ChrisC
Well-known member
Ste. Foy has been on my "Bucket List" of Freeride Ski Resorts in the Alps for a while. Despite driving past it numerous times, I have unfortunately never stopped, nor taken the car/bus down from Val d'Isere (when great skiing is so close).
It's obviously not one of the sprawling freeride mega-resorts like neighboring Les Arcs-La Plagne, Val d'Isere-Tignes, or Verbier (4 Vallees). It is more akin to the smaller, more intimate off-piste mountains such as Grimentz-Zinal, Engelberg, Andermatt, and Monterosa. However, unlike these mountains, it is a "greenfield" resort with a historic village down valley and a new, very attractive, chalet-style, purpose-built resort up high.
What makes it special:
Ste. Foy Piste Map
It's a rather straight layout: 4 major lifts with 2 of these giving access to the alpine: La Marquise and L'Aiguille. Most of its skier base was on holiday, primarily from the UK, and were content to motor around the blue and red pistes.
To prevent them from getting into trouble, Ste. Foy highlights its "Freeride Zones" in yellow - or Piste Non-Gamee. While I could appreciate the avalanche of work that went into securing these, I did not love how heavily they were advertised. Nor did I like that Ste. Foy decided to control access to these areas.
Again, it had been a very snowy winter in the French Alps, and the resort - out of an abundance of caution - decided to strongly discourage/close or "rope off" some zones, such as the far-right zone called Cark Crystal. Weird! However, I noticed this practice at Val d'Isere recently - more famous off-piste zones were marked off with red fencing at times. Assume too many punters were getting over their heads?!
Top Map
One can see the Ste. Foy primarily faces West, with some North/Northwest exposure - especially off the Aiguille Lift.
Since powder was not on the menu, I had opted for a morning at Les Arcs, focusing on the highest village and freeride area, Arcs 2000.
Therefore, the afternoon strategy for Ste. Foy seemed obvious:
Aiguille Lift Terrain. The top of L'Arpettaz Lift.
The Marquise (HS 6P Chairlift) serves a broad, open face with many natural obstacles (trees, builders, etc.). The pitch is more high-intermediate/low-expert, with some areas still untracked between the boulders. Super fun, easy-to-understand area: if you can see it, ski it.
Looking across the Tarentaise Valley over to Les Arcs (my AM skiing), specifically the Aiguille Rouge summit 3220m (upper left) and Villaroger 1200m base (lower right). It's an impressive 6600 vertical ft descent - epic for even the Alps! Les Arcs may be a little underrated from a freeride perspective.
Altitude and descent exposure kept things fresh enough - even nearly 4 days after the last snowfall.
Again, I had terrain to cover, so photos were from the La Marquise lift. I had about an hour or so to cover the various terrain challenges and faces. This would be excellent terrain on a powder day or the day after, because I doubt it gets skied out. Definitely a Day After Dump mountain if staying at Val d'Isere/Tignes - don't deal with treacherous roads on the snow day, wait till the next day!
A few photos of neighboring resorts:
La Rosiere, France (linked to La Thuile, Italy).
Again, this is an underrated, very likable mega resort living in the land of giant mega resorts. Supposedly, La Rosière receives the most snow at the resort level in the Tarentaise Valley because it is directly exposed to westerly flow. Not sure.
Les Arcs, again.
Bourg Ste. Maurice.
This decently large town is growing on me as a base. Gives one access to Les Arcs (direct funicular), La Plagne, La Rosiere, and Ste. Foy.
Finally getting to the steep stuff at 3 PM. Luckily, Europe extends lift hours to 4:30-4:45 PM as of February 1st.
L Aiguille
Again, lots of obvious fun terrain.
Nice Couloirs
Crystal Dark "Nature Zone" or Natur Crystal Dark
Again, Ste. Foy tried to mark this area off to casual skiers.
Natur Morion.
Nice wind-buff powder silt near the summit.
The final freeride zone: Natur Shapper's Paradise
If this were KT-22 at Squaw Valley, every boulder/crevice/couloir would have a name and a story
Beautifully scenic
Mont Blanc
Sainte Foy Base Area.
It's a handsome development, the complete antithesis of La Plagne. It's similar to the new villages at Les Arcs 1950 and La Rosiere.
Again, everything is on a hillside. There is no flat meadow for development.
Overall, I had higher expectations for Ste. Foy. I really like it, but it did not enter my Small Euro Free Ride Areas That Rock list (which includes La Grave, Monterosa, Andermatt, Engelberg, and Grimentz-Zinal). If in the Terantaise Valley, definitely stop for a day, but it's not a place where I would spend 2-3 days, like the others. Maybe if someone had one of those sweet chalets, I could be tempted.
However, I had just been on my version of a 3-day ski safari starting in Engelberg with stops in Gstaad (4 ski areas in one day), Evasion Mont Blanc (3 ski areas in one day), and now Les Arcs AM, and Ste. Foy PM. So I was a bit mentally drained, and physically tired from a week of powder and sun. Also, after previously hanging out with friends for 4 days (24/7), I was starting to feel the lone-road-warrior mentality.
Some aspects I did not like:
Again, the mountain is still wonderful, and a ton of great terrain. However, I have no regrets about spending the AM at Les Arcs. And Les Arcs was the highlight of my day over Ste. Foy. Maybe it was the sunny weather turning cloudy?
However, I will definitely stop in again.
Again, the Ste. The Foy ski area skis better than most of the prime sectors of Val d'Isere/Tignes, Les Arcs/La Plagne, or Courchevel/Meribel/Val Thorens. It's worthwhile. I just wanted to love it more immediately. Also, wanted some more hidden faces.
Maybe it will grow on me like Les Deux Alpes. Over 3 visits, I now really like the place with its modern lifts, north-facing terrain, and powder potential. However, I might have just finally hit it correctly, and learned the mountain.
It's obviously not one of the sprawling freeride mega-resorts like neighboring Les Arcs-La Plagne, Val d'Isere-Tignes, or Verbier (4 Vallees). It is more akin to the smaller, more intimate off-piste mountains such as Grimentz-Zinal, Engelberg, Andermatt, and Monterosa. However, unlike these mountains, it is a "greenfield" resort with a historic village down valley and a new, very attractive, chalet-style, purpose-built resort up high.
What makes it special:
- Very low skier traffic.
- North-facing slopes preserve powder.
- Excellent larch forests for visibility in storms.
- A huge amount of sidecountry directly from the lifts.
- Very little competition for fresh tracks.
- No massive lift queues.
Ste. Foy Piste Map
It's a rather straight layout: 4 major lifts with 2 of these giving access to the alpine: La Marquise and L'Aiguille. Most of its skier base was on holiday, primarily from the UK, and were content to motor around the blue and red pistes.
To prevent them from getting into trouble, Ste. Foy highlights its "Freeride Zones" in yellow - or Piste Non-Gamee. While I could appreciate the avalanche of work that went into securing these, I did not love how heavily they were advertised. Nor did I like that Ste. Foy decided to control access to these areas.
Again, it had been a very snowy winter in the French Alps, and the resort - out of an abundance of caution - decided to strongly discourage/close or "rope off" some zones, such as the far-right zone called Cark Crystal. Weird! However, I noticed this practice at Val d'Isere recently - more famous off-piste zones were marked off with red fencing at times. Assume too many punters were getting over their heads?!
Top Map
One can see the Ste. Foy primarily faces West, with some North/Northwest exposure - especially off the Aiguille Lift.
Since powder was not on the menu, I had opted for a morning at Les Arcs, focusing on the highest village and freeride area, Arcs 2000.
Therefore, the afternoon strategy for Ste. Foy seemed obvious:
- Take 2 lifts to mid-mountain
- Focus on the upper two lifts for a few hours. Unfortunately, the Aiguille Lift was still a fixed-grip quad.
Aiguille Lift Terrain. The top of L'Arpettaz Lift.
The Marquise (HS 6P Chairlift) serves a broad, open face with many natural obstacles (trees, builders, etc.). The pitch is more high-intermediate/low-expert, with some areas still untracked between the boulders. Super fun, easy-to-understand area: if you can see it, ski it.
Looking across the Tarentaise Valley over to Les Arcs (my AM skiing), specifically the Aiguille Rouge summit 3220m (upper left) and Villaroger 1200m base (lower right). It's an impressive 6600 vertical ft descent - epic for even the Alps! Les Arcs may be a little underrated from a freeride perspective.
Altitude and descent exposure kept things fresh enough - even nearly 4 days after the last snowfall.
Again, I had terrain to cover, so photos were from the La Marquise lift. I had about an hour or so to cover the various terrain challenges and faces. This would be excellent terrain on a powder day or the day after, because I doubt it gets skied out. Definitely a Day After Dump mountain if staying at Val d'Isere/Tignes - don't deal with treacherous roads on the snow day, wait till the next day!
A few photos of neighboring resorts:
La Rosiere, France (linked to La Thuile, Italy).
Again, this is an underrated, very likable mega resort living in the land of giant mega resorts. Supposedly, La Rosière receives the most snow at the resort level in the Tarentaise Valley because it is directly exposed to westerly flow. Not sure.
Les Arcs, again.
Bourg Ste. Maurice.
This decently large town is growing on me as a base. Gives one access to Les Arcs (direct funicular), La Plagne, La Rosiere, and Ste. Foy.
Finally getting to the steep stuff at 3 PM. Luckily, Europe extends lift hours to 4:30-4:45 PM as of February 1st.
L Aiguille
Again, lots of obvious fun terrain.
Nice Couloirs
Crystal Dark "Nature Zone" or Natur Crystal Dark
Again, Ste. Foy tried to mark this area off to casual skiers.
Natur Morion.
Nice wind-buff powder silt near the summit.
The final freeride zone: Natur Shapper's Paradise
If this were KT-22 at Squaw Valley, every boulder/crevice/couloir would have a name and a story
Beautifully scenic
Mont Blanc
Sainte Foy Base Area.
It's a handsome development, the complete antithesis of La Plagne. It's similar to the new villages at Les Arcs 1950 and La Rosiere.
Again, everything is on a hillside. There is no flat meadow for development.
Overall, I had higher expectations for Ste. Foy. I really like it, but it did not enter my Small Euro Free Ride Areas That Rock list (which includes La Grave, Monterosa, Andermatt, Engelberg, and Grimentz-Zinal). If in the Terantaise Valley, definitely stop for a day, but it's not a place where I would spend 2-3 days, like the others. Maybe if someone had one of those sweet chalets, I could be tempted.
However, I had just been on my version of a 3-day ski safari starting in Engelberg with stops in Gstaad (4 ski areas in one day), Evasion Mont Blanc (3 ski areas in one day), and now Les Arcs AM, and Ste. Foy PM. So I was a bit mentally drained, and physically tired from a week of powder and sun. Also, after previously hanging out with friends for 4 days (24/7), I was starting to feel the lone-road-warrior mentality.
Some aspects I did not like:
- Parking. It was a bit of a nightmare. Usually, you can find a garage or parking lot and park easily. At Ste Foy, some lots had only about 6 parking spots due to the terrain's steepness. Needless to say, I struggled a bit to find a parking space, which I never do. I'd recommend using the parking garage despite the cost and the long walk to the main lifts. I got frustrated, parked my car in a semi-paid area, and could not understand any instructions on how to pay. Received some warning/possible ticket.
- Purchasing a Lift Ticket. Most convoluted process. The lift ticket attendants could not accept credit cards; one had to go to a kiosk to purchase a lift ticket voucher and then exchange it for an actual ticket from a human attendant. Having worked at Financial Tech companies, I was blown away! WTF! Wow, the French have outdone themselves in creating inefficient business processes.
- Expert Pistes/Nature Areas.
- Yes, I liked that there were avalanche control attempts off-piste and in freeride zones, but none were performed. Several days after the storm, all the zones were still officially 'closed'. I know that was the default setting after a dry December in the Alps, followed by heavy snow in the French Alps in January, but I believe Avy Ratings were only a 3? IDK.
- I did not like the best freeride terrain being so highly advertised and regulated. In practice, one can ski closed terrain in the Alps without having lift privileges revoked, but I have never seen terrain so closely monitored. I am in Europe! C'mon. This is how an American Ski Business would attempt to offer off-piste skiing with corporate liability concerns.
- IDK if 1-Week per Year UK Skiers were getting caught in avalanches without kit, since the terrain is so easily accessible, and therefore some restrictions were necessary.
- Chairlifts. All new - great! But they all lock the safety bar in place - dislike that. Also, the lift company failed to upgrade its best lift, Aiguille!
Again, the mountain is still wonderful, and a ton of great terrain. However, I have no regrets about spending the AM at Les Arcs. And Les Arcs was the highlight of my day over Ste. Foy. Maybe it was the sunny weather turning cloudy?
However, I will definitely stop in again.
Again, the Ste. The Foy ski area skis better than most of the prime sectors of Val d'Isere/Tignes, Les Arcs/La Plagne, or Courchevel/Meribel/Val Thorens. It's worthwhile. I just wanted to love it more immediately. Also, wanted some more hidden faces.
Maybe it will grow on me like Les Deux Alpes. Over 3 visits, I now really like the place with its modern lifts, north-facing terrain, and powder potential. However, I might have just finally hit it correctly, and learned the mountain.
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