We opted for ski-in ski-out at the Totem Hotel in Flaine, recommended by Fraser. We were disappointed that its spa facilities closed at 7:30PM when we arrived at 7:40 Friday. But the villages in Grand Massif are very low and I was concerned about logistics being based down there.
We got out Thursday about 9:45 and found Flaine above the hotel base still in winter mode. It was completely sunny until about 1:30 with high temps upper 20s F.
Upon exiting the Grandes Platieres gondola nearly everyone stops to gawk at the north side of Mont Blanc (center) out to Grandes Jorasses (far left).
Aiguille de Midi is a small point roughly half way between them.
View southeast:
View east along the Serpentine piste:
View northwest:
There’s little to obstruct incoming storms from the Atlantic.
A cliff band runs along the upper part of Flaine’s alpine terrain, which tops out at 2,480 meters. There is one ungroomed skiroute, Diamont Noir, dropping through it.
Below the chute, I spread out skier’s left and skied powder the rest of the way to the Diamont Noir lift.
There is another narrower opening in the upper cliff band, but I did not try to find it from above.
After a cruise to the base, we rode the Aup de Veran gondola to check out Lindars Nord on the far upper right of the map.
We skied both Fred’s piste looping out to looker’s left of the pic plus the ungroomed Agate skiroute down the lift line.
The final upper sector of Flaine to explore was Desert Blanc.
It’s overall intermediate pitch both on and off piste but has some of those big potholes Fraser has warned about.
We then skied to the Grands Vans lift to move to Morillon/Samoens. This is the only lift to do that, and the Vernant lift is the only way back.
We had this overview of the Gere poma terrain.
Given its reputation I did not want to be waylaid there on the first day survey of Grand Massif.
On the way to Morillon/Samoens you must ski the west facing Portet piste to Les Carroz. This was in first day softening mode Thursday. Fraser recommends the long Sairon piste down to Morillon 1100. This was also first day softening on its upper half but groomer corn on most of its lower half. It’s north facing so only the last 100 vertical near the lift was slushy.
In order to get to Samoens we had to ride the Coulouvriere lift, also based about 1100 meters. We skied Les Cases, which had similar snow most of the way but turned east at the bottom with a final section of snow cone slush.
We were pleasantly surprised to see an alpine bowl with winter snow at the top of Coulouvriere, so we skied that.
We skied laps on the Dahu and Marmotte pistes down to Samoens 1600, then headed back towards Flaine. But riding the Vernant lift I could not resist taking an interesting lap on it. The upper part had some room for powder turns.
The middle was a chute under the lift, narrow but with soft snow.
Emerging from the chute I traversed left for the final powder pitch, and while taking a suck wind break saw a skier launch air from a rock and rip the lower part.
I only got the camera out after I saw his jump.
The next day I took an overview picture of Vernant, my line in red and the airtime guy in orange.
I reloaded Vernant a little after 4PM and skied back to Flaine, view of Flaine upper bowl from that Tourmaline trail:
I skied 31,400 vertical, the most in one day this season.
We got out Thursday about 9:45 and found Flaine above the hotel base still in winter mode. It was completely sunny until about 1:30 with high temps upper 20s F.
Upon exiting the Grandes Platieres gondola nearly everyone stops to gawk at the north side of Mont Blanc (center) out to Grandes Jorasses (far left).
Aiguille de Midi is a small point roughly half way between them.
View southeast:
View east along the Serpentine piste:
View northwest:
There’s little to obstruct incoming storms from the Atlantic.
A cliff band runs along the upper part of Flaine’s alpine terrain, which tops out at 2,480 meters. There is one ungroomed skiroute, Diamont Noir, dropping through it.
Below the chute, I spread out skier’s left and skied powder the rest of the way to the Diamont Noir lift.
There is another narrower opening in the upper cliff band, but I did not try to find it from above.
After a cruise to the base, we rode the Aup de Veran gondola to check out Lindars Nord on the far upper right of the map.
We skied both Fred’s piste looping out to looker’s left of the pic plus the ungroomed Agate skiroute down the lift line.
The final upper sector of Flaine to explore was Desert Blanc.
It’s overall intermediate pitch both on and off piste but has some of those big potholes Fraser has warned about.
We then skied to the Grands Vans lift to move to Morillon/Samoens. This is the only lift to do that, and the Vernant lift is the only way back.
We had this overview of the Gere poma terrain.
Given its reputation I did not want to be waylaid there on the first day survey of Grand Massif.
On the way to Morillon/Samoens you must ski the west facing Portet piste to Les Carroz. This was in first day softening mode Thursday. Fraser recommends the long Sairon piste down to Morillon 1100. This was also first day softening on its upper half but groomer corn on most of its lower half. It’s north facing so only the last 100 vertical near the lift was slushy.
In order to get to Samoens we had to ride the Coulouvriere lift, also based about 1100 meters. We skied Les Cases, which had similar snow most of the way but turned east at the bottom with a final section of snow cone slush.
We were pleasantly surprised to see an alpine bowl with winter snow at the top of Coulouvriere, so we skied that.
We skied laps on the Dahu and Marmotte pistes down to Samoens 1600, then headed back towards Flaine. But riding the Vernant lift I could not resist taking an interesting lap on it. The upper part had some room for powder turns.
The middle was a chute under the lift, narrow but with soft snow.
Emerging from the chute I traversed left for the final powder pitch, and while taking a suck wind break saw a skier launch air from a rock and rip the lower part.
I only got the camera out after I saw his jump.
The next day I took an overview picture of Vernant, my line in red and the airtime guy in orange.
I reloaded Vernant a little after 4PM and skied back to Flaine, view of Flaine upper bowl from that Tourmaline trail:
I skied 31,400 vertical, the most in one day this season.