Season in France
- Thread starter Lokdog
- Start date
3 valleys/tres vallees or whatever it is in French. Hands down my favourite ski area ever. Massive area and you can get full area pass - has resorts such as courchevel, meribel & val thorens. Plenty of places to try find work. Just have a look at a piste map for the area its amazing
Hough
New member
Did my season in Val Thorens, really buzzing resort with sick terrain + it always has snow due to its height (2300m). You also have access to the largest ski area in the world with pretty much every type of skiing available. Tignes/Val d'Isere in the Espace Killy region are also pretty sweet resorts although they are a little bit more expensive.
BrawnTrends
Active member
For big mountain/freeride, Chamonix is the mecca for sure. But Val Thorens, Tignes and Val d'Isère (check Léo Taillefer's videos) are also really interesting.
These resorts are just usually more expensive to live in (but Chamonix is a real town, not just a ski resort).
These resorts are just usually more expensive to live in (but Chamonix is a real town, not just a ski resort).
Fuckthefuckoff
Member
13873696:Lokdog said:
Cham is the cheapest. Jw do you speak French?
Cham is rather a mountaineer's choice than a freerider's choice. If that's your thing then go. The trams of Le Brevent, Grands Montets and Aiguille du Midi tend to get VERY crowded at times, testing your patience. For Freeride only you will get more skiing in when going to the other places suggested.
But definitely add La Grave to the list, it offers Cham-like gnar big mountain skiing but has tons of other options like Serre Che, Alpe d'Huez, Vars-Risoul, Puy St. Vincent or Les Deux Alpes close by. Great spring touring options too. Due to all those various options for an entire season you might be an overall happier camper there than anywhere else in France.
But definitely add La Grave to the list, it offers Cham-like gnar big mountain skiing but has tons of other options like Serre Che, Alpe d'Huez, Vars-Risoul, Puy St. Vincent or Les Deux Alpes close by. Great spring touring options too. Due to all those various options for an entire season you might be an overall happier camper there than anywhere else in France.
BrawnTrends
Active member
13873748:Hackster said:
I was going to say la Grave in my previous post (obviously one of the top choice for freeride) but I'm not sure it's a good resort to do a whole season in. Or at least not in the way most seasonnaires see it.
Your first season I guess?
I wouldn't recommend Chamonix (spent 3 weeks there). Sure, the skiing is great, but the crazy queues combined with the constant need for getting on packed buses between the areas (around a 10-15min ride from Grand Montets - Flegére(Chamonix)) is not my idea of fun.
I spent the 12/13 season in Val d'Isére(L' Espace Killy), and had a crazy fun time. Superb skiing, no queues if you avoid the obvious places(bottom Solaise early) and a great partyscene. Perhaps not the best place for skitouring, although I can't really say since I'm not into that scene.
I can guarantee you wouldnt be disappointed with the setup. Decent opportunities for work aswell in case you don't speak French, many English/Scandinavian bars/tour operators around. It is really expensive though (uphill food etc.), but as long as you stay clear of 15euro pizzas you should be fine. For drinks, be sure to check out the 2euro bottles of drinkable rosé at Sherpa.
Heard great things about Val Thorens aswell as Serre Chavalier aswell, although I've never been there myself. Incase you end up in Valdi, gimme a shout and I'll try and point out some lines!
I wouldn't recommend Chamonix (spent 3 weeks there). Sure, the skiing is great, but the crazy queues combined with the constant need for getting on packed buses between the areas (around a 10-15min ride from Grand Montets - Flegére(Chamonix)) is not my idea of fun.
I spent the 12/13 season in Val d'Isére(L' Espace Killy), and had a crazy fun time. Superb skiing, no queues if you avoid the obvious places(bottom Solaise early) and a great partyscene. Perhaps not the best place for skitouring, although I can't really say since I'm not into that scene.
I can guarantee you wouldnt be disappointed with the setup. Decent opportunities for work aswell in case you don't speak French, many English/Scandinavian bars/tour operators around. It is really expensive though (uphill food etc.), but as long as you stay clear of 15euro pizzas you should be fine. For drinks, be sure to check out the 2euro bottles of drinkable rosé at Sherpa.
Heard great things about Val Thorens aswell as Serre Chavalier aswell, although I've never been there myself. Incase you end up in Valdi, gimme a shout and I'll try and point out some lines!
twatt_chaurus
Member
I'll be in Tignes/Val d'Isere for a month starting mid january, if you end up coming there we can have a few brews and shred some.
**This post was edited on Dec 30th 2017 at 9:49:19am
**This post was edited on Dec 30th 2017 at 9:49:19am
BrawnTrends
Active member
Morzine/Avoriaz also have a big english scene (most of the town is owned by Brits now, so speaking french is almost only an option), great parties, good bars, good skiing. Not exactly big mountain/freeride resorts but there are definitely some really interesting places to discover in Les Portes du Soleil.
BrawnTrends
Active member
13874019:Hackster said:
Granted we've had some shitty years, recently. But most of the French alps were hit by bad winters, especially last season (Les Deux Alpes' glacier had to close halfway through the summer because of the lack of snow and some serious ice melting problems). So hopefully this winter is the start of a new cycle as it already dumped 8 feet this past month in the Portes du Soleil area (I live here year round, so I've had my fair share of powder days already). Elevation isn't much of an issue for snow here because of the lake's microclimate, which means we can get as much snow as higher elevated resorts in the southern alps (if it snows...).
But I agree that we're not a big mountain/steep terrain freeride area.
That being said, Les Arcs is also a fun area.
Limitanie
New member
The great thing about Europe is that you can go almost anywhere for dirt cheap with trains. I was in Europe for 11 days this season and spent most of my time in Engelberg Switzerland (awesome mountain with tons of terrain and when I went in early December we had no snow here in Co but they had like 3-4 ft of powder which was sick). I did make a day trip over to Chamonix (cha-money-money) and that was sick but yeah like others said the queues can be outrageous. I know you said skiing in France but Engelberg is pretty close to Switzerland and is fucking sick, definitely would recommend a day trip at the very least. The train station is literally right at the base of the mountain so that's also a huge plus.