Another large day - with a fantastic loooong ending

Today's been a day of 4: 4 friends getting out to Tignes and exploring the loops of Blue piste out that way. We got around.

My posts up until this point have been from memory - but now I've got something rather nifty to help my memory along: "Ski Tracks" - an iPhone app which really does what it says on the tin. It's cheap - the paid-for version is 59p(!) - and it's comprehensive. They've thought about how the app will be used (iPod controls are in there), they use the proximity sensor to turn off the display, there's a setting for minimum battery level at which the app will shut itself off - clever stuff.

I've used this app today, I turned it on with 99% battery, at about 10am, and we finished a little earlier than usual at about 3:15pm. I still had 34% battery left - an excellent job. The app can be paused so a single track can be recorded and saved for the day. It records max speed, miles, and overlays on google maps with individual runs and lifts available with full statistics and graphs for speed and distance. It's a cracking app.

So, according to the app, today the four of us (most in Tignes!)

- Start 10:15, 6242ft, la daille telecabine.
- Run 1: Down to Tommeuses, max 15.9 MPH, 0.3 miles ;-)
- Lift 2: 10:30, up 1391.2ft - Tommeuses
- Run 2: Piste H down into Tignes: 29.2 mph max, 1.9 miles.
- Lift 3: 10:57, up 1372.9ft - Tichot in Tignes.
- Run 3: Quick slip to Grattalu in Tignes, 11:08am
- Lift 4: 11:17, Grattalu, 1023.6 ft
- Run 4: 11:22am, max 28.1mph, 1.3 miles - great piste this
- Lift 5: Grand Huit: 11:35, 650ft
- Run 5: pierce-neige, 11:41am, max 29.8mph, 0.5m (a fast little downhill lovely)
- Lift 6: Aguille Percee: 11:51, 995.4ft
- Run 6: corniche, LUNCH, rhododendron, petit col: max 29.7mph, 2.9 miles
- Lift 7: 01:24pm, palafour, 1490.7ft
- Run 7: 01:31pm, lys to merle lift - max speed 33.4mph
- Lift 8: 01:36pm, Merles, 933.2ft
- Run 8: 01:44pm, max 29mph, 0.8 miles, grattalu
- Lift 9: Grattalu lift, 01:51pm, 964.7ft
- Run 9: 01:57pm, 25.6mph, lac again(!) after the party became confused about Grattalu directions - easy to do here ;-)
- Lift 10: Grand Huit again, 02:07pm
- Run 10: 02:16pm, grattalu and others, max 28.9mph, 1.6 miles.

This is an impressive app. :-)

According to the front page of it, the run saw the follow stats:
Max speed: 33.4 mph
Ski Distance: 14.4 miles
Ski Vertical (I'm guessing this is the total vertical distance covered on the board today) - 12744ft (!!! WHAT?)
Max altitude: 9005 ft (2745m)
Slope (I'm guessing this is the steepest): 31 degrees
Duration: 4:50:24

Today was a fine day with a lot of great pistes. And it ended back at Cristal 2, on the balcony (this little stack of chalet-apartments gets FULL SUN at the end of the day - sun you can bathe in - on the balcony - so buy some bubbly and luxuriate at the end of a hard day on a sun-baked balcony like we did.

This is an interesting contrast after the hunting I did for Cristal 2, and a really lucky break - the valley in front of la daille means it gets literally the last of the march sun, while the "sun drenched knoll of Le Cret" advertised by VIP chalets is already in full bone-chilling shade under the dark arc of the Bellevarde peak. This place rocks, not least because the car park of the hotel opposite clears a perfect path to the sun through the frontage of La Daille.

Stunning day.