Watch out there's a thief about
Tuesday January 26, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Freya Kingsley-Pallant was on holiday in Les Trois Vallee when the thing we all dread happened.  She came out from lunch and her skis had vanished.  She was also long, long way from home and had somehow to get back to where she was staying.....

"I have just been on holiday in Les Trois Vallee and was staying in Meribel but decided to head over to Val Thorens for a bit of a blast. I know the ski area well having skied it all for many years.

On my way home I thought it would be fun to stop for a drink at the Folie Duce bar which is a new addition to Val Thorens since my last visit.

Having recently purchased my fab Stoeckli Rotors I was tentative about leaving them amongst a sea of skis so I split them with a friend and placed them at opposite ends of the ski holding area.

We sat and soaked up the last rays, listening to some awesome tunes and eating some reasonably priced food.

As the sun went down we were mindful that we must not miss our connection back to Meribel so we packed up and went to fetch our skis.

Quel Horreur - my skis were nowhere to be seen!

My friend's were where we'd left them in opposite areas but somebody had stolen mine. Ouch! I was totally gutted and also skiless!.

I told the bar who tried to show willing by calling the police but really they are probably used to this horrible behaviour. So, I gingerly began my walk down the piste to the lift which we needed to access the long slog back to Meribel.

I immediately went to the pisteurs hut and explained that I had a long skiless journey ahead of me and what were my options. He was incredibly helpful and called ahead to the next pisteurs hut.

They arranged for me to be collected at the top of the lift station on skidoo and then take me to the Cot Brune Pisteurs hut where a pisteur was busy preparing me some skis. The skis were odd skis previously found in the snow.

At least they were the same length but only one had wax on it. They said better to ski than to walk although as I set off I wasn't so sure, fearful that my knee might explode if the skis continued to stop dead on ice. Lucky i'm a reasonably good skier and took the skis down the off piste where they didn't keep stopping.

I made it back in once piece and returned the skis to an office in Mottaret. I then got the bus to Meribel and felt very sorry for myself.

What complete bastards going round stealing skis and having no thought for the impact - I was fortunate that I spoke French and could ski well - imagine if it had been someone with less mountain experience? I'm very angry and have no skis."

Sadly, Freya is not the only one to have ski stolen, as we reported earlier on PlanetSKI.

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