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?
Tags: S5E13
