Tignes Val Claret January 2 - 9 2010

A snowHead

I would have posted this a while ago but somehow work got in the way as soon as I returned from the Alps.

Anyway, a little delayed but here goes:

The annual New Year ski trip has been a fixture for myself and Bogus junior since he first convinced me to try this slidey stuff five years ago. He took the precaution of going on a couple of school ski trips first so even at the age of 14 he was able to patronise my early efforts quite convincingly. Anyway, since then we have made the annual New Year trip to Tignes and usually a few days later in the season. Mrs B and daughter long ago decided that the men of the family were quite mad and that they were going to stay at home keeping warm. We have stayed in a variety of locations around Tignes including spare rooms in friends' apartments, The Terachu chalet with Crystal and best of all the legendary Chalet le Dome in Les Boisses. Sadly Tignes.co.uk have lost the lease on the Dome so this is no longer an option, at least not in the style we were used to.

So, to this year's trip.

Travel: Eurotunnel and the French Autopistes. I booked the tunnel crossing a couple of months in advance and got a fare of about £115, which I thought good if not spectacular. I probably could have got the fast ferry for fifty quid less but having been caught out by the SpeedFerries collapse in the past decided on the subterranean option. We had planned to take one of my son's schoolfriends with us but he went and broke his collar bone playing football so in the end it was just the two of us again. After all the problems with Eurostar before Christmas I had some worries about the crossing but in the end it went like clockwork. We booked the crossing at 0750 on Saturday morning which meant a 5.30 start from home and arrived just in time for a quick coffee in the terminal before boarding our appointed train. The roads were fine. Some snow around Calais but the Salage trucks had been out and the way was clear. My son has just turned 18 so could share the driving for the first time which meant shorter stops although perversely more of them. We probably had about four ten minute stops and a couple of 20-30 minute ones. The last stop was in Albertville and I used the opportunity to fill up the trusty Bora TDi with winter diesel as well as to pick up some snow chains (never had them before but I knew I was pushing my luck) and some groceries at valley prices. We arrived in Tignes at around 8.15 PM having spent 13 hours and 45 minutes on the journey.

Accommodation: I had booked an apartment through tignes.co.uk in the Hameaux de Borsat which is right at the top of Val Claret. As we had planned to take a third body I booked a slightly bigger place than I would have for just the two of us. It was absolutely fine although if you had tried to house the stated "sleeps 6" they would have had to be people who really liked each other. The location of the block is brilliant. You could almost have fallen off the balcony on to the bottom of Piste H. Not quite ski-in ski-out but certainly ski-able to within 20 metres or so. One small problem is that the block doesn't have its own parking so it's the municipal car park at 15 Euro a night unless you can make other arrangements. Fortunately (or not, given later experience) I had a friend in Le Lac with space on an outdoor driveway that I could use after the first night.

Ski Hire: We both have our own boots and rented skis (me) and a board (junior) from Ski Republic on their two for one deal. 90 Euros for the two was the best deal I found this year by a mile. I know that Ski Republic have their financial problems and I was very relieved to see the shop, which was within 20 metres of the apartment, trading as normal. In fact better than most as unlike any other pre-arranged ski rental I have ever had they actually had the equipment we had booked sitting ready and labeled with our names. The kit was good quality and appeared to be well looked after.

Ski Pass: As we hope to get our usual second trip in again this year I decided to give Skialacarte a try. See http://www.skialacarte.fr/en/node if you haven't come across this yet. Basically the deal is that you buy a season ticket that covers a range of French resorts including the Espace Killy. This comes in the post ahead of the trip and you just use it as a normal ski pass. Every day you use the lift system it clocks up a day's usage and bills you at the end of the month. If you only go for one week a weekly pass is a bit cheaper but the daily rate is discounted so that after day 7 you are ahead. It also means no queuing at the lift pass office on the first morning. Another advantage that I hadn't really considered was that my son had a virus that laid him low for a couple of days and didn't go out. No cost for those days. On the whole I think I like Skialacarte.

Classes: We booked classes with Evolution 2 and I would have to say they were a bit at sixes and sevens organisationally. Probably because of lower than expected numbers in the quiet week after New Year they were consolidating classes and even cancelled my son's pre-booked and pre-paid snowboard class. I ended up in a class that I had considered to be a bit above my capabilities but the alternative was to pootle about green and blue slopes with a group of near beginners. I have to say that the organizational difficulties were not reflected in the quality of instruction which was every bit as good as I have come to expect from Evo 2. In the end we traded in junior's class for some private lessons and he ended up with the same instructor I had for my class. Who was excellent. The class was as challenging as I had expected and despite the fact that I spent a fair amount of time with my face in the powder I was actually much happier to have been thoroughly tested than I would have been to stay within my existing capabilities. I can honestly say that I have now descended Sache - I just don't need to say how much of the descent was on my face Very Happy

Lifts and Pistes: There is loads of information about the lifts and pistes of the Espace Killy elsewhere in snowHead

so I won't add to the information overload here.

Conditions: Light was the issue at the beginning and end of the week with a couple of lovely days in the middle. I have had better and I have had worse. But there was definitely no shortage of snow Very Happy

Apres: For some reason I had never been in the Loop Bar before this trip. Despite being based in Val Claret this has now been corrected. Top place with the friendliest bunch of staff I have ever come across. Had one of their burgers for lunch one day and it lived up to its billing. Otherwise we had a couple of good meals in La Pignata in Val Claret and confirmed our view that Daffy's Cafe in Val Claret is best thought of as a beer joint. Probably TexMex is not a cuisine that the Savoyards are naturally drawn to. Le Coffee in Val Claret is good for lunch and for a beer after skiing. Unfortunately it closes early so it's not so good for an evening session.

Getting out: Saving 60 Euros on parking seemed like a slightly less bright idea when it took over an hour to dig the car out of its exposed parking space on leaving day. It's also fair to say that you should allow extra time if you need to get the shuttle from Val Claret to Le Lac on a Saturday morning. Between all the Tour operators' coaches and the municipal recycling trucks the bottom road was completely blocked for a good half hour just when I was trying to get the car picked up and make a swift getaway. Sad

Journey Home: Weather much worse than the way out but curiously the hour and a half delay in setting out probably helped in the long run. The Salage had time to do its work and the roads maintained a decent flow. A friend who left at 6 am called to say it was single file to Lyon but we had a much better run. Junior drove from Dijon to Calais and we arrived in time for our booked train. We arrived home at 11.15 PM having been on the road about 14 and a half hours.

Summary: Tignes was its usual brilliant self. I still like to have my own car with me so even though with 2-up the economics are marginal I am happy with the travel choices. The apartment worked out great. Ski Republic was absolutely fine, Skialacarte is brilliant and Evo 2 redeemed its organisational issues with the sheer quality of its instructors. Now looking at a few days last week in March. We told them to expect us in the Loop Bar. Very Happy

Help!!

Tignes Val Claret January 2 - 9 2010

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