Ski-Areas > Northern Alps > Savoie (73) > Tarentaise > Tignes > Off Piste > Arête du Genepi
On Sunday we met up with our guide, Olivier Carrere from Alpine Experience at the Rond Point des Pistes at 8.45am, sharp. It had snowed the previous day, something that complicated the drive up to Val d'Isère despite being equipped with snow chains. That Saturday, the 4th of January, was the traditional Rentree from the French Christmas break. In order to facilitate the thousands of cars and coaches driving out of resort the Gendarmerie had stopped cars driving up at Moutiers and Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Despite arriving late we caught the tale end of the chaos with people trying to climb the roads without snow chains or winter tyres. One young Policeman was trying to control the melee with limited affect. Beyond the aire du chainage a car was stopped slap bang in the middle of the road, the driver scratching his head as his passenger struggled with the snow chains like a diver with an octopus. They had bought the wrong size for the car and had not tried fitting them before leaving home. As the traffic backed up a convoy of around forty French, Belgium and German drivers tried to force a passage down the wrong side of the twisty mountain road. They quickly ran into descending traffic totally blocking the way. As a large coach gingerly came down the slope these drivers refused to yield or backup and got out of their cars waving fists and shouting at the drivers waiting patiently on the right to pull over or make room. As tempers frayed Geraldine called the Police in Val d'Isère who quickly sent a minibus of tired officers down the mountain. The last thing they needed after a long day was to sort out a fracas between idiot car drivers. Anyway the snow, between 50 - 70 cm would be much welcome following the rain that had hit lower slopes over Christmas. We would later hear that some people had been stuck on the autoroutes around Paris for 10 hours and the journey to Calais had taken close to 30 hours!
The fresh snow meant that the avalanche risk was 4.... high. This means that avalanches can start spontaneously or just from the weight of a single skier passing over the slope. Safe skiing demands a great deal of experience in these conditions. We took the new cable car, 18 high tech bubbles with 24 seats that can whisk you to the top of the Bellevard in 5 minutes. Then we skied some light on-piste powder around the Slalom drag lift. The slopes were empty and the clouds of last night's snowstorm slowly cleared to bathe the resort in a dull yellowish light. Next we took the Borsat chair to the Genepi ridge. This is a popular off piste route leading down to Tignes on a west facing slope and giving around 300 meters of descent. As we turned right from the lift a group of Australians yelled follow the guide, he must know some good spot. Olivier was not impressed. He asked the leader if he realised that the risk was currently 4 no idea cobber, he replied. Do you have pieps, Olivier continued. Again a negative. Do you think it is safe to be off piste skiing without any rescue equipment in these conditions? The leader turned around and headed back to the piste with his mates. Olivier had two worries, first off an inexperienced group would have little chance of rescuing one of their number without any gear and secondly they could trigger an avalanche above the slope we intended to ski. If you look at accident statistics, most accidents occur when the risk is 3, this is because higher risks are usually enough to keep most off-piste skiers at home. I was quite shocked by the attitude of these skiers, traversing a potential avalanche slope besides the Borsat chair without being either informed or equipped, but it would seem to be a fairly regular attitude. In his book Off-Piste (Amazon:187366804X or Amazon-UK:187366804X), Wayne Watson talks about a second season affect. Skiers or snowboarders, who've done a season, skied some routes, maybe with a guide and feel they've been around a bit. They go back to do some routes they did last year, safe in the knowledge that they've seen it all before. Or they buy the Vamos Guide (Amazon:2950367372 or Amazon-UK:2950367372) to try out some new routes, after all there were no problems on a similar slope last season. Only things are not the same, the wind direction, snow fall patterns and temperatures are all randomly different in a way that makes each day, each hour, a judgement call.
Arête du Genepi
I was acutely aware that our little group were completely reliant on Olivier's experience. We didn't climb up to the ridge to ski the whole slope but instead traversed carefully, one by one, to the right of the chair to join him on a ridge. Our little refuge. Safe skiing in potentially dangerous conditions. Two thirds of the way across the slope and I caught a ski tip in the deep powder, the binding released and I was left wallowing like a beached whale in the middle of the death zone. What an idiot. I called back to tell everyone to wait and tried to uncover my ski with as little fuss as possible, it was the only time I lost a ski all week but possibly in the worst possible place. I normally ski with my bindings set on the lighter side, I remember seeing a picture of a frozen skier, Swiss rescuers had just dug out of the snow, his legs contorted at impossible angles, in the slide his skis hadn't released and his legs were powerless to resist the force of the avalanche. The rest of the group waited patiently in the cold morning air before joining us on the ridge. The slope was pure champagne powder. Again we skied one at a time, keeping an eye on our companions in case disaster should strike. In this way there would be the maximum number of searchers and we would have an idea of where to start in case of an avalanche.
<< Tignes Off Piste | Tignes | Glattier >>