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...

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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...

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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...