After going to the Alps twice every season for the past dozen or so years, I sometimes think that I've acquired a decent overview of the various regions and their respective ski areas and resorts. Based on my visits along with reports from FTO and Alpinforum of the many that I haven't visited yet, I can rattle off most of their + and - characteristics.
Still, there's nothing like a first-hand visit to make you realise that knowing the bullets points of a ski area is one thing and experiencing them first-hand is another. Serre Chevalier was certainly Exhibit A for that. I was set to come here last winter but ultimately postponed due to low-tide conditions in the southern French Alps. This year, there was a reversal of fortune as Serre Chevalier and the rest of this region had plenty of cover while a large swath of the Alps was garnering breathless articles about the end of skiing as we know it.
The long and short of it is that Serre Chevalier is enormous, certainly one of the Alps larger interconnected circuits at 8.5 miles across and up to 3 miles deep. The standard disclaimer applies: the map is heavily compressed and doesn't communicate the scale, grandeur -- whatever you want to call it.
Tony and Liz, whom I met for dinner in NYC ten or so years ago but have never skied with previously, concurred that we would need several days to get our arms around the extensive menu of terrain. In this post, I'm combining pix that Tony, Liz, and I took separately and he will follow with erudite commentary about conditions (we had a little of everything) and additional photos.
We started in the middle village of the circuit, Chantemerle:
Cote Gauthier:
Backside Yret:
This leads into the valley floor south of Briancon, where you'll need a taxi.
On Day 1, we were fortunate to have Julien, a lifetime resident of the region, give us an excellent tour of offpiste/trees.
Julien's happy clients:
With tree lines that go much higher in elevation than is normal in the Alps, skiing in the larch forests is one of Serre Chevalier's big calling cards. Here's Liz in a lightly tracked line:
Julien's local knowledge helped us nail some untracked goodies similar to these, including one south-facing line that was still powdery:
Plenty of elbow room on our own in Vallons:
Tony with the town of Briançon below:
Liz further down:
Monday lunch stop:
Some Quebec-inspired fun at an on-mountain sugar shack. The pink macaroon display is a nice touch:
Served by the effervescent Sandrine:
Since there are no maple trees there, they use local honey:
A few shots of me in the late-afternoon shadows near Cibouit, including a plane's vapor trail (nice one, Liz):
A bit further down:
And finally exiting through a series of natural half pipes:
Still, there's nothing like a first-hand visit to make you realise that knowing the bullets points of a ski area is one thing and experiencing them first-hand is another. Serre Chevalier was certainly Exhibit A for that. I was set to come here last winter but ultimately postponed due to low-tide conditions in the southern French Alps. This year, there was a reversal of fortune as Serre Chevalier and the rest of this region had plenty of cover while a large swath of the Alps was garnering breathless articles about the end of skiing as we know it.
The long and short of it is that Serre Chevalier is enormous, certainly one of the Alps larger interconnected circuits at 8.5 miles across and up to 3 miles deep. The standard disclaimer applies: the map is heavily compressed and doesn't communicate the scale, grandeur -- whatever you want to call it.
Tony and Liz, whom I met for dinner in NYC ten or so years ago but have never skied with previously, concurred that we would need several days to get our arms around the extensive menu of terrain. In this post, I'm combining pix that Tony, Liz, and I took separately and he will follow with erudite commentary about conditions (we had a little of everything) and additional photos.
We started in the middle village of the circuit, Chantemerle:
Cote Gauthier:
Backside Yret:
This leads into the valley floor south of Briancon, where you'll need a taxi.
On Day 1, we were fortunate to have Julien, a lifetime resident of the region, give us an excellent tour of offpiste/trees.
Julien's happy clients:
With tree lines that go much higher in elevation than is normal in the Alps, skiing in the larch forests is one of Serre Chevalier's big calling cards. Here's Liz in a lightly tracked line:
Julien's local knowledge helped us nail some untracked goodies similar to these, including one south-facing line that was still powdery:
Plenty of elbow room on our own in Vallons:
Tony with the town of Briançon below:
Liz further down:
Monday lunch stop:
Some Quebec-inspired fun at an on-mountain sugar shack. The pink macaroon display is a nice touch:
Served by the effervescent Sandrine:
Since there are no maple trees there, they use local honey:
A few shots of me in the late-afternoon shadows near Cibouit, including a plane's vapor trail (nice one, Liz):
A bit further down:
And finally exiting through a series of natural half pipes:
Last edited:
