were calmed a lot. He basically said, “Look, we don’t have the time to give you a test but we are at Assen for the final round of the Championship. Why not come to Holland, hop on the bike and give it a try there? Just treat it like a test, have a ride around and see what you think.” Hmm “hop on the bike” at a Britsh Superbike final round, in a

Championship where the other riders have been racing their bikes all year, are right on the pace and are generally race hardened, take no prisoners, zero f..k’s given, real fast racers? Yeah OK, seems like a legit plan. Off to Holland we go!!

lion’s den. Nerves were an understatement but those race hardened maniacs I was talking about earlier turned out to be a really good bunch of guys and I think they got where I was coming from with the nerves and stuff. Combine that with all the support and reassuring words from what’s turned out to be friendliest and best team going, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I was anticipating.

WISH I WAS BACK AT HOME PLAYING ON THE TRIALS BIKE,

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So here we are, the journey has really come to this, full circle. I’m back in the paddock, at the world famous “Cathederal of Speed”, Assen race circuit. I’m sat on a shocking pink Ducati Panigale, under a shocking pink awning, with a load of lovely, friendly, shocking pink-clad expectant team members, all looking at me in an unsure way, probably thinking, who’s this old snowboarder looking bloke sat on our bike, maybe he’s lost. Anyway, introductions done it’s time to go out on track, back into the

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I left pit lane and it was on. I did a few laps to try and learn the bike a little bit, went a little faster, then a little bit faster and then by the end of the first session we were in the top 20 and at one point running around 14th. That was such a buzz for me and a strange little lump in the throat type of feeling, because after all the

years of dreaming and longing, to actually come this far and not go out and have it all shattered by being blown into the weeds was for me, in a sneaky way, a real sense of pride. Anyway we had the qualifying to do next. This was a test in itself because I’d spent so little time on this bike (20 mins) I had no idea what to change other than riding position. I knew I was going to be able to do alright on it but just didn’t know what, for definite, to do really. We put some fresh tyres on her and out we went. We ended up going faster but obviously so did all the rest so finished up qualifying in 21st. I had some big thinking to do over night. Forty minutes of bike time clocked up and I at least had some idea of what I wanted from the bike so we made a gearing change, some suspension and were

ready for the first race. Race day arrived and with it another thing I’d forgotten all about, the people - the place was rammed! That in itself, no matter how much experience you have, is so hard to ignore. All day the pressure builds and builds in the paddock and then when you finally get the call to go out, it’s not what you’d call a nice feeling. That aside though, we’re here, I’m sat on a British Superbike Championship grid, with thousands in the crowd, Lucy and a great team around me (all dressed up in their pink clobber), living the dream. Off we went on the warm up lap, and this is where the fuzzy feeling quickly disappeared - these guys around me all turned into animals. What’s going on here, they’re mental, there’s bike’s side-

ways, clipping bars and even crashing at stupid speeds on the fastest part of the track - all this before we have even finished the warm up lap and lined up for the start! Seriously what the hell am I doing here, I did all this years ago, this is a bad idea, wish I was back home playing on the trials bike, Muuum.

MUUUM.

Too late now though. I’m revving the bike like some demented idiot. Clutch in, foot planted, completely fixated on the red lights, like an 18 year old birthday boy at a pole dancing club. Baarrrrrrrp, lights go out, booom, we’re off! Now this first lap for me really was survival, the race rustiness thing was a definite reality, these guys aren’t messing around. If I’m really honest it was a proper shock, even with the

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adrenaline flowing. As the race settled down, I started getting in the groove, picking a few off where I could and the end result was.... da da da taarrr - 15th and one British Championship point!!! I know it’s only one point, but even as I’m writing this I’m finding myself starting to grin. I can’t believe after all the adventures, trials and tribulations, up’s and downs, not just of this year but the past eight. With all of the heart ache, all the years being forced to just sit and watch it on TV, I did it. I came back, old has been or not, I got on a bike and scored a British Championship point against all these other proper riders in my first real British Championship race since since 2008. To say I’m happy, would be an understatement but I’m having writer’s block so I cant think of any better adjectives, so it’ll have to do!

because I didn’t know the bike. I just didn’t know what to change to make it allow me to do those times. We did make a few big changes but they were based on my experience with all the other bikes I’d raced, not with one of these little beaut’s and they are a finicky thing. So the long and short of it was I basically made the bike worse. A lot worse. I managed to get 16th but it was an absolute battle with the bike the whole race, an absolute nightmare but nothing could stop me smiling. We came away from the weekend

with an offer from Pete the team boss, of a full season riding for them next year in the British Ducati Tri-Options cup - back in the BSB paddock!! Yep I did enough, I’m back babyyyy, well kind of. Really want to say thanks to everyone that has made this happen for me, my girlfriend Lucy, Rob Coolbus (second time round), Wurz, A.O.R racing, Pete Hasler, Hotel & Restaurant “Le Monal” in Ste. Foy, RST, Arai and everyone else that’s helped me prove a point to myself. It doesn’t matter how much life or surroundings can get you down and convince you that you can’t do something, if you know deep down you can, just get on with it!

LIGHTS GO OUT, BOOOM, WE’RE OFF!

There was a second race on the Sunday, this didn’t go so well. After the first race I knew I had a good four plus seconds a lap in me but it the was same problem again

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I can’t wait untill next year now. I don’t really know what goals to set results-wise, but what I do know is, whatever happens, I will have given it my best, whether we’re at the front or the back fingers crossed it won’t be the latter!

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Photo: Orange Bikes

and on parks e ik b in more hy. e and r o m lains w p een x s e g n in o are be Alders bikes e; Alf is in a a t t n n re E-mou the Ta ound r a s il tra I used to have pretty much the same opinion until last summer when I hit the trails in Les Arcs on a Giant Full-E+1 mountain We all know what it’s like, ‘cos we’ve bike; that feeling had disappeared all done it. You stand in the lift queue within less than five-minutes of getwith your mountain bike and take ting off the top of La Cachette chair surreptitious glances at the other and hammering down towards Arc riders around you to check out if 1800. they’ve got a better bike, or if they look more hard-core than you – not By the time I’d spent four hours that either bikes or appearances are hooning around Les Arcs Bike Park any real guide to either. I was a convert, wearing what my mate Tony, who owns an e-bike But when you’re riding an e-bike shop, calls ‘the electric bike smile’ those quick once-overs seem to and convinced that the cynics really come in your direction all the ought to get out more. Here’s why: time and often Although the trails of Les Arcs Bike Park are accessed by ski lifts and are primarily downhill all the way, there are ascents if you want them, and when I hit one

without any attempt at subtlety, and some of the looks you get can be pretty cynical - along the lines of “That ain’t mountain biking, it’s got a motor.”

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riding up it was a cinch on my new e-bike thanks to a motor that gave me a choice of ‘Eco’, ‘Normal’ and ‘Power’ modes. Uphill sections that would have been

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a slog on my regular mountain bike could be brushed aside with ease as I simply started pedalling and the motor would engage to assist me in the climb; it was like being given a push by your dad when you’re learning to ride your bike, and we all remember how much fun that was. I rarely had to go into anything other than ‘Eco’ mode, which as the name suggests required the least output from the bike’s motor, and this combined with a mix of Shimano Deore XT and Deore gears for quick and efficient gear changes provided some of the easiest mountain bike ascents I’ve ever done. The bike also came with a dropper post, so you could attain a comfortable rising position whether going uphill or down, although because of the assistance provided by the motor, pedalling with the saddle set low for descending was a lot easier than it is on a ‘normal’ mountain bike, so I didn’t always bother to readjust it after a downhill run. Add to that Fox suspension front and rear and the ride was smooth and plush as well as energy-saving, and even though my bike weighed a hefty 54 lbs this

was never an issue other than when manhandling it to get it on chairlifts (if you look pathetic enough the lifties will usually give you a hand…). I’d initially thought the considerably extra heft of an e-bike would detract from the fun, nimbleness and manoeuvrability of the machine, but I really didn’t notice it and had an absolute blast on the well-designed, undulating single track for which Les Arcs is renowned - I’d even argue that the extra weight of the bike made

it less skittery on loose gravel and when landing jumps. So, after that first run down to Arc 1800 I spent a hot, sunny August afternoon blasting around much of what Les Arcs has to offer. The trails here have been designed so that there’s something for everyone from families to hard core downhillers – the combination of generally warm and sunny conditions, dusty dry singletrack, and terrain that varies from open, alpine rock gardens and meadows to shady forest single track, often with a backdrop of Mont Blanc, is world class. But nothing is perfect of course, and unfortunately the ski lifts that access this superb riding are only open through July and August - but here’s where you get the really big bonus of riding an e-bike, for once the lifts close you can still enjoy the trails without the slog of riding up them or organising motorised uplifts. I’m fortunate enough to live literally right beside Les Arcs’ ‘Route 66’, a 26-km enduro trail with 1937-metres of downhill, and once the lifts close I can’t say I especially enjoy riding up it to access all that downhill on my regular mountain bike, an Orange Five. But on an e-bike it’s a cinch, so much so that it actually gets you out riding more – literally. Lyle Metcalfe of British e-bike manufacturer Volt bikes says: “It’s been statistically proven that e-bikes get up to seven times more usage by their owners than conventional cycles, so you may actually get more exercise as an e-bike user if you choose a balance between assisted-power and your own power when riding”. That e-bikes are the future of cycling is backed up by the sales figures - in Holland and Germany they now

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Sure, a major percentage of those bikes will be used for little more than bimbling down to the shops, but anyone who rides on the trails around the Tarentaise will testify that the number of e-mountain bikes is increasing each summer.

represent roughly 25% of all bike sales, with some 900,000 having been sold in Germany in the last year, although China has the world’s largest e-bike user figures with in excess of 200 million people riding them.

The purists and sackcloth brigade will be appalled of course, but when e-bikes are so much fun and open up so much more terrain – especially after the lifts shut down – I reckon there will be a lot more ‘electric bike smiles’ on the trails in future.

e-bikes. You can hire a full suspension Scott Genius eRide (www. scott-sports.com/fr/ fr/page/genius-eride) from them for 40 euros for the morning or 70 euros for a full day. Or a Lapierre Overvolt hardtail for 30 euros for a morning or 50 euros for the day. They also offer a full range of regular bikes including Santa Cruz Nomad’s for hire as well as selling bikes, parts and accessories and a providing a workshop service Labo Shop in Bourg St. Maurice (next door to McDonalds) and Tignes Le Lac (rue de la Poste) rent out

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tel. 04 79 07 07 61 facebook.com/labo.shop

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A common concern of e-bike users is the same as that of electric car owners – how long will my battery last? But as Lyn Metcalfe of Volt Bike says: “Modern batteries are efficient enough that it’s rare that you will run out of power on a typical ride, especially if you plan ahead and most pubs, restaurants, cafes and so on will gladly allow you to charge your battery if you’re using their facilities - the chargers are portable, so you can just carry them in your backpack”. The estimated maximum range for the battery on the Giant Full-E+1 that I used is around 130km, but I assume this is with the motor running all the time since I did just over 65km on my day out and still had 85 per cent charge left; since most of the riding had been downhill and hadn’t engaged the motor this is no doubt the reason for the high level of the remaining charge, but it does indicate that you could potentially do a few days of downhill/enduro riding without the need to recharge the battery. Full recharge time is 4.5 hours, so it’s easily done overnight, and you could get an adequate charge in a long lunch break. The motor has a maximum speed of around 25 kph (this restriction is required by law) so you can’t just keep pedalling like a lunatic until you’re overtaking Ferraris on the autoroute. Similar figures apply to most e-bikes, and those figures are only likely to become more efficient and more user-friendly as e-bikes develop.

THE BIKE VILLAGE ALP PACKER BY ROB FORBES

Photos by Sam Morris and Rob Forbes

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LET’S JUST GET ONE THING CLEAR FROM THE START.

SAM MORRIS IS A BLOODY LIAR. I don’t think he even does it on purpose. Maybe his super human level of fitness means he see’s things differently to the rest of us but one thing is for sure, he has an unavoidable tendency to sugar coat the truth.

ingly so that the lung busting climb he forgot to mention soon becomes less of a surprise. And I guess we are all guilty of stretching the truth from time to time, whether it be to soften up an impending hardship or just to spice up a good story.

Perhaps a few examples to help put you in the picture? When he says the next bit of trail you are about to ride is a ‘traverse’ you can safely assume that a good chunk of it will be uphill. His ‘singletrack climb’ is likely to consist mainly of walking while pushing your bike along and if he say’s it’s a push, be prepared to shoulder your bike whilst walking along a knife edge ridge with your arse twitching.

Oh, and there’s no sex in this article by the way. Sam Morris is the man behind Bike Village, the most established and well respected mountain bike holiday company in the Tarentaise Valley. I first met Sam

At least he is predictable. After a couple of days you learn ‘Bike Village Speak’ and readjust your expectations accord-

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some twenty years ago whilst holidaying in Bourg St. Maurice. I wanted to go out riding for a day in Les Arcs and someone mentioned him as a good person to speak to for trail advice, something he was more than happy to give out for free to any old random, knocking on the door of his apartment. Which is kind of generous given that showing people trails is essentially his job. And it’s this type of generosity, along with an insatiable appetite for new trails and an unfaltering enthusiasm for doing things the ‘right way’ that has helped Bike Village build an almost cult following of loyal customers, who return year after year to see what new treats Sam has unearthed. Over the last 20 years Sam and his wife Lyndsey have developed Bike Village HQ into a mountain bikers wet dream. Their beautiful converted farmhouse is nestled in a leafy corner of the village of Landry and includes a sprawling garden with a huge pump track, swimming pool and beer fridge. Sam has built a trail that finishes right in the garden and you’ll find plenty of shady trees to relax under and he even grows his own hops for brewing Bike Village Ale! As testament to Sam’s determination

to do things the right way, it’s worth noting that he is also solely responsible kickstarting the talks with the French Mountain Bike Federation that ultimately resulted in the development of a course that allows British bike guides to gain equivalency for their qualifications in France. As a result many Brits have since passed this and are able to work here legally. But he hasn’t stopped there. He is currently the residing President of the European Organisation of MTB Instructor-Guides (EO-MTBing), under whose auspices he is working to develop a European wide standard qualification for bike guides. And this is something he does in his spare time. For free. From June through until the end of August you can stay at Bike Village and join their regular summer mountain bike program. If you had to label the type of riding they offer, I guess you would have to say enduro. They use the ski lifts through July and August and their own uplift vehicles to gain height in June but there’s always some pedalling involved too. Not just because they enjoy putting you through pain (though that is almost certainly true) but because it allows you to access trails outside the regular network that most visitors to the area get to see, and believe me, there’s an awful lot out there if you are prepared to make the effort!

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Sam has been exploring trails throughout the wider area of the Tarentaise Valley since the day he arrived. It’s no exaggeration to say that you could lay out the entire IGN map of the area and point to any trail and he’d be able to tell you whether it’s worth riding or not. I personally, have found several of my local favourites following chats with Sam where he has passed on advice. Unsurprising then, that this enthusiasm has taken him well beyond the confines of our own valley and that he now offers trips further afield. The Alp Packer is the culmination of several years of trail exploration with one thing in mind - divining a route across the Alps, from north to south, that includes the very best trails he can find. Have a look at a map of the French Alps and you’ll see Annecy right up there in the north west corner. Diagonally opposite at the south eastern corner is Nice and halfway between the two is the highest city in France - Briancon. Our 6 day Alp Packer trip entailed just the top half of this route, staring off in the beautiful city of Annecy. What’s not to like about an afternoon spent building bikes then swimming in a beautiful alpine lake and supping a few beers? We spent the night in the imaginatively named ‘Villa du Lac’ before setting off the next day southwards.

DAY 1. The first riding day was the only one to include two van uplifts. The first accessed

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a blisteringly fast bit of singletrack that ran through a nice open gully all the way down to the town Faverges, the first grin enducing descent of many! The second uplift merely dropped us at the bottom of a thousand metre fireroad climb. At least that’s what we were told. It turned out to be a brutally steep bike push and carry (see first paragraph)! Well worth it though for the 1800 metres of vertical descent that started steep, loose and technical and gradually transformed into fast and flowing as we dropped down towards Albertville where beers and the van awaited to take us to the town of Areches.

DAY 2. Day two was always going to be a toughie. The only day where we finished at a higher altitude than where we started riding. An undulating day with actual ridable climbs! Descent of the day surely had to go to the bobsleigh - a section of damp, slick singletrack that would have been difficult to ride fast had it not been in a gully, meaning plenty of banking to keep you on track as you ran wide in every corner! At one point we did stray slightly off-route to tackle what appeared to be a tasty ridgeline but in the event involved some additional knife edge ridge bike carrying - all part of the adventure! Accommodation for the night was in a stunning refuge with views across the valley and since we arrived there by 4pm, we spent a good deal of time testing some bottled beers and sunbathing before dinner!

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DAY 3. Starting at high altitude the next day meant we were due a favourable climb to descent ratio, and what a descent we had in store! 2100 metres of it, on every type of singletrack you can imagine. The bottom section consisted of wide leafy hairpins that really allowed you to keep your speed up, unlike the mega tight versions we are used to in much of the Tarentaise. It was an absolute joy and it is no exaggeration to say that in this, I think I have found my new favourite descent of all time! We arrived in the valley literally buzzing and had to calm ourselves back down with a couple of pints of panache in a friendly local bar before jumping in the van again to uplift to our second refuge stay of the trip, high up in the Belleville valley. A few things to note about staying in mountain refuges:

1. Expect great hospitality and a hearty meal. They also serve beer. 2. Do not expect electricity or sometimes even lights. A head torch and battery pack for charging your phone is good planning. 3. Expect stunning mountain views, cows and goats outside your window and a genuine high alpine experience. 4. Do not expect luxury showers. 5. Take earplugs if your mates snore or fart a lot (or moo/bleat).

DAY 4. Our fourth day kicked off with a long pedal up the valley, gradually steepening into a push and then hike-a-bike up to a distant summit. The final climb was definitely on the sketchy side as confirmed by the presence of a cable bolted to the rock face for assistance. Close to the summit we also had to virtually barge our way past a herd of bouquetin. Naturally we stopped to take a few pics but the win has to go to Sam who managed to also get a passing vulture into the same shot! The descent from the summit was probably the most technical of the entire week. There were whole sections where I was literally holding my breath expecting to come off at any minute! Past the col, things eased off a little and the descent got gradually faster and more flowy as we dropped a total of 2200 metres into the Maurienne valley. It is no exaggeration to say that in this, I think I have found my new second favourite descent of all time! As was becoming customary, a post ride Panache or two was required to bring us back down to earth before jumping in the van again to uplift to the resort of Valloire.

DAY 5. We rolled out of town the next day straight into a long, steady climb up a stunning alpine valley which gradually steepened

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into a push and then bike carry before reaching a col that marked the crossing point from the northern to southern Alps. A super fun bedrock descent with dozens of lines to choose from was then followed by a further short climb which brought us to the highlight of the day - the descent to Nevache. This began as a traverse (including plenty of uphill sections - see paragraph 1) which gradually started to point downhill and increased in speed until we were blasting our way across the hillside, grinning from ear to ear! A right turn then dropped us steeply downwards through tight switchbacks and over loose rock, all the way down to the stunning hamlet of Nevache, where beers, tartiflette and beds awaited.

AND SO TO THE FINAL DAY! Sam wisely makes this the least physically demanding day of the trip. An initial fireroad climb led the way into a pedally (uphill in places - para. 1) traverse before angling downhill into a long, flowy blast through beautiful pine forests. A short climb then brought us up to a rocky viewpoint overlooking the stunning walled city of Briancon, our final goal. The exciting descent from here exemplified the type of riding you find predominantly in the southern Alps. Fast, loose, rocky and exposed. The type of trail that sucks you into riding really fast and then throws in a blind, clifftop corner! I’m happy to say that none of us fell foul to this and we all rolled through the city gates into Briancon buzzing again and ready for two or three rounds of recovery drinks at the ‘Bar Les Arcades’ whilst reflecting over the weeks highlights! Later, we moved celebrations on to a local casino, where we all won big on the roulette wheel. Flushed, we made our way to an exclusive nightclub where we passed the night away sipping Dom Perignon and sharing bants with Lady Gaga and Princess Michael of Kent - all in all it was a fitting end to one helluva week (see paragraph 1). In all seriousness, this is one of the best weeks I have ever had on my bike and includes some of the best riding the Alps has to offer. Before you google ‘Bike Village Alp Packer’ and sign yourself up though, do consider what you are letting yourself in for:

1. 1200-1400 vertical metres of pedalling, pushing and bike carrying everyday. That’s 4000-4500 feet. In practice that’s often 4 hours of your day spent suffering to varying degrees. 2. Technical and exposed trails. A head for heights is essential. For more information on The Bike Village Alp Packer, visit:

bikevillage.co.uk

3. Sleeping in dorms with 8 other snoring and farting riders. 4. The occasional white lie.

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Our journey to Istanbul started in India. Well metaphorically speaking anyway. Early on in 2014, with my 40th birthday looming at the end of the summer, I decided to get a few mates together to do the Rickshaw Run. For those of your unfamiliar, this is a race across India, from East to West, in auto rickshaws, organised by the same group that host the Mongol Rally. Sounded right up my street so I signed us up for a rickshaw and some other friends did the same. The date was all set for mid-September. Then, sadly, the powers that be, decided to reschedule it for August. Of the six of us that were signed up, five had important roles in businesses in the valley that could not do without us during the busy month of August. So that was 38

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the end of that. The organisers had valid reasons for the move and there was no hesitation from them to give us a full refund but we were obviously disappointed. We hastily arranged a meeting at the pub to come up with a Plan B. Many ideas were thrown around most of which were completely unfeasible. The six of us very quickly became four and the time slot for fitting the trip into was narrowed to fourteen days. The most straightforward idea seemed to be to simply drive from Bourg as far as we could in any direction, passing through as many countries as we could in two weeks. Istanbul, right at the edge of Europe, seemed an obvious target to aim for. After a full five minutes of internet research a very vague route was planned and it was clear that coolbustransfer

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zero prior planning was required in terms of booking places to stay or obtaining visas. Satisfied that we had everything in hand, the four of us - Matt, Bry, Rob Scott and myself - spent the rest of the evening celebrating our new plans over a few shots of Genepi. Roll forward a few months to the first Tuesday in September and it was time for the off. In the intervening period I had discovered a music festival that happened to be on in Croatia at the exact time we would be passing through, so that quickly became an integral part of the plan. The event started on the Thursday so we had two full days with which to soak up the journey from Bourg to the Croatian peninsular of Pula, where Outlook Festival would be in full swing. We set off at the very

leisurely hour of 11am and just 30 minutes later crossed our first border of the trip on the Col du Petit St. Bernard. Four hours later we rolled up on the shores of Lake Garda where we spent our first night. The next day we had our sights set on the Slovenian capital of Ljubliana, however shortly into the journey we noticed signs for Venice and quickly realised that we would be passing just a few kilometres from it. It would have been rude not to pay a visit. What a place! You can pretty much wander around Venice aimlessly and be constantly treated to beautiful sights around every corner. Gondola heavy canals, framed by centuries old buildings and bridges. I can testify that there are few more romantic places to pass a morning, hand in hand with three middle aged blokes. That afternoon we crossed over into Slovenia, passing through beautiful rolling hills covered with pine forests before reaching Ljubljana. En route, Rob Scott got on the case and picked out some accommodation for us in a hostel that was housed in an old prison. This turned out to be a great find as it was situated in a small enclave on the edge of the city where 12,500 square metres of disused buildings on an old army barracks had been

turned into an artists refuge. The Metelkova Mesto is one of the largest urban squats in Europe and has become the centre of underground music and arts in the country. Every available space is adorned with street art, graffiti and sculpture. It really is a sight to behold and given that it is very much off the map, we were pretty lucky to find ourselves staying right in the middle of it.

Thursday morning meant just one thing - time for Outlook! We crossed the border over into Croatia, picked up supplies from a supermarket, then headed towards the rough location of the festival. This turned out to be slightly more difficult than expected as there were pretty much no signs pointing the way. Turns out the majority of people attending the festival fly in and then jump on a shuttle bus to the site, very few drive. Once we finally found the place this turned out to be a good thing as it meant there were barely any cars parked next to the site. We very quickly discovered that parking our van off-site, in a spacious field next to the beach, full of shady trees, was vastly preferable to squeezing onto the cramped official campground and only entailed an extra 5 minute walk.

We quickly installed ourselves in the hostel and set about exploring. Ljubliana is a beautiful, vibrant city with a large student population so the four of us (boasting an average age of 37) fitted right in. Well thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what we reckoned anyway and finished the night showing the kids how to dance in a busy nightclub whilst sipping garishly coloured cocktails.

Outlook is billed as a festival celebrating sound system culture and as such is 100% dance music with a definite leaning towards reggae and jungle. Unsurprisingly, most of the action happens between sunset and sunrise. We very quickly settled into a routine that consisted of spending the daytime sleeping, sunbathing and swimming in the sea along with a daily visit to the nearest town to buy booze and food, and nights spent moving between the various visually stunning stages that are

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situated in and around the 19th century Fort Punta Christo. If you’ve not been to Outlook I’d highly recommend it. Three days passed in a blur. Particular stand out highlights included DJ Premier, Congo Natty and General Levy. Blinking dazed into the morning sunshine, we left Outlook on the Sunday morning to continue our journey southwards. I think we all would have liked to stay on for the final night of the festival but we still had a long way to go if we wanted to reach the edge of Asia! We spent the day trying to make up for lost ground and pounded out some miles along the stunning Croatian and, somewhat paltry (just 20km!) Bosnian coastlines, through to Dubrovnik. Arriving at dusk, we stumbled into the stunning walled city, quickly negotiated a bed for the night and then set out to explore and procure food and beverages. Dubrovnik is a well known tourist destination and regular stop for cruise ships. As such it’s a always busy but that doesn’t take away from its splendour. If you’ve watched Game Of Thrones then you will have seen parts used as the setting for Kings Landing. It’s a perfectly preserved medieval city filled with castles, churches, narrow winding streets and stairways, surrounded on 3 sides by the sea and completely car-free. If you haven’t been, put it on your list!

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The following day we set our targets on Macedonia. We had smashed out Pula to Dubrovnik, a journey of over 700km, in just under 7 hours so we were pretty confident we could comfortably cover the 400km to Lake Ohrid in considerably less. As such, we took time out to stop at Kotor in Montenegro, en-route. Kotor is a like a slightly shabbier version of Dubrovnik. A walled medieval city next to the sea but also with crumbling battlements running up the side of the adjacent hill. In many ways it

feels more authentic than its better preserved neighbour and being in Montenegro, is certainly a lot cheaper! After a brief explore of the city and a hasty lunch we set off southwards

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again and crossed the border into Albania. What a difference! Driving through Albania feels more like driving through India than somewhere in Europe. The speed limit on the main highway tops out at 80km/h and on more than one occasion we had to overtake carts being pulled by horses! Curiously, side by side with this, there was also an abundance of expensive top of the range cars with foreign number plates. At one point we were overtaken by a Mercedes SUV with a personalised number plate. I’m pretty sure the dark skinned gentleman driving it was not called G1LLIAN but maybe he was just looking after it for her! Hitting the Albanian capital Tirana, just in time for evening rush hour, is not an experience I wish to repeat. The roads are very narrow, drivers show scant regard for the highway code and roadsigns are literally non-existent. I also can’t think of many other European capitals where the presence of livestock on a main thoroughfare is the norm. Lacking a map of any kind,

we were all at sea and had to just rely on our instincts to divine the correct road out of town. Turns out our instincts aren’t great. By the time we finally rolled out of the city it was dusk and we still had another 100+ kilometres to drive. At any other time, the drive up to Lake Ohrid, at 700m above sea level, would be a delightful journey winding through steep sided valleys and gently climbing up to the mountain pass that marks the border with Macedonia. As it was, we were tired, it was pitch black outside and the whole thing was something of a trial. We eventually rolled into Ohrid at 9pm, pulling up next to the huge lake to make a plan of action as we had nowhere booked to stay. A guy immediately pedalled up to us on his bike, but not wanting to be hassled we pulled off and drove to a spot further along. Shortly the bike reappeared so we moved off again. We proceeded with this rather comical game of cat and mouse around the streets of Ohrid for a further 10 minutes or so before finally giving in and, ultimately, agreeing to stay at his apartment. Turned out he was a nice guy and we were very soon installed and heading to the nearest restaurant for a taste of Macedonian cuisine.

The next morning we had time for a decent look around the very picturesque old town which includes a 2000 year old Greek amphitheatre, medieval fortress, a bunch of pretty Byzantine churches and a stunning waterfront, before heading off in the direction of Greece. Much more straightforward driving conditions prevailed and we quickly pounded out 400km along the coast before spending the night in a small town just east of Kavala. Not the most well developed part of Greece, particularly post EU austerity measures, but it was cheap and we managed to find a tidy local restaurant right next to the beach!

The next day, Istanbul was just 450 km of very straight forward motorway driving away. Well the outskirts of the city were anyway. Turns out Istanbul is pretty big! It took a further 45 minutes to wind our way through the busy suburbs and in towards the centre where most of the touristy delights are to be found. Rob Scott had been on the booking.com case again and sorted us out with a decent hotel, well within walking distance of

the centre. We got checked in and then swiftly headed towards Galata to meet up with our local guide! Some ten years previous, a young lad named Mike had spent the winter season working at Bar Mont Blanc in Vallandry, one of our favourite drinking establishments. We soon found out that he was mad keen on Turkey and was planning to study it at university. Predictably he quickly garnered the nickname ‘Turkish’. Sure enough, ten years later, here he was living in Istanbul, speaking fluent Turkish and generally brimming with local knowledge, much to our good fortune. We spent the evening being directed into various restaurants and bars and enjoying the finest dining and drinking Istanbul had to offer! Unlike the previous four days of hectic travelling we had actually allowed ourselves 3 nights in Istanbul so we had a decent amount of time to do some touristy stuff including visiting Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace. We shopped in the Grand Bazaar, drank beers on roof top terraces, ate kebabs, smoked hookah’s and drank endless cups of Turkish tea. Even so, there’s so much to do and see in this vibrant city that I certainly plan to visit again. Very quickly the time approached thecoolbus.co.uk

when we had to hit the road once again. Naturally, we had a different route planned for our homeward leg. A couple more countries still awaited and the first on the list was to be Bulgaria. The city of Plovdiv was a little over 400km away, our generally accepted daily travelling tally. None of us knew much about the place but a quick internet search indicated that it might be worth a visit. As we reached the outskirts it did seem at first that we might have made a monumental mistake. Rows and rows of seventies style tower blocks, interspersed with industrial areas were not filling us with confidence. Once we reached the centre however, our faith was restored! The city of Plovdiv is one of the oldest settlements in Europe and unsurprisingly, has tons of history once you get past the Eastern Bloc style outskirts. Built around seven hills, it has been inhabited at various points over the

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last several millennia by Greeks, Persians, Romans, Ottomans, Goths, Turks and Huns.

in our pockets so I set off back to the van to procure a bank card and some more cash.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to tell you about how we spent the afternoon exploring the various historical sites and museums, and soaking up the culture. Truth is, we parked up on the edge of a vaguely historical looking area and then climbed up the nearest hill where we found a delightful outdoor bar which sold chilled bottle beers

Imagine my surprise when I found a pile of broken glass where the passenger window used to be! A quick search of the van showed we had been the victims of some of the dumbest criminals that Bulgaria has to offer. Having broken into the front of the van they emptied out the glovebox onto the drivers seat. Finding nothing of value and ignoring the central storage area on the dash which contained our passports, my bank card and a GoPro, they then moved to the rear passenger area. Here they appeared to have sat on Rob Scottâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iPad whilst rifling through other belongings of little value. They then moved to the boot where our luggage was stored. I can only assume that at this point they were disturbed because they had appeared to have simply grabbed the first bag to hand and legged it. Closer inspection revealed that the contents of the bag they had taken consisted essentially of our dirty washing. I called the rest of the gang to break

for one euro and offered views across the city. It was a beautiful afternoon with blue skies and a light breeze and it was very easy to keep ordering the next round. However, even at one euro a bottle, we soon found we had spent all the change

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the bad news to them and this gave us the impetus to secure the van and find somewhere to stay for the night. Whilst the value of the items stolen did not amount to much, leaving the van with no window for the night was surely tempting fate. Just around the corner we found a decent hotel run by a very friendly guy who was incredibly apologetic for our misfortune. He said we should park right outside reception and he would personally guarantee that our van and its contents would be safe for the night. Something about his reassurances, demeanour and the blacked out top of the range SUV parked out front suggested that he may have more than a passing familiarity with certain criminal elements of a more professional nature than those that we had recently suffered at the hands of. Thusly reassured we set off back into the city to make a nuisance of ourselves.

block where a party seemed to be in full swing. We made our way up the stairs to investigate to discover what essentially appeared to be a nightclub in an apartment featuring a bar where you could buy drinks, dance floor and a DJ booth. We got stuck into a few cocktails before showing the Bulgarians some of our finest dance moves.

Turns out that just a week before, Plovdiv had won the vote to be the European Capital of Culture in 2019. The city was still in a celebratory mood and we found ourselves there on a Saturday night - the stars appeared to have aligned for us! We made our way up to another hilltop bar to get stuck into a few drinks and some tapas. Later on we moved downtown and at some point wandered past an apartment

At some point in the early hours of the morning, myself, Matt and Rob Scott decided to call it a night. Bry, however, was not yet ready to throw in the towel. We left him to it and zig zagged our way home. The next day, our morning wake up call consisted of Rob Scott rushing into our room announcing loudly that it was nearly midday and time to check out. Not wanting to cause any inconvenience to our possibly

mob-connected host, we quickly jumped to it and set about packing up our meagre belongings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh and has anyone seen Bry?â&#x20AC;? As if by magic, seconds later, Bry appeared at the door looking not too unlike a tramp. What happened to him that night shall forever remain a mystery. His only recollection consisted of waking up in a bush in broad daylight to find his pockets empty. A passing police car picked him up and after much discussion, finally managed to figure out where his hotel was and dropped him to us. Phone-less and penniless we decided the best course of action was to treat him to a Bulgarian MacDonalds before setting off towards Serbia. Belgrade was 550km distant but with the journey taking place entirely on motorways, it ought to have been a breeze. All was going well until dark clouds appeared on the horizon. Ten minutes later we were driving through the middle of the worst storm I have ever witnessed. Torrential rain created huge amounts of standing water on the road, lightning strikes hit either side of us with barely a split second before the thunderclaps and hailstones the size of baked beans pelted the van. All the traffic in front of us pulled over onto the hard shoulder to sit it out. We would have surely done the same had it not been for one salient fact - we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a passenger window. Whilst we were still moving, thecoolbus.co.uk

the majority of the rain hit the front of the van and then swept past the open window. Some of the hailstones were making it in but certainly only a fraction of those that would have been pooling in the footwell amongst the shards of broken glass, had we pulled over.

Fifteen nerve racking minutes later we made it out of the other side and onto an empty motorway. Matt got us back up to cruising speed and before long we were entering the outskirts of the Serbian capital. Still suffering slightly from the previous nights adventures,

we were happy to enjoy the city at a more relaxed pace. Belgrade however, had other ideas. Our visit happened to be on the same night as the finals of the Basketball World Cup. Serbia is mad keen on basketball and their national team was in the final against the USA. Literally every bar in the city had the game on and the place was buzzing. In the end the USA won but that didn’t stop them from celebrating in the city centre where flares and fireworks were set off in front of an imposing police presence who seemed ready to pounce if things got out of hand. We decided we’d had enough action for one day and beat at hasty retreat to our hotel. The next day we smashed out the remaining 1200km back to Bourg in one hit. The lack of a passenger window plus the fact we were now driving through Slovenia and Italy, countries we had already visited, provided us with enough motivation to clock up our longest driving day of the trip at some 13 hours. Tired and bedraggled,

we rolled backinto our home town at around midnight. Over the course of the previous 14 days we had visited twelve countries and clocked up over 4000 km. We returned with one less phone, a few more grey hairs, some good stories and hardly any laundry. The whole trip was a blast but it’s fair to say that two weeks is way too short a time to fully appreciate what each of these countries has to offer. Three years later I repeated the same journey but took 3 weeks over just the first portion to Northern Greece. Then this year I was back again for a month to explore the Greek mainland before island hopping across the Aegean to the west coast of Turkey. You can see the highlights of these two trips on our Vimeo channel vimeo.com/user6239472 and on social media by searching the hashtag coolbusroadtrip For 2019 the plan is to take a van even further, right across Turkey, passing through Armenia and Georgia before crossing the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan and beyond, so expect more road tripping tales in next years mag!

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