Season Diary – Day 3

Tuesday 9th December 2025 - Tignes, France

Straight from the pot, into the fire.

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Today was shadowing a Rep assessment day, evaluating potential new Reps and whether they should pass the course.

Something had happened to the snow overnight; first runs down towards the Tommeuses chairs the groomers had just been hit by the sun, and had softened up ever so slightly. They remained firm, fast and grippy, so much so that I carved some of my strongest carving turns I had ever done!

That all changed quickly, however, as we wound down to La Daille. What had been lovely yesterday and the day before was quickly turning to boilerplate hardpack, even this early in the morning. With some of the pistes already being prepared for the Women’s World Cup, this wasn’t set to change.

With that contrast in mind, we hopped on the bus and cut up to the other end of Val d’Isere, at Le Fornet. Up high here, the conditions remained excellent. We were met by the same sun-drenched corduroy pistes, but this time we cut off to the side of the piste and managed to score some nice off piste on the way down.

It hadn’t snowed for a couple of days by this point, the last falls being the whiteout conditions we had on Sunday. High pressure was sitting over the Alps, resulting in clear, dry bluebird conditions. Off piste was by this point mostly tracked out, but soft snow and fun could still be found.

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Coffee break. Then onto the up-and-over to Solaise, and a run all the way down – via the magic carpet – to Val d’Isere proper. This was my first time in Val d’Isere this season, and I really missed it. I’m not going to be spending my normal week here this season, so to be so close and know that I’m not going to hit up Cocos, ski tour Col des Fours, or play around in Grand Vallon this year was deflating.

But on we soldiered. Up Face on the Olympique gondola, then down the fast blues lunch at Marmottes followed by Borsat and the long, fast green runs back to Tovieres, then down into Tignes Val Claret. Up Tichot and Grattalu, then Grand Huit and eventually the long blue, Palafour, back to Tignes le Lac.

What a day. This is one of those days where we properly got the miles in and, almost literally, explored every part of the whole Espace Tignes - Val d'Isere. I often complain that the 300km of pistes here can all seem a bit boring, that you are constantly skiing to get somewhere rather than skiing for skiing's sake but today really helped to shift taht perspective.

At all times there was a goal in mind - namely to make to Tignes le Lac from the very far side of Val d'Isere. We were skiing with purpose all day, rarely if ever repeating lifts and with a constant sense of exploration and wonder for the world around us, even if we had been here many times before. Each lift was not somewhere to aim for but somewhere to stop and contemplate the skiing we had just done.

Suddenly, 300km of pistes felt like a playground rather than an excuse.

What a day. What a day to kick off being on the other side of the curtain. What a day to see Tignes and Val, to see all of them, to see them in a new light.