Fab snow in the southern French Alps
New snow on Dave’s balcony on Monday morning
Editor Watts is on a whistle-stop tour of five resorts in the southern French Alps. Here he reports in after three:
Monday saw brilliant powder conditions on and off-piste after heavy snowfall on Sunday evening. I was in Risoul and Vars, making the most of it. The pistes were delightful but the highlight was the fabulous off-piste in six inches or so of fresh snow in Risoul.
This popular family resort (linked to Vars to form 185km of piste skiing) has some of the best tree skiing in Europe, with slopes of every difficulty from advanced to early intermediate among well-spaced trees reminiscent of North America and even heli-skiing in Canada.
It also has zones which are entered through North American-style gates that it opens and closes according to avalanche danger – these are avalanche controlled and patrolled I was assured by my ESF guide Babette; but, amazingly, they are not marked or explained on the piste map.
Saturday I skied Puy St Vincent, a real family resort that UK tour operator Snowbizz takes as many as 150 guests a week to. Although it had rained the day before up to 2500m, the pistes on the top half of the mountain were in surprisingly good condition and very enjoyable. The lower runs were icy and unpleasant but still skiable.
Sunday saw me in Les Orres, little known on the UK market but with some seriously good rolling and wide red runs on the upper mountain and easier, equally wide, blues and greens on the lower part – all very pleasant to ski because of the excellent grooming which kept the pistes in good nick despite the recent rain.
Next stops: Pra-Loup and Montgenèvre.
Dave and his ESF guide about to enter one of Risoul’s avalanche-controlled and patrolled off-piste areas
Ski Collection is a major tour operator to all the resorts on Dave’s trip and helped organize it for him along with the Provence Alps Cote d’Azur Tourist Board.
52 Sunsations
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