This morning we started up the Olympique gondola and headed straight for Tignes via Borsat.
We wanted to get James up to see Grand Motte. View down Les Lanches to Val Claret, Lac de Tignes and Tignes 2100:
There’s about 500 vertical under the top of Les Lanches to the base of Vanoise. The direct fall line off piste was north facing chalk which Liz is enjoying here.
Views from Vanoise chair are impressive. 3,852 meter Grand Casse with glacier on looker’s right:
Grand Motte with glacier on right and pistes barely visible at left:
We got up to the Grand Motte tram just in time, making the next one to arrive. The lift line doubled over the next 10 minutes. But James has lots of elbow room on Grand Motte’s Glacier piste.
At center right you can see the surface lift used for summer skiing.
View to Tignes about 2/3 of the way down the Glacier piste:
The snow terraces are built to protect the snow from wind during winter/spring and then mined for late spring skiing to be preserved down to the Vanoise lift. There were similar terraces up high near the summer surface lift.
Here I split off skier’s right where I had noticed a couple of people skiing while riding the tram. While there was some sastrugi, there was plenty of smooth winter snow to ski fluidly. There was a moderately steep rollover ahead.
However, Liz and I had skied out here in 2018 so I knew I would not be cliffed out.
View down to Leisse chair from top of the rollover:
Note there are just two people chilling out about halfway down. This was one of those “why we come to the Alps” runs, and it remains a mystery why there were no guides out here vs. the 5 groups on the mostly obnoxious snow we skied the day before on Tour de Charvet.
View back up just as Liz approaches on the piste next to the Leisse chair:
View riding Leisse:
The wide sunny piste is at low center. I skied in the shadow of the rocks center left.
From top of Leisse we skied Genepy, a long and mellow blue with that Alps wilderness ambience. However it merged down low into the Fresse run coming into Val Claret, which at peak noon hour had skier density on a level with Hunter or Mt. High. We got out of there via Tichot and had lunch at Le Palet at the base of Grattalu.
After a lap on Grattalu, Liz and I headed for Aiguille Percée via Grand Huit.
From the Aiguille Percée lift we saw a skier at the base of the arch.
Of course I had to check that out.
From the top of the lift the Aiguille Percée is quite accessible.
Liz traversed around the left while I took the short step up to the right to get to the arch.
There several Brits taking turns at the arch. I exchanged photo ops with one of them. He did not get the whole arch with my camera.
I did not want to make him back down the slope as he did not have his skis on. But I managed this selfie with my phone.
The south facing slope below had softened nicely when I was there around 2:30.
The spring snow was so good we took an extra lap on the piste.
Note Liz is to the side of the piste where the snow was smoother. I had traversed looker’s left into a steeper bowl of corn snow.
We next skied off the back of Aiguille Percee on Corniche and started down Mysolis to the Aiguille Rouge lift. The piste was narrow and scraped so we both bailed into the off piste shown in this pic.
The bottom of Aiguille Rouge is about the same elevation as Tignes 2100 so the snow was in a hardpack transition. Nonetheless we found it more enjoyable skiing than a scraped piste. I also think Aiguille Rouge’s wide open intermediate pitched north facing slopes would be great on a powder day.
At the top of Aiguille Rouge is obligatory French ski area sign.
View from same spot to Tignes:
The north face of the peak above Tignes has some couloirs and steep lines that would interest ChrisC.
After a great ski day like this it was worth checking out the scene at La Folie Douce.
Liz and I skied 18,700 vertical.
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