 Poster: A snowHead
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Thanks in advance for any insights.
We are looking at an accomodation option in Tignes le brevieres for 2nd week Easter. To access good snow I imagine we will be travelling to Le Lac and heading up from there?
Looks to be 2 x gondolas and a chair lift.
We have a lot of beginner-ish people in our group. It would be good to know if it easy to return to the chalet with minimal skiing after lunch from le lac to brevier via gondolas, or if it's ages, a bit of a faff and likely to have diffciult runs esp with poor snow down lower to get back?
If anyone familiar with the Tignes resort has any info that would be great.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi @Leax, you are very wise to ask these questions...
From Lac, the pistes home to Les Brevieres do involve red runs, whichever way you go. In the afternoon and evening the sun's come off them and they are usually scraped and quite difficult. I'd caution against beginner-level skiers taking them generally, but in particular that time of day.
There are alternatives. The journey home has two legs: Lac to Tignes 1800, then Tignes 1800 to Les Brevieres.
You can do the first leg on the bus, as @mogulski points out. Leaves every half hour from Le Lac bus station. Or you you can ride up the Chaudannes chair and ski to the arrival of the Boisses gondola and download on this.
You can do the second leg by bus, bubble or ski. The ski from 1800 to Brev is a very gentle blue. Or, you can download on the Brev bubble - or after it's closed, you can hop on a bus.
Whichever combo you choose, there is little to choose between them in terms of faff or convenience. As an example, skiing down the final gentle blue run takes the same time as downloading on the Brev bubble.
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Thanks for the link mogulski, and thank you bobski for all that info.
We’ve always said if we went to Tignes we’d go to one of the main villages up higher, but accommodation for our group size is only available in le brevieres, so am trying to see if that’s still a good location for all levels, and just in general!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Les brevieres is great for all abilities, some bit might be steep and the snow might be hard work for beginners at the end of the day once it's slush, but you can skip sections by downloading in the gondolas. Tbh it's a great little village and I much prefer it to main tignes - it's just not in the thick of the pistes which, if you're happy with an extra 30mins at each end of the day, is a minor inconvenience.
Which place are you looking at?
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It's definitely a bit of extra faff. Personally I'd rather split the group up over different accomodations and stay somewhere higher up. I've been on group trips where we were in 3 different accomodations and it was not really an issue. You would almost certainly be within 5-10mins walk of each others accomodations, you have all day to ski with each other, and then can also meet up in the evenings.
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It’s usually about how much accommodation costs can be reduced by staying low
It’s a false economy look instead at how much extra faff is involved especially end of maybe a tiring day
The beginners will appreciate it
Good learner slopes in le lavachet le lac and val claret
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I can’t speak for the other places but Val claret may have gentle beginner slopes but they aren’t that great for beginners as there are too many faster skiers flying past. If I had beginner skiers in the group I’d plan the holiday round them and pick a high altitude family orientated resort like Montgenevre.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Imo the best area for beginners is Grand Prix, Borsat, Fontaine Froide area. Lots of easy blues and greens. I think it's even on the piste map as tranquil zone. Can even add the greens off marmottes too. Bit of a trek to and from Brevieres. From Val claret it's straight up two lifts and you are there.
Sure there are some slopes I would avoid like Henri. But they tend to be obvious bottle neck home run slopes. It's not that hard to find some a little more quiet.
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There are lots of good beginner runs in Tignes but the really easy runs are quite a distance from Tignes Les Brevieres.
So I think it depends on whether the beginners are going to want easy blues/greens or are happy with something a bit more challenging.
If they are happy on hard blues and easy reds you should be able to access enough terrain in the Tignes Le Lac area under the Aiguille Percee and further along towards the Val Claret snow park (right hand side of the piste map). This can be accessed relatively quickly out of Tignes Les Brevieres as others have described.
If the group will need easy blues and greens with good snow on them I'd expect you'd want to be going as far as the Bellevarde area (between Tignes and Val Disere) or the blue runs out from the top of the Tignes Val Claret funicular (The Genepy blue run is lovely). Both of these are a long way from Tignes Les Brevieres with quite a bit of faff to get there and back (especially for beginners). In this case I'd consider Tignes Le Lac as a base and downloading on the Toviere lift at the end of the day (black run underneath can get icy and bumpy). Le Lac also has pretty decent facilities including a public pool and spa.
I'd also make a point of avoiding the runs around the Folie Douce after about 15:30 because they get a massive rush of drunk skiers, this includes the Henri run from the Val Disere side down to Val Claret.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Getting back down there isn't a problem. There's two Gondolas if the beginners want to jump on them and head back down (or the buses as mentioned above).
In terms of getting up to Lac, my personal view is they'd need to be comfortable on a pretty simple red (Bluets). It's very wide and only steep for a bit at the top so you can easily make the gradient less by going across the slope but it's the first downhill of the day.
The other option is using the Petit Col blue run but that's very flat (and even uphill I think). I avoid that one like the plague as I'm a snowboarder and I'd rather fall off a cliff than go on a narrow flat track.
Of course, buses solve all of that if the group has real beginners in it.
Once you're up Lac then you've loads of options to suit every ability.
Agree also with snowymum's comment on Val Claret. We stayed just off the beginner slope in January but it's also the main funnel off the higher slopes so can be a bit scary to complete beginners (the slope itself is fine but it's busy).
In terms of the buses - they also give you easy options if you download from Val D'Isere, Bellevarde etc as there's a circuit that runs round all the resorts. Bit of a faff but if your legs have gone and you don't fancy a decent distance back home then it's a good option.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We were there a few weeks ago with two beginners, getting from les brev to le lac is the gondola and a chair then a blue down to le lac which both my friends could do. coming back ski back to the gondola from and get that back which they were also ok with .
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