The place
A resort round a lake at 2,100 m at the head of the Tarentaise, under the Grande Motte's glacier, which a cable car reaches at 3,450 m. The Freeride World Tour came in 2008, to the Pramecou's north face, and in 2009 and 2011 to the couloirs of the Grande Balme above Val Claret.
Off-piste Off the marked pistes nothing is prepared or patrolled: glaciers, crevasses and cliffs, your own risk.
- 9lines to start
The lines
Every line here, with how hard it is.
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The Pramecou North Face
■■■■■The face of the Freeride World Tour's first stop at Tignes, in 2008: 400 m of steep north face under the Dôme de Pramecou, studded with rock, with two entrances and a couloir on the right.
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The Grande Balme, the Central Couloir
■■■■■The Freeride World Tour's Tignes face of 2009 and 2011: couloirs out of an amphitheatre under the Grande Balme.
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The Grande Balme's North Couloir
■■■■■From the cross on the Grande Balme's summit, a short way along the ridge, then a 45° couloir straight back down toward Val Claret.
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The Grande Motte's North Face
■■■■■Off the Grande Motte's cable car at 3,450 m onto the glacier's north face: seracs, then narrower and steeper, a 44° pitch over Tignes.
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The Couloir 3500
■■■■■Off the top of the Grande Motte's lifts, south into the Leisse valley: 48° at its steepest and nearly 800 m to the valley floor, one of the Alps' best spring descents for so little effort, and only after a melt-freeze.
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The Grande Motte's South Face
■■■■■From the Grande Motte's summit, 3,653 m, after a boot-pack up the ridge from the cable car: 1,200 m of south face over huge cliffs, 45° over 200 m.
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Mickey's Ears
■■■■■Two steep couloirs side by side off the Pointe du Lavachet, 30 m apart, the second wider, straight above Tignes le Lac.
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The Vallon de la Sache
■■■■■Tignes' long off-piste valley, straight off the Aiguille Percée chair: 700 m of open north slopes and gullies in a wild side valley, down to the red piste to Les Brévières.
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The Grande Motte to Val Claret
■■■■■From the top of the Grande Motte's cable car, 3,450 m, down the glacier's pistes and the black Descente to Val Claret: 1,340 m and nearly 6 km.
