Winter pictures from Val d'Isere

[vester]

I have just been to Val d'Isere to ski, and MAN what a great ski resort that is. Well I knew that already, been there before.

Together with Tignes, Val d'Isere makes up the ski resort Espace Killy.
Le Plus Bel Espace de Ski du Monde (trans: the Worlds Most Beautiful Skiarea.)
I tend to agree with them, but as I haven't been to so many...

Here is a map of the resort:

The numbers is reference to the number under the pictures.

The Val d'Isere area is made up of the 3 main area: Le Fornet, Solaise and Bellevarde, marked with yellow, blue and green overlays.

and for those of you who do read trail maps:

(Updated the link to the pistemap on the valdisere.com homepage, so the size is 4000x2037. It's big (6.2 mb) but you can see the trails now.)


Starting of with some pictures from the village:

[1]


[2]


[3] The local church.


[4]


[5] The "top" of town next to the slope, Le Face.


[6] A picture from the green slopes in the city.


Here is a picture from the top of the Madeleine slope in the Solaise area:

[7] In the back you see the lake, Lac Du Chevril. Under the surface is the old village of Tignes.

Moving down the slope, you can now see the village:

[8] In the middle you see La Daille where the roundabout is. The buildings out there kind of fall in with the threes.

The day of arrival it snowed till around 1-2 pm. The day after, we had a high sky, with some high winds:

[9] Tête de Solaise in high winds.

Here is one from the top of the Solaise area, from the top of the Cugnai slope.

[10] If I guess right, this is in direction of the Bellevarde area. The top is La Grande Motte (Tignes). Here you find summer skiing.

and with eyes turned down the Solaise area:

[11]

zooming in on the lake:

[12] Its the lift Madeleine Express going down from left to right. On the other side of that you will find the slope of the same name. The lift in the back (on the right side) goes to Tête de Solaise. (my translation would be Top of Solaise)

Now we take the lift Leissieres Express to the area, Le Fornet. One have to have a strong stomach for that lift. It goes up, and then down again.


Here is a picture from the lift, Leissieres Express:

[13] Maybe you can see what I mean with a strong stomach. Remember you are sitting in a chair lift, with you feet hanging in the thin air.

Turning you head up the valley, you will see the pass Col d'Iseran. The highest paved pass in the region, connecting Val d'Isere with the south and Italy:

[14]

Turning you hear just a little to the left, you see the highest point of skiing in the Val d'Isere area:

[15] Glacier de Pissaillas.

A view from the glacier:

[16]

another view from there. Now down the slopes:

[17] The lift we were just with, goes over that rift, just above the house in the middle of the picture.



Lets go down the valley to restaurant Le Signal and have some lunch.

[18] From the restaurant deck you can just see Val d'Isere.

Before turning home, lets just go up the mountain again:

[19] to the slope, Signal.

Ahhhhhh. Just had a big crash. The poles is 10 meters up the slope, camara and walkie is down the mountain and my hat and googles is too. Where the f*&# is my glasses ?
Ahh Thanks Mik.

Going back down the mountain and finishing of for today:

[20] with a red slope.

Well down in Le Fornet:

[21]

The day after I went up with the lift: L'Olympique and down the slope Orange:

[22] Had a stop on my way down to La Daille. The white s-cuve in the back is one of the slopes down to Le Fornet.

Turn the head just a bit, you can see Tête de Solaise:

[23] In the forest, you can see one of turns on the black slope Rhône Alpes.

After that we went back up the mountain and down to Tignes. Here we took the tunnel train and went to the glacier at La Grande Motte:

[24] If you look hard you might can recognize slope down to Le Fornet.

A view up La Grande Motte:

[25]

Finish of the day with the red slope triffolet to La Daille:

[26] Very icy, great fun.

On the last day, two of us went back to Tignes.

A famous rock formation at the top:

[27] known from the James Bond movie, A view to a kill. Here Bond went through the eye in the rock.


[28]


[29] The dam at the lake, Lac du Chevril.


[30] Thats is where we are going: Les Brevieres at the bottom of the dam. It's also known by the name: 3 seconds Tignes.
It takes 3 seconds before the city is flooded, if the dam burst.


[31] A picture of the lake from the cabine lift.

On the way back I went down a red slope called Rocs:

[32] Very hard ride but I made it.

I finish of the day with the Orange, the Triffolet and finally the Rhône Alpes.
Here is picture from the Triffolet:

[33] This is on the flat part, before its really gets funny.



Hope you have enjoyed the pictures, as much I have enjoyed skiing in Val d'Isere.
For all you skiing fans, I can only recommend Val d'Isere. Great slopes, almost no waiting times at the lifts and a real village.
We only experienced waiting times twice, at the top at the La Grande Motte at the 115 persons cabin lift and at the liaison / connection lift back to Val d'Isere at the end of day.
If you are going to Val d'Isere, rent you skies, I can only recommend Snow Berries. Its placed next to the main terminus of the free busses and next to the lifts, almost on the slopes, well around 50 meters. I had my shoes there, when skiing and when I finsihed skiing, I stored my skiings and boat there. So nice, not have to walk through the hole resort in ski boats.

[rooker1]

These pics are incredible.  You have made me so jealous.  It looks like you must have had alot of fun.  The mountains look absolutely beautiful and I wish I could have been there with ya.  Myabe someday, maybe someday. 

Robin 

[vester]

Thanks you, Robin.

Well, I might come to you in 2 or 3 years, when I have got a little better skiing.
We have been talking about going to Austria next year.

When I have got good at off-piste skiing, I am for sure going back to Val d'Isere. The area offers some great off-piste.


EDIT:
I mention the slope Le Face, but forgot to post the picture of it:

The weekend we came, there was held the World Cup, where Bode Miller won.

Next time I get to Val d'Isere, I will take a ride down this slope. It's dark black and very icy.
You can see the wires and some of the cabins for the cabin lift going up over the slope : L'Olympique

[wouanagaine]

You're making me jealous Vester


I'm used to go skiing at Val D'Isere/Tignes very often, but do to my recent change of job I won't have the luck to go skiing this year

I love the one which goes up then down to go between Le Fornet & Solaise, it is very impressive, especially on a windy day

I see it looks like there were enough snow to allow you skiing down to Les Brevieres, It was a very long time since I see enough snow to go so low. But I useally go on late March

Bellevarde Face That is where the Olympic slope were set up. I was lucky enough to ski it before they 'lift' it for the event, full of bumps. I hope you have also took a ride on the 'Les paquerettes' at Tignes le Lac

[vester]

Well, this year Val d'Isere have had a great snow year, so far. I read at Valdinet.com that the Triffolet slope was open earlier than normal, where its normally is open later in the season. There was some spot on the slope were the ground showed it's face.

I hope you have also took a ride on the 'Les paquerettes' at Tignes le Lac

Les paquerettes, a black ungroomed slope ? hmmm, well that has to wait for next time around. Not ready for that kind yet. Just got comfortable with the red and the easy black ones.

[vester]

Have add picture numbers to the overview map:

[vester]

Three of the days, I have my GPS turned on.

You can find the three data files here:
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008

There are two other trails, but there are some bad data in them.

Here is what it looks like in Google Earth:

Click to enlarge.

BTW: More pictures on the way.

[Vandy]

Hello, vester.

My apologies for being late in replying to your newly posted thread.  Welcome to "The Artist's Place" and to the "Memories Frozen In Time" thread.  It is always pleasant to have a new poster share their pictures.

And what beautiful pictures they are!  I am in awe of these breathtaking beauties.  Your mountain pictures are superb and your village pictures excellent.  I, myself, don't ski but looking at your pictures makes me ready to risk life and limb just to be able to enjoy such scenery.

Thank you for sharing these gorgeous photographs.  I look forward to your future posts.

Regards,

Gary (Vandy)

[Rayden]

Very nice pictures Vester. If you're planning to go to Austria, I can advise you to have a look at Zell am See / Kaprun area. About 70 kilometers from Salzburg and with over 200 km of runs. For skiers I would advise the runs of the Schmitten / Zell am See. For me, as i snowboard, I prefer the Kaprun / Kitzsteinhorn runs.
I'll see if I can put some pictures online and show them here in another thread.

Cheers
Silvio