MegèveSki

Back from Tignes

The trip to Tignes was a great success. The snow, weather and company were all excellent. This was the first Ski Club trip that I've been on and the first time that I've skied with Ski Club reps; given how good the trip was I doubt it will be the last!

The on-snow highlight of the trip was day 3 when we skied with ESF's Frédéric Juliard and did a monster, high speed, off-piste trip around the whole area. This kind of day really benefits from having someone who knows the area inside out. We skied on perfect off-piste conditions all day as we followed the sun around. The finale being a 10 minute hike up to the Chardonnay couloir; which was a new level of steep for me, with good snow. Once out of the couloir we cut across a field of avalanche debris and skied a wonderful section of steep untouched corn snow. The whole experience was a perfect example of why I ski and the stuff that apré ski tales are made of.

The off-snow highlight was our Sunday evening meal at Chalet Colinn. This is a wonderfully restored (though really, it's been rebuilt!) chalet is set in a gorgeous location overlooking the Tignes dam and Val d'Isère. The building is a wonderful mix of traditional and modern with an amazingly high quality finish (due to my former life and my own building projects) I appreciated the high quality craftsmanship and love that had so obviously gone into the construction of the building. Our meal of cheese fondue was excellent, the wine was good and the views over the mountains as the sun set were to die for. There's just something about how the colours and light work together in mountain sunsets that makes them one of the main things that I miss when I'm back in London.

All in all an excellent trip. Thanks to all involved for making all of it so much fun.