Three fearless skiers: Mervyn, Ralph Wares and Mark, left Commugny at 08:30 last Saturday morning bound for Tignes. Sensible people might ask why we were stupid enough to be out of bed at that time – after all we had no dog to walk – but Tignes is quietest at weekends and we wanted to maximise skiing time on Saturday.
Ralph drove us in his fancy large newish car with everything working, even the navigation screen!!, after Mark had pleaded that his car was too small and Mervyn had pleaded something about the scrap yard.
We duly arrived in the Grande Motte parking and were ready to ski by 12:30, Mervyn and Mark revelling in their free passes while Ralph will have to wait nearly 10 years for his. The snow was remarkably good considering there had hardly been any precipitation since January and the sky was as bright blue and cloudless as it was going to remain until the end of skiing on Monday afternoon.
We celebrated the lack of crowds by immediately going up the Grande Motte to take the télépherique to the highest point in the whole resort at 3456m.
Then back down to Val Claret, up to the Aiguille Percée and down to the lowest point, Les Brévières at 1550m.
Sunday was over to Val d’Isère via la Daille and Santons. Previous experience and uncustomary common sense told us to avoid la Face (ice) and épaule (large hard moguls). Ralph managed to get wiped out on Santons – a lunatic going too fast who claimed that Ralph had reversed into him. With no permanent damage we continued and took the Solaise lift over to the next valley which we fully explored before hopping on the Leissières lift to the col d l’Iseran. This lift is a real treat as it goes up and over the ridge leaving you feeling weightless at one point. I could spend the whole day just riding this lift.
We even found some powder in this valley then had to race back to catch lifts before they closed and left us stranded. Mark developed a new skill of not seeing Mervyn or Ralph. I often skied right past them as they were waiting for me. Best was when I missed them at the Olympic lift out of Val d’Isère so that I was waiting at the top and they were waiting at the bottom. And this was a time when we had to get to the next lift before it closed.
Monday brought the crowds. There were queues at most of the lifts. Fortunately Mervyn demonstrated his true calling, pushing to the front on a ski queue. He left Ralph and I full of admiration as we followed sedately behind but never had to queue for more than a few minutes. We again went over to Val d’Isère and filled in bits we had missed the day before so that only a small corner on the bottom left of the ski map was left untouched by us. We then had the inevitable race back to Tignes and arrived just in time for a last run down Génépy from the Grande Motte – we arrived at one lift just 3 minutes before it closed!!
We’d eaten out so well on Saturday and Sunday nights that we decided to stay in Monday and just have a bowl of soup plus a little liquid refreshment. We were exhausted but more than a little satisfied.
Tuesday was planned to be a gentle 3 hour run home but the “I don’t want to work until I’m 64” brigade closed the motorway, leaving us, and the whole population of the Savoie, crawling at snail’s pace, or slower, through the back streets of Albertville. Eventually we got on our way again, Ralph and Mervyn did not have to crawl into their sleeping bags for the night, and we got home about 4 o’clock.
All agreed it had been a good weekend’s skiing. The snow was brilliant if a little old. No idea how far we skied as forgot to turn on the tracker but we covered most of the resort.
Mark , nice review , you forgot the sous chef
Ralph , spoilt both you and Mervyn with bacon and eggs , at 8 pm on the Sunday morning .