J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Here is another photo, from the www.tigneslesbrevieres.co.uk website:



The dam wall was constructed in 1952 with the idea of providing hydro-electric power to the rest of France, although the French eventually decided to use nuclear power instead. I think the power generated at the dam is only used locally. There is supposed to be a huge painting of Hercules, the biggest painting in the world, on the dam wall - but I couldn't see it when I was there (maybe I was ski-ing too fast for a proper look!).

The original village of Tignes is now under the water of the Lac du Chevril, and apparently the inhabitants used the compensation money to build the first ski lifts. The village was moved up to what is now Tignes Le Lac, at 2,100m. There are 5 Tignes villages.

Apparently every 10 years the dam gates are opened to drain the lake and clean it out. And I was told, when I was there, that they conduct a service for the original inhabitants in the old church. The old village is still there, but normally out of sight, under the water. I have seen the replica of the old, submerged, church which they built at Tignes Les Boisses.

Tignes les Brevieres (where the chalet is), at 1,550m is the only old original village left in the Tignes area, and still has its 13th Century church. Tignes Les Boisses, the next closest village at 1,800m is built above the dam. Val Claret (where the funicular starts on its way up to the Grande Motte glacier, at 3,656m), Tignes Le Lac, and Le Lavachet are all very close to each other at 2,100m.

The Tignes ski area has around 150 Km of piste, and it's very well linked to Val d'Isere which has around another 150 Km of piste. The 2 areas together are known as the Espace Killy.

I thought Zell am See was very pretty, because of the lake and the trees.

Bedrocky Barney - my Mum has lost lots of handbags (and cups of tea) like that - it's a good thing you've got plenty of bars on your roof rack!

Well, I've done it. I've cancelled my basic Sky subscription which was costing me £22 p.m. so I will save £264 per year - which will be enough to buy me a week's ski pass and a week's supply of hot chocolate at lunch time and elevenses on my next ski holiday :D

The fact that nearly everyone, at some point on their ski holiday, ends up looking like a real idiot is one of the things I like most about going ski-ing!

For example, a couple of years ago our ski instructor had just finished dividing us all into 2 ability groups and he turned round to continue ski-ing and fell over :D

And people often fall over whilst standing still listening to the instructor, and I fell over outside a cafe once when I unintentionally ended up ski-ing on one ski :D

I don't need alcohol to look really silly - it just seems to happen naturally :D

So, that water slide would suit me perfectly - if I had enough guts to go down it :lol:

Snapzzz,
If you're too scared to use the funicular I should think you could by-pass it using the chair lifts instead (except of course when only the glacier is open).

Hi Bedrock Barney - the funicular was certainly pretty space age and weird!

Hi Snapzzz,
That photo was taken by my daughter at October half-term 2 years ago when we went for a short break ski-ing on the glacier.

Everyone tried to get up to the glacier first thing in the morning, as soon as it opened, and then stayed up there all day until it shut, because the pistes down from where you get out of the funicular weren't open as there wasn't enough snow. So we were just ski-ing actually on the glacier.

The funicular was totally amazing. The international slalom racing teams that were there for training on the glacier used it like a changing room, and it was quite incredible the amount of stuff they had in their rucksacks! One guy even had a folding chair - and he pulled it out of his bag something like Mary Poppins and proceeded to unfold it and sit on it. So, now I know exactly what those top skiers wear when they're out there, because most of it came off/went on in the funicular, whilst they changed it with their normal clothes.

I found the funicular much like the London underground - very squashy, but also very fast. They have automatic gates at the bottom that only let so many people through, in order to completely fill it.

We are still looking for a room mate for the latest member to join our holiday group - male solo skier Tiger7.

If you are interested in joining us would you please either pm me or post up on here. The base cost for a shared room is £399 for the catered chalet, plus flights, transfers, ski pass, ski/board hire and lessons (if required). The total cost is around £750 excluding hire and lessons, but including a 6 day Espace Killy lift pass.

Here is one of the Espace Killy lifts - the Sache gondola which takes you out of Les Brevieres and connects with the rest of the ski area. The ESF ski school meets at the base of this gondola. (The photo is from the website www.tigneslesbrevieres.co.uk).



And here is the funicular that takes you up from Val Claret to the Grande Motte glacier (photo taken by my daughter in October 2010):



And here is the area piste map. You can move left, right, up or down and magnify any part you like:

http://www.tignes.co.uk/pistemap.htm

Thanks Bandit, for explaining why you don't think much of Luton airport :D

The offical Tignes tourist board website, Tignes.com now has the page up explaining about the family discount lift passes for the coming season. It's horribly complicated, but apart from the discounts for other family configurations it does say that for a family with 2 adults and 2 children or teens the youngest member gets a half price lift pass (paying only 94 euros for a child for 6 days, or 117.5 euros for a teenager aged 14-17).

But they are very strict about who they will give it to. It says that documentary evidence is compulsory (to prove that you really are a family), and the lift passes must be purchased simultaneously, be of the same duration, and for the same ski area for all members of the family.

http://www.skipass-tignes.com/content%5Cpages%5CTignes/TPFamille1213.fr-CH.pdf

And here's the link for the loyalty discount pass:
http://www.skipass-tignes.com/content%5Cpages%5CTignes/TPPassTignesHiver1213.fr-CH.pdf