Named after the French Olympic champion Jean-Claude Killy, who dominated the sport in the late 1960s and was a triple champion, winning all three events at the 1968 Olympics as well as the first two world cup titles in 1967 and 1968, Espace Killy is a renowned area to take your ski holiday. Espace Killy is made up of the two French resorts of Val d’Isère and Tignes and comprises 50 Black runs, 92 Red Runs, 122 Blue Runs, and 44 Green Runs; there is 300 kilometres of downhill pistes with 44 Km cross country trails more than enough for every level of skier.
Val d’Isère ranks alongside St Moritz, Stowe and Cortina in the famous names of skiing category. However it is also in the world top ten for ‘ski area size’ as well as name-fame, sharing the huge Espace Killy with neighbouring Tignes. Add to that world class lift infrastructure and a vast array of après ski activity and you have the archetypal world-class resort. ‘Val’ is very popular with the British, and has spawned purpose-built developments at out-of-town La Daille, which boasts an ultra-modern funicular, and le Fornet. Most of the men’s downhill events were staged here for the ’92 Albertville Olympics and the European leg of the World Cup season generally starts here in the first half of December.
Tignes shares the huge and wonderful Espace Killy with Val d’Isère, but the underground funicular accessed Grand Motte glacier officially belongs to Tignes. The glacier no longer offers skiing 365 days a year, but it is open for a total for nearly 10 months. For eight months a vertical drop of 1400 metres is maintained, with the aid of snow-making if necessary. The resort has five different base areas, the main one being Val Clartet with Le Lac and Le Lavachet nearby. Lower down the mountain is Les Boisses and a renovated old village Les Brevieres, at the lowest point in the system at 1550 metres.
The Espace Killy is a great place to take a skiing holiday with plenty of good restaurants, apartments, and chalets as well as top class French hotels. Night life is epitomised by the famous Dick’s Tea Bar at Val, now also to be found in Meribel, along with other like places where you can party until the early hours!