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Tignes Snow Report: 4th January 2013

New Years Week in the Espace Killy

featured in Snow report Author Emma Cook, Updated

It’s that time again - the New Year - and we’re almost a week in! And what a great week it’s been, well for me anyway!

Okay, I’ll admit that we’ve been lacking a bit in snow and 2013 was looking to start with pretty poor snow conditions. But imagine my delight when after a few days of no snow, 9cm of fresh snow arrived on Tuesday night. This came as a small relief to any instructors who were taking clients off piste and for that matter of fact anyone going off piste!

So Wednesday dawned and the slopes were blessed with fresh snow. Those eager with excitement got up early in the hope of making fresh tracks. I was very excited about the day ahead; some old school friends had come out to Val for a week and I planned to get up early and head to le Fornet with them, (always a winner when there’s been a snowfall). But, as happens in Val, the boys were still recovering from an over indulgent NYE and an 08:30am start soon became a 10:00 start, then a 10.30 start. Oh well!

We met up at the top of the Olympique ready to hare down Verte, if only we could see! The cloud was hanging thick and we all prayed for the sun to burn through. Visibility was poor so we followed Tom’s illuminous yellow trousers as he became our unofficial tour guide. We decided to have some cruisey runs down Grand Pre, (one of the boys, Army James, is a beginner so we thought we’d take it easy on him for a bit). We never really made it down Grand Pre as we decided to dabble in some of the nice snow off the sides of the piste and went in search of jumps and any fresh tracks.

I’ve learnt this week that if you’ve got a friend in the Army, don’t take any notice when they say they’re a beginner, as what Army James lacks in technique he makes up for in the proverbial. Whilst Ali and Tom were popping over jumps, grabbing skis and I was attempting to get either air or land a jump, Army James threw 180s and 360s, admittedly landing most of them on his face; the boy’s certainly a tryer. We had so much fun laughing at him (sorry James) and attempting all sorts of jumps off the side of the piste that we never really left Grand Pre and managed to spend a whole morning looping round. ‘Fancy it again’ soon became our favourite phrase.

For the real off piste fanatics among you the north facing slopes and gullies were the best place to head. Col Pers was a good option for the day and whilst the entrance was rocky and the exit was wind affected, what was in between was pretty nice.

We’ve had no fresh snowfall since then so I’ll remember the 1st January 2013 fondly! Freeze thaw conditions have now set in and some of the steeper slopes are getting icy. I noticed this particularly on Le Face as I was sliding down it on my back! The weather is set to continue like this for the next few days, there will be some slight wind, (you’ll notice this more the higher up you go and the off piste will certainly feel more wind affected). However, there is a silver lining; the pistes are looking quieter and the queues for the lifts are now shorter post the Christmas and New Year buzz.

So with no fresh snow I may just have to head over to the airbag in Tignes, it’s a great time to have fun and work on my freestyle, which also happens to be my goal for the New Year! Wish me luck!

Stats

Snow Report
  • Alt. Resort: 1550m

  • Alt. Summit: 3450m

  • High Temp.: Sud-Est

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1550m

  • Latest Conditions: Sunny weather conditions!