POWDER ON A PLATE
Keen to dabble off-piste, but don’t want to venture far from the lifts? IFMGA guide Martin Chester picks his top six resorts for easy-access pow ]-piste
PHOTO MICHAEL MEUSBURGER
Biggest is not always best, and if you want to dip your toe in the world of off-piste skiing, you don’t want pressure from hordes of trendy freeriders poaching your plans. Some places transcend cool, and offer acres of freshies – right by the lifts – long after the last dump of snow. Here are six of my favourite places for easy-access powder.
SAINTE FOY, FRANCE
The secret has been out for a while, but Sainte Foy (pronounced ‘fwah’) situated near Les Arcs and
Val d'Isère – Tignes is often overlooked. That is the
whole beauty of the place! Here you will only find four lifts, but that keeps the crowds at bay, while you mine the expansive stash of white gold on offer. With easy access from Bourg St Maurice, local specialists Premier Neige can help you book everything you need. The majority of the resort faces north-west, holding excellent snow long after a dump, with sheltered tree skiing low down when the snow falls. Once it clears, head up for amazing off-piste runs off the higher lifts (on all aspects) or top them up with a bit of skinning for some superlative itineraries back to the valley. Mellow and easy, steep and inaccessible, this tiny resort really does have it all…
VAL CENIS, FRANCE
Ever heard of Lanslebourg, or Lanslevillard? I thought not. The good news is that very few other freeriders have either – so you will be getting a lot of tempting terrain to yourselves! A few years ago I took the family to Val Cenis, which consists of three ski areas spread over a succession of villages in the Haute Maurienne, and we were blown away by the package offered by MGS Ski (mgsski.com).
Keeping the costs down, we went self-catering, but opted into the ESF-led group-ski sessions in the afternoon. Now, Jerome could have been a tad stressed by having an IFMGA guide in his team, but he didn’t flinch. Instead he effortlessly cruised us around some of the best off-piste runs in the valley. Boy, did it blow my mind in terms of über-easy access and barely any competition! Once again, the majority of the resort is north-facing, with exciting steeps and couloirs up high; sheltered and mellow tree skiing down low. I mean, what’s not to like?
PILA, ITALY
Like all the resorts in this list, Pila often gets overlooked in favour of its more popular neighbours – with Courmayeur and La Thuile/La Rosière just up the road. Sitting on a bench above the Aosta Valley, Pila faces
due north and looks out across the most stunning view, with the entire Haute Route (from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn) plastered across the horizon.
For sure, there are great day tours onto the higher ridges, and off the top of the lifts. Yes, there is some amazing (and serious) freeride terrain, easily accessible from the two high points on either side of the resort.
But, for me, this place comes into its own for its mellow easy-access off-piste, ideal for introducing beginners or kids to powder skiing. Head up the Chamole lift and hang a left for some amazing tree skiing; head over the other side to the Grimondet lift, and acres of fresh tracks on gentle meadows await you. With youngsters, it looks like the real thing, it feels like the real thing, and you can equip them (and train them) for the real thing – but stay far enough away from the steep slopes above and you can relax, knowing there is very little real danger. Other than the risk of laughing too hard!
For acres of stress-free, hassle-free fresh tracks head to the Ischgl region
THE ISCHGL FRINGES, AUSTRIA
I have spent enough years running intro off-piste and ski touring courses in the Paznaun Valley to learn that the best things about Ischgl are not necessarily Ischgl at all. For acres of stress-free and hassle-free fresh tracks, long after the snow has fallen, hop on a ski bus through Galtür to the lift system at Wirl. On a storm day, the mellow trees and scrub off the far poma lift will give you all the shelter and visibility you crave. On a bluebird powder day, pack some skins and explore the (still secret – until now) stashes between the far edge of the lift system and Partenen in the Montafon Valley.
Equally worthwhile is a day at the small village of Kappl, further down the valley, where the low-level trees are ideal on storm days; the mid-level slopes are rarely steep enough to slide and so easy to access. But when the sun comes out, or long after fresh snow later in the season, I have yet to find anywhere better to learn the magic of timing fresh snow on the changing aspects of this tiny off-piste paradise. Of course, you always have the mahoosive party mecca of Ischgl to fall back on if you need some serious lift-served mileage. Better still, link all three (with a tiny bit of skinning) for a ski safari all the way to St Anton.
BRUSON, SWITZERLAND
Until a few years ago, this tiny resort (which sports just three lifts and a handful of pistes) was a local’s secret for storm days. Now linked into the Verbier lift system, you can still have tons of terrain to yourself on days when the big riders are hooning around the big resort. It is quite low, but that’s ideal – as it is relatively sheltered with an abundance of great tree skiing.
If the visibility is good and the upper drag is open, then take some skins and explore the amazing touring options off the top. Just don’t get too greedy on the long descents to the valley unless you know where you are going. Far better to head back into the lift system for another lap, until you know the lay of the land.
Alternatively, get a guide to help you explore the more soulful and less crowded corners of the Verbier system. This way you get everything that is good about a holiday in a mega-resort, combined with some uncrowded gems on powder days. What a cocktail!
VAL D’ANNIVIERS, SWITZERLAND
If you want a veritable mecca for a great week of freeride skiing, guaranteed to deliver in any conditions, head to this valley in Switzerland. I would stay with Eric and Penny at Ski Zinal (skizinal.com), or base yourself in Grimentz to make for quick and easy access to the biggest lift and piste systems in the valley. When it comes to the scale of freeride adventure, you can dial it up, in both scale and popularity in Grimentz, or dial it down in the quieter resorts of St Luc or Vercorin. These smaller lift systems are awesome for sheltered ski runs on storm days – so you never get shut down. If you’d like someone to show you around, get in touch with Graham Frost or Nick Parks at Grimentz Zinal Backcountry Adventures (backcountryadventures.co.uk) to explore the full potential.
