The Mountain Echo

While it still feels like just yesterday that they were beginning, the Winter Olympics are over. Fear not, as the X-Games are making their first trip over the pond from Aspen and our coming to a resort very near you aka Tignes! It’s not going to be as big as its American counterpart, but it will be considerably easier to watch it live, so naturally we have provided you with a definitive guide to what’s going on and who’s going to be competing (and who you might want to stalk in the bars in Tignes afterwards).

The competition runs from the 10-12th, so they have a mere 3 days to pack in all the extreme skiing and snowboarding. The competition is invitational and the competitors list looks pretty good, so you should expect an impressive show with some of Europe and America’s best throwing down to be the best at the inaugural European X-Games.

The field is mainly of a Scandinavian/American nationality base, but there are a few Canadians, Swiss and, of course, French athletes in there. Great Britain is being represented by the shining light of Jenny Jones in the boarding slopestyle, so if you’re looking for some home grown talent then we’d definitely recommend you getting down to watch that bit of the competition.

Some names you might recognise on the athletes list are: Simon Dumont, one of the finest superpipe skiers in the world. With no Tanner Hall he’ll be hoping to hold off the European competition to win after a bit of a stop-start season. Xavier Bertoni, who by all accounts is having a great season, will be flying the French flag in the men’s pipe so watch out for him to go big on home turf. The young guns like Duncan Adams and Justin Dorey will be looking to stake their claim on the podium as well. Bobby Brown and Sammy Carlson will be representing the USA in the skiing slopestyle but they’ve got a formidable Scandi army to compete with thanks to Andreas Hatveit and PK Hunder from Norway, as well as Henrik Harlaut from Sweden, who are all very capable of medal winning runs.

For the women skiers, Sarah Burke, Grete Eliassen and Jen Hudak will be trying to down the European challenge, but with Virginie Favre from France and Anais Caradeux from Switzerland the women’s competition looks like it’ll come down to who can handle the pressure on the day.

The boarding superpipe is dominated by US competitors with Olympic medal winner Scotty Lago making an appearance. Without Shaun White, he’ll be looking to seize his chance for gold, but the European challenge shouldn’t be discounted with Mathieu Crepel looking to win for the home crowd and Antti Autti hoping to capitalise on some good form for the Scandi contingent.

The slopestyle is a little more even with crowd favourites like Eero Ettala from Finland and Andreas Wiig from Norway looking to challenge for medals, but again you can’t ignore the effect of home field advantage and Mathieu Crepel has all the ingredients to take both medals home for France in the men’s boarding.

Among the women, Jamie Anderson and Torah Bright will be battling it out for the USA and Australia respectively but there might be surprises from the lesser known girls like Arka Pancochova of the Czech republic or Elena Hight from the USA.

In the slopestyle we hope that many of you will be supporting Jenny Jones as she looks for a European Gold to sit with her two from the USA in the women’s slopestyle. Cheryl Mass will be looking to challenge too, but the real competition will be from Gretchen Bleiler who was pretty upset after losing out to Jenny on her own continent.

What’s missing from these X-Games is the snow mobile competition, which is a lot like motocross but on a giant snowmobile. Don’t worry; there are snow mobiling demos every day from 3-4pm if you simply can’t live without it.

And finally, here is the comprehensive timetable. It might change due to weather and other shenanigans, but for the moment this is the definitive timetable. We will see you there!

We’re now well past the midway point of the season. Given the pace at which the weeks pass here, you’ll be packing up your ski wear for the summer in no time, returning to England or wherever you’re from with a goggle tan and a drinking problem that you need to address. There are a few things that you’ll kick yourself for not doing before you leave and, should you not end up coming back, you won’t want to look back when you’re 55 wishing you’d done it when you had the chance.

Ski resorts are like nowhere else in the world. You can get away with behaviour around here that would cost you limbs in other parts of the world. I’m talking about the kind of thing that when you’ve settled down with a proper job or, God forbid, a long term partner allows a half-smile to creep across your lips as you think back to your time here. Now is the time to go a bit wild and push your boundaries, so seize the opportunity you have in the last 8 weeks here and try to tick off everything/one left on your list. There is so much to do out on the mountain that we can guarantee you’ve barely scratched the surface. It’s not all difficult and plenty of it is achievable in the next two months.

We’ll start with the things that don’t require you to part with your hard-earned. The Espace Killy, in case you hadn’t noticed, is rather large. There is no way you’ve covered it all since the beginning of December. With this in mind, The Mountain Echo hereby challenges you to have placed your piste-toned buttocks on every single lift that this resort has to offer by season end. It does bear mentioning that the All Mountain Piste Badge is on offer if you combo it with skiing every run in resort in a week. There are some pretty obscure ones, particularly up on La Grande Motte and at the high end of Solaise, and if you’re a boarder you won’t be able to do the 3000 poma lift, as the pisteurs have banned gays on trays. You’ll also need to deliberately take two, or even three, lifts instead of one at times, like the chair lift route back from Brevieres; safe to say that once you’ve done it you can award yourself a well-earned pat on the back and get ready to regale your sharking target for the evening with your latest mountain tale.

The days that will really stay with you are the bluebird powder days and the perfect sunny days with your mates. Frequently, these can involve spending hours building a rather small kicker (let’s face it, you won’t be building a red size jump in a day) and then taking two runs over it before deciding you don’t want to kill yourself and hitting the Folie to work on your goggle tan. You should also end up with a couple of sick photos which, if taken from the right angle, make it look like you’re hitting 30 ft of air, landing with not a scratch on you. Even though you probably ate more snow than Frosty the Snowman, it’ll give you the perfect story for back home after the season is over. A variation on this theme is to head up the hill for a BBQ in the snow with your mates. You might want to wait until the weather warms up but once it does, going out the back of your flat or finding somewhere nice and quiet to fire up a BBQ with lots of food, and one or two beers, can’t be beat. It’s difficult to take a sunny day off, but it can end up being a nice change of pace, and if you’re clever the food won’t leave your pockets emptier than a Steven Seagal matinee.

Another Espace Killy rite of passage is climbing through the eye of the needle. If you’ve been living with your head under a rock this is the large rock with a giant hole in it that looks like, you’ve guessed it, the eye of a needle. You can get there via the Palafour lift from Tignes Le-Lac and then the Aiguille-Percee. Pick a blisteringly hot day and head up to grab yourself a Facebook profile shot just waiting to be exploited.

If you’re feeling exceptionally keen, you could try batting for the other team i.e taking up skiing if you’re a boarder and vice versa (what were you thinking, you sick ####). It’s time consuming and frustrating, but it’ll be well worth it when you can give the answer ‘I go both ways’ to anyone who asks you if you ski or board. If you’re looking for a challenge to end the season then head down this route. It’ll bring the unexpected back to the mountain and you’ll definitely go home tired and sore (in a good way) every day.

We’d also recommend trying some touring while you’re out here and considering staying overnight on a slightly longer trip. Never do this without a guide because it can be pretty dangerous, but if you club together with a couple of mates to split the cost you won’t regret it and you’ll be taken out of your comfort zone to parts of the mountain that you’ve never seen before.

There are so many things we could have packed into this article: parapenting, snowmobiling, nailing that trick in the park, day trips to other resorts. It’s completely up to you whether you want to end the season in a blaze of glory or allow it to gently peter out while you follow the same trusted routine again and again. We know which we’d prefer… anyone up for helping us build a tiny kicker?

We’ve all had those days where we have risen in the morning, looked out the window and seen a complete whiteout. Depressing thoughts cross your mind and you question what you’re going to do with your day. Fear not because we have been investigating your options should you call a weather day and not want to hide under the duvet.

Only the keenest skiers will be up on the hill in bad weather. That is undeniably true, and most of us will always have that thought in the back of your mind that you’ve still got plenty of time left for those epic days where you are on the lift at nine and only just making it to après at five. As a result, it’s very easy to call it and sit twiddling your thumbs in the flat wondering what exactly to do, but believe us when we say there is plenty going on in town even when it’s snowing.

Our first port of call would have to be the new sports centre. Shinier than a new copy of The Mountain Echo, this place has everything you could wish for to satisfy your sporting needs.

The swimming pool is its pride and joy and you can see why. You can lounge around in the various Jacuzzis or seating areas and look out onto the piste with the smugness of someone who isn’t about to lose feeling in their feet. Alternatively, you can get active and get in the pool itself. We had heard rumours that the water was a bit cold, but after extensive on site research, we’ve concluded that the people who say it’s cold should man up.

There are also saunas and steam rooms available, but you’ve got to pay a little bit extra for those. Having said that, if you’re planning to spend your whole day in the water, then it could be worth the few extra pennies.

Thankfully the sports centre isn’t just about the pool or the gym, as if you tried to stay there for a whole day you might get a little bored. There is also a great area for climbing with a full wall as well as a small bouldering wall, providing something a little different to get your veins coursing with adrenaline. You don’t need your own equipment. Shoes and harnesses are provided, but if you’ve never climbed before we might suggest one of the tuition sessions so you don’t drop your best mate off the wall when you aren’t concentrating.

As its name suggests, there are also basketball, badminton and squash courts. With classes on offer in the studio, it’s one of those centres that offer pretty much everything. If you can’t bear to sit around when the weather is bad then allow us to direct you there to burn off all the excess energy.

If you’re more of a sedentary type then the natural suggestion would be the cinema. There are two options: improve your French and go and see a showing in the native tongue of Val d’Isère or go to one of the English showings which might prove to be a less taxing and more enjoyable experience.The cinema is also kind enough to put on extra showings during the daytime on bad weather days, so you don’t have to wait until 5pm for your cinematic fix. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the movie while the crazy folks outside huddle together to shield themselves from the elements.

If you’re brave and think that you might be able to drive better than ski or board then you can wander towards La Daille and take on some of the Audi driving experiences. Personally I think I’d rather be on my skis than behind an Audi TT, but I’m also a girl and don’t give cars too much thought.

Next to that, if you wrap up warm you could give some ice karting a spin. This is pretty brave on a weather day because you’ll be in an open go-kart with questionable steering instead of a warm, safe Audi. That said, it’s pretty fun in bad weather and certainly adds that extra bit of excitement to the experience.

Weather days often find many heading back to the comforts of their duvet, but if you are able to drag yourself into town you might want to rent a DVD to watch while you’re underneath it. The Phillips shop does DVD rental and has loads of English films, so if the cinema is too much for you but you don’t really fancy doing nothing then either find a nice friend to get a DVD for you or don some jogging bottoms and grab one for yourself.

I know it sounds boring, but weather days are fantastic days to clean. I realise I sound like my mother but when there is nothing that you’re really missing out on then what better time to get the bathroom shining and the living room looking like someone could actually live in it again. Grab your marigolds and think how good you’ll feel once you’re done.

Frequently on weather days I find myself bar hopping, mainly looking for entertainment and hot chocolate. The bars will be busy in town simply because everyone is avoiding the mountain, so you can guarantee that you’ll find someone around. Try not to get too drunk though because if it’s snowing and the weather clears you don’t want to be missing an epic day on the mountain.

There are also a variety of bars around town that have board games. It may sound silly but an intense game of monopoly amongst friends can enjoyably while away the hours, especially when there are forfeits involved. While we’re talking games in bars, we couldn’t miss out pool or table football. You could take the day to train for one of the leagues in town, make a mid season entrance into the standings and then surprise everyone with the skills you have managed to acquire when the weather is bad.

So next time there is a day that even Arctic explorers wouldn’t be seen out in, we suggest you take a pro-active route and actually do something with your day. Rope a few friends in and you’re probably going to have a bit of fun. Childish behaviour works wonders when you’ve got nothing to do, so we’d definitely recommend regressing a few years and just enjoying yourself. No-one will be looking down on you for not skiing, so ignore that duvet and do something different. God knows, you might even enjoy it