Looking at a lovely chalet in La Tzoumaz for Xmas, but a bit worried about connections and in particular my nervous wife who can comfortably ski a blue but doesn’t like steep slopes and the piste map shows a lot of reds! Is it suitable? Will she be able to ski back into resort?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@Renside We've had our apartment in La Tzoumaz since 2003 and of course, the upside of it being much cheaper than Verbier is balanced by the downside that it's a Satellite. It's usually much quieter than Verbier, especially at Weekends or school holiday weeks, to the extent that people will often come over if the Verbier pistes are getting too busy for their liking. And being north-facing, the snow tends to suffer less in sunny weather than south-facing Verbier. As you might expect, having to use the link down to and back from Verbier can be tedious compared to being in the right part of Verbier (i.e. nearer to the quieter Mayentzet [107] lift, as opposed to the busy central Médran [101], [102] lifts). So you'll have to do the 'satellite vs hub' decision on the basis of how you weigh the various +/- points. Worst case for a novice wanting to go over to Verbier is that at the Savoleyres summit, they'll have to hop on the télécabine [200] back down to Verbier and get the free ski bus up to Mayentzet ([107] next to Carrefour).
As for runs, I'd say a competent Blue skier could do 50% of the runs with no issues:
but you need to know where the 'by-pass' segments are that make some of the reds manageable for a debutante. That said, Verbier isn't that much different in this respect i.e. confining yourself to blues limits the number of runs and you'd need to know where you were going. The final run down to the télécabine isn't steep but it does narrow and is shared with the tobogganers when the luge run is open (the lugists use the separated section on the left so it's more a matter that this narrows the space, rather than a problem of collisions with them):
so in a way, that's probably the most immediate challenge if you're doing that repeatedly. It can be avoided by taking the Etablons chair [203)] back up (the chair runs weekends and holidays only) and at the end of the day, hopping on the navette back into the village, which stops next to Etablons bar. But then, most resorts have a section that is busy and a bit disturbing for novices.
The La Tzoumaz-Savoleyres sector isn't one of those where its easy to get lost and end up in the wrong place: all the runs on the north side (left, on the official piste map) of the ridge end up in the same place (the La Tzoumaz Télécabine) eventually. A real novice would just stick to the blues. A more capable novice would start to use some of the red runs but it would help to have some local knowledge that lets you avoid the steep bits that make that run a red. The two Reds out of bounds, so to speak, to a novice are the adjacent 'Saxon' and 'Combe du Nord' down from the top of Tournelle [207] as far as the 6-man Le Nord [205] chair - the initial part of which is combined, and rates as a steep Red. The caveat as always is that it's hard to give advice about how an individual will cope with a particular resort when you aren't familiar with their abilities and preferences.
There are also some photos and 'how to get there' maps and village maps on our apartment on our Résidence Laforêt La Tzoumaz website. If you're worried about travel connections to La Tzoumaz, then if you have a car, there should be no problem getting to the village (the website guides give details) from GVA or if you're self-driving. If the latter, get a motorway vignette online in the UK before you go. For short trips, it's 50:50 as to whether we use public transport or car hire - the links via GVA are good to Riddes, then you get a télépherique to Isérables, then the PostBus to the village. For 4+ people, car hire is often competitive to rail/télépherique/Postbus. Again, the website Guides have more info on this.
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?
In general it is fair to say that Quatre Vallees is not a great destination for nervous skiers.
Very few places are perfect for a group with widely different abilities, which is what I take the OPs question to imply i.e. in terms of satisfying the needs of a novice and an intermediate skier at least equally well. There are plenty of places that would suit a novice but bore an intermediate and be a washout for an expert. Similarly, there are many places that would appeal to an intermediate but prove difficult for a novice. With over 400Kms of pistes, I would say that it's entirely possible for a novice skier to enjoy a holiday in the 4 Vallées at the same time as others in the group are enjoying more challenging runs and/or rewarding off-piste excursions.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@LaForet, how easy is it to get back to Tzoumaz from Verbier? Is it possible without taking the bus? Reason I ask is we were considering visiting Verbier but not sure where to stay.
Have had many novices and intermediates stay with us over the years in La Tzoumaz. @LaForet’s post above gives a good introduction (1 welcome change this season being that the luge (tobaggan) run now finishes at Etablons bar a few hundred metres from the gondola, thus giving skiers a bit more room on the narrow run down.
Most novices/intermeds enjoy the long blue run from top to bottom in la Tzoumaz as well as some of other runs at the top, and you can connect to much of the 410km of pistes in the 4V using gondolas down the harder sections, which the more advanced skiers are skiing. Tortin being a good example as it provides lots of bumps for those wanting a challenge then leads to the very novice friendly Siviez slope, which the novices can lap whilst the others head up to plan de fou or Greppon Blanc.
It’s probably most challenging for 1st week beginners, who would benefit from being at les Esserts in Verbier, but even then it can work well with the small nursery in Tzoumaz for day 1 and the blue slope from then.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@Matrix, you can ski straight from the Verbier slopes at lac des Vaux straight into Tzoumaz down a lovely itinerary, Vallon d’Arbi, but this, whilst not especially hard on the main route, needs a certain level of experience and is not always open esp. early in the season.
Otherwise, it’s the bus, either from Carrefour, les Rouges or the bottom of the system Medran.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Matrix wrote:
@LaForet, how easy is it to get back to Tzoumaz from Verbier? Is it possible without taking the bus? Reason I ask is we were considering visiting Verbier but not sure where to stay.
Online Interactive Piste and lift map makes the locations and lifts mentioned clearer.
La Tzoumaz Webcam is on top of the base station in La Tzoumaz. There are links to various other webcams in the area. As someone mentioned, this year, they aren't erecting a separate luge lane.
Re. returning from Verbier: you have to get the free «navette» from Carrefour or Médran to the base of the [200] Savoleyres (sud) gondola. This takes you back up to Savoleyres summit station, where you either ski down, or hop on the gondola back to La Tzoumaz centre.
This isn't really the tedious bit of being in a satellite. The tedious bit is going to be the extra time it takes to get from Savoleyres down to Mayentzet first thing: You either
1. ideally, ski directly to Carrefour/Mayentzet via a wide red and a blue Route Carrefour* link run (20min):
http://youtube.com/v/8_d-LgkoDmA,
or if the blue is closed due to avalanche danger, then at the gate at the end of the initial red down form Savoleyres:
2. ski down to the Verbier Learner slope, and down to the [302] drag (40min), or at the Savoleyres summit:
3. just transfer to the downhill Savoleyres [200] gondola and hop on the bus at the bottom that shuttles to Carrefour (35-40min).
Bear in mind that even if you were in Verbier, in some locations, you'd have to wait for a bus to get you to Médran or Carrefour, and that in peak weeks, these can be very full. The caveat is that the times above are rough estimates for an intermediate.
Don't get me wrong, we've stayed in Verbier and been very happy. But this is the classic 'satellite vs hub' decision: satellites like La Tzoumaz have many attractions but by definition, they aren't the hub. You have to decide how you weigh the different pros/cons. One of the pros being that the skiing in the La Tzoumaz-Savoleyres sector is relatively gentler than Verbier from a novice's point of view. If yours was a group of advanced intermediates and experts, then you might find it a bit too easy. But for a mixed ability group that includes novices, it's arguably well-suited. The advanced intermediates and off-piste experts can go over to Verbier, and the real off-piste adrenalin-junkies can hop on a helicopter at Croix de Coeur and do the heli-thing.
If you decided to stay in Verbier. I'd recommend you consider somewhere near to the [107] Mayentzet lift, all other things being equal, as this is much quieter than the Médran lifts [101]/[102]. Or somewhere near the short drag [302] Le Rouge that takes you from central Verbier to the Mayentzet lift. Another option is to stay in Le Chable in the valley, then take the lift up and back from Médran. Le Chable is where the combined railway and gondola station is, and connects to Geneva Airport via Martigny.
Note#1: If your hiring a car at GVA and your group is arriving on different flights, it's worth understanding how to get to La Tzoumaz or Verbier by train/télépherique/PostBus from inside Geneva Airport, just in case one or more are badly delayed, or the car hirer is delayed and the others want to press on to the resort. Go to the integrated swiss transportation SBB Website and put in from «Genève-Aéroport» to «La Tzoumaz, télécabine» or «Verbier (télécabine)» to see what the timetables and connections look like. There's also an SBB app in the AppStore.
Note#2: Remember you can go down in a gondola as well as up. Yeah, I know this is pretty obvious. But I do this more often now and in retrospect, I wished I'd done it more in the past when faced with a difficult run down in very poor visibility and/or very crowded pistes etc. No one bats an eyelid if you take a lift down and if you're not going to enjoy the run, and/or think it's too dangerous for you, then why not? So if your novice does come with you to Verbier, then there are some great bits of the Verbier/Siviez one they can do without the stress of a tricky red. We've also taken to snowshoeing more in recent years and that can be really rewarding - all the skiers are off in pretty bad weather not really enjoying it while you have a great outing. You can also get a pedestrian lift pass and again, we've done this on a busy Weekend and enjoyed the day much more than if we'd been battling with the Saturday nutters.
[*Just to clarify: The video starts at a gate which controls access to the blue-type run down to Carrefour. It's designated Red because to get there, you have to ski down from Savoleyres or the top of the Taillay chair on pistes which while quite wide, are steep enough to be a Red. There is a less difficult route from Croix de Coeur and above the Tournelle run. But really, if you can't ski a wide Red it's overall probably just easier to hop on the télécabine down instead, and get on the bus to Carrefour. The gate is shut when there's avalanche danger above the run. In that event, there's a piste to the right that takes you into Verbier as described in (2).]
Last edited by After all it is free on Fri 2-04-21 11:59; edited 18 times in total
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.
Renside wrote:
Looking at a lovely chalet in La Tzoumaz for Xmas, but a bit worried about connections and in particular my nervous wife who can comfortably ski a blue but doesn’t like steep slopes and the piste map shows a lot of reds! Is it suitable? Will she be able to ski back into resort?
La Tzoumaz is generally easy skiing, unlike Verbier. Mates with young kids enjoy it. The home run can get a bit scratchy at the end but it’s manageable. It’s a bit if a schlep to get over to the easy skiing in Verbier (lift down, bus across, lift up) but it’s doable and worth it for the sunny slopes at La Chaux.
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