A journey from hell - Jane Peel, The Alps
Wednesday January 13, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The week before travelling to the French Alps had been spent in a state of mild concern.   There had been a good seven inches of snow in my neck of the woods and the transport network was failing miserably to cope with the big freeze.

The trains were delayed, the road conditions variable.   There were problems at  several airports,  and more snow was forecast for Stansted in Essex from where we were due to travel last Saturday.    

How ironic, then, that our journey from hell had nothing at all to do with the wintry conditions in the UK.

Here’s my diary of events:

12.00hrs Saturday - The snow ploughs and ice clearers are out keeping the Stansted runways open.  There are delays, but it doesn’t look bad.  

15.25hrs – Departure time to Chambery, France, comes and goes.  Worrying signs from the live information screens.  An earlier flight to Chambery, scheduled for 0915 this morning still appears as “gate closed”.

Apx 16.45hrs – Informed that both flights are cancelled.  Chambery Airport has closed for the day.   Titan Airways, operators of the charter flight, organise dinner and a bed for the night at Stansted’s Radisson Hotel.  

08.30hrs Sunday – We’re back to the airport terminal to check in for a 1200hrs flight to Turin, Italy (right continent, wrong country, but it’s a start).

11.30hrs – Turin flight disappears from the airport screens.  We’re going to Milan, even further away from our intended destination. 

Sometime later -  plane takes off to a brief burst of applause. 

17.00hrs – Milan, Italy.  Good news.  A Crystal Ski rep is in the arrivals hall and tells us we’ll be bussed to Chambery Airport and taken to our resorts from there.

Chambery at last22.00 hrs – Chambery Aiport.  Phew – only a few hours and we should be in Tignes.  Except there’s no transport.

Crystal reps at Chambery tell us the company sent coaches to Milan to collect us and take us direct to our resort. Shame no one told the rep at Milan.

I thought such communication failures went out with the invention of the mobile telephone. 

It gets worse. By the time the “right” coaches can get to us in Chambery, the drivers will be “out of hours” and unable to drive further.  Apparently the reps can’t find any taxis or minibuses for us either. 

If I wasn’t so tired, hungry and grouchy, it might seem like an amusing farce.   .  

I feel even worse for the many families with young children who are in despair.

22.30 hrs – There’s an enterprising-looking Frenchman wandering around constantly on a mobile phone.  He seems to have a direct line to everyone in the area with a taxi or people carrier. 

We start trying to link up with other skiers and boarders going to the same resorts and see if we can get shared transport.    

23.20 hrs - A large vehicle with a jolly driver arrives to transport eight of us to Tignes.  Hurray! The fare is going to be ludicrously expensive, but we won’t be paying it. There are over a hundred people in the same situation as us. This communication failure has been a very costly one the company. 

Tignes at long last01.15 hrs Monday.  Arrive Tignes.  After driving round for a while trying to find the accommodation, we link up with more weary reps.  Unfortunately they haven’t got the sandwiches and drinks we asked for (we haven’t eaten since breakfast).

Eventually they’re found to be at another chalet. One of the reps is sent to pick them up.

02.15 hrs  No sign of the food. I’m starving, but I’m more tired than hungry. I have to sleep. 

10.30 hrs   We’re finally on the slopes. The snow is fantastic. The sun is shining brilliantly. The horror of the past two days is forgotten. Well, almost.   

You see, there are some things that can’t be helped, such as the weather. 

Other things are wholly avoidable.     

Jane is in Tignes for the next few weeks and will be keeping us up to date on things happening in the French resort.

Once she recovers from the journey.

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