Chalet Tignes

How lucky am I? Thousands of people stranded abroad due to international flight cancellations, and I am in Tignes. Let’s hope flights won’t restart until the 11th May when the Tignes winter ski season officially closes.

Of course I have been thinking about contingency plans for how to get back to the UK. To be honest not really hard as there is always a way back from France.

For once you can easily drive back to the UK. Journey times to the French ports are less than 10 hours and if you keep the stops to a minimum you can do it in less than eight hours. I checked with my car hire company and I would be able to drop-off my car in Calais.

Not that I am in  a rush, snow conditions in Tignes are fantastic and even the off-piste is still good. Yesterday I skied Vallon de la Sache all the way down to Tignes Les Brevieres. I had a 10cm soft cover of snow on top of the dense solid snow foundation. … all to myself.

I love skiing Tignes late April, more often than not the snow is great and the past five years we had fresh snow even as late as early May.  The days are longer, the sun is warmer and a lot less people. Temperatures are still minus degrees, keeping the snow nice and consistent. Yes there is the odd slush lower down in the afternoon but it is April after all.

Skiing down the Grande Motte is still like sking in January, with firm, gripping snow ideal for racing long carving turns. No queues at the bottom of the Grande Motte cable car, no delays just continuous up and down on one of the most spectacular runs in the Alps and the world. Yesterday I managed almost 4 runs per hour from 3450m Grande Motte all the way down to Leisse chair lift.

Back to the vulcano and the current traffic chaos. You need not have to rely on flights getting to Tignes anyway.  There are direct train connections between London King’s Cross and Bourg St Maurice, from where it is just a 30min transfer to Tignes. Many transfer operators and busses operate on the route form Bourg st Maurice to Tignes. there should be no problems making arrangements at low cost.

As I am writing this blog post (sitting in my apartment overlooking Tichot) the first flights landed in Geneva airport. It looks like the air traffic ban has been lifted in London after a 6 days shutdown and it seems a large part of the British air traffic is expected to resume its works.

I for once had made my contingency plans.  Having said so I don’t have to go back to the UK before the end of the week and I could think of worse places to be stranded than Tignes. In fact, I wish the flight ban had been introduced later so I could stay to the end of the ski season.

Oh well there is always next year.