Tignes/Val d Isere 12/12/07
After 4 days of almost continuous snow and a weather forecast of more of the same it was a very pleasant surprise to pull back the curtains to be greeted with blue skies, sunshine and vast amounts of new snow.
The other instructors had morning commitments and I would have been happy to cruise around for a while by myself before catching up with a colleague or two for a bit of a blast around in the afternoon. However over breakfast the other guests in the chalet were up for a ski so I joined them.
A push across to the lifts in Tignes le Lac saw on the Aeroski Gondola and from the summit a mixture of on and off piste took us on the main piste to La Daille on the edge of Val d Isere. There were very few people on the piste and a bit of creative navigation got us to the bottom 500m of the downhill run with a completely empty piste. Let’s just say the need for speed was fulfilled!
Into the Funival train and 4 minutes later we emerge blinking in the sun at the top. Skis back on and a fast schuss to the Grand Pre chairlift which took us to the beginning of the of an off piste route, Tour de Charvet. Well it was my day off and with all the new snow the flat section at the bottom would be hard work if no-one had been there before to break trail. A quick look over the edge confirmed that there had been a few skiers down already and so the guys were keen to go. End of day off! We cut under the rope and did a transceiver check to ensure that we were all beeping.
Fantastic snow around knee deep with only a few tracks meant that we had fresh tracks for almost the trip. Great views and lovely easy skiing with no-one around is so rare that we didn’t hurry and took time to appreciate our surroundings. The latter part of the route follows a small river valley and the skiers before had created a scalectrix type track. Just slot the skis into the groove and let ‘em go! Keep the legs loose and the humps and hollows don’t cause any problems (most of the time). 10 mins skating and pushing got us back on the pistes and a welcome coffee at the first café we encountered.
Suitably refreshed we took the Solaise Express lift to the summit and traversed the hillside till we were above the steep sided valley that is the route of “Piste L”. Standing on the road looking into the valley there was plenty of untouched snow that was just crying out to be tracked up. Never being one to disappoint I jumped off the road and it was as good as it looked, 18 inches of fluffy powder snow. I was later told the rest of the team thought I was joking as I looked over the edge! Once I had gone however they followed with no problems at all.
Time for me to find my colleague Dave, so I left the boys to enjoy the Fornet area and headed back to La Daille where Dave was having lunch with his clients. It took a little while to get going and It was 2.45 when we got on the Funival again. Dave had never skied the Tour de Charvet so being an obliging sort I showed him where to go. No hanging about this time and we were heading for the top of the hill having completed the tour 35mins later.
Time to get back to Tignes so we had a fast ski to the Tommeuses lift and up to the ridge that separates Val and Tignes. A final run down the steep off piste above Lac and we were back at the chalet.
There are some days when I wonder why I am a ski teacher. This wasn’t one of them!