Val d'isere

Skiing ice is one of the most difficult skills to get good at, as you have to go against what comes naturally. You're natural reaction to danger is to freeze, it tense up, that is the worst thing to do on ice. Teaching yourself to relax and apply your edges smoothly takes a lot of practise.
Ice will find out the faults in your skiing, if your posture is wrong you'll struggle.
I don't like skiing on ice but it doesn't worry me either, I know I can cope with it so I don't tense up any more, suddenly my edges work because I'm relaxed over the skis and applying the edges smoothly.
If the conditions are icy make sure your edges are sharp, blunt edges and ice don't mix well!

I don't remember route 17, looking at the piste map it's blue (17a is red) and goes down into Zurs. Is that the one? I do remember one piste going down to Zurs which was suddenly got icy, could be the one.
I hate pistes being numbered and not named, I find it really difficult to remember which is which.

It was red 14 from Schindler Spitze that turns into blue 17 and runs down to Alpe Rauz to the Valfagehr chair.

I know where you mean now, it's the route down to Stuben. My advise would be to take itinerary 18 down instead.

But enough of St Anton, this is a Val D'Isere thread after all!

A few other challenging runs to tackle in Val are:
The itinerary 'Piste S' below the Solaise
Off piste under the lift on the Fornet glacier – great fun, good introduction to those that haven't ventured off piste before.
Off piste route Pays Desert (make sure Pays Desert drag is running) – Feels miles from anywhere.
Off piste under the Tommuses lift.

Itinery route 18 was well used by our group, trust me, but it was nice to blast down the blue especially in the mornings.

Val d'Isere does appear to have some excellent and challenging skiing....

I've been into the Pays Desert area, it was lovely, one or two steep drops to look out for, but mostly rolling terrain, which is quite peaceful. Good for spring picnics :D