I made a commitment before I even came to France that February was going to be the month that I dedicated all of my weekend trips to skiing. Up until this semester in school I have had basketball from October to the middle of March and thus have barely been out on the slopes the past 4 years. So naturally I followed up my initial ski trip to the French Alpes with another one to a much LARGER resort, also in the French Alpes, that goes by the name of Les 2 Alpes or for us Americans...The 2 Alps. This resort is located about an hour and a half outside of Grenoble, France which is about a 3 and a half train ride from Montpellier. I was very excited for this specific trip because it was going to be my first self-planned trip in Europe and I wanted to make it a memorable one! So I did hours of research and probably went through 20 or so different ski resorts before I came across Les 2 Alpes. The entire time I was searching the internet for resorts I couldn't believe the ridiculous abundance of ski resorts that lie in the Alpes...they are everywhere! I had to make sure that the resort I chose was at a high enough elevation to get good snow cover as some of the resorts I was looking into were having below average snow fall which does not translate into good skiing for Huston. Moving on, I booked my hotel...with the help of my wonderful mother who's French is way better than mine, got my train tickets, and was ready to go. I decided on a hotel for this initial trip because I wanted to go big and they were offering two free meals a day...if you know me at all, this is what sealed the deal entirely.
Joining me on this adventure was my friend Kara who I know from Portland. She is studying in Florence and decided to join me on this trip as she is also an avid skier. With my bags packed and ready to go I left on Thursday late afternoon from the Montpellier train station. My trip took me from Montpellier to Valence and then from Valence to Grenoble where we were supposed to have a bus waiting for us to take us to the resort...SUPPOSED is the key word here. After getting off the train in Grenoble and switching to a bus in Valence I arrived in Grenoble at 830pm on Thursday...and to my surprise the f*&$king bus station was closed...at 830pm! Ok I can figure this out, I said to myself, I just need to speak with someone in the train station. So I go straight to the information desk at the train station and ask the gentleman when and where the bus to Grenoble will be arriving...as the hotel we were staying in promised us that there would be a bus to take us from Grenoble to the resort. he calmly replied and smiled as if he were actually helping me with, "I don't know but just go to the bus station and ask them. They will surely know. It is right outside and to the left." Hmmm, you do not know how much I wanted to reach through the glass and choke him to death after he told me this...first of all the bus station is closed and second of all how do you not know that?! I respectfully mentioned to him that the bus station was closed and asked him how to proceed...then he just through his hands up and shrugged his shoulders...I have no more words for this specific moment. I went back outside and asked three bus drivers if they knew anything about the bus to Les 2 Alpes or how I could get there and they all had the same response..."NO". At this point I figured I was going to either have to spend the night in Grenoble and take the bus in the morning or just penny up and take a cab. I decided on the cab and as soon as Kara arrived we hopped in one and headed for the resort...but not before I tried to barter with the cab driver for a lower fare. He just looked at me and said "Sir, I just start the meter. I do not determine the price." I then shut up and got into the cab for the normally hour and a half ride that only took us an hour because our cab driver never took his foot off the gas the entire ride. We were at 2500 meters elevation hitting tight turns and flying up 2 lane roads, next to CLIFFS, going about 70 mph! I held on for dear life. We arrived and went straight to bed so that we could get out early the next morning. Oh and by the way the taxi cost us a cold 190 euro...terrible.
The next morning we ate breakfast, which was an absolutely amazing buffet style meal, this made me very happy...and then went and rented skis and got 2 day passes for the lifts. Once we got out to the slopes it was about 1030 am and the sun was shining. This resort is huuge! There are about 45 hotels in the village along with chalets and the like everywhere. The village is in a valley that lies in between 2 different alpes...hence the name Les 2 Alpes, you should all get that now. We skied for most of the day and went in around 4pm as the lifts close at 430pm. No night skiing in the alps because it is too hard to control and monitor. The next morning we got out even earlier and were able to take the gondolas up to the runs that we couldn't get to the day before because of the high winds. We made it up to 3200 meters! the skiing was amazing and the snow cover was perfect. There were your powder runs, plenty of moguls, and downhill runs a plenty. Although it was a bit difficult to search out the black diamond and double diamond runs...i found some but definitely not as much as what I was expecting. This could be because this specific resort was so big and touristy that they tend to groom their runs to appeal to the mediocre skier with a lot of blues and medium difficulty hills(Just heads up!) Stevens Pass in Skykomish has waay better diamond runs that Les 2 Alpes..not to downplay the resort or my time there, I just found that very interesting. On a good note, I could have honestly skied this resort for a week straight and not went on the same run twice if I wanted to. Although the alps are very very cold, there was no clouds and plenty of sun on the second day and my hands were numb within the first 45 minutes of skiing! Not to worry tho...our room had towel warmers. I did not know what they were at first but Kara knew what they were as soon as she walked in. These are in-genius...it is like getting your towel out of an oven!
The two days of skiing were much needed as I got my skiing fix for the week and we left the next afternoon and took the bus back into Grenoble...it only cost us 7 euro for two tickets!! A better deal than the 190 euro taxi ride eh? We then had to sit in the ice cold Grenoble train station and wait for our trains for what seemed like eternity but eventually they came and Kara and I said our goodbyes and both headed home. I cannot comment on her travels home but mine were quiet and uneventful for once.
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