2 Alpes Apres Ski Report: 28th December 2011

This time round though, the emphasis is more on adult party time and the usual end of year shenanigans. Start your celebrations before you even get back down to resort, with a few sundowners at the Pano Bar at 2600m – excessively loud music and happy hour drinks from 3pm.

Biggest hotspot is likely to be Smithy’s Tavern as usual, with this year’s Black and White party promising a set from resort favourite DJ Northey, free champers at midnight and the usual riotous good time. Tickets are on sale now – snap them up soon to avoid disappointment.

Next door, the Minibar’s regular Super Saturday has morphed into a New Year’s Eve Superhero Party – lycra tights mandatory and if you can find some Y-fronts to pull on over the top, then so much the better. Prizes for best costume and most original character. Tickets in advance from the Minibar.

I will be entirely unsurprised if patrons at both these events end up in the Avalanche, notoriously cheesy club and favourite seasonnaire hangout, where the party is scheduled to carry on into the small hours. Mind yourselves on the ice on the way home though – breaking yourself in the snowpark while pulling off gnarly tricks is one thing, but falling on your bum outside the sort of club you wouldn’t look twice at if you weren’t on holiday is not going to net you any cred points down the pub.

For the French, meanwhile, the Reveillon is all about food. Lots and lots of food. Nothing like sticking to your national stereotype. All the decent restaurants in resort will be offering a multi-course New Year’s Eve meal, starting with canapés and aperitifs before progressing through seafood, meats and cheeses to fcny desserts for those of you man enough to give Mr Creosote a run for his money.

If you fancy partaking of the traditional end of year blowout, have a look at places like the Hotel Chalet Mounier, the Alisier just opposite, or the Raisin d’Ours in the main Avenue de la Muzelle, run by the Mounier’s Michelin-starred former chef. You can expect to budget about 100€ a head with wine for the full menu. Word of warning though – these places will fill up quickly now that the French have descended on us en masse this week, so get your oar in and book right now or you’ll miss out.

Before you get stuck into all these evening activities, don’t miss the multiple torchlit descents at the Lutins piste behind the ice rink and the Jandri Express lift station. Both the St Christophe Ski School and the ESF run descents for children, right down to the smallest ones – a big treat for your little people. The ESF’s instructors also get in on the act just to show us all how it should be done, and the whole thing finishes up with a firework display at the Bas des Pistes at 6:30pm on Saturday evening.

Those of you intent on getting some sleep before hitting empty pistes on Sunday morning can take comfort from the fact that things usually quiet down around five in the morning. Possibly get to the pharmacy for some earplugs sometime before Saturday night.

Anyone loath to go home and determined to behave like a dirty stop-out should try the Red Frog once everywhere else has called time – every year I walk past it on my way to work at around 8am and find it full of people who quite clearly have not been home since last night’s dinner (if indeed they even made that – one year there was a bunch of people still there in their ski boots). It’s one way of making sure you’re outside the Diable for first lifts, I suppose.