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Season Diary - Week 2 The Season - Les Arcs & Tignes |
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Tignes Diary - Week 2 Saturday 10th January The snow has eased off and is now falling lightly, visibility is still poor. 20cm has fallen overnight. The slopes are empty as it is transfer day and people wait for the weather to clear. Went out today and had a great time, plenty of untracked powder on and off-piste including one steep run of waist deep powder. Cold on those lifts though! Then followed Will into a bowl and spent 40 minutes getting out. My fitness is improving! Friday 9th January Wake up to the sound of explosives. It is still snowing and most of the lifts are shut. The holidaymakers are out making the most of their last day while we sit around waiting for the weather to clear. According to the Tignes website there has been 45cm at the top, 25cm down at Le Lac. Pop over to Val Claret in the evening, a short bus ride to the other side of the lake, and meet Will and Michelle in Crowded House. It is fairly quiet until guess who turns up - Hull Uni dressed up as doctors and nurses. Thursday 8th January - Update 10.30pm It is snowing steadily, has been for a couple of hours, and there is no sign of I stopping. Powder day tomorrow! Thursday 8th January Another day dawns with clear blue skies. I wasn’t feeling too great and in no hurry to hit the slopes. I spend some time updating the website, adding the diary and pictures for Les Arcs. I suspect I haven’t solved the problem with pictures but run out of time to check - time to hit the slopes and try out my new board. Met some of the others at 1pm by the Val Claret snack bar, and set off with Mad Matt, “Cliff Drop” Matt, Ali and Tom. Did a few runs down from the Grattalu lift, cutting off piste to take in a couple of kickers, before heading back to Val Claret and over towards the Val D’Isere Snowpark. Unfortunately, although the park is well on the way to being built the three blue kickers are closed, so I head home. Once I have sorted out Debbie’s Flow bindings my new board is fantastic. I don’t even come close to losing an edge despite really letting rip on a few occasions on hard and bumpy pistes. Money well spent. Looking forward to the snow promised tomorrow. Wednesday 7th January Decided to take my first day off of the season. Took advantage of the fact that most people are out to get online, catch up on emails and work on my website. Using FTP on dial up access to transfer photos takes a long time! Caught the bus to the Burton shop in Val Claret and buy a Burton Canyon 163. It comes in my favourite colour, black, with a great “Eraserhead” style graphic. Popped out to the Red Lion, watched Liverpool beat Chelsea and established my seasonaires credentials at the bar. 20% cheaper beer is good! Tuesday 6th January Headed out on my own as I wanted to test ride a board. Spent an hour coming down Double M, a very fast and long red above Val Claret on my board before breaking for lunch. Picked up a Burton Canyon 163 and took it out for a couple of hours. It is the same model, but 6cm longer, as my old board which was too short for me. It is much heavier and hard to adjust to but much more stable on piste. It was Ali’s birthday so I spent a second successive night in the Yeti. It was dead and it was hard to talk over the techno being spun. Didn’t stay long. Monday 5th January Everyone staying in the chalet met up at the Marmotte restaurant at lunchtime for a group ride. There are two very good skiers in the group, and eight boarders. The standard of boarding is high, but I manage to keep up by going balls out. We do a lot of bumpy off-piste, led by Matt who appears to be a lunatic, and I have a go at the kickers. Glad to say I haven’t embarrassed myself. In the afternoon I boarded with Will, who did a season in New Zealand last year. Hard work but fun, just as well I know the runs we took. Went to the Burton shop to see if they could fix my board, which has a broken edge poking the base out. The shop guy performs the last rites. I knew my board wouldn’t last the season, hadn’t expected to write it off yet though. Went to the Yeti bar in the evening with Will, Jim and Michelle. The place was rammed, and they played good music, mainly hip-hop. Two Dutch geezers were on stage pretending to be MCs, dancing like loons and the Hull Uni mob turned up in school uniform. Crawled out late thoroughly entertained. Sunday 4th January Moved out of an apartment for the second day in succession and got a
lift to Tignes with Dave and Debbie. As Dave had crocked himself the night
before I dumped my bags and took Debbie
out on the slopes. Conditions are similar to Les Arcs, the pistes
are OK considering the lack of base and no fresh snow for days. Her boarding
progresses quickly, and after a couple of long blue runs we finished off
with a red run. I was
concerned she may struggle, but she did great - linking turns and even
riding off-piste.
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