Petite Balme: off-piste skiing in Tignes · Val d’Isère Field Guide

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These are ideas for professionally guided outings, not route directions. Beyond the marked pistes, avalanches, cliffs and glacier hazards demand specialist judgement. Choose the day’s route with an appropriately qualified local professional; carry a transceiver, shovel and probe and know how to use them.

Icons describe terrain, skiing demands and walking, including route variants. Skiing labels are descriptive, not official grades. Open terrain describes the landscape, not the snow conditions; a missing terrain icon does not mean that feature is absent.

Photographs from Fredrik’s collection. Photo credits.

Grande Motte · Val Claret

Open terrain
Skiing: Varies by line
Walking: Guide to confirm

High on the Grande Motte side, Petite Balme pairs an expansive alpine setting with north-facing slopes and playful changes in terrain. Several variations give the descent different personalities. Cliff bands make local route knowledge essential.

Fredrik’s experience

Finding the line around Petite Balme

Petite Balme is on the Grande Motte side of Tignes. The access I’m describing uses either the funicular up towards Grande Motte or the Lanches chairlift, which takes you part of the way up. From that side of the mountain, the outing comes back around Petite Balme on the skier’s right. It is not easy to find the right line if you do not already know where you are going.

A gentle high-alpine beginning

The beginning is very gentle, through a beautiful high-alpine landscape. On the outings I’m remembering, there is no great technical challenge at first. You have time to enjoy the setting before the character changes at the corridor through Petite Balme.

Short turns between rocks

That corridor is narrow, with rocks and cliffs around it. This is where you need your short turns to be in good shape. The contrast with the gentle approach is quite pronounced: the confined passage is the technical part that stays in my mind.

The cliff, moraine and changing snow

Beyond it, you come out beneath an enormous, beautiful cliff. The ground below that cliff towards Val Claret is moraine, with plenty of big rocks. Watch out for sharks: rocks that are hidden or only just covered by the snow.

The snow here can be really good. With less luck, it can be breakable crust; the area is sometimes exposed to the wind. That mixture of scenery, a narrow rocky passage and changing snow makes it an exciting run in high-alpine terrain.

Local route knowledge matters around the cliff bands, and the narrow passage and moraine need suitable snow cover.

Sources

Petite Balme

Video supplied by Fredrik · No sound

A skier turns downhill through snow beside tall rock walls.