Winter Season 2007 - 2008

Hello again...

So as we draw into October, the realisation has dawned that we're only 2 months away from the start of the main winter season.... which in turn has cuased a serious problem in my life.

Namely, I'm in Australia, (racing yachts and doing some real work for once in my life) and looks like I'm here for some time to come.

So I'm sorry to announce that this winter Ride Tignes will not be running. Instead, we've turned over all our business to Richard who's vehicles many of you will already know because we were using them last year!

Richard's is a great company and he's a good friend of mine. So use them for all your transport requirements this year by emailing us at Ride Tignes and we'll forward you on.

I'll be back next winter to pick up where we left off!

Have a great winter. Here's to fresh tracks in waist-deep powder and blue skies. Think of me, sweating in Australia when you're lining up for an epic powder run. I'll be out in Tignes over New Year and probably again in April, so if anyone's around I'll be mostly found in my usual haunts of Jam, Lavachet Lounge and the Loop... see you for a beer?

Ian

26th March: Foot of Snow last night!

Yep, that's a foot of snow last night. It was kinda whiteout today, but we still managed to lay some sweet lines. The base is now standing at 260cms = which is HUGE, so should see us through to the close of season at the middle of May. It's been windy, so it's a little thin on the ridges, but otherwise we're on full winter super-cold snow conditions. Brilliant.....

22nd March: Snowing!

It's snowing! It's been doing so all week (on and off), but not very heavily. What it has done is soften up the pistes just nicely, and lay down a layer just in time to cause havoc on the roads for transfer day - I can't wait for tomorrow! The temps have been SERIOUSLY cold (-15), so the snow is brilliant and the spring slush of a couple of weeks ago has disappeared. This is more like it! Big dump due next week....

15th March: Sunny!

Hi everyone. Firstly, apologies for my lack of blogging. I was sick all last week, and working ridiculously hard on the expansion for Ride Tignes for next year (we're about to get VERY big), whilst at the smae time setting up the Dive Company for the summer in Egypt. It's been mayhem, and I've been neglecting you!

So anyway, it's been really sunny and warm up here, and the snow is slowly melting - but don't worry, we've still gots loads left! It's been proper spring / slush skiing, which I love. It's brilliant for jumping and trying new tricks as your more likely to drown than hurt yourself. Next week though it's al change - back to minus 10 and 60 - 70 cm of snow forecast...

Bring it on!

Ian

2nd March: Still Snowing...

Nuff said....

1st March: Still DUMPING!!!

This is getting silly...

After a day of bluebird on Tuesday 27th, and probably the best day I've ever had in the Espace Killy, it's been snowing ever since. It must have dropped another 30cm or so in the last 24 hours. It's just put another 5cm down on my car in the last 3 hours. This is a LOT of snow.

Here's a few pictures of Chardonnet Bowl to inspire - honestly, what a day.

26th Feb: It's dumping!

We've had over half a metre in the last 36 hours, and it's showing no sign of stopping. Really nice snow, really powdery. I was playing down towards the trees today, and was getting constant face-shots for the first time since I've been in Tignes! Awesome. Apparently it's due to do this all week as well...

I'd love to post a picture, but it's just pointless at the moment. Rumour has it that we've got a few hours sunshine tomorrow, so I'll try and get a few snaps then. This is definitely the arrival of the March storm - the same thing happened last year. Bring it on....

18th Feb: Cloud cover, good piste conditions

So another busy week dawns with a nice snow pack, and cloudy conditions. My hangover and the lack of decent light prevented my getting on the snow today, but we've had a couple of epic powder days recently. The pistes are in great nick, but the snow offpiste is now quite crusty and nasty.

This combined with some major temperature and wind variations forecast has put me off the off-piste for the time being. However, it's nice and soft around the edges for playing and trying tricks. I came so close to my first 540 the other day. Ah well, it'll come. More snow may hit us late this week, so fingers crossed it keeps coming and it sets us up for yet another super-long season like last year.

www.ridetignes.com
Transfers from Chambery, Geneva, Grenoble and Lyon to Tignes and Val d'Isere
New accommodation service coming soon too!

14th Feb: Whiteout again!

Everything cleared up for about two hours yesterday afternoon, which resulted in the best run of the season down to busstop. It was also clear for about an hour this morning, which resulted in a rather painful 540-to-faceplant on an apparently soft piste. Ouch! However, it's now 1500, and it's puking again. Due to go clear tomorrow.

The snow that's dropped so far is classic AK-pack - it snowed 2 feet and all stuck together! Avalanche risk on any normal face is far less than would be usually expected, but we have got some MASSIVE windslabs up to a metre thick around the place. Someone triggered one right next to the Tichot piste yesterday. He was on his own, had no equipment on him, and was buried for 4 hours before he was reported missing and his body dug out. Don't mess with these slabs - they're scary as hell.

www.ridetignes.com -accommodation and transfers to Tignes

12th February: Photos

So here's a couple of pictures, one of what Lavachet looks like right now, and one of Bungee shredding Le Sache valley on Friday. Happy days...
www.ridetignes.com

12th February: It's PUKING!

So we had about 20cms on Thursday, and then it went bluebird on Friday. We had a great day, although the snow was a little shallow in places. The pack was fairly stable (except on high-northish slopes), so with mininal avalanche risk we went out and ripped. Since then we've been working too hard to go out, but it's now Monday and it is absolutely puking out here. Andy, who runs metcheck.com, reckons that today we could take a direct hit from a triple-point depression which could give us up to a metre of snow today alone!!! Unfortunately my camera is out of batteries so I can't show you what we got up to on Friday, or what it looks like right now. Just think of white, and lots of it....

Come play!

www.RideTignes.com

5th February: Snow Coming!

You can tell we're getting bored... the picture above is of Tristan from the Loop going huge on last night's floodlit session. If he goes any bigger we're going to have to extend the landing somehow, because he was just about clearing it.
Anyway, the snow conditions are good, if a little hard. The warm temperatures have been resulting in slush / spring conditions on some aspects in the afternoons, but it doesn't seem to be melting too badly. The important news is that we're due quite a lot of snow in the next five days. None of the weather models seem to be able o agree with each other about how much and when, but one thing is for sure - it's on it's way!
www.RideTignes.com

29th January 2007: Good piste conditions

So here's the view from Le Home Club in Le Lavachet. Apologies to all for the last week of no posts - we're back now with a little more regularity hopefully.
So what's happened? Well, last Tuesday / Wednesday we took about 20 - 30cm's of snow. It then got REALLY REALLY cold, but we're back to normal January temperatures now (about minus 10 at night, 0 during the day). The pistes are mostly in excellent condition. It's quite hard now, but not icy. You don't want to fall hard, but it's ok - you can still get an edge in no problems. The only sector that isn't brilliant are the runs down to Les Brevieres. Fro some reason these are now really icy., Don't know why. Anyway, the sun is shining, and I'm sat inside writing this.... why I ask you, WHY?
No idea. I'm going boarding...

www.RideTignes.com - Luxury private transfers from Geneva, Chambery, Lyon and Grenoble to Tignes, Val d'Isere and surrounding resorts...

18th January: SNOWING!!!

Yep, we got a couple of cm's last night, and it's been snowing lightly since. Apparently the snow-rain interface is at the Dam at 1800m, so it's not terribly dry snow, but it's good enough to soften everything up. It's actually coming down quite hard right now, but we're in cloud so it's impossible to see ANYTHING. The photo isn't actually what Tignes looks like right now, but it's not far off!!!

16th January: Getting hard out there, but good snow cover

Yep, it's getting a little hard out there now, but it's not too icy. You can still get an edge in on everything but the steepest blacks. I've not added a photo today because I can't be bothered and there's nothing really to show. Grey overcast sky and lots and lots of white! Weather due to clear up tomorrow though and then snow over the weekend. Fingers crossed...

www.ridetignes.com Transfers to and from Tignes and Val d'Isere to all major airports

14th January: Blue Skies

Hello everyone. It's beautiful weather out here at the moment. It has been unbelievably warm, but fortunately we've got enough snow and we're high enough to get away with it. The piste conditions are good, albeit a bit hard (as I found out crashing an ambitious move earlier on today). We're all white, no rocks showing through, plenty of base yet to go. It's just hard to believe that it's January at 2100m in the mountains!
Rumour has it that the unettled weather that has been battering the UK is going to start shifting south by the weekend, courtesy of a roaring Atlantic Jetstream. What will happen? Who knows... but it's gonna snow! Keep watching this space...

8th January: Whiteout

Yep, it's snowing and cloudy, a combination which means that visibility is ZERO! We've spent the afternoon building a kicker out the back of the Home Club in Lavachet and learning to Cab5 and flip into the soft stuff. These conditions are due to continue until at least Saturday. The snowpack is incredibly unstable, so off-piste is right out of the equation. A very well-known and well-respected Pisteur, Bruno, got slid a couple of days ago and is currently in Grenoble Hospital in a coma. I have no intention of joining him, so I'm currently living in kicker-city. The photo today is of a few boards outside Scotty's (where I'm currently sat and enjoying free internet) because any other photo is just going to be white...

4th January: Still Snowing....

Hi everyone. It's still snowing. I honestly have no idea how much snow has fallen, but we've gotta be talking over a metre over the last few days by now, and it's still going. It went bluebird yesterday, but clouded in again this morning and started snowing again this afternoon. Rumour has it we're expecting ANOTHER dump (this one hasn't finished yet!) on Sunday...

Avalanche Risk: STUPID.

Some kid threw a switch 5 into a wind-loaded terrain trap on an avalanche risk of 4 yesterday. Landed it, stopped in the bowl and everything slid on top of him. He was under (without a transceiver) for AN HOUR, and walked away from it... He wins the award simultaneaously for the Luckiest Man and Stupidest Man in France.

The average male victim of an avalanche is 27 years old with a high-level of skiing or snowboarding and no mountain knowledge... The average female victim is following her boyfriend...

For those of you who don't have avalanche gear, head to Snow Park on Rue de la Poste for the full gear for cost (about 300 yoyos). The guy who runs it is ex-ski patrol and wants to keep people alive. Buy it, then learn to use it, and then come play.

2nd January: MASSIVE DUMP!

The silliness began last night. I think we've had about a foot of fresh over night, and it's still going. It's actually very hard to guess the depth because the strong winds have drifted it into massive piles, completely burying cars in some places. We've no idea what it's actually done to the pistes (no-one with any sense is daft enough to head up in these conditions), but it can only be good.

Off-piste however is going to be a completely different matter. The lack of snow fall over the last few weeks has allowed the base to transform into something called depth-hoar, especially on north-facing slopes because of the lack of sunlight. Whilst unlikely to avalanche by itself, it is a completely unbonded layer, and everything is just going to slide straight off the top of it. Combined with the wind-slabs that will have formed last night, and it is going to be very very dangerous out there. If you're going off-piste, take all the gear and a guide (available from the Guiding Centre just down from the Loop in Tignes Le Lac).

The roads are chaos as well, so if you're heading up here, please ensure you've got chains and know how to use them! Happy New Year!

1st January: Happy New Year - IT'S SNOWING!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

As the clock struck midnight, the DJ's went nuts in the centre of Tignes Le Lac, and one of the greatest fireworks displays I've ever seen kicked off. Two hours of great music and an incredible light show saw the New Year in. But the best bit of it was that at the very moment that the first array of fireworks arced into firey oblivion, it started snowing...

No kidding!

And it's still doing it now! We've had between 10 and 15cm's in town already. So we'll see what happens over the next 48 hours....

31st December: Fresh Snow!

Not much, but we got a couple of unexpected cms last night. Woke to bluebird conditions and a thin layer of white stuff... all good. Roll on tonight and tomorrow for the big guns...