Client: APS Select Yellow News Source: The Sunday Telegraph Date: 30/12/2018 Page: 13 Reach: 351709 Value: 22994.40

Val d’Isère will always get the Gold from me WINTER WINNER Former Olympic skier Graham Bell shares his passion for the resort that shaped him al d’Isère has shaped junior team, and we stayed in ugly terms of speed, capacity and vertical my life as a skier Sixties apartment blocks in La Daille. uplift, nothing comes close.” more than any other New-builds must now be stone-clad The Eighties saw a boom in the resort. It is where, in with a traditional pitched roof. British catered-chalet holiday, with Val V 1982, I skied my irst We couldn’t help noticing back d’Isère a key destination. When we downhill course, on then that the resort’s lift system was the Oreiller/Killy in need of serious regeneration, too. met, my wife was working in a chalet (OK) run. Named called Le Clos, one of the larger ones after local racing legends Henri The Solaise cable car, built in 1940, was run by Mark Warner. There were 12 Oreiller, a double Olympic gold still clunking up the mountain, and the chalet girls (no boys), and dinner was medallist in 1948, and Jean-Claude La Daille gondola may have looked like served in big dishes at 7.30pm prompt, Killy, a triple Olympic gold medallist Sixties chic, but it was a squeeze to it with one guest being “mother”. The in 1968, it got easier with practice, four big downhill racers into a cabin. family trip we took last Easter, staying but at 16 it felt terrifyingly fast to me. Investment from the Eighties on has at Inghams’ Chalet Hotel & Spa Le Val d’Isère is also where I been phenomenal. Since the Funival , is a good example of how the competed in the 1992 Winter underground funicular opened in 1987, roles of staf have changed. As Sarah Olympics on the notorious La Face, there has hardly been a new lift that’s noted: “Clean rooms and mixed staf in and where I have skied my most not state-of-the-art, from a sleek smart uniforms – such a contrast to memorable of-piste, such as the 10-person gondola for Solaise to the the baggy tops, leggings and cowboy Couloir des Pisteurs. It was a home ongoing £170 million regeneration that boots we wore in the Eighties.” from home while racing on the World includes underground moving My irst experience of the luxury Cup tour in the Eighties and Nineties, walkways in town and an American- end of the chalet market came in the and it’s where I met my wife Sarah style day lodge on the mountain. late Nineties at Le Chardon Mountain while she was working as a chalet girl BBC commentator Matt Chilton, who Lodges, with champagne and canapés, in the mid-Eighties. It helped change irst skied in Val d’Isère in 1985, is a fan gourmet meals and an outdoor pool. me as a racer and skier, but the resort of the 2002-built Olympique gondola, The 2000s saw openings such as the has also mapped the entire which accesses Bellevarde’s slopes from splendid Eagle’s Nest, and Chalet zeitgeist of the past four decades. near the town centre. “I’m fortunate to Husky with its indoor climbing, At the time of that irst downhill have skied all over the world and I’m archery and rie shooting, and the run on the OK I was with the British convinced that the Olympique is the luxury sector continues apace, ji d dil inest ski lift on the planet,” he says. “In including a ive-star boutique hotel, fd idil LRf d Sli

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Le Refuge, under way on Solaise. down and relocated. This high-end demand also extends Jim Adlington irst skied in Val to the high street. Susan and Jock Dun d’Isère in 1992, working his way up set up a hire shop in Val d’Isère in 1991, from pot-washer to professional and now run Snowberry rental. “Our freeskier, and setting up Planks customers have become more Clothing. “When I arrived there demanding over the past 30 years,” were loads of ski bums and says Susan. “Most realise the snowboarders from all over the world importance of decent equipment living a hand-to-mouth existence, that’s properly serviced and correctly just so they could ride every day. It’s adjusted, but they expect top-quality impossible to be in Val d’Isère for gear and service at a good-value price.” the winter now and not work.” Another change is the increasing John Yates-Smith, number of people who come to Val founder of YSE chalet d’Isère just for the après, but Jim’s not holidays, says his irst complaining: “We should thank job in the resort, in 1976, places like Dick’s for partying all was washing dishes at night because it means fewer people, the Fjord hotel. “I was especially the seasonaires, go skiing paid £5 a week, while of-piste. So it keeps all those classic my brother Dick was lines free on a powder day.” paid £12 as a rep. He Last season saw an abundance of had a room and I slept powder days in Val d’Isère, as good under the ping-pong as any I can remember. Yes, the table. Val d’Isère was a resort may have changed, but the hairy-chested place then mountains remain as challenging – accommodation was and awe-inspiring as ever. basic and hot water a èidffl Graham Bell is a former Olympic luxury. Après consisted of four sleazy skier and now works as a TV nightclubs playing Johnny Hallyday presenter and journalist. and frequented by Parisians in leather trousers.” Dick Yates-Smith opened Dick’s Tea Bar in 1979. From very modest beginnings it became the place on the World Cup tour for a post-race party. Val d’Isère was a lot more punk back then. An old haunt of mine featured a bubblegum wall, with every inch covered in used gum. One throwback that has stood the test of time is the Moris Pub. Chilton was its manager for a season in the Nineties. “It is possibly the last remaining link to the Eighties,” he laughs. On the mountain, La Folie Douce, at the top of the La Daille cable car, hired Kely Starlight as artistic director in 1996. His refreshing take on entertainment led to Austrian- style ski-boot dancing on tables –

après-ski with an Ibiza twist. The partying has not stopped since. In town, Dick Yates-Smith sold his bar in 1997 and it has had a number of makeovers. But the regeneration plan for the heart of the resort, called Le Coin de Val, will add 900 extra guest beds and see Dick’s Tea Bar knocked ddld

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VAL D’ISERE THROUGH THE AGES

1888 Val d’Isère, Espace Killy, gondola opens covering the old after ski racer on Bellevarde Val d’Isère opens village of Jean-Claude irst hotel – and creating the Killy, one of Val 2009 Auberge Moris Lac du Chevril. d’Isère’s The new ski founders. The Val d’Isère 1936 resort of Tignes area has since hosts the Alpine was built above been renamed Ski World Le Rogoney Val d’Isère/ Championships drag-lift opens 1955 Tignes on Solaise, the 2016 mountain First running of 1987 directly the Critérium de Solaise gondola above town la Première Neige Funival opens lift with heated ski races, which in La Daille seats and Wi-Fi 1937 take place at the on board opens, beginning of 1990 and the ski area Col de l’Iseran, every ski season, at the top is Europe’s highest snow depending Solaise Express revamped too road pass opens, and are now part chairlift opens continuing from of the World Cup 2019 Val d’Isère into circuit 1992 the neighbouring Old Solaise Maurienne valley 1961 Val d’Isère hosts cable car station the Olympic set to become 1940 La Daille downhill, ’s highest apartments super-G and hotel at 2,550m Solaise cable constructed combined ski – although it car built races during the is behind 1972 Albertville Games schedule and 1952 won’t open Val d’Isère and 2002 fully until the Hydroelectric Tignes area 2019-20 winter dam built below renamed the Olympique season

SWITZERLAND

Geneva

Lyon FRANCE

Val-d'Isère

Turin

50 miles

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ESSENTIALS

Inghams (01483 791114; inghams.co.uk) ofers seven nights at ive-star Chalet Hotel & Spa Le Savoie in Val d’Isère from £1,079 per person half-board, including a choice of complimentary wines with meals, return ights and transfers.

RINGING THE CHANGES Skiers at Val d’Isère, right; Graham Bell and his wife Sarah at the , left; the French resort at night, below

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