 Poster: A snowHead
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I'm off to Tignes at the weekend and was just checking out the online piste maps and weather.
I see there's a few runs marked on the map with black crosses and some with red broken lines. There's also a big area shaded yellow off Col Des Ves.
I have heard of the SPOT areas and presume thats the yellow area.
Are all these runs/areas like the itineraries in Verbier; avi controlled but not pisted or patroled?
Cheers
Marc
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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there are a few such runs in Tignes yes. Oeillet, épilobes and Aiguille percée are examples. I htink however that they're simply unpisted, but stil patrolled and avalanche controlled
The yellow area near col des ves is the SPOT - I think it's patrolled but I'm not sure about avi controlled. it's there for practising off piste techinique afer all
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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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Mosha Marc, we were told when we were there by a rep that aparently the dotted lines mean 'safe' off piste. The yellow area 'Le Spot' was good, but didnt see much that resembled 'off piste' or 'back country' etc as advertised
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The best one is the Merles black by a long way. Hardly gets tracked out and the skiing either side of it is fantastic.
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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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There are signs at the bottom of the chair leading up to Le Spot (which, incidentally, has to be one of the slowest chairs globally) which give the rules / regs etc
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Rules!?
(.....in a knife fight......BOSH)
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I'm not sure that the SPOT is avi controlled. I'm pretty sure, although open to correction that the itineraries are controlled, though.
Re the first post, from memory I don't think Verb does avi control work on its itineraries. I would take advice from the pisteurs before skiing and ski with the kit/guide depending on the conditions.
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| DebbiDoesSnow wrote: |
| Mosha Marc, we were told when we were there by a rep that aparently the dotted lines mean 'safe' off piste. The yellow area 'Le Spot' was good, but didnt see much that resembled 'off piste' or 'back country' etc as advertised |
What!!! There are huge areas of off piste - dozens of square miles of it! Even without a guide you can see quite a lot of it from a distance - everything you can see on the North-facing side of the valley for example, but loads more as well. (The Grand Vallon/Vallonet, for example, is a nice little area off the back of the Signal lift - very simple to access.)
But obviously none of it is avalanche patrolled (except those tiny new areas you mention) and much of it you won't find without a guide - even given you take the risk on your own.
I have skied there about 10 weeks doing purely off piste holidays and there are loads of off-piste routes I still haven't skied.
I am fairly sure all European itineraries are avalanche patrolled. Certainly the Verbier ones are.
Last edited by After all it is free  on Thu 7-02-08 10:16; edited 3 times in total
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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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Marc - get yourself a copy of the Vamos off piste guide book to Espace Killy.
Tignes doesnt have extensive avy controlled intenaries like Verbier's Vallon D'Arby or Gentianes.
But it does have lot of excellent proper off piste.
Marked itenaries seems to be specific to the swiss resorts - and not common over in France.
The vamos book describes most of the good off piste at tignes - and the relevant dangers for each descent.
And also has an excellent safety section at the start.
If your sensible and well equiped / practiced with avy gear then there is no reason why you shouldnt feel confidant to start exploring 
Doug (yer peak ski host).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Yes, the Vamos book is good, though the English translations (it is dual language) are occasionally a bit ambiguous ("pass rock on the right" -is that you on the right or the rock?) and you need a 1:25.000 map to go with it (3633 covers most of it but you need 3532 (LesArcs, La Plagne) to cover the Aiguille Piercee/Sache). However you need to be quite confident of recognising avalanche danger (not to mention your map-reading skills) to use it as more than inspiration. Join a guided group (Alpine Experience or TopSki for example). It costs a bit but cheaper than hiring a private guide.
The book doesn't cover everything but it does do most of the famous routes (excluding, I think, those off the back into the Haute Maurienne and ones needing skinning to access). There are Also Vamos guides to the Trois Vallee and Chamonix.
Edit: You can get maps in the resorts (bookshops and some ski shops) or from The National Map Centre - 22 Caxton St, London SW1 0QU (years ago was 7222 2406). Book is called "Val d'Isere - Tignes Hors-Pistes", Vamos Editions. I notice they are (or were) based in Argentiere and it was co-written by Jean-Luc Steiger and co-translated by Luisa Steiger. Are they relatives of Roland Steiger - the Chamonix guide who many on here have probably skied with? He has an English dentist wife - can't remember her name.
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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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I love some of the descriptions in the Vamos book. We did Pointe Pers a few years back on snowboards. descibed in the book as "only for virtuosos of the extreme" 
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Pointe Pers is a good one - with a steep entry (not sure about virtuosos of the extreme though - a real extreme skier wouldn't think it extreme). A bit of walking to get to it but probably not as time consuming as the Pisteur's couloir - another good steep one (though instead of going off into the wild you are facing a piste and lift queue, so good for show-offs).
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much  on Thu 7-02-08 11:52; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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snowball, I agree - but a heelside traverse in for my friend was not particularly nice!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I can imagine (though I've only had a day on a board). Certainly steep by my standards. Mind you it is quite a few years since I skied Tignes / Val d'I
(sorry, I edited in the Pisteur's bit while you were writing).
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Poster: A snowHead
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snowball, yes dangling over the cornice onto icey rocks at top was fun withough abit of protection. I think a lot of guides throw a rope out for clients when conditions dictate.
Might get to do it again in a few weeks 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Oh, right, I forgot the rocks at the top. We could enter from the far end OK without a rope (the rest had degrees of cornice).
Lower down it is just a very big (generally untracked ) ordinary slope (with descents from Col Pers on your left).
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Ah yes, very nice (perhaps in two and a bit weeks! - I'll be Bourg St Maurice based) Col Pers on the right I think?.
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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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yes col pers to the right,
just bought the new Vamos book for ski touring in the Vanoise-Tarantaise written by Fabrice Villaret (of Topski fame) - got some lovely looking routes in it. One I had never heard of was the Couloir Dudu, beyond the Fogliettaz in Ste Foy.
We are Tignes based the same week, with a Topski guide for 5 days that week.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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6 days guide for us plus a day with Chris Spice from SCGB the first Saturday. However we have the Sunday free and hoped to meet up with BernardC. I PMed him to make contact again - but he doesn't seem to have been on here for about 10 days.
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nice - we might bump into each other. we will be 2 snowboarders with Cedric from Topski.
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We also will have a Cedric (but from Snowheads - now known as Horizon).
Our guide Chris Harrop (highly recommended by one of the group. I'm a bit nervous about my choice -Don't know if I might have been better getting Laurent, who used to be Topski.)
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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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an interesting profile......
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