Up at 5am as I had kindly offered to drive one of our single guests to Val bus station. Only a 20 min downhill walk but pretty rubbish when you're the soul departee in what felt like the middle of the night in minus 16 conditions. I had already put the snow chains on the van the night before so there was no drama and I was out and back in bed spooning for 5.20am.
We've really enjoyed having Alex here. Not only is he a friendly face, it's a whole different group to ski with. Alex came with Norris, Jason (gay on a tray) and Dave (Steaders). So after a wee lie in it was a quick ski across to Tignes and a slick ride through the mountains on the funicular getting us up close to the top of the resort.
For 300 days per annum the Tignes Val Claret funicular transports its passengers to the Grande Motte covering the distance from 2100 to 3032 metres in a time of between 6 to 8 minutes. The idea was the brain child of Bernard Genevray the then President of the STGM lift company in 1980. He could see the advantages of an all weather transport system to move passengers up to the Grande Motte en masse over the current two existing cable cars and after the Compagnes des Alpes became the majority share holder, the project completed its feasibility studies in 1988. The works started in July 1989 was planned for completion to coincide with the Albertville Winter Olympics of 1992, however, with the best intent and a few geological surprises along the way the project was not completed until April 1993, much to the joy of those skiing late in the season.
Alex was on his legendary telimarks but as usual they didn't seem to slow him down that much, although he was complaining about his thighs after 6 days of pretty hardcore ski action. Another beautiful day, no wind and clear skies it was hard to not ski yourself stupid. The views were just wonderful we even caught a glance of Mont Blanc. The conditions have been so good for so long we're now starting to think already 'have we had the best of it already?' Whatever happens with future snowfall, its been a great week with Mr A Prince. Priceless.
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