Following a number of weather-related challenges on my second visit to France this season (only one really good day amongst the first four and I sat out Day 5 due to a storm), I finally got a measure of payback on Days 6 and 7 at a place that is definitely not a "James ski area." That said; even though I put a heavy emphasis on under-the-radar ski areas that most people (including many well-travelled Euros) haven't heard of, I don't rule out visiting mainstream mega resorts in the Alps. As has been covered at length in other threads, they really are a different beast from what's available in North America and over the years, I've skied at a number of them including St. Moritz, La Clusaz, the Jungfrau, Ischgl, Saalbach, the Skiwelt, the Aletsch Arena, and Kitzbühel, as well as two visits each to Megève, Portes du Soleil, and the Arlberg.
My plan was to spend five nights based in Avrieux at the entrance to the Haute Maurienne valley -- so small, it doesn't appear on the map below (it's basically where Villarodin is, just east of Modane) From there, you have access to five local ski areas: Valfréjus, Aussois, La Norma, Bonneval sur Arc, and Val Cenis, within 45 minutes. The original expectation was to ski most if not all of them; however, in the end I only made it to the last two.
.
Local tourism efforts in the Haute Maurienne seem to push visitors toward the locals areas (as they should); however, it was interesting to note virtually no mention of the monster next-door, Les Trois Vallées, which continues to enjoy the title of the largest ski resort in the world. From Avrieux, it's an easy 20-minute drive along the valley road -- no need for chains, snow tires, or four-wheel drive to deal with high-mountain passes -- to reach the back-door access point, the village of Orelle with a free parking lot. From there, you have two different uphill options covering almost 6,000 vertical feet to the top of Val Thorens. At first, I didn't understand why they don't make more of a point about Avrieux or Modane's proximity to the 3V (with a fraction of the lodging costs) however, part of the reason may be that the last thing the resort needs is more publicity!
Even though it's been called the Trois Vallées for something like 50 years, since the opening of the Orelle gondola in 1996 it could've been accurately renamed The Four Valleys; however, that would nullify decades of brand building (in addition to the fact that there's already a Four Valleys resort in Switzerland, i.e. Verbier). As we've discussed in years past, Euros measure the size of ski areas according to the length of marked pistes -- something that makes American skiers bristle. 3V continues to use a brochure quote of 600km even after the 2014 Pistegate scandal, where a German cartographer did his own measurement and came up with "only" 495km, a 22% exaggeration. Regardless, it's mind-boggingly huge.
While waiting for crews to secure the upper parts of Val Thorens, we did a handful of warmup runs in knee-deep powder on the south-facing Orelle sector with 2,800 feet of vertical. Finally at 10:30, the ropes dropped. Here's one of the crossover points at 3000m, where everyone stops at the edge for a first look at one of the three valleys:
Scanning from left to right, it's 3,200 verts to the lodging below:
Val Thorens was reporting two feet of snow at elevation over the previous 24 hours. It skied more like 18 inches but whatever. With the 4/5 avalanche rating and being solo, I stuck to obvious low-hanging fruit. For my first run, I followed these guys with a guide not far from the vantage point above:
Further down (you can see rocks peeking out) was an additional untracked pitch:
On the other side of the ridge to the left is Les Menuires:
By late morning, I crossed to the middle valley, where the new snow felt closer to a foot and seemed to be quickly trampled onpiste:
Just to the looker's right of the Grange chair at the top of the St. Martin de Belleville sector, I did this very low-angle line three times in a row -- it extended another ten turns below the bottom right corner:
Because I was alone, lunches on both of my days at 3V were a quick vegetarian panini at an outdoor shack. In November 2013, I got these goggles at a French ski marketing event in Manhattan and have worn them every sunny day since. Almost ten years later, they finally made it home:
By 2 pm, I headed back toward Val Thorens because parts of Meribel were getting a bit sun-affected.
At 2300m, Val Thorens is supposed to be the highest resort in western Europe. Signs said that it'll be operating during this below-average season daily until May 8 and weekends thereafter. Being north-facing and with seven lifts that go at least to 3000m, the snow quality/preservation is as good as it gets. Obviously, it's all above-treeline so not the place to be during storms and I bet that during the beginning and end of the season a lot of people from Courchevel and Meribel hightail it over there for the far better conditions.
Despite the not very picturesque exterior of many lodgings, Val Thorens has a high-energy, Austrian-style après ski atmosphere:
From "odd things Americans notice at Euro ski areas" -- this is the ticket area at the Orelle gondola on Sunday morning with a maybe ten-minute wait (I'm sure it could be three or four times that during peak periods). Notice anything missing? How about a ski rack! Instead, most people just put their planks on the ground.
My plan was to spend five nights based in Avrieux at the entrance to the Haute Maurienne valley -- so small, it doesn't appear on the map below (it's basically where Villarodin is, just east of Modane) From there, you have access to five local ski areas: Valfréjus, Aussois, La Norma, Bonneval sur Arc, and Val Cenis, within 45 minutes. The original expectation was to ski most if not all of them; however, in the end I only made it to the last two.
Local tourism efforts in the Haute Maurienne seem to push visitors toward the locals areas (as they should); however, it was interesting to note virtually no mention of the monster next-door, Les Trois Vallées, which continues to enjoy the title of the largest ski resort in the world. From Avrieux, it's an easy 20-minute drive along the valley road -- no need for chains, snow tires, or four-wheel drive to deal with high-mountain passes -- to reach the back-door access point, the village of Orelle with a free parking lot. From there, you have two different uphill options covering almost 6,000 vertical feet to the top of Val Thorens. At first, I didn't understand why they don't make more of a point about Avrieux or Modane's proximity to the 3V (with a fraction of the lodging costs) however, part of the reason may be that the last thing the resort needs is more publicity!
Even though it's been called the Trois Vallées for something like 50 years, since the opening of the Orelle gondola in 1996 it could've been accurately renamed The Four Valleys; however, that would nullify decades of brand building (in addition to the fact that there's already a Four Valleys resort in Switzerland, i.e. Verbier). As we've discussed in years past, Euros measure the size of ski areas according to the length of marked pistes -- something that makes American skiers bristle. 3V continues to use a brochure quote of 600km even after the 2014 Pistegate scandal, where a German cartographer did his own measurement and came up with "only" 495km, a 22% exaggeration. Regardless, it's mind-boggingly huge.
While waiting for crews to secure the upper parts of Val Thorens, we did a handful of warmup runs in knee-deep powder on the south-facing Orelle sector with 2,800 feet of vertical. Finally at 10:30, the ropes dropped. Here's one of the crossover points at 3000m, where everyone stops at the edge for a first look at one of the three valleys:
Scanning from left to right, it's 3,200 verts to the lodging below:
Val Thorens was reporting two feet of snow at elevation over the previous 24 hours. It skied more like 18 inches but whatever. With the 4/5 avalanche rating and being solo, I stuck to obvious low-hanging fruit. For my first run, I followed these guys with a guide not far from the vantage point above:
Further down (you can see rocks peeking out) was an additional untracked pitch:
On the other side of the ridge to the left is Les Menuires:
By late morning, I crossed to the middle valley, where the new snow felt closer to a foot and seemed to be quickly trampled onpiste:
Just to the looker's right of the Grange chair at the top of the St. Martin de Belleville sector, I did this very low-angle line three times in a row -- it extended another ten turns below the bottom right corner:
Because I was alone, lunches on both of my days at 3V were a quick vegetarian panini at an outdoor shack. In November 2013, I got these goggles at a French ski marketing event in Manhattan and have worn them every sunny day since. Almost ten years later, they finally made it home:
By 2 pm, I headed back toward Val Thorens because parts of Meribel were getting a bit sun-affected.
At 2300m, Val Thorens is supposed to be the highest resort in western Europe. Signs said that it'll be operating during this below-average season daily until May 8 and weekends thereafter. Being north-facing and with seven lifts that go at least to 3000m, the snow quality/preservation is as good as it gets. Obviously, it's all above-treeline so not the place to be during storms and I bet that during the beginning and end of the season a lot of people from Courchevel and Meribel hightail it over there for the far better conditions.
Despite the not very picturesque exterior of many lodgings, Val Thorens has a high-energy, Austrian-style après ski atmosphere:
From "odd things Americans notice at Euro ski areas" -- this is the ticket area at the Orelle gondola on Sunday morning with a maybe ten-minute wait (I'm sure it could be three or four times that during peak periods). Notice anything missing? How about a ski rack! Instead, most people just put their planks on the ground.
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