Tignes in November

This weekend, thanks to the combined team effort of some of our awesome friends out here, Natalie and i managed to get away to Tignes for some pre-season skiing on the glacier.  It was an amazing weekend away, thanks to our excellent friends who gave us place to stay and looked after Scarlett and Runa for us.

Natalie at 3100m

The apartment we stayed in was the closest possible apartment to the funiculaire - literally 50m in a straight line.  The snow at the top was surprisingly good and i've become surprisingly unfit during the summer - my salopettes were too tight!

At about 3300m trying my best to carve

The common problem for the last year has been that my old Bandits are ruined and so i've been having to ski everywhere on my Sultan 94s.  They are way too big for skiing glacier ice and hard bumps, and quite tricky to carve - i have to get my new skis soon!  I'm thinking Scott Aztec, but the jury is out... you know how good i am at making fast purchasing decisions.

Natalie, carving :)

I can heartily recommend Tignes - we've skied there in January, August, and now November.  The snow is always good, the sun has always been out and we've always had an amazing time.

The downside is it is incredibly expensive.  We spent about €150 on food for the two of us for 2 lunches and a small evening meal... incroyable.

The other downside is that you do rather feel like a beginner with all the amazing race-skiers around.  The standard of skiing is extremely high.  Most people rate resorts in terms of steepness and number of correct coloured runs to establish the beginner-friendly-ness of a resort.  I think it's smarter to just look at the average skill level of the other skiers there.  The skill level at Tignes in November is unbelievably good.  It's worth going just to watch them ski and learn from their technique.

Having said all that the lady in the background of Natalie's photo above was a statistical outlying to the number of experts out there... i think i need to airbrush her out...