May Bank holiday skiing at Tignes UCPA

So, for my first post on the soon to be fabulous Ski-C blog I thought i’d tell you all about our bank holiday skiing trip to Tignes…

I know it sounds crazy but yes we really did go skiing in May! Liz is a seasoned May skier but the rest of us really were expecting 3 days in the bar looking at the bare muddy slopes and listening the the drip of snowmelt ringing in our ears!! Oh how wrong we were! We arrived in Bourg St Maurice (after the most blissfully easy journey by train) and were met by our grinning taxi driver from Arthur taxis (http://www.aarthur.fr/) and were then sped (with the obligatory green faces of an up the mountain taxi ride!) up to resort… where we were met with the most perfect conditions: sunshine and fresh snow! We checked into the UCPA (notes below), which we’d booked through Action Outdoors Holidays,  before heading to the nearest bar and having a few beers whilst congratulating ourselves on our decision to risk May skiing!

So, the UCPA… we had been warned, at length, not to expect luxury and sure enough it certainly wasn’t the most luxurious place (I can’t really call it a hotel!) i’ve ever stayed in but it’s lack of luxury was certainly made up for in lots of other ways. The atmosphere was fantastic and with the 7 of us squeezed into 2 rooms of 4 bunks and sharing one bathroom we felt like we were back on a school trip to Wales! The food was excellent (much better than food we’ve experienced in recent chalet trips!) with an eat as much as you like buffet style, although be warned you do have to clear your plates and wipe the table at the end (another similarity with the Wales school trips!). The entertainment was, well interesting! We were the only English people in the hotel (a positive for me!) and the French enjoyed laughing at our dancing skills and karaoke prowess!

So, moving on to the skiing, which i’ll sum up in 3 words – superb, deserted slopes! Yes ok we did have to deal with a bit of slush on the lower slopes at the end of the day, and Le Face was particularly challenging for the newbies, but the constant sunshine, blue skies and lack of anyone else on the slopes more than made up for it. We weren’t met with a single queue for a liftpass or a beer, total bliss! And to top it all we partied (almost to the point of missing the last lift back to tignes) in the sunshine at the Folie Deuce end of season party.

The only downside of the whole weekend was knowing that we’d have to wait a whole year until we could do it again. Tignes UCPA: 7/10 May Bank holiday skiing: 10/10!!