Tignes (and Tignes-Val D'Isere) 2024/5. Useful Links Page 1.

A snowHead

There was also a bad 2 car crash just before Aime on the N90, at 8.10 this morning which closed the road in both directions.

A snowHead

Hello all

I'd be grateful for any recommendations for ski schools in Tignes le Lac. We're looking to book an English speaking instructor for four kids, ages 4-7. All complete beginners.

Thanks!

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I would go to ESF or Evolution 2 and put the kids in classes. Both schools have English speaking teachers. I personally would not get one instructor to teach all 4 with that age disparity. I think the 7 year old could advance quicker in a group of similar aged kids

Edited for typo

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@Sonmi451, When the Kids were young, we used Evo2 to good effect. They have sensible max class sizes - which I don't think is the case with ESF.

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Thanks all. We were keen for the kids to stay together, but having just taken them to the local dry slope, I think you're right about the 7yo progressing more quickly.

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That would be my opinion anyway. 4 year old won't have the same attention span, stamina, mobility and motricity skills. The pace of the classes would be much different (and specific) for the different age groups. And kids are very different.
I had one 4.5 year who got moved out of Jardin de Neiges after 3-4 days and who was up on the slopes, and his brother was probably 2 years slower at that. Every kid is different.

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@Sonmi451,
There's some ski schools recommend on the first post of the thread.
I'd add Evolution 2 and tdcski.com
Ask the advice of the ski school on whether the kids can be kept together or would be better off in age/ability groups.
ESF have some excellent British ski instructors, plus other nationalities who can teach in fluent English, but their class sizes can often defeat the object, especially with kids and even more so in busy weeks. Choose a school that sticks to a maximum class size (6 max is about right).
Stick to the UK lessons on plastic, or better still in a fridge. If they can start the holiday with some ski confidence their progress in resort will be much higher than if 1st time on skis.

After all it is free

The day after the long day before. Not surprisingly it was a little quieter than normal early doors. I was awake early so popped out at 9. At the front of the Palafour queue there was a bunch of Val D'Isere Club de Sports kids (not sure why as the racing was on Grattalu). Interesting. As soon as the clock ticked over to 9.00 a precocious 6/7 year old started shouting as to why the lift wasn't open on time. She got short shrift from the lifty! As the lift opened at 2 minutes past, a couple of the 8/9 year old lads did the standard Club de Sports thing by coming through the ski school line (happy with that) but doing a 90 right to block everyone else getting through so they and their mates share the chair. Well, 3 Scandis were not having that and skied over the tops of their race prepared skis. A lesson in life by the looks on their faces!

I met up with a group and we had discussed going to Fornet as it is often less busy on a Sunday, before people 'spred their wings'. Not this week! There was even a queue for food at Cascades at 11.50! But the pistes are in good nick and it looks like the skiers left red piste is being prepared with what snow we had last week. For a change we did Piste L and the bus on the way home, it was good all the way down, including the bit near the rock face which ca be treacherous. Tignes seemed relatively quiet as we skied round the Palet at 2.30pm - perhaps the late night had started to tell.

I forgot the weather - 4 dyas of sunshine. Cold nights and days getting slowly warmer with light winds. There may be a cloud on Thursday afternoon.

Unfortunately evolution and ultimate sports are booked up for the week we are in Tignes with a large group of kids across 3 families. New generation and supreme ski have availability. Any recommendations for either? Thanks

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@kieran_kelliher, I've not got kids but have skied with a lot of New Gen instructors and they are good. Supreme are relatively new on the Snow Front in Tignes - don't think there are many of them.

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@chocksaway, unfortunately busy this afternoon - masses of people blocking the pistes around the Bollin restaurant.

Noted that quite a few Brits had opted to skip the clearly unnecessary expense of ski school. Two lads at the top of Tov. had obviously never had skis on before and thought gloves were not required. A boarder ‘teaching’ a skier who could just hold a snow plough down a blue with his backside almost on the snow. Both examples had predictable consequences.

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@Ski lots, agree. It’s an unfortunate choke zone from tov and fresse, with learners and blue run heroes standing around side on or racing through, always have to pick carefully through and do their looking for them.

You know it makes sense.

Hello - Anyone with a crystal ball!? With the road situation the way it is, and the mayor of one of the other resorts advising people to advise super early, or arrive super late (On appelle tous les vacanciers qui vont venir en station d'essayer de passer très rapidement le matin ou très tardivement le soir", prévient Jean-Luc Bloch") I'm considering a plan for this weekend...

Normally I should arrive in Tignes on Saturday 8th Feb (which was already rated red as a travel day with the French holidays). I was thinking of tweaking my plan and driving Friday, and either coming up to resort, or at least getting past Moutiers and the tunnel de Ponserand on Friday evening. Any ideas on if there would be any accommodation anywhere? I assume many leaving the resort will check out Friday night for the same reasons? Or is my thinking flawed ?
Mullins

Edited to clarify I'm coming to Tignes

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@mullins,
I suspect a lot of people will be driving up Friday to Moutiers or beyond & staying on the valley to drive up Saturday (I'm guessong a lot of accommaxtipn is already booked up). And a lot leaving Friday to get past the rockfall before finding accommodation.
Have you considered asking around the UK accommodation providers - tour operators or local Brits who operate accommodation only - if they have anything spare in La Plagne on Friday night? Especially as they may have guests staying now planning to leave Friday and forgo their Friday night accommodation. Bet a lot of people, especially French, wouldn't think of that option. snowHead

A snowHead

@mullins, we use the route frequently so I'm keeping a keen eye on the situation. As previously stated there is there is too much vested interest in the Tarentaise for the authorities not to get something sorted. I think, fwiw, they will get better during this week at regulating the traffic two ways through the tunnel until the road is cleared, so there will be only slight delays (provided there is no incident or breakdown in or near the tunnel).

Having said that I would avoid Saturday like the plague, and one other days follow the advice on early or late travel.

A snowHead

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A bluebird day. So this morning was my first go at skinning since I was laid up. So up Palafoulee I went, a few minutes slower than the end of last season, but it was busy in the Col so I had to keep stopping. Annoyingly, just as I was approaching the top of the Palafour Lift in the dedicated rando track I could see a bloke and 4 ladies about to set off down the track. I waved at them and pointed to the piste, he replied in French that they would wait for me. As I passed them I saw it was an independent moniteur in a plain jacket. As a climbed past the last lady I said in a stage whisper "sack him off - he's about to take you down a track against the rules of the piste". By the look on his face he was not pleased. But off they went, so now 4 young ladies think it's OK to ignore signs thanks to wee wee poor instruction. Rant over.

There was a high speed crash on Creux yesterday morning with one guy now in an induced coma at Grenoble. The lady involved was treated locally. The newspaper article reminds everybody to wear a helmet. Not sure if this was the case here.

The avalanche risk remains 3, although to the untrained eye it seems pretty settled. But there was a avalanche in Bonneval-Sur-Arc yesterday with one fatality. Thats the resort you can see to the west from the Cascades Chair in Fornet. Take care out there.

Val D'Isere are making changes to the new bus station in La Daille 'to improve the customer experience' - but frankly it seems like rearranging the deck chairs on a certain ship. One of the solutions is a QR code to a list of local taxys - they must be loving it!

And for the weather: 3 more days of sunshine and light winds. The temperature will increase a couple of degrees tomorrow - should be nice. Friday is a bit of a conundrum - an odd shaped weather pattern may give us light snow, but definitely a lot of cloud and wind. Might be snowier towards Le Fornet - we'll keep an eye on it.

As for 'bouldergeddon', currently it looks like we will still have 2 way tunnel traffic for Saturday. And maybe some snow - but that forecast has little confidence.

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Another glorious day - so @GeorgeVII and I had a snowHeads whizz round the mountain, down to Brev first thing, then up to the Eye and then merles to VC. Bit busy there so we Bollin and Tufs'ed our way to La Daille for coffee. After that the q's in VC had gone to lunch so we went up the GM (cable car was still busy). Back down, Tufs again, the Tommeuses and finally down JC and home. All the pistes are in great condition, except the narrow bit on JC above the wibbling ridge was a bit scrapey. Came home to rebook Shuttle - I was going to leave on Sunday for a gentle drive through France. I will now be a dot on the horizon on Friday. Thanks boulder thats £21 you owe me!

2 more days like today - glorious. Friday and Sat are still perplexing but probably mostly cloudy on Friday and getting windier through the day - maybe some sunny spells. Saturday 50-50 on cloudy and windy with sunny spells or sunny spells and snow showers and windy - snowline below Brev - just whats needed on transfer day.

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Seems very busy on piste this week, but by contrast virtually no one off piste. Had 3 goes down the Familial and hardly anyone about: none at all on the lower pitches. Went over the Col du Pallet yesterday and skinned back up. There was lots of untracked still and did not see a single person down there - apart from folk in the distance climbing up to do the Grapillion.
As @Chocksaway says rather skittery part way down JH. An Irish guy in a ski school group took a tumble as it opens out, almost came to a halt, but then accelerated down the main pitch, luckily coming to a halt just before the last shuss. Lucky save for the fact that he appeared to have broken his arm, which must have made trying to stop complicated. We gave a bit of assistance, but fortunately there was a passing pisteur, although he was in his way to another accident!

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After all it is free

@FrediKanoute, From wahta I am reading they are looking at amelioration of traffic flows in Moutiers - too early to provide another solution.

And a forgot - a new restaurant review!!

La Bodega in Lavachet opened up this season run by an American/French couple. It's up the steps past Kodo and Pailotte (if you get to Mendikoa you've gone too far!). It's authentic Mexican rather than Tex Mex - and has an array of cocktails on offer as an Apero - so thats where I started. I followed up with some chips and home made dips - very good. There are plenty of other starters. For the main: the speciality is Street Tacos (there are some full mains dishes as well) of which there are 6 different varieties. I opted for 4 as I was hungry - and it was the full range of flavours - wow! They also have a series of hot sauces from relatively mild to positively nuclear! Luckily, they also serve Sapaudia beers - so the fire was quenched with Cosmique (thanks Tim!). As I had been skinning I treated myself to a pud - Churros with choccy dip. Memories of my time in Valencia there. All in all definitely worth a visit - they have options for veggies and vegans and can cope with most allergies as its all home made.

@chocksaway, talking of restaurants, I see the L'Arbina is closed. I know it wasn't the greatest in the world, and the service was extremely French but it served a purpose, always seemed busy and is/was on a prime spot so should be a cash cow. What's the story there?

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@Dr John, It’s a long and now sorry tale. It was bought by the Etincelle Group who also have the Aiguille Percee, Vallon Blanc Ski Shop, Voulez Vous Hotel, the hotel by the bus station roundabout plus the new massive place in Brev. Plus lots of places in other resorts. Basically they are in administration now and Guerlain Chicheret was in the US trying to find financial backing. There are a lot of unhappy investors. Presumably they couldn’t afford to run the Arbina or find a tenant. It’s a real shame as the Arbina has a history as long as Tignes Le Lac just about and the late patriarch Henri had a very colourful background.

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You know it makes sense.

@garfy1971, It was effectively being run down, so it could be knocked down along with the Vallon Blanc and Aiguille Percee to make a massive hotel. But that takes a massive amount of money which they haven't got now. All the other hotels seem to be running fine so you should be OK. The run down look probably didn't suit their image!

@brovert, Henri, the patriarch, was initially very much on the side of 'we don't want the Dam' and tried to use some of his military skills learn't in WW2 to stop the construction for which he received a suspended jail sentence. But he then saw the light and was a leading light in early Tignes, opening one of the first ski schools and the Arbina (which was only half the size it is now - in the gents upstairs there is still a window which opens up onto the wall forming teh extension).

Another whizz round the pistes in between departing prep! We could now do with a bit of snow as some of the steeper pistes are getting a bit scraped, but nevertheless it's still good on the whole.

Tomorrow will be the same as today with a few clouds appearing after Happy Hour. Friday will be a bit cooler and the wind will pick up during the afternoon - but sunny periods all day. Saturday will be windy and cloudy and there may be light snow (more so towards Fornet) as the wind will be from the east - but its a weak feature so no epic retour d'est dumps of snow. A dusting at best. But there is quite an intense system over the Massif central - which could produce a lot of snow if it reaches us - currently it stalls just to the west. Sunday - the jury is still out!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@chocksaway, "Upstairs at l'Arbina" is mentioned in one of my early "Good Ski Guide" books, 1990 I think. From memory it was said to be one of the best eateries in Tignes, and had achieved Michelin 2 star rating. Back then as a skint uni graduate we could only dream of eating in there though. I did book new-year week in l'Arbina back in 2020/21 but that got scrubbed when Macron locked us out due to Covid. I did get my money back though with no fuss.

Sad to see another Tignes landmark pass, but I suppose the only constant is change.

A snowHead

A snowHead

@Judwin, When I used it regularly it wasn't a Michelin place but very good. One night the Maitre D sat down with us and produced a bottle. Vodka Pat - pourquois Pat - Je suis Pat! Long night.

@Kenzie, The lift company is just going into local management - so hopefully not!

A quick whizz round again this morning ahead of domestic trivia this afternoon ahead of the Grand Depart. Mostly round La Daille as everyone was heading up the glaciers, so it was blissfully quiet. A few more scrapy patches appearing.

Tomorrow will see sunny periods (and maybe a milky sky later) but the wind will pick up in the afternoon, just keep an eye on the links and the top lifts later. Saturday will be windy with sunny periods at first followed by clouds and light snow showers. Sunday will see light snow showers during the day (maybe a bit more snow to the east - but it's only a weak system so no mega dumps in Fornet) and the sky will clear later. The lack of confidence in Monday's forecast is so low its not worth discussing!

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@chocksaway, Thanks really interesting. If anyone can recommend any English books on the history of the ski resorts would be appreciated.

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Just back from Tignes/ Val D'Isere.

The whole of the last week was bluebird skiing and excellent conditions due to the previous week's snow fall.

The last two days did have the wind pick up quite a bit with Friday being really cold and windy with a lot of the loose snow being blown away and hard packed/ ice snow left with a lot of sliding occurring even on the blue runs.

Both resorts could really do with a good dump of snow.

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Lovely day today up around Tignes.

Anyone have any suggestions for restaurants that do decent gluten free options? Had the chilli from The Loop and a GF pizza from The Langley, but looking for other recommendations!

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@mullins, Pop down to Lavachet and try Kodo. It’s great Asian Fusion (ish). Speak to Joey or Frankie and they will sort gluten free for you.

After all it is free

@mullins, Also try Bodega for GF Mexican. They're very helpful there. Also seek out the beer Krush, it's gluten free!

Am I going mad or have they messed about with the lifts coming out of Val Claret?
I could have sworn Les Lanches used to be a lovely 6 seater with bubble hoods. The wind gets very cold coming off the glacier sometimes and I'm pretty sure I've closed the hood on occasion. I can't understand why they would have made this lift smaller and slower, the queues for this lift can get pretty big.
I'm also pretty sure Tichot was smaller than the 8 seater it is now. But did I read a while back part of the deal with Club Med is that they were to supply a bigger faster lift for Tichot?

Someone told me Fresse has gone too but I didn't notice that...surely not?

When we were there last month my mates told me I was dreaming it!

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@gixxerniknik, your going mad. The only recent-ish change is the removal of the covers. Pre-Covid and to deal with the wind rather than the other way around.

Help!!

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