EMSC
Well-known member
Day 1 - Powder is delicious.
After driving over from 3 Valleys with actual snow on the ground/trees was a nice change of pace. After arriving and parking at P0 across from our hotel for the night, it turns out is only ~1 block from the lifts. With all the goings on at 3 Valleys basically none of us had looked at the trail map or had any knowledge of where we were going and randomly chose to go up the closest big lift - Solaise Gondola headed to the left side of the trail map.
That drops you into a big roll-ie type of terrain bowl (with some short tall steeps that mostly are not lift accessed. Fortunately we had ridden up with a Brit named Nigel who gave us the overall lay of the land on that left side of Val d'Isere. We took up the Glacier lift for a lap while salivating at what looked to be 8-12" of fresh snow. Then decided on heading even further left on the trail map by taking the 'rollercoaster' chair lift of Lessieres. It goes wildly up on side of the steep ridgeline and then very sharply back down the other side. Convenient, but it drops you off where you have to ski a very low angle blue down in. We decided to try out the Pyramides chair which looked a bit steeper than the gondola (let me know if any of these names are getting surprisingly repetitive as the lift names at 3 Valleys!). However at the top we saw a poma lift (Signal) going left to what looked like fun terrain and randomly chose to head that way.
Turns out we spent the rest of the morning farming powder just to the side of that short lift. Nicely pitched, winter snow underneath the new snow. We poked around a touch but found skiers left to have tons of room and deep powder. The clouds had not quite lifted yet, but were clearly starting to do so. But for our purposes the small bit of clouds in the area were keeping basically everyone off that lift. Visibility was actually fine, but looking from across or up the valley it would have looked socked in. Eventually that poma did get pretty busy but not till our final couple of laps (not sue how many we did in total, maybe 10?).
Eventually dropping down for a quick bite to eat at the base of the Vallon gondola (we hadn't had breakfast). After which we took the gondola up and checked out the low angle mostly shredded up Cascade lift terrain for 2 laps. After two laps (again tell me if this is repetitive to 3 Valleys) we were so not shocked that clouds and fog came in rapidly for a 5th day in a row, after which we simply made our way back across and down to the village of Val d'Isere in the fog.
The kicker is that our guide the next day said we probably got as good as we could have by farming the snow on that poma. Val d'Isere side had more/deeper snow than Tignes side, and that poma is higher altitude and a bit more pitch than the other high altitude stuff in that immediate area. Certainly total luck involved. No need for lemonade making for once...
You can take about 80% of this piste map and ignore it for this TR. We didn't ski anything to the right of the town of Val d'Isere
First time I've seen new snow at village level in 15 days of skiing in the alps (lifetime up to that point)
Can just barely make out the rollercoaster chair on the left ridgeline.
The infamous, is it actually closed or...
At the top of the Signal Poma you can access portions of backcountry terrain like Les Grand Vallons (we would do so on one run a day later).
Uh oh, more people are starting to come...
When the sun was out the views were spectacular of course... (new snow coving up any blemishes of prior no snow).
Cascade lift area
Had to be careful, surprising amount of rocky, almost hidden spots on Cascades lift...
And so much for the sunshine..
Required picture if you are in Val d'Isere?
Didn't see very many actual old structures in town, but this one qualifies...
After driving over from 3 Valleys with actual snow on the ground/trees was a nice change of pace. After arriving and parking at P0 across from our hotel for the night, it turns out is only ~1 block from the lifts. With all the goings on at 3 Valleys basically none of us had looked at the trail map or had any knowledge of where we were going and randomly chose to go up the closest big lift - Solaise Gondola headed to the left side of the trail map.
That drops you into a big roll-ie type of terrain bowl (with some short tall steeps that mostly are not lift accessed. Fortunately we had ridden up with a Brit named Nigel who gave us the overall lay of the land on that left side of Val d'Isere. We took up the Glacier lift for a lap while salivating at what looked to be 8-12" of fresh snow. Then decided on heading even further left on the trail map by taking the 'rollercoaster' chair lift of Lessieres. It goes wildly up on side of the steep ridgeline and then very sharply back down the other side. Convenient, but it drops you off where you have to ski a very low angle blue down in. We decided to try out the Pyramides chair which looked a bit steeper than the gondola (let me know if any of these names are getting surprisingly repetitive as the lift names at 3 Valleys!). However at the top we saw a poma lift (Signal) going left to what looked like fun terrain and randomly chose to head that way.
Turns out we spent the rest of the morning farming powder just to the side of that short lift. Nicely pitched, winter snow underneath the new snow. We poked around a touch but found skiers left to have tons of room and deep powder. The clouds had not quite lifted yet, but were clearly starting to do so. But for our purposes the small bit of clouds in the area were keeping basically everyone off that lift. Visibility was actually fine, but looking from across or up the valley it would have looked socked in. Eventually that poma did get pretty busy but not till our final couple of laps (not sue how many we did in total, maybe 10?).
Eventually dropping down for a quick bite to eat at the base of the Vallon gondola (we hadn't had breakfast). After which we took the gondola up and checked out the low angle mostly shredded up Cascade lift terrain for 2 laps. After two laps (again tell me if this is repetitive to 3 Valleys) we were so not shocked that clouds and fog came in rapidly for a 5th day in a row, after which we simply made our way back across and down to the village of Val d'Isere in the fog.
The kicker is that our guide the next day said we probably got as good as we could have by farming the snow on that poma. Val d'Isere side had more/deeper snow than Tignes side, and that poma is higher altitude and a bit more pitch than the other high altitude stuff in that immediate area. Certainly total luck involved. No need for lemonade making for once...
You can take about 80% of this piste map and ignore it for this TR. We didn't ski anything to the right of the town of Val d'Isere
First time I've seen new snow at village level in 15 days of skiing in the alps (lifetime up to that point)
Can just barely make out the rollercoaster chair on the left ridgeline.
The infamous, is it actually closed or...
At the top of the Signal Poma you can access portions of backcountry terrain like Les Grand Vallons (we would do so on one run a day later).
Uh oh, more people are starting to come...
When the sun was out the views were spectacular of course... (new snow coving up any blemishes of prior no snow).
Cascade lift area
Had to be careful, surprising amount of rocky, almost hidden spots on Cascades lift...
And so much for the sunshine..
Required picture if you are in Val d'Isere?
Didn't see very many actual old structures in town, but this one qualifies...
