Which resort for max variety of on-piste challenges?

A snowHead

A January ski trip is in the planning, group of couples ranging from confident on piste intermediates-advanced. The ladies in the group aren't in to off piste but like darker reds and blacks so have sked for some suggestions of resorts with a number of challenging red/blacks. I've racked my brains and keep coming back to St. Anton but I've already got two weeks booked there for the coming season but would force myself to do a third.......

Can anyone suggest a few places that would meet these requirements? It's been along time since I've skied there but was thinking maybe Tignes/Val d'Isere would also be worth a look. A couple of us will want a couple of guided off piste days but we'll pretty much find that anywhere.

A snowHead

Portes du Soleil can be a good choice in my opinion. All sorts of difficulty on piste including the famous Swiss wall and there are some great steep blacks in Avoriaz. You could either stay in Morzine or Avoriaz.

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Alpe D'Huez is worth considering. Pistes range from the very gentle to The Tunnel - one of the tougher blacks around.

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Thanks, not skied in either. It's a while since I skied in France I think it was La Plange 2010. Nice area but I remember most of it be very blue. Suppose it's very dependent on conditions, on that trip they'd not had snow for a long while so it was icy at times.

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Tignes is probably the best for on piste challenges, but courchevel used to have the harder pistes (a couple have now gone). There are some very good pistes in Les Arcs as well. Try any

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Tignes/Val d'Isere is definitely worth a shout, although a lot French black runs can be mogul fields, so it depends what sort of black run you're looking for. Mayrhofen might be worth a look; its a decent size ski area, predominantly red runs, not many blues, all the black runs are groomed (and nice runs), plus you've also got Harakiri which is the steepest piste in Austria.

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Shirley black runs should not be bashed. Therefore they should be mogul fields.

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Grizwald,
Morzine if you want a nice town with good apres ski feel.
Avoriaz if you want ski in/out, but not the same apres buzz, mostly s/c studios and families. Very cosmopolitan.
PDS offers everything you need for your group.

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The Kitzbühel ski area has a good mix of intermediate and advanced runs. And if you stay in Kirchberg it is significantly less expensive than most French resorts. The AllStarCard ticket also offers skiing in many other resorts including the SkiWelt (via a short free bus ride) and St Johann (short free train journey). Check the area out at www.austriaskiguide.com

I had a guided off piste day with a group from the Ski Club of GB last year - led by a guide from St Johann's Wilder Kaiser Ski School. Awesome day out!

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Will have a look at PDS as I said an area I've not been too. Morzine, seems to get repeated mention on conditions being possibly iffy-prone to rain?

Kitzbuhel is a good shout, I love the area and have always been lucky with the conditions. Ruled it out as due to the size of the group we're looking more at chalet type accomadation. I'd like to stay in the Pass Thrun area as IMO the best skiing is over that side.

Also going to look at prices for Ishgl, but may struggle on the chalet front.

Alpde D'Huez

You know it makes sense.

Tignes/Val has plenty of tough blacks to keep you quiet. I still haven't done half of them because I'm such a wuss!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Grizwald, why do you consider St Anton to have on-piste challenges? Sure many of the blues are ridiculously difficult for nervous intermediates, but most of the blacks would be considered easy enough compared to other resorts.

Certainly you'll find blacks in Tignes and especially Val d'Isere a level up in difficulty. Other place I think has many seriously challenging blacks is Les Arcs. If you find St Anton blacks challenging you won't be disappointed

A snowHead

+1 for Les Arcs, I skied there for the first time last season, there was one excellent run at the far side of the resort, can't remember the name but essentially the easy run traverses back and forth but the advanced skiers can simply "go over the edge", some "natur" runs too where they are not pisted at all. much more variety than 3V where the Grand Couloir is one of the few actual pistes that is remotely challenging.

A snowHead

peanuthead, I know what you mean about St Anton, tough blues and no true blacks. It des have plenty of red and itinerant runs though, plus in the Stuben area and a day trip or two over to Lech and Zurs.

I can't actually recall many difficult blacks in Les Arcs, it is possible they were closed though as it was a lean snow year,

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Grizwald, yes, a lot of the high French resorts have very rocky natural terrain, especially on the steep pitches, and need a lot of snow cover for the blacks to be open. It is always a risk that if snow is pooor many of the best runs will be closed

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Les Arcs has some serious blacks and great variety, but most (all) are ungroomed mogul fields which your knees may only be able to take so much of. It has some decent reds as well, but I think the reds a little lacking compared to other resorts, eg Tignes - Val; if you are in the mood for blasting down a red from top to bottom then it is hard to beat the runs from Bellevarde to La Daille or even Double M. You also have groomed blacks like Face, and the very steep sections on Descente and Trolles where an intermediate skier can build up serious speed before the long flat (unless they've the bottom of Trolles this year, I know a couple of people were killed here last year or two). So overall EK gets my vote, although it is Les Arcs for me this year

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Zermatt or Verbier

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nevis1003, Baring a lottery win, just no! Had a day in Zermatt last season via Cervinia and stopped for lunch nearly bankrupted me.......

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Interesting thread. What is a challenging piste? Is it the steepness? Is it the consequences if you fall or ski off the edge? I say it is the conditions.

Virtually all pistes can be easy, depending on your skill... but, those same pistes can become extremely difficult. It all depends on the snow conditions, the visibility, and the traffic. Case in point: black Nasserein at St Anton. First thing on a bluebird morning, on groomers... a doddle, a GS racetrack. Arc those turns and look great. Late that same day, when there are big sheets of blue ice, punctuated by mounds of soft snow, with people spearing off in all directions: it will make a monkey out of all but the best.

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tangowaggon, often FIS race pistes will be labelled black and groomed to perfection.

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Grizwald, +1 for Val d'Isere or Tignes. Plenty of challenging reds to choose from plus a fair few tough blacks. La Sache down to Brevieres must count as one of the top runs around. Also you have the benefit of a number of former blacks being converted into itineraries. My preference is for Val rather than Tignes as the resort is better in the evening. Also, there's probably better choice of O/P ski guiding (e.g. Alpine Experience).

I thought that the whole point of Les Arcs was that it's basically a family resort.... so you don't get the hard code types there, hence there's lots of powder for all if you know where it is. Not necessarily on piste though, hence probably not relevant to the original poster. If you don't mind the drunken Brits then Val d'Isere/ Tignes has a few sporting pistes - that'd be my suggestion.

You know it makes sense.

I can only think of one really challenging piste in the whole of the arlberg (albeit i've never made it to sonnenkopf). I'd suggest ischgl as it has the best selection of rinse and repeat blacks I know, and I think they've even added another lift to one of them since I was there, but little in the way of guided off piste there.

Would think tignes or val as such, lots of off piste and a few steep blacks (but I think they're more spread away from each other than the ones in ischgl).

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Most of St Anton's toughest blacks were turned into itineraries many years ago so are now not groomed (but still avalanche patrolled). Same is true in several other resorts.
Yes,Grizwald, La Plagne has the easiest pistes of any French resort I have been to.
Severtal French resorts have guiding companies which will put you in with others of the same standard to ski the off-piste, which saves a lot of money compared with a private guide (unless there are 5 or 6 of you). Alpine Experience is the best at Val d'Isere.

A snowHead

Thanks for all the new replies, I wasn't looking to start a debate over what everyone classes as a black etc as I said I appreciate it's very condition dependant, just somewhere with some interesting on piste skiing rather than mile after mile of cruisy. I'm a bit out of touch with allot of the Euro resorts, most will no doubt have had changes and lift upgrades that I've skied in the past. I do some instructing for Interski in the Aosta valley none of those resorts which I frequent would I sugggest for our group, although I did pitch the idea of having a car and taking in a few.

Tignes does appeal, although I'd normally hedge my bets and not look to go quite as high early in the season.

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Grizwald,
You mentioned Ischgl and if you want to go to a chalet it is not a good choice but for variety of skiing it is excellent. Lots of people seem to write it off as having too few difficult blacks but I suspect they are people who ignore the itinaires which are not as prominent as in some resorts and less skied and are all the better for it.

Help!!

Which resort for max variety of on-piste challenges?

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