Danny gets down to detail.
That leaves the top bit, and that was a very different proposition indeed. It was about a thousand feet of unskiable sheer rock - a sort of mini North Face of the Eiger. From top left just below the summit a narrow descending ledge traversed the face down to the mogul field ( Planplace ?) and the restaurant.
A very small téléphérique (about big enough for four skiers) was the only way to get up to the top (short of mountaineering). Our instructors unanimously told us not even to think about going up there.
As I remember, the plan was: nursery slope until the class was fit to tackle the T-bars (always good for a laugh with the beginners), in stages until they could manage the very easy slope from top restaurant down to the hotel. Then we were bussed to Les Houches, about three miles down the valley, to try the intermediate slopes above the village.
They had a restaurant and cable car station beside the road, and a very good idea. I hadn't met this before, and it may be universal now (it is fifty years since I was last on skis). When you bought your cable car ticket (or showed your Pass) , they gave you a numbered token. Now you could enjoy a leisurely coffee while keeping an eye on a monitor, which showed the last number for the next car load (my local "Boots" has the same idea with the filling of prescriptions).
This did away with queues (and queue jumpers !) in the draughty cold of the cable station. You strolled out, gave up your token, and climbed aboard, trying not to do too much damage with your skis to your neighbours in the packed car. First-timers always revealed themselves by their squeals of terror as the gondola clattered and swayed on passing the first pylon.
On top, you put on your skis and looked around. There was a beautiful panorama of alpine peaks, and a fiendishly expensive restaurant. This was an important consideration for us, for in those days we were only allowed £20 In foreign currency to take out of Britain (everything else had to be covered out of the £30 sterling we'd paid for the "package").
Economy was the name of the game: the cheapest thing in the hotel bar was "Cinzano" (a sweet vermouth), so we drank that, and made each one last as long as possible. I didn't develop much of a taste for the stuff. Coffees outside were very dear. IIRC, this was long before the Franc was revalued (in De Gaulle's time ?), and we got something like Fr. 2400/£, but as everything you bought cost an astronomical number of francs, you were no better off.
To return to the top at Les Houches, my memory is of deeply wooded slopes down which we skied through the trees in the brief intervals when we were not spreadeagled in the snow. I think they had a slalom slope somewhere near the bottom.
Before leaving the subject, the word "Prianon" lingers in my memory, but I cannot recall the context. From Google I learn that it has something to do with a "bubble", but still I'm no wiser. Anyone ?
A bit more excitement next time, perhaps.
Goodnight, all,
Danny 42C
So far, so good.