Ed Leigh on Val d’Isere
November 9th, 2010
At eighteen, Ed Leigh did his first season in Val d’Isere and the resort captured his heart. After five seasons in the Haute Savoie, his professional career was cut short by injury. As editor of Whitelines magazine Ed visited every continent on earth in search of snow. He is now the snowboarding half of the BBC’s Ski Sunday presenting team and the voice of Olympic snowboarding commentary.
Here’s Ed’s view on Val d’Isere, after five seasons:
“I have visited a lot of resorts in a lot of countries and I still haven’t seen anything that rivals Val d’Isere’s diversity. With one of the highest tree lines in Europe it has fantastic bad weather riding, but it equals this with some fantastic high altitude big mountain riding. All this epic terrain is serviced with one of the fastest and best maintained lift systems in the world. In recent years the town’s reputation has certainly fallen from grace, from its heady days as the jewel in French skiing’s crown attracting the rich and famous, it is more of a stag do heaven these days. However, for those in the know there are lots of different areas to avoid the raucous nights, most notably the world’s most underrated resort next door, Tignes.”
For more info on Val d’Isere, including Ed’s favourite runs, piste maps and more, check out Snowfinder Espace Killy.
Tags: Ed Leigh, Espace Killy, ski guide books, ski resort guide, snowboarding, Snowfinder, Val d'Isere
