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"Top holiday! As Will says 'most fun chalet I've ever been in' so must be good! Thanks to you all. No problem to anyone, always a smile, terrific food and made to feel most welcome. Some excellent company too. Best ski hol so far!"

Mike, Claire, Will & Kate, April 2007

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Alpine Ethos Blog

26th January 2010

Alpine Ethos Snowboard Camp

Alpine Ethos has teamed up with CAB9 Snowboarding (http://www.cab9snowboarding.com/cab9/) to offer a fantastic snowboarding camp the week commencing Saturday 13 March 2010 in Meribel, France.  
We will provide the accommodation and hospitality whilst Cab9 is offering 6 days coaching to take care of your slope style, off-piste and park action. On 6 days of your stay you'll be served cooked breakfasts, warming afternoon tea and hearty home-cooked two course dinners with wine/beer. Chalet Ballenberg has an outdoor hot tub, TV, DVD, Nintendo Wii, leather sofas and wood burning stove.
Off the slopes CAB9 will offer video analysis and board servicing sessions and together they will show you the best spots for après action and night life in Meribel. 
The price is a bargain at £500! Note: transport to resort & lift pass not included.

Limited spaces are available, so book now on info@alpineethos.co.uk to avoid disappointment!

 

17th January 2010

Altitude Festival Special – Love comedy, music and snow?

Alpine Ethos are proud to offer a special deal to coincide with the Altitude Festival in March (20th to the 26th).

The Altitude Festival is the biggest comedy festival in the Alps featuring the likes of Marcus Brigstocke, Andrew Maxwell (BAFTA award winner and C4s King of Comedy), Phil Jupitus. Previous years have seen top name performers such as Lee Mack, Omid Djalili, Ed Byrne, Jenny Eclair, Herring When and Brendon Burns. Between them they can fill many a mantelpiece with comedy awards from BAFTA and Perrier.
If that wasn’t enough you have music from Newton Faulkner, DJ sets from DJ Yoda and Barry Ashworth among others and sets from Meribel favourites such as Bring Your Sisters and Honey Fungus. 
The action isn’t all in the bars and venues of Meribel either, on the hill and above you can check out big air comps, boarder cross, slope style, classic GS, snowball fights, three legged ski races, expression sessions, sister sessions and even sky diving displays. 
So with all that on offer and the snow and the usual excellent food, wine & service provided by Alpine Ethos what are you waiting for? 
Fully catered packages in our Chalet Ballenberg are £395 per person and include:
Cooked / continental breakfast;
Afternoon tea with freshly baked cakes, cookies and hot drinks served on 6 days;
A delicious 4-course evening meal with wine / beer, coffee and chocolates served on 6 nights out of 7;
Freshly prepared 2-course children's meals served at an earlier time (if required);
Complimentary luxury toiletries by L'Occitane of Provence;
Private in resort minibus service including runs up the hill to any gigs you are booked into; and
Ski / board hosting.
 
We can also help pre-arrange transfers, gig tickets, lessons, lift passes and equipment hire ready for arrival at the chalet. 

If you have any questions or would like to book please email us at info@alpineethos.co.uk

We'd love to welcome you to Chalet Ballenberg!

Kind regards

Heather & Andy
 

22nd December 2009

First month in resort

Today marks one month of Alpine Ethos being back in resort. Since we have arrived the views have turned from green and brown to white and slowly but surely the lifts and pistes have been opening. Conditions thus far have been excellent with the freezing cold temperatures of the last week (-20 at the Chaudanne on Monday morning!) keeping the snow in good condition and allowing the snow cannons to top up the slopes nicely.

The team are now settled into resort, with Josh and Heather’s food getting rave reviews and afternoon teas leaving everyone happy. Early contenders for cake of the season are Heather’s lemon drizzle and Josh’s apple and cinnamon so keep an eye out for them if you are coming to visit! 
As every season in the mountains provides you with new lessons we thought we would share a couple of things that we have learnt so far this season. 
1.       If you have a mechanical problem with a vehicle always make sure you have a veteran pisteur nearby. They will know what to do and probably have the kit with which to do it!
2.       Greyhounds will not lie on cold concrete but will lie in the snow.
3.       A foehn is not a Geordie telephone but a type of Alpine wind.
Here endeth the lesson but I’m sure we will have more throughout the season.
With Meribel guaranteed to have a white Christmas and New Year preparations in full swing we have started to think of other traditional festive things, the January sales! We have some great deals on fully catered packages in Chalet Ballenberg this January.
Week commencing 2nd January - £350 per adult & £295 for children under 12
Week commencing 9th January - £375 per adult & £315 for children under 12
 Week commencing 16th January - £395 per adult & £335 for children under 12
Book now to avoid disappointment!
Finally all the Alpine Ethos team would like to wish everyone the very best for the festive season, a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
See you in 2010!
Heather, Andy, Ali, Josh, Rachael and Benny
 

1st December 2009

Alpine Ethos finally get to play in the snow

We arrived in resort just over a week ago, tired but ecstatic to get out here. After 18 hours in the car a trip to our Les Allues local for a pizza and a beer was in order. We introduced Benny to the locals who seemed to think he was a bit skinny for the mountains.

Thankfully Benny’s initiation to alpine snow was not too long in coming with a heavy snowfall starting two days ago and continuing until this afternoon. Upon waking up to snow on Monday morning, chalet duties were brushed aside for half an hour while we went to out to have a play. Benny took to the snow like an, erm, duck to water? Ok a polar bear to the ice flow. His new favourite game is chasing snowballs although he appears to get “ice cream headache” when he tries to eat them.

There is more snow forecast from Thursday until at least Sunday which will give Josh, Rachael and Ali something to smile about when they arrive on Saturday. With lifts opening in Meribel the very same day linking the 3 Valleys pistes we are hoping for a brilliant start to the season for the team.

Expect pictures soon!

Heather and Andy (and Benny)

 

4th November 2009

The snow is finally here

Good news! 

This week has seen the first significant snow fall of the season in Meribel and the surrounding area.  It is currently snowing down to the level of Les Allues and as you can see from the panoramic photo above, the levels at the top of the mountain are not insignificant!

The good news doesn't end there.  The snow fall looks set to continue until at least Sunday according to the excellent forecasts provided by welove2ski (http://www.welove2ski.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=530&id=137).

So with all this lovely white stuff falling from the sky what better time to book yourself an early season break or treat yourselves to Christmas on the slopes? 

Premiere Neige week (12th December to 19th December) is £250 per person for fully catered packages.

We also still have availability for Christmas week (19th December to 26th December) in Chalet St Joseph.  Our excellent value fully catered packages start from £495 per person based on 8 adults sharing the main floor or 4 adults sharing one of our spacious apartments. 

For further details drop us an email to info@alpineethos.co.uk

Until then you can watch the snowfall on Merinet's webcam page http://www.merinet.com/webcam.php

Heather, Andy and Benny

 

20th October 2009

Recruitment at Alpine Ethos is officially over!

A big warm Alpine Ethos welcome to Ali, our newest recruit to this season's team.

Ali will most often be seen cruising around Meribel in the Alpine Ethos minibus shuttling our guests around the resort. They will be in safe hands as Ali is a hugely experienced driver and knows how to handle any mechanical emergency - although we hope he won't need to call on these skills this season! Ali will be resident at the St. Joseph chalet in Les Allues and will also be an integral part of the chalet team.

Ali is an all-round extreme sports enthusiast and as the season progresses we should find out if his paintballing skills translate into snowballing skills. From our discussions with Ali we know he can't wait to get out and show our guests around the best slopes Meribel and the Three Valleys have to offer.

With recruitment over the serious business can officially begin.

You can keep up with our latest news and offers by following us on twitter (http://twitter.com/alpineethos), becoming a fan on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Alpine-Ethos/147072694624) or just keep an eye on our blog.

Keep watching those snow reports!

Heather and Andy

 

15th October 2009

Hot tubs, heated boot racks, exquisite 4 course dinners with free flow wine and beer for £250?

Alpine Ethos are proud to offer an amazing deal for all you bargain hunting skiers and boarders.

For the Premiere Neige week we are offering fully catered deals in both our chalets for just £250 per person.

That is £250 per person for the same excellent food, wine and service you would expect from us on any week in the season. Not only that but the lift passes are cheaper too! 

Whether you are just looking to save money on your annual snow-fix or want to squeeze in an extra holiday this year this is the deal for you.

To take advantage of this credit crunch friendly deal,contact us at info@alpineethos.co.uk.

 

5th October 2009

Josh and Rachael join Alpine Ethos

Alpine Ethos has had a busy end to the summer with bookings and enquiries really starting to hot up and interviews for this season's chalet staff taking place. To that end we're happy to be able to announce that Josh and Rachael will be looking after our guests in Chalet Ballenberg this season. A big welcome to them both!

Josh is a seasoned professional chef having trained in the kitchen from an early age and has worked 4 winter seasons, cheffing in both French and Austrian ski resorts. He is a keen snowboarder and is looking forward to serving up some culinary delights for our guests this season.

Rachael completed a degree in International Tourism Management last year and has great seasonal working experience having worked predominantly with children in both winter and summer resorts in France,Austria and Canada.

They will be working together to make our guests stay as comfortable, enjoyable and stress-free as possible and we know they are looking forward to the coming season as much as we are!

 

22nd August 2009

Summer in Meribel

A belated blog about our trip to Meribel this summer.

We arrived on Bastille day (14th July), a French bank holiday and one of the hottest days of the year so far. As it was a French national holiday this could only mean one thing; PARTY! Cold beer, saucisses on the bbq, oompah band music in the square and a fireworks display outside the Marie (town hall).

While we only had a few days in Meribel we did get to indulge ourselves with fresh pain, plenty of fromage and vin and some mountain biking courtesy of Freeride. The biking taught us two things, firstly that full suss bikes need to go on our wish list and secondly ski lifts up the hill are clearly the future for biking.Heading back to the hills Yorkshire and having to pedal up hill has been hard to take.

Apart from the biking, Meribel in the summer has a lot to offer, from horse riding to high rope courses, segways to skate parks, golf, kids clubs and of course the spectacular hiking meaning you won’t be short of activities on a summer holiday there.

The visit certainly gave us pause for thought about opening up in summer 2010. Keep an eye on our website for news about Alpine Ethos going year round!

Hope you’re enjoying your summer and starting to think about your next skiing/boarding holiday!

Cheers

Heather and Andy

 

30th June 2009

Summer in Meribel

We're due out to sunny Meribel in July to check out the growing summer scene out there. Hopefully the weather will be good, the single track fast and the beers at the end of each ride nice and cold.

Don't forget that bookings for 2009/10 winter season are now being taken. See our availability and experience pages for more information.

Heather and Andy

 

 

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