Oh no, we couldn’t possibly go to a resort with less than 5000km of skiing, it’s so boring having to ski a piste more than once, there was only just enough in Val d’Isere for a week, really it’s not much if you’re a really good skier ……. etc. Really, how many times have we heard this nonsense. You skied everything in the Espace Killy in a week? All the off piste as well? In all possible conditions? Not sounding very likely, I suggest.
There’s an attitude amongst certain sections of the British skiing public which says that if it’s not a humungous mega-resort it’s not worth bothering with, and if you’ve skied a run once then you’ve done it and there’s nothing new to see. And let me tell you, they’re missing out big time.
Let’s take just one run here in 2Alpes as an example. Last January I went out with my snowboard two days after a big dump, expecting to find nice soft snow on groomed pistes (missed the freshies, dammit), maybe some soft bumps later on after the skiers ripped it up a bit and a few fresh tracks between the pistes if I was lucky. What I found was that they had not yet pisted Lac Noir, there was no-one on it and it was covered in powder, chopped down the middle and virgin at the sides. I did laps of that one run all day.
Earlier this seaon I did the same run on skis in soft groomed snow conditions and found several random jumps and mini-kickers which the piste machines had left lying around for some reason. This week I did it again after nearly a month of no snowfall and it was firm and fast, conditions which meant I could treat it almost like a natural halfpipe. See? Different run every time. That’s why you’ll rarely hear a seasonnaire claim to have ‘skied the whole resort’. And why your assertion that you exhausted every possibility of the entire Espace Killy in a week makes us all snort into our beer.
This obsession with sheer piste mileage means you’re missing out on some fabulous little gems of ski resorts, all of which would keep you occupied for at least a week if only you’d let them.
Take my personal all time favourite resort at Alpe du Grande Serre, half way between Grenoble and the Oisans, home of big hitters Alpe d’Huez and 2Alpes. Grand Serre is actually run by Alpe d’Huez lift company SATA, and a week’s pass (a snip at 124€) entitles you to to a cut-price day over there as well, should you fancy it.
Grand Serre has a measly 12 lifts and 32 pistes, most of them blues and reds, though there’s a couple of nice itineraire routes as well. It’s got no kicking bars, no banging on-piste apres ski house music and only one mountain restaurant. Not selling it to you am I?
But here’s what it has got ….
- An unpretentious family/weekender atmosphere with prices to match. None of your 20€ for chips and an Orangina here – steak frites and a beer on the hill will set you back barely a tenner, and there’s added comedy value from the batty ladies who run the restaurant. Not to mention home made tarte flambeé.
- Cool people. How often do French skiers chat to you on the lifts in the mega-resorts? Let alone poke gentle fun at your big-resort trendy gear and fancy modern skis, usually before casually zipping off down something near-vertical while sporting ‘80s rear-entry boots and straight skis.
- Empty pistes. The whole of Europe, its wife and its three dogs rocks up in 2Alpes for February half term. At Grand Serre, a busy day means there might be three people in the queue for the toilet.
- Breathtaking views. Well OK, you get these everywhere. But for me the vista across the Lac de Laffrey to the limestone massif of the Vercors and over Grenoble to the Belledonne is up there with the best of what you see in the big resorts.
- Powder! This is a little family resort, remember. Which means it’s not full of sharp-elbowed powderfreak seasonnaires thirty seconds after every dump. You can come up here days (weeks) after snowfall and still find fresh lines within a stone’s throw of the pistes. And it has some fabulous terrain to boot.
I could go on, though I fear it falls on deaf ears. But if you’re prepared to expand your horizons a bit, the small resorts have masses to offer. Rather than look for new pistes, get off the skis and take a board out now and then (or vice versa). Branch out into nordic for a change. Push yourself a bit and do the itineraires. Chat to the French – they’ll be dying to know what on earth you’re doing in their little backwater. Trust me, there’s much more to skiing than factory resorts, production line tour op accommodation and piste mileage.
© Christa GIMBLETT 2011
