Tignes

Tignes ( ) is a commune in the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France, known for the highest skiable area and the longest ski season in Europe. It is located in the Savoie region with good transport links in and out of Lyon, Geneva and Chambéry. It is widely known as a snow sure ski resort, with neighbouring Val d'Isère it forms the Tignes – Val d'Isère ski area. The proximity of two resorts has a continuous link between the ski areas, and as a result a single ski-able area of 300km piste. Tignes was the freestyle skiing venue for the 1992 Winter Olympics, co-host city for the 1992 Winter Paralympics and host of the Winter X Games. This, coupled with the year round skiing, season length and large number of ski parks/slalom runs has cemented Tignes as the go to training ground for snow sport athletes. The terrain of valley lends itself to more challenging skiing, with advanced skiers often opting for the resort as their preferred ski area. The town has however strived to improve its appeal to beginner and intermediate skiers with the introduction of easier runs lower down in the valley towards Tignes-Les-Brévières and upgrading existing chairlifts and installing new ones with smaller elevation gains.

Geography

Villages

Tignes comprises 5 Villages; Tignes Val Claret, Tignes le Lac, Le Lavachet, Tignes Les Boisses and Tignes-les-Brévières. The first three are close together at 2100 m with Les Boisses and Les Brevieres further down the valley, above and below the dam respectively. All the towns located above the dam are linked by a free continuous shuttle bus. The only village located below these villages, Tignes Les Brévières, is accessible to the others via a free gondola service which operates late into the evening. Les Brévières remains the only remaining part of the original town, with all the others created as part of the dam construction or development of the ski resort. All the villages are part of the ski resort known as Tignes.

Dam (barrage de Tignes)

The original village of Tignes (at 1700m) was in the Isère valley below Val d'Isère. After the second world war, France needed electricity and it was decided to build the hydro-electric Tignes Dam in the Isère valley. Whilst this was a great achievement for French engineering and was for the greater good of France, it meant that the old village of Tignes was drowned. The dam was completed and the village was submerged in 1952. A replica of the original church was created in Tignes les Boisses. Once every 10 years the lake behind the dam (Lac du Chevril) is drained for maintenance work and the remains of the old village becomes visible. The dam was painted with a fresco of Hercules in 1989 by Jean-Marie Pierret with the help of eight mountain climbers; it was funded by private corporations interested in boosting the Olympic appeal during the winter games of 1992 which took place in nearby Albertville.

Climate

Tignes has a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dfc). The average annual temperature in Tignes is . The average annual rainfall is with August as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Tignes was on 23 July 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 27 February 2018.

Population

Operations

There are 56 ski patrollers covering the resort of Tignes. 15 snow cats maintain the quality of the pistes. Four of these are equipped with winches for working steep slopes and one is adapted for shaping the half pipe. Around 60 percent of the slopes are groomed each evening.

Grande Motte glacier

Owing to the presence of the Grande Motte glacier, Tignes used to offer year round skiing but, as the glacier has receded in recent years, this has now ceased. However skiing on the glacier is still possible during some of the summer months and in autumn, as well as during the winter season (end of November to beginning of May). The Grande Motte cable car has recently been upgraded to increase access to the top of the glacier.

Tarentaise Valley skiing

The Tarentaise Valley is the biggest concentration of world-class ski resorts in the world. The well-known neighbour systems are Paradiski (Les Arcs and La Plagne) and Les Trois Vallées (Courchevel, Meribel, Val Thorens and more). There were once plans to interlink all systems and resorts to create the largest ski area in the world. However, that vision was ended with the creation of the Vanoise National Park.

2017 avalanche

On 13 February 2017, four people died in an avalanche in the ski resort. It was reported to be at least 400 metres (1,300 ft) wide and at an altitude of 2,100 metres. The members were being led by an ESF instructor but were skiing on a notoriously avalanche prone area, on a day when the avalanche risk in the resort was high.

Tour de France

Tignes was first used as a summit finish for Stage 8 of the 2007 Tour de France. Tignes was scheduled to be the summit finish for stage 19 of the 2019 Tour de France. Due to a snowstorm and mudslide, the road to Tignes was impassable and so the stage was ended at Col de l'Iseran instead. Tignes was the summit finish for stage 9 of the 2021 Tour de France, as well as the location for the first rest day of the Tour. The stage was won by Australian Ben O'Connor.

References

1992 Winter Olympics official report. pp. 112–3.

External links

Tignes website Photo gallery of Tignes Profile of climb Panoramic photo of dog sledding on Tignes Lake

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370323573 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.

Names in other languages