Tignes Snow Report: 15th January 2012

It was the first day of my mountain safety course and I spent the whole day off piste here in Espace Killy. The snow was much as I expected, after the storms we have had. In other words, very wind effected in a lot of areas, where the wind had ripped a lot of the snow from the slopes and left a lot of bare patches and rocks around, especially high up on North and North West facing slopes.

Back on piste, the conditions are generally excellent, it has been bright and sunny for the last few day’s, which has made for perfect skiing conditions. Some of the lower slopes such as the Face du Bellvarde, Piste M, and the Raye down to La Daille are a little icy underneath and do tend to chop up later in the afternoon and become pretty tricky if you are not a pretty handy skier. However, the upper slopes remain in excellent condition and as alway’s, the piste bashers and the patrol team do a fantastic job in giving us corduroy conditions every morning! Well done to these guys, they truly are excellent.

Snow is forecast towards the end of the week, hopefully on Thursday and Friday so this will freshen things up a little. For the off piste fanatics amongst us, it will be very welcome, as the whole mountain is pretty much tracked out or affected by the wind. A lot of the off piste at the moment is what we call ‘chalky’ so it is pretty firm and slick under foot, this can be quite fun to ski, but the main danger is falling and sliding a long way on steep slopes as it is so slick. When the snow does come, be careful, especially if there is a large amount of fresh snow sitting on this slick base, particularly where slopes have been loaded up by the wind.

On a slightly different note, the Airbags in the Tignes (one on Palafour, one in the park) are both open at the moment, so if you want to jump off something large and land on something soft and bouncy, give it a try! I can recommend it!

With all this sunny weather, there is a great choice of restaurants to choose from in the Espace Killy, some of my favorites at the moment are - The Armillay down in Tignes Les Brevieres, it’s a great way to spend the morning heading on a small tour from Val to Tignes Les Brevieres, and then stopping there for a long lunch in the sun. They do absolutely fantastic pizzas, amongst other stuff. If you are looking for a cheaper, more laid back option, try Tignes Cuisine (based in Le Lac) for a great choice of Asian dishes, noodles etc.. And if you really want to treat yourself, then the Fruitiere at top of La Daille bubble, the Signal, or Edelweiss in Fornet never fail to disappoint!