J2Ski group holiday to Tignes January 13th 2013

Good review of Tignes/VDI Ally.

Santons is notorious and one of those danger pistes to catch out the unknowing - and can get so crowded.

I agree with you about the general skiing standards in Tignes compared with 3V but don't forget - this last week has mostly been the die hards getting a late week in.

I do think that Tignes can be a wonderful choice of resort for the relative novice, there is so much available that is easy.

But ....

There are quite a few twiddly bits to catch people out and in my view the novice is best advised to stick to some known pistes or to ski with someone who knows the area.

Now we're on a new page I'd like to remind everyone that there is still time if you'd like to join us on this holiday to the chalet Bonjour-Bonjour in Tignes Les Brevieres on the 13th January (details on the first page). If you'd like to come please send me a pm or post on here.

Andy,
I think what we need is something like a guide book for each resort, detailing the oddities of the pistes, lifts, and the actual resort. Maybe there is such a book?

As you say, there are lots of bits of the Espace Killy ski area suitable for beginners and lower intermediates, but without a guide it's very difficult to find them :cry:

There was a total beginner in our chalet and she had quite a difficult time, struggling with unsuitable pistes etc. when she wasn't ski-ing in a lesson, mainly because she and her OH didn't really know where to go (and all that powder on Tuesday made things even harder for her).

As regards this holiday to Les Brevieres, I think it's most important to know where the Chaudannes chair lift starts, because that's the quickest route back from Tignes 2100 to the chalet Bonjour-Bonjour.

This lift is well hidden as you have to ski along a green run through the village and under a bridge before you can see it. Coming back on Wednesday to this lift from up the top of the Toviere we had to take a strange route which involved the red Cretes, the red Combe Folle, a bit of the black Trolles, and then remembering to turn right on the Trolles (and this bit was all steep and icy) in order to get down into the village at the correct point. If my daughter hadn't known which way to go I never would have managed it :shock:

I reckon if you'd never been to Tignes/Val d'Isere before, navigating using only the piste map would be very difficult. I don't think it's as well signposted as the 3 Valleys. I didn't see a sign up for Les Brevieres or Les Boisses until we were nearly there. And you can't see them because there are a load of mountains in the way :lol:

And the pistes and lifts up on top of the Val d'Isere glacier are very confusing as well. My daughter said her uni group got muddled and kept going down to Le Fornet instead of across to Val d'Isere, so that by the time they eventually got to the right place the linking gondola from Val to Tignes (L'Olympique) was shut and they had to go to the bus station and pay for the bus from Val d'Isere back to Tignes.

But because of this experience she was very careful when we were ski-ing and she managed to find all the correct lifts and pistes :D

And I would like to stress that not everyone would have to go up 16 lifts and ski 17 pistes to get to the Val d'Isere glacier from Les Brevieres, because they could travel a lot of it on the buses starting from Les Boisses.

Edit
We won't have to worry about getting lost on our group ski holiday because Bonjour provide free ski hosting :D

Here are the piste maps Far Queue very kindly put up for me, on the second page, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

The pink area in the top left is the Val d'Isere glacier, and Les Brevieres is bottom right. So they are at opposite ends of the Espace Killy.

Far Queue wrote:
As per your request, here are some links to pistemaps. The first is the entire Espace Killy, and the second one is a more localised map for Les Brévières.

The maps are linked to larger versions of the same picture, so clicking on them will load the full size image.



and



As you can see, there is a nice blue all the way down to the village, as well as a red and of course La Sache, so it is suitable for just about all levels of skier.

AllyG wrote:


Edit
We won't have to worry about getting lost on our group ski holiday because I will be doing the ski hosting :D

:thumbup:

brooksy wrote:

AllyG wrote:


Edit
We won't have to worry about getting lost on our group ski holiday because I will be doing the ski hosting :D

:thumbup:

That's brave of you Ally.
Well done for offering.
Even though you haven't found the short cut to the Chaudannes lift.
:mrgreen:

OldAndy wrote:That's brave of you Ally.
Well done for offering.
Even though you haven't found the short cut to the Chaudannes lift.
:mrgreen:

Andy - don't be so annoying :evil: :lol:

Where's the short cut to the Chaudanne lift? If it avoids going down that nasty black Trolles piste when coming down from the Toviere it would be very handy to know :lol:

And, Brooksy, I am certainly NOT going to be doing any ski-guiding. When we were above Val d'Isere I actually thought it was Val Claret - all those ski resorts look exactly the same to me :oops:

The only thing I am quite sure about is how to go inbetween Les Boisses and Les Brevieres, and where the Bonjour-Bonjour chalet is :lol:

AllyG wrote:

OldAndy wrote:That's brave of you Ally.
Well done for offering.
Even though you haven't found the short cut to the Chaudannes lift.
:mrgreen:

Andy - don't be so annoying :evil:

Where's the short cut to the Chaudanne lift? If it avoids going down that nasty black Trolles piste when coming down from the Toviere it would be very handy to know :lol:

And, Brooksy, I am certainly NOT going to be doing any ski-guiding. When we were above Val d'Isere I actually thought it was Val Claret - all those ski resorts look exactly the same to me :oops:

The only thing I am quite sure about is how to go inbetween Les Boisses and Les Brevieres, and where the Bonjour-Bonjour chalet is :lol:

Well one out of three isn't so bad :oops:




And, Brooksy, I am certainly NOT going to be doing any ski-guiding. When we were above Val d'Isere I actually thought it was Val Claret - all those ski resorts look exactly the same to me :oops:

Is because they're all white :shock:

AllyG wrote:

OldAndy wrote:Even though you haven't found the short cut to the Chaudannes lift.
:mrgreen:

Andy - don't be so annoying :evil: :lol:

Where's the short cut to the Chaudanne lift? If it avoids going down that nasty black Trolles piste when coming down from the Toviere it would be very handy to know :lol:

Unfortunately there isn't some hidden, secret, simple piste that goes from Toviere down through Lavachet to the Chaudanne lift. The easier runs from Toviere on the Tignes side end up in Val Claret which then leaves quite an up and down, zig zag to get above Les Brevieres.

But ....

Easily the quickest route back is simply to jump on the Aeroski (giant bubble) and come down to Le Lac then go up the little, beginners, free chair lift Rossett which takes you high enough to pop down through Lavachet and to the Chaudanne.

Val Claret back to Les Brevieres is several lifts and runs as you work your way across above Le Lac ending up at the top of the Aiguille Percee before the choice of blue, red or black back home.