 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi All,
I'm looking at booking a week in Tignes from 27th April to 4th May for a last chance get away (not the most advanced skiers, one beginner and one 'intermediate', and our first Alps trip). I've been looking online and most historic posts say that Tignes is ok during this week, but after checking the 6 day weather report it looks like things are getting to +1/2 degrees on the top pistes (and around 6/7 in the resort).
What do people here recommend?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It's surprising if air temp doesn't get above zero in late spring but snow doesn't instantly evaporate at this temperature. It'll be fine but you need to be prepared for snow to get "heavy" and "slow" in the pm which lots of people hate but can actually be lovely.
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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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thanks for your reply. Does the 'heavy' and 'slow' apply to all the slopes or just the lower ones (i.e. if we get progressively higher in altitude during the day can we avoid this)?
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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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Usually but also depends on where the suns been.
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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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tester, the best way of using such a late season week might be to have morning lessons (there are some excellent ski schools in Tignes) and probably aim to finish skiing about 2 pm and sit on a sunny balcony. An instructor will know how best to avoid the most icy pistes first thing and the slushy ones later. As fatbob notes, slope aspect can be more important than altitude. The high pistes in the full blast of the sun will get slushy too. Even though there's a huge depth of snow, you only ski on the top couple of inches.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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tester: Just be prepared for every type of snow - winter cover and conditions on north-facing slopes at altitude; powder if you are lucky (and we have been on about 4 out of 6 late April/early May visits to Tignes); soft snow in the sun on a morning; total mush/slush later in the day - particularly at low altitudes.
The glacier will have winter cover and has some really gentle slopes, suitable for beginners/early skiers - so if needs be, that could suffice if conditions were to get really slushy/challenging elsewhere.
There will still be well over (at least) half of Espace Killy open in late April - Go for it, you'll have whale of a time and could well be converted to end of season skiing forever  !
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Great, thanks all for your advice!
One last thing... this thread talks about high avalanche risk: http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=91825&start=920
Is that a risk for off-piste skiing? We don't do off-piste but don't want to have to worry about that kind of thing on-piste (I guess they would close it if there was too great a risk?)!
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tester, Yes - if you stay on piste you will be safe (with a 99.9999999% certainty). The piste services will close a piste if there is a risk of avalanche onto it. Piste L and Santons have been closing at lunchtime for a month in VDI. They are now closed and will remain so (I suspect) until the whole of the slopes above have avalanched onto it.
On the other hand there are parts of the village where I stick to the roads with the amount of now slipping off the roofs!
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