Trip report - Tignes Val Claret - Christmas 2013

A snowHead

Travellers

Myself, my wife and our daughters (17 & 14) plus two friends
Tour operator

Thomson / Crystal – The reps in resort were helpful, almost all seem to be students or 1st jobbers.

Travel

We flew from Gatwick to Geneva on a Thomson airlines flight. The flight was straightforward. You can book your luggage in the night before if you have a morning flight which given the queue on Saturday morning would have been a good idea. We were transferred from Geneva by coach which took around 3 hours with one toilet stop.
On the return journey I rapidly decided that Geneva was the worst airport I had ever been to. The coach drops of at a secondary terminal which is simply not big enough for the numbers using it. You then go through security only to discover that you have to take a bus to the main terminal. We then had a 15 minute walk to one of the island gates which was about 100 metres away from where we had got on the bus 20 minutes earlier!

Accommodation

We stayed in the Chalet Alpina Hotel which is located in Tignes Val Claret. This is a basic hotel. The rooms are small. The décor is mostly good but there were basic things such as dud light bulbs which were fixed on request but should have been fixed before our arrival if the Hotel had had a proper maintenance regime. The receptionists did speak English and were generally helpful although we were booked into the wrong room due to the receptionist transposing the numbers and accidently giving us a bigger room which we then at to move out of the following morning. The rooms have a fridge and two hobs and a small selection of cooking implements. No two rooms seemed to have the same equipment and there were no kettles. Bathrooms did have a shower and bath. There were boot lockers by the entrance for out ski gear. The hotel is less than 5 minutes’ walk from the Tichot chair and only a little further to the Bollin, Fresse & the Funiculaire. The Tufs lift was also close and accessible via a lift in the village.

Food

We were on half board. Breakfast and evening meals were buffet style. The general standard of the food was good and the restaurant staff were friendly and accommodating. The Sherpa supermarket was close by and useful for basic supplies.

The Skiing

We only started skiing a few years ago. All of us are comfortable on blue runs. My youngest daughter will also do Reds and has done Blacks. Our friends were much more experienced skiers and could ski pretty much anything. Tignes is a vast resort especially with the area pass that gives you access to the whole of the Espace Killy. There was plenty of choice for us. I would not however recommend the resort for complete beginners or nervous 2nd weekers. The bottom of the slopes into the resort are too steep for beginners and due to the netting which is designed to slow people down the gaps through which you have to pass can get skied out and icy. The snow cover on piste was hard packed but in good condition. Snow on Christmas day and Boxing day helped improve the cover although many of the pistes became mogulled very quickly. A few notes on some of the pistes we attempted;

Grattalu – Nice wide easy blue. A good run for finding your legs again.
Carline – The blue run from the bottom of the Grattalu run back to Val Claret. Fine apart from the bottom 100 metres which is steep for a blue.
Bollin – Beginner slope accessed by a free lift. Fine apart from the end which is too steep for a bunny slope. Does get very busy especially when the weather is poor. The chairlift seats are set lower than most, presumably to accommodate children.
Claret – Alternative route from the top of the Bollin piste that brings you down by the Tufs lift. The end part of which was again rather steep for a bunny slope and prone to icy patches.
Praiond – One of my favourite runs. Often empty at the top end. We skied it in a whiteout on Christmas day which was actually quite fun.
Henri – The main blue motorway back to Tignes Val Claret from the Val side. A nice run but best avoided at the end of the day due to the numbers using it.
Genepy (Tignes) – Not to be confused with the Val d'Isere run. Was probably a nice run but skied it in high winds and driving snow so not so pleasant. There were also bare patches where the wind had blown away the snow cover.
Isolee – Very steep and narrow start. If you’re coming back from Val d'Isere down the Fresse it’s worth side stepping up to the start of Praiond to avoid Isolee.
Creux – The main blue run down from Toviere into the Val d’Isere side. Busy and quite mogulled when we skied it but a nice run.
Edelwiess – Comes off of Creux. A nice run with some schusses.
Diebold – Straightforward blue often quieter than the green Verte run which it parallels.
Verte – A green run in the ski tranquille area. The access to this run (and Diebold) from Bellvarde is a fairly steep and when we were there mogulled 100 metre slope which is too hard for beginners. You really have to be a competent Blue skier to be able to access the Green runs from Bellevarde.
Genepy (Val d’Isere) – Nice run with a steep start but there is a track round which avoids the steep bit.
Grand Pre – An easy green. Good for practicing on.

We skied a few other runs but as you can see we only covered a fraction of what is available even to a blue run skier. The signage for the runs is pretty good. The new piste map for this season is graphically difficult to read and for someone like me way too small to read.

A snowHead

A comprehensive review dmac9. Glad you enjoyed Tignes Smile

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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

dmac9, It is difficult to to know if it is good if the price is not given. Smile

You need to Login to know who's really who.

I think they mean the last few yards at the bottom of the Bollin rather than the main run. It gets busy, icy and very tight gap for a beginner when everyone is coming back. A bit steep and lots of willies going too fast, at Easter we saw quite a few crashes just after the netting where faster skiers hit beginners. Dd did the verte at Easter and didn't see another skier after the first 300 metres. I didn't do it but from the video it was beautiful. Carline was a mogul field in the afternoon we did it, a bit steep but lovely to take slowly.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Often considered Chalet Alpina, but it had dreadful reports on trip advisor so never had the net veto risk it. Reading this I may give it a try.

Help!!

Trip report - Tignes Val Claret - Christmas 2013

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