Words: Sophie Offord
Photos: Tignes Spirit Crew
Last week the Tignes Spirit team packed up and set off into the wilderness for a two-day tour in the Espace Killy.
The area of Tignes and Val d'Isere is renowned for its off-piste and freeriding options, with Tignes itself boasting nine ‘Naturides’. These are ungroomed runs that are still on the piste map, patrolled and secured like any other run. This means that they preserve their natural terrain, which is great for those skiers or riders looking for a bit of a challenge. The crew at Tignes Spirit however, were looking for something a little more off the beaten track and three weeks ago began planning for an overnight stop in the untouched backcountry.
Preparations
The week leading up to the tour consisted of map planning, buying supplies, checking the weather forecasts, snow reports and avalanche risks. One of the main issues when heading off piste, particularly for more than a day is the snow pack and the risk of avalanche. Alex and Kev spent hours checking the conditions and made sure that everyone had the right equipment.
The first morning was an early start with everyone heading over to the Tignes Spirit shop to get kitted out. Tignes Spirit owner Kieran was a total legend, lending everyone touring skis, bindings, shovels, avalanche transceivers and probes. Chris our binding whizz kid here at the shop ensured everyone’s kit was fitted correctly, whilst Alex and Kev checked out the transceivers.
Setting off!
By 9 am the team were off. We headed straight up the Toviere and skied down to La Daille to get the bus to the middle of Val D’Isere. All of us were sketching out a bit; getting used to the feel of lighter skis and split boards on piste… luckily they were rad once we hit the powder!
After jumping off the bus we headed up the Solaise Express chair and then up the Glacier chair and finally headed up the Cugnai chair to the top of the Pointe de L’ouillette peak. We scanned in our transceivers at the top, tightened our boots and dropped down the back, no people, no chairlifts, no tracks, just pure white fluffy stuff!
The snow was thigh deep and perfectly light. Apart from a few minor rock hits, the first run down was epic! We skied the northwest facing Col de la Calabourdane for about twenty minutes, taking extra time for ‘stoke level checks’! We were then well and truly in the backcountry. After stopping for a quick drink and a couple of Ady’s dried figs we stuck our skins on, freed the heel, and started hiking.
Skinning
For most of us, this was our first time touring and it was a little bit of a shock to the system! At about 3000m above sea level breathing became more of a task than a subconscious bodily function, particularly for people like me who had broken ribs only a week before! We hiked for 45 minutes and reached the Refuge Fond Des Fours. The refuge consisted of three small wooden huts, one of which housed a small kitchen and dining tables with a log burning stove. The others contained cosy bunk beds and an ‘outhouse’! Without the log burner on, it was definitely colder in the hut than it was outside in the sunshine, which didn’t bode well for the evening ahead in the bunk beds...
The next section of the tour involved us hiking the Col des Fours, which was completely untouched and super deep, so took a little longer than planned. Sophie skied down half way through the hike in awesome conditions due to having to be back by the evening. The rest of the team hiked to the summit and as soon as they clicked in, the clouds rolled in with a really freezing fog. Chris had to split off to find Greener who had stopped half way up due to problems with his skins, leaving us with a pretty memorable quote…"the only thing getting me up this hill is arrogance and aggression. The same thing that gets me through life!" It was a complete white out in the clouds, which made the descent a little trickier than anticipated.
Hut Livin'
After a heavy day on the hill everyone was exhausted and looking forward to getting back to the hut. As Alex had skied with Soph back towards the lifts he had made record time touring back up to the hut and was already there with a fire, melting snow for drinking water and tea, just as the rest of the team got back. Perfect timing! The boys got into real backcountry mode with Alex drying out the firewood and Joe hacking up kindling with the axe. As the sun had gone down at this point the hut was extremely cold and took around two hours to warm up. The proof was in Jo wearing two technical down jackets and one 800 fill prima loft jacket... and she was still cold!
After warming up the crew got down to cooking, having originally packed food for the five guys, Ady and Jo decided to stay the night last minute. Luckily the greedy boys had packed plenty of food, cake for dessert and pre decanted wine in water bottles! After plenty of vinos, we moved the mattresses and bedding into the dining room around the fire, which meant there was four people in one big bed… Jo was nice and cosy in the middle!! Thankfully there was no snoring... EXCEPT ALEX!!!
Day two began with a huge communal porridge and we were out the door and hiking bang on 10am. The peaks were still shaded from the sun and it didn't break over the peaks until around 10.30am. The team powered through the first section of the hike, despite achey muscles from the previous day, before setting off on another two-part skin up to the summit. Another group were following in our tracks so the race was on for fresh lines! They had to watch on as we had fresh tracks on the Pointe Nord des Lores face.
Epic POW!
Having not toured much before, the girls were quite nervous to drop in at first. Chris and Alex stayed at the back to make sure everyone was okay, encouraging us on. Everyone was stoked! Chris frothed; ‘these were the freshest lines of the season. Knee-deep, soft, dry pow!!’ 
To finish another epic day, we dropped down the final part of the face, watching each other’s lines and grinning from ear-to-ear! Getting back on the chair lift at the end of the day almost felt like a foreign concept. We are all definitely converted!!!!
