Ski Tignes

Happy New Year, sports fans.

As the early season snowfall in the European alps was the best in 20 years, Sarah and I decided to cancel christmas and head for the mountains on a cheap last minute jolly. We ended up in Tignes, in the Espace Killy ski area in France. I'd never skied there before. Tignes is connected with the perhaps more well-known Val d'Isere - not that I'd been there either, but still. Our 'club hotel' overlooking the frozen lake was well placed, but somewhat reminiscent of 'Fawlty Towers' - great staff, but the rooms were quirky, heating didn't work, and the beds were falling apart. Still - we grew fond of it as the week progressed. A 'club hotel' is basically a slightly bigger chalet, operated along similar lines.

We had hoped to get off the pistes, but the big snow dump that had fallen a week or so earlier was pretty comprehensively tracked out unless you were prepared to don skins and climb for it, so we decided to focus on tuning up our skills for the new season. We booked two half-day mogul sessions with The Development Centre, a UK-staffed outfit focusing on the right-hand side of the bell curve of skiing ability. It proved to be a challenging, but rewarding couple of days. If you're in the Killy area, and have skied for a while, I really recommend seeking out TDC.

The Tignes-VdI area is a cool place to ski, and I'm keen to go back again.