 Poster: A snowHead
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I took a trip to Sainte Foy in January to stay at the Whiteroom Chalet which is run by snowHead stevomcd and his other half Iona. I had my doubts about visiting such a small resort and spending a whole week there but after a brief chat with some folks that had been (cheers hamilton et al) and stevo I booked up for the last week in Jan.
Flew Edinburgh to Chambery with jet2 and despite being delayed for an hour on the route out it wasn't so bad. We had a 4 hour wait in Chambery itself for the altibus to Sainte Foy, note to self: time trip better to avoid ridiculous wait in tiny airport. Transfer was sharp and arrived on time in to Bourg Sainte Maurice where a change of buses was needed for the short jaunt up the valley to Sainte Foy where stevo picked us up and took us to the chalet.
 The Whiteroom is just out of shot on the left hand side, you can see the buried post box due to the unreal ridiculous amount of snow.
First chalet experience was definitely a good one and would recommend the place to anyone considering S.F. The handy positioning of the chalet means if there is snow on the road you can ski in and out of the front door (literally  ) and even if there is not much snow on the road a green run passes just behind the Whiteroom.
Iona did most of the cooking and it was bloody good with the favourite meal of the week probably being the fish pie which definitely required second helpings. Home made brownies in the afternoon are a dangerous idea, literally couldn't stop eating them.
I don't know what else to include before I move on to the skiing so I will leave it at that..
So, the skiing. I wasn't completely sure what to expect but it certainly delivered. We had around 1m of snow the day before we arrived so it was a bitter-sweet 'should have been here yesterday' kind of day, it didn't mean there wasn't fresh snow to be enjoyed though:
No photos were taken between the first and last days so I will take the time here to say a little bit about the ski hill. There are 4 chair lifts in the resort (couple beginner carpets/ropes on top of this) which I will refer to as the first, second, third and wait for it... fourth! To be honest I didn't do too much scoping of terrain that didn't interest me so the first chair was used primarily for access to the second. Under the second provided some of my favourite runs of the trip, near the top there is an awesome steep face with numerous different lines and plenty of trees to play in. We enjoyed fresh tracks all week. The third has numerous options (including OOB which we didn't look at due to the fantastic conditions in bounds) with designated 'freeride zones' and different chutes. The fourth provides a huge cruisy blue and plenty more in the way of powder fields/features/rock drops/ (a cliff that can be seen from the 3rd but in the end I didn't 'sack up'). If you are looking to cover lots of mileage Sainte Foy probably isn't for you but if you are less adventurous or more in to steeps it can provide plent of entertainment for the week.
To break up things we went for the novelty value of skiing over to La Thuile from La Rosiere. La Rosiere gets a lot of stick on the forum (or at least it used to) and IMO deservedly so, I couldn't imagine spending any amount of time there-maybe I didn't see what it had to offer but from what I did see it was just a sun-baked, wind-blown groomer. La Thuile on the other hand is now definitely on my list of places to spend some more time in-some seriously inviting options there.
Even at the end of the week fresh tracks were enjoyed (mostly around the 4th lift)
Looking down the valley towards Bourg in the middle, Les Arc on the left and La Rosiere on the right
Busy at the bottlenecks
View ain't bad
I wish I could be bothered to proof read it and correct spelling etc but I can't so if anything can't be understood just ask (sorry hurtle) 
Just adding in a thank you to Whitedot whilst I am posting here, Andy and Lloyd bent over backwards to get a pair of skis to me before my trip with them eventually being sent up from Chamonix and me picking them up from Glasgow the day before I went. So yeh, cheers guys!
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 9-03-09 16:49; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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About the Alps worst kept secret? 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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you lucky booger
i had my first visit there the week before. the frontside didn't look all that exciting when i was there because it was completely tracked out. however, we did a couple of things off the N Face of the Foglietta (1 hr walk from the top lift) which was great . might have been a bit sketchy with loads of new unconsolidated snow however. take a look at my "steep vanoise" TR for pics 
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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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arv,
Nice report, looks great.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Arno, I caught it on TGR, looked like you got great conditions off there despite lacking a little snow. Just didn't see the point when there was so much to enjoy in bounds!
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arv, definitely a fair point. given that i was there in peak holiday season and it hadn't snowed for 10 days, i don't think there can ever be a fight for tracks on that descent
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Nice photos. A lot of people overlook this resort because on paper it does not look as good as some of the neighbouring resorts but most who have been do come back year after year. For those who prefer self-catering Les Fermes de Sainte Foy is a good choice.
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