 Poster: A snowHead
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Who: Three couples each with a young baby. We're mostly strong intermediates happy on most things, but one adult is a cautious 3rd week skier and another an off piste free rider with no fear.
Where: We stayed in a lovely apartment close to the old village centre of La clusaz booked via the tourist office. Great apartment, well appointed and a short stroll to the lifts, church square and supermarket.
Transfer: Some hired a car from the airport, others used the bus. Both options worked well.
Lift passes: As we had babies in tow, we just booked the local area pass at a discount through the tourist office. If we'd be skiing for more than 3 or 4 hours a day then we'd have probably got the bigger area pass and caught the bus to Grand Bornard for a day or two.
The town?: A picture postcard place with a scenic main square, plenty of crepe and chocolate shops, horse and carriages, and a reasonable supermarket. There is a cinema, ice rink, bowling and great pool for non snow entertainment. It had a very French local feel.
The skiing?: The slopes are arranged over 5 hills which give a good sense of travel and variety. While the mileage isn't huge there was enough to keep us entertained considering our limited slope time. I found that 3 hours was just long enough to complete a quick circuit of the 5 hills.
Beauregard - Has a flat area at the top with several short greens, perfect for kids learning to ski. Lovely views and separate from the main pistes. Several longer runs return to the town through pretty trees or you can take a gentle blue towards the next hill.
Manigod - A low wooded hill with plenty of short quiet blues and the odd red. Great for new skiers to build their confidence. This was a favourite with our cautious 3rd week skier.
L'etale - Accessed via some dull ski tracks from manigod or the transvalley cablecar, these were some of the quietest slopes and became one of my favourite areas. A fab viewing platform at the top gives you impressive views to Mont Blanc, the black and red from the top are both great, and there are several wide quiet blue runs lower down.
Auguille - This appeared to be the main hill and therefore had more skiers, although still not busy by most other resort standards. We didnt queue for a lift all week. The top had several wide open reds, great for a fast blast. The middle section had the full range of piste to suit all abilities, plus lots of park features from xs for kids to xl. Some reds dip off the sides of the ridge to descend into the valley towards L'etale or my favourite, the Fernuy piste towards Balme area. The lower slopes are mostly wide blue cruises.
Balme - The upper half is a big snow bowl perfect for some off piste as well as several fast reds/ blacks. The lower half is a mix of reds and blues through trees, although the blue and green tracks that return you to La Clusaz are very flat.
I can see myself returning here when my baby is old enough to ski. There is plenty for families to do both on and off the slopes, it felt friendly, welcoming and not busy. We chose this resort due to low town height for our babies, good mix of pistes to suit all skier abilities in our group and it didn't disappoint. Considering we visited mid- late March, the snow quality was great. Yes at village level by the afternoon we'd have spring slush but higher up the snow remained pristine all week. We had fresh powder the first 2 days which was still soft high up at the end of the week.
Any questions and I'll be happy to answer them?!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Went there 8 years ago for 4 days and really liked it.
Very nice feel to the place.
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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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Great report - many thanks. Skiing with babies is pretty brave; well done! We had 7 years off with ours so we’re clearly less brave than you (and broke!).
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