 Poster: A snowHead
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Any comments on the Maurienne resorts: Les Karellis, Val Cenis, Val Frejus, Orelle, Aussios, Lanselvillard etc?
Toying with doing a explorer week in the valley. With Orelle linking in to 3V as a back-up if we get bored.
Main concerns are
1. Lots of tows - I'm a boarder and this is a holiday not a endurance trip
Les Karellis gets a good write-up in one of the guides. Is it amusing for advanced riders?
Any lift inks over to italy? A friend mentioned one was mooted
Orelle: anyone stayed overnight in the Plan Bouchet Chalet Refuge above it? I've been there from the VT side.
Researched the train and you can be in Modane, main valley town in 8 hours from London........got me thinking.....
As always, any comment appreciated. Hope it sparks a few ideas
cheers
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I have been to Les Karellis years ago, as a skier, rather than a boarder.
There is not a lot to it. I realise that boarders are not obsessed with kilometres of piste, but it is certainly not expert terrain.
No lifts outside the area, when I was there.
It is very French with few foreigners on the slopes.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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i went to Val Cenis a few years ago. As above: very French with not many foreigners. Some nice runs from the top station 28oom.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Welcome to snowHeads, rdk 
We went to Val Cenis as our second ever ski=ing trip. An exceedingly quiet resort! Not sure what transport up and down the valley is like...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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all sounding a bit remote and adventurous.
Val Cenis topping out at 2800 sounds good. That's a fair vertical.
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There's a pretty easy black/red from the top at 2800 to Lanslevillard at 14/1500 which is fun at the end of the day. I had morning lessons all week and by Wedenesday we were going off-piste as we has skied most of the place, and I wasn't in the top group at all. I had fun doing the flechette also.
BTW, what a friendly place: all these people welcoming me!
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yes, they are a friendly bunch. I guess we've all got something in common.
Thanks for the feedback, too.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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SussexSnow, We did this last Xmas...based ourselves in St Jean de Maurienne and toured the smaller resorts by car. It was a great week! Can't comment on the suitablility for boarders mind...I always use two planks.
We did - Toussuire, Le Corbier, Valmenier, Valmorel and Val Thorens (via Orelle), all the little ones are fun resorts for a day, if you're at a good standard they'd be a bit boring for longer - as I recall they were mainly served by chairs not too many drags. The link to Val T was a pain and you had to trudge uphill from the chair up from Orelle to get over the ridge (the main linking runs were shut when we were there - I assume it'd be better in good snow conditions?) That said the runs on the Orelle side were fantastic.
I've also skied Val Cenis in the past....good resort for intermediates, not too much tough stuff but probably good for a day or two as part of another trip. It's a bit of a long drag up the valley to Val C though so we didn't bother last year.
Night life is quiet in the Maurienne, so don't go there looking for late night partying. Prices are relatively cheap in the valley and in the smaller resorts. Day lift passes are good value too.
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Thanks for that, sounds exactly what I'd like to do. What are the driving times between the resorts. Did you have to do early starts or where you able to be on-piste at a reasonable hour
Sounds like you had poor conditions for the link from the top of the Rosael Chairlift (links from top of Orelle bubble). Usually the liason is skiable
Cheers
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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SussexSnow, if you like I can mail you a pdf format (838K) press release on Le Corbier (in English), for general info....
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Support GB!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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PG
yes please name doh surname --at--cabinet hypehn office doh gsi doh gov doh uk[
I've been sent brochures by Sybelles and Karellis so far.
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I have been to the Maurienne twice, based in Lanslevillard (the best choice of the 2 linked villages of Val Cenis, as far as skiing goes, though Lanselebourg is larger - a small town - with more shops). Unless you haven't skied much before (in which case Val C it will do you fine) you really need transport to try the other resorts too. Val Frejus is the other larger resort up a side valley from Modane, the town at the bottom of the valley, and Bonneval is smaller (beyond Val Cenis, at the top end of the valley) but worth visiting for a day. (Some people ski over the back of Fornet at Val d'Isere to ski there and go back by helicopter)
La Norma, near Modane is a similar size but with most of the pistes cut through the trees, and there are several even smaller resorts. Aussois is one of those but also has mostly blue runs so I'd give it a miss (though there was some good off-piste off the back).
Les Karellis I don't know. Where is it? I didn't see it on the map. Our guide didn't take us there.
Modane is where this area really starts, but if you go further down the big valley that leads to it you get to the 3 valleys link. We never tried it.
I should say that we were there to ski the off-piste with a guide. He had a minibus and we drove down in a car (you can just do it in a day from London if you start early and keep at it) However, as you say, there is a direct train to Modane from Paris, or Turin airport is only a half hour drive away through the Frejus tunnel.
Having two transports turned out very convenient on two occasions when we ended up skiing to a different place than we had started.
I must say that the area is wonderful for off piste. Nobody else seems to ski it and there is lots of it with plenty of very challenging terrain if you have a guide. ( see some of my photos, top right here showing two lower off piste areas amoung trees and a village photo from my Hotel, plus our guide, Zeb.- left). Becasuse places like Chamonix/Argentierre get tracked out so quickly I had a better holiday here and just as challenging.
But that's partly because our guide was so good.
The resorts are quiet and cheap - including very cheap ski passes - and most of the skiers are French.
Driving times between resorts were generally about 15 - 20 mins, or nearer 30 mins to Val Frejus.
The places that Homphomp mentions are really a quite different area from the Haute Maurienne where we were.
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much  on Fri 19-11-04 11:38; edited 12 times in total
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You know it makes sense.
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SussexSnow, you may have to PM me with your "name.surname" 
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Support GB!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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SussexSnow, Based in St Jean we never drove for more than half an hour to each resort....it's about 15 to 20mins from the Orelle bubble. From there you can also drive to St Francois de Longchamp and Val Frejus in about the same time but we didn't get time to do either. Val Cenis is an hour and a half from there....further if you want to get up as far as Bonneval (lovely little resort!).
St Jean is a basic town....no nightlife to speak of just a couple of bars and a limited number of restaurants (only three that served veggie meals!). Hotels are quite cheap though so it's a good value place to be if you're happy with such limited facilities....we're not party animals so don't care!
You're right...snow conditions were poor, most of the links between the resorts were closed! For all the little ones we just skied down, jumped in the car and drove round to the next valley instead of trying to ski over!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| homphomp wrote: |
limited number of restaurants (only three that served veggie meals!
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As many as that!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Pete Horn, ...and two of those were pizza!! Mind you there were only six or so restaurants altogether so it's not a bad percentage for France.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I have added to the above: hope it was some use. You have probably seen the piste maps, but if not here is Val Cenis (the largest as far as pistes and lifts go) and Valfrejus (whole valleys of off-piste). Click on maps (no doubt the resort websites have more). Or, smaller, La Norma and Bonneval . They range from 1,350m to 1,200m vertical.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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La Toussuire to Orelle is about 45 minutes by car, longer by bus I guess. The staff in our hotel used to get the bus there on their day off to avoid bumping into guests etc (can't blame them)/ La T is lift linked very well now to Le Corbier, St Sorlin D'arves, St Jean d'arves and Les Bottiere. St Sorlin has seen some considerable sympathetic developments, mostly apartments and a few restaurants, Crystal and others now go there and its getting busy. La T remains the "capital" of the area. I've skied in St Francois Laongchamps a couple of years ago and I think it took us about an hour to drive to and get parked etc from La T, so not too bad, Val Cenis looks not far on the map buy I've never visited that one, you could probably judge it with some route planner software. Les Sybelles as its known is now a very large area of 300 plus Km's of lift linked piste. There are many other smaller stations 30-40km's ish of piste in the are that I have not explored yet but can see on neighbouring mountain sides accross the Maurienne valley(same side as St F Longchamps), perhaps they are the resorts that Snowball has mentioned. (www.la-toussuire.com) no UK operators go here now (limited night life) I like the area and have skied there for 7 years. Chambery is best to fly to but you can also fly to Lyon, (longer transfer 2 hours) and get a bus from either.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The area I was talking about is the whole of the Valley upstream from the big town of Modane, which is where the valley turns up north-east(ish). (Valfrejus is above Modane, roughly over the tunnel).
The 3 valleys link is a few miles west of Modane.
As I said, this area is closest to Turin airport, which is only a half hour from Modane through the Frejus tunnel. This is the way the Italians get to the 3 valleys for the weekend.
At one point last year we were skiing Valfrejus (most of a week after the last snow) and, except at the top and bottom, didn't see anyone else's track all day till mid afternoon when tracks of about 6 skiers crossed us. We accused our guide of taking us back to the crowds but he said they were our tracks from the morning!
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in future I will read the WHOLE discussion thread before replying 
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Here is a general map of the Maurienne.
(This website has a standard image-width, so I put it on edge to make it larger)
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Val Fréjus isn't too bad. Some good off-piste runs and some long wide runs for the intermediates. I say it's a small version of a big resort, in that it has a little bit of everything.
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