ChrisC
Well-known member
Is Val d'Isere the best resort for off-piste/powder skiing in the world?
Given the lack of snow in the US in winter 2017/18 - and Europe having a once in a generation snow year - my brother and I decided to forgo a lower Powder Highway Canada trip and instead fly across the pond to Europe. Canada will always be there, but Europe with a 240-400" mid-winter base will not. Easy decision. My brother had visited the Alps, but not skied them - so he picked a Euro itinerary of Val d'Isere, Chamonix and Zermatt. I had been to each previously years before in 2005 or 2006, but never with this much snow. Game on! (Truth known: Personally, I had liked Val d'Isere the best on early trips. Versus Chamonix, La Grave, Trois Vallees, Les Arcs, Verbier, Megeve, Zermatt, Courmayeur)
Given the massive storms enveloping the Alps in January 2018 - with 200 km/hr winds, avalanches, road closures, rockslides and huge snowfalls - I decided to have a guide show us around the first day at Val d'Isere. I had some ideas where I wanted to go, but local knowledge on what off-piste terrain had been accessible, what had been skied/not skied, slid, wind-scoured, .... and overall save our asses from an avalanche.
So Day 1 - Val d'Isere is a good almost hours from Geneva. However, walking around in village to get a late meal... Wow! These are Mount Baker 1998/99 or 99/00 snowbanks! Easily the same or better than the best years of Tahoe. It's a good year!
A few early morning Val d'Isere sunrise photos.
View attachment IMG_1451 (Edited).JPG
A true 100"+ base in town.
All of Val d'Isere under Google Earth
Some of the best off-piste skiing in Val d'Isere is in the Fornet Zone - specifically the areas of Grand Vallon and Col Pers. These areas offer over 4000 vertical feet of north-facing powder skiing with valley after valley of untracked snow. We spent the entire day there doing lap after lap - moving further and further out as needed to seek fresh snow. The snow from previous storms had settled - so it was 4-12" in places - but it was equivalent to cat or heli skiing. The guide agreed since she was there the day before....and had the best snow.
We took about 5 runs over here with lunch and made our way back to Val d'Isere.
The glacier chair to get there....Val d'Isere summer ski area.
Our guide was able to get us into a the very small bistro of 2-Michelin star restaurant for lunch at Restaurant l'Atelier d'Edmond. They had a very reasonable for quality/price 25 Euro 3-course lunch.
Excellent day.
I will need to break this into multiple posts since photo limits.