Tignes Ski Lifts & Lift Passes

Tignes has an excellent lift system and its vast ski area is efficiently accessed through modern, fast, high-capacity lifts. The only regular queues are for the Grande Motte cable car at the very top of the ski area.

The Tignes lifts system benefits from Tignes 2100 being in the middle of a bowl, with skiing on three sides, and each of its villages having its own lifts, so skiers are naturally dispersed in all directions. 

At the top of the bowl, La Grande Motte attracts skiers from all over the Tignes-Val d’Isere ski area because it has the highest lifts and best snow. At its base in Val Claret, the funicular railway and high-speed chair lift cope pretty well with surges in demand, but there can be long queues for the cable car at the top.

The Tommeuses lift, although technically in Val d’Isere, is another popular lift for Tignes-based skiers, as it’s the most direct route back to the resort from Val d’Isere. Queues build up for this lift at the end of the day, but generally it has the capacity to get everyone home, although you’re strongly advised not to turn up just a few minutes before it closes. And if the queue does look very long, remember there is an alternative route back to Tignes via the Borsat Express.

In contrast to Tignes 2100, Tignes Les Brevieres has just one lift going up the mountain to Tignes 1800, which then has just one lift going up the mountain to the bottom station of the Aiguille Rouge lift, which is then the only lift to take you to the top of Chaudanne, from where you can ski into the main Tignes bowl. Usually, all the lifts in this chain have the capacity to deal with demand, but in peak season they can get swamped between 9.10am and 9.45am when the ski schools use them. It’s therefore worth remembering that there are free ski buses from both villages to Tignes Le Lavachet.  

Tignes lift passes

Most skiers quite rightly buy the Tignes-Val d’Isere lift pass which covers all the lifts in Tignes and Val d’Isere. But you can buy just a Tignes lift pass, although it does not save you much money (between 10% and 20%) considering that it halves the amount of lifts and pistes you can access. It can be a sensible choice however if you are a novice skier who has only just graduated from the free nursery slopes (see below), or a very infrequent skier or only in Tignes for a short break. 

Absolute beginners often do not need to buy any lift pass at all, at least initially, because there are free ski lifts in all the Tignes villages: 4 moving carpet lifts (Claret, Centre, Boisses 1&2); 2 drag lifts (Lavachet and Grande Pareï); and 3 chairlifts (Bollin, Almes et Rosset).

There are also free ski passes for young children (currently the age limit is 8, which is very generous by Alpine standards). And there are also discounts for older children, seniors, families and groups.