Description

This is not a ski tour you would ever choose to do in isolation.

In fact it is stretching the definition of a ski tour.

Yes we had skins on, but only to go up the piste.

Yes we went skiing, but only to go down the piste.

Then it was a long section walking on the road, which seemed unavoidable, given the bad weather and the high avalanche risk.

Our mission had always been to traverse the Alps from the Med to Vienna, accepting no mechanised transport, in other words no ski lifts, no buses, no cars, no trains, just our own 2 feet.

And this was one of those days, that was always going to happen. From Tignes follow the pistes, avoiding downhill skiers, or preferably before the lifts open, to minimise this hazard.

We went over a shoulder at about 2340m, so there was minimal uphill and actually it was a lovely ski down the pistes to Tignes Les Brévières at about 1540m.

We managed to avoid a short distance of road, by skinning around the S side of the lake there, but you are soon forced onto the main road.

All of a sudden it is far from lovely, walking down the road.

At 1180m, at the hairpins of Rassel you can take a side road, through various hamlets, until you arrive at your destination of the Hotel Belvédère.

This was considerably cheaper than any of the options in the resort just above, but that is of course an option, for something nicer.