Mountain highs
Alpine resort Tignes offers great snow and slopes for beginners to experts – and the après-ski is pretty good too, finds Jenny Mcbain
The French Alpine town of Tignes adds up to a lot more than a high altitude, snow sure resort. It is a place which attracts people who know how to enjoy life. My friend Katherine and I felt the need for a winter break, so we were delighted to be invited to holiday with chalet specialists, Ski Total. When we arrived at the Chalet Hotel Rosset in Tignes Le Lac we quickly hit upon a plan to maximise the time we had away from work.
Katherine wanted to take steps to progress her snowboarding skills. Meanwhile I signed up for ski lessons with École du Ski Français (ESF) and joined a class headed up by veteran instructor, Cécile. Over the course of a few days my fellow students and
My fellow students and I became increasingly relaxed and competent
I became increasingly relaxed and competent. It was wonderful to have a teacher who knew exactly how much information to impart and when to impart it.
Cécile was brought up in a town in the Pyrenees where skiing is a way of life and where children get to slide down mountains as soon as they can stand up. She came to Tignes in 1996 and has worked there ever since. What I wondered, keeps her in this particular resort? She said, “I step outside the ESF office and all the different pistes for beginners, intermediates and advanced skiers are right there in front of you. Also, here you get to meet people from all over the world.”
After a long day on the slopes it was great to return to the chalet in order to meet up with my friend for afternoon tea. We got to sit at a different table at dinner each evening, so our circle of new acquaintances was ever expanding. Amongst others, we met a young Scottish woman who works in luxury tourism and a London-based surgeon who likes action packed breaks that take his mind away from his professional responsibilities.
Of course the après ski scene is an important aspect of a ski holiday and I wanted to get a taste of it. Luckily I had been to to Tignes before and on one of those trips I made the acquaintance of Kevin. We arranged to meet up in the Loop Bar, which is one of the trendiest places in Le Lac. When Kevin begins to strut his stuff he has the effect of a spark landing on straw. Within minutes of taking to the dance floor this charismatic Londoner set the scene alight and people began to dance. Apparently they even announce his arrival at some of the most chi chi night clubs in the resort and I can see why. Before too long, I found myself casting off my inhibitions and dancing wildly to the music of a band called The Queens of the Snow.
Kevin used to work in information
technology and is now a professional landlord who is able to spend his time as he wishes. For the last five years he has spent his winters snowboarding and partying in Tignes and his summers waiting for winter. He says, “I could go to other resorts and I have visited a few but I just really love Tignes. For me it is the perfect place to be.”
A spot of dancing need not get in the way of skiing. In fact, we seemed to have hit the snow sports lottery and picked the best week of the season so far, so we were besieged by a strong desire to be out on the slopes whenever possible. The sun was shining and the snow powdery and perfect. I spent a couple of afternoons in the company of fellow guests, extending the ski day beyond morning lessons. As we traversed the vast ski area of the Espace Killy Region that joins the two skiing regions Val d‘isère and Tignes, we were immersed in the rhythmic swish of our ever evolving turns and in the magnificence of our surroundings.
The sparkling white stuff that smoothed our downhill journey blankets a landscape that is a naturalist’s paradise. Larch trees and conifers border the pistes and we saw animal tracks in virgin snow. This area of France is home to the ibex and the chamois as well as wolf, lynx and badgers. If you hear a loud whistling sound in springtime, the chances are it is a marmot. These large members of the squirrel family spend up to nine months of the year hibernating in underground burrows. We didn’t get to hear or see one but when a pair of birds, which are most likely members of the crow family known as choughs, flew alongside us for a short distance, I was inspired to take to the air myself. So I made the decision to book up for a paragliding session.
The next day I met up with Manu who is yet another character who appears to have a near perfect lifestyle. He works for Evolution 2 and spends his mornings teaching skiing and his afternoons taking novices like me on tandem descents of the mountains. We took the Tovière cable car to a height of 2,700 metres. When we had skied a few metres off-piste, Manu worked a bit of magic with cords and carabiners and I was soon in front of him and connected to both him and to the large blue parachute that was to give us the power of flight.
Before I knew it, it was time to point my skis towards the edge of the cliff and ski off it. There was no time for feelings of fearfulness or last minute regrets. Rather, a feeling of immense excitement was all encompassing. The take off was smooth. Then we soared and swooped like a crow playing in the wind. At times we got extremely close to toothy towers of exposed, craggy rock that demarcate areas where even the most intrepid skiers cannot go. Katherine waited below, camera in hand and was able to capture my delight in this incredible experience which was rounded off by a gentle landing.