Ski-ing here at Tignes

I am surprised how many people who go on these early trips or testing weeks are really quite inexperienced, judging by what Ally has said. I imagined it to be full of people who were massively experienced looking to try out new gear and get an early blast.

Tony_H wrote:I am surprised how many people who go on these early trips or testing weeks are really quite inexperienced, judging by what Ally has said. I imagined it to be full of people who were massively experienced looking to try out new gear and get an early blast.

I guess that this early in the season the snow quality is always gonna be hit or miss, not quite sure whether or not this kind of trip is for me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN6WMzDaL0 A rather dodgy quality video of me skiing in Tignes.

Bandit,
The ski coach was called Ben Harris, according to the website you put up (thanks very much). I did think he was good, because he wasn't too rude about our ski-ing and he concentrated on one aspect of it for both of us. If he'd said something like my ski-ing was total rubbish and started me off back at the beginning I'd have felt totally smashed to bits. And he didn't laugh at me too much for having to stop for a tea-break. I fell over on an easy bit and I told him it was because I was tired and hungry.

We found it took us about half an hour to do the complete circuit - up the gondola, down the black, up the chairlift and back to the gondola (which involved some walking sideways uphill because of the lack of snow). So, I could only manage 2 circuits of this without a tea-break. Actually, it was very pleasant on the last day, because the restaurant is on a level decking between the top of the funicular and the bottom of the gondola, and it meant we could start ski-ing at 9 a.m. do 2 runs, stop for a tea-break, do another 2 runs and stop for a long lunch, do another 2 runs and then go home down the funicular at 2-15 in order to catch the chalet minibus back and then get the minibus back to the airport at 4 p.m..

Ally

AllyG wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN6WMzDaL0 A rather dodgy quality video of me skiing in Tignes.

Well done Ally

Thank you Ian.
My daughter actually videoed me, and put it up for me, because I'm useless at that sort of thing.

I can see why people burst into tears and totally freak out when they're videod at some of these coaching sessions now. I was actually ski-ing down a black run, and I thought I was moving fairly fast, and I was concentrating very hard on remembering to lean downhill and finish my turns and make it look very smooth, and it looks like I'm a total beginner on a green run!

But I have to admit that must be what I actually look like when I'm ski-ing, because that was definitely me, (the very slow one) being overtaken by one of these super zippy international level skiers.

My daughter also has some photos of some of the international skiers if anyone wants to see them. The French team moved their pitch on the last day, because of the ice, and they were actually racing down at the side of the black slope where we were, through their slalom course. I did get quite a kick out of trying to ski past them using my best carving techniques in case any of them were looking.

The Japanese team were also there, plus Andorra, Monaco, and loads of others, and it was fun trying to recognize their colours and read the labels on their backs and work out who was who.

Ally

Zwee,
There definitely weren't any clubs anywhere near the chalet. I went for a walk around and I found a church, a cemetery, a building site and several closed chalets. I think it's about 3 miles from Tignes Le Lac and a bit further again from the glacier ski-ing. It's still very much out of season and most things were closed.

During the winter season there's a free ski bus running between the different bits of Tignes and all the shops and clubs etc. are open. At the moment I think the bus only goes between the glacier (Val Claret I think) and the Lac. The poor staff in the chalet have to drive everyone from the chalet to the glacier and back again. There were 48 people at the chalet when we were there, and they're generally only using 2 mini-buses at once each carrying 8 people, so they need to make at least 3 trips morning and afternoon. And on our second day we were the only 2 people on the early mini-bus at 8-15 a.m. so they must have had to make an extra trip. The first funicular leaves at 8-30 and goes every 15 minutes (I think) when it's busy and then every 30 minutes.

I'm sure there are taxis, but they'd be expensive. I think everyone stayed in the chalet during the evening, but I'm not sure. They did have a hot tub, a wii game for the telly, free use of the computer on the internet, wi-fi, a bar, and books etc. From my point of view the most important thing was that they kept the boiler hot all afternoon and evening for my cups of tea, and no-one seemed to mind how many cups I drank!

They also did a marvellous job of cooking for my daughter, who has multiple food intolerances. They cooked her a dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian dinner which was really nice - stuffed aubergine, salad, vegetables, and fruit sorbet, and then rice and curry the next evening.

The staff work really, really hard and are great. They cook, clean, fit skis, drive to Geneva, drive back and for to the glacier, work at the bar, take bookings etc. etc. They fitted our skis and boots at 11 p.m. ready for an early start in the morning.

Ally

Glad you had a good time Ally!

Glacier skiing/snowboarding out of season is a very different experience to a well prepared resort in the height of winter. I find that I prefer the back end of a season rather than the front end (May/June, rather than October/November), summer is just wierd!

Even on a glacier late season, you can run the same piste all day and it will not be the same twice. It may be very hardpack/ice first thing, and once the sun is high in the sky just after lunch it can be 4ft high moguls. This has the benifit of a variety of conditions on a limited area, so if there is only 10 or 15km of piste open you don't bore easily.

I also think being able to get by on glaciers out of season give one some extra skill and confidence to cope with various situations that the mountain might throw at you in high season.