 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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pandora,
La Ros has a lot of history on this board and opinions can be polarised. A personal opinion is that if with your level of skiing reasonable accessible off piste is what you enjoy you can have a great time at La Ros. If black runs and on piste bumps are more your thing you will probably find the skiing a bit tame.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| T Bar wrote: |
pandora,
La Ros has a lot of history on this board and opinions can be polarised. A personal opinion is that if with your level of skiing reasonable accessible off piste is what you enjoy you can have a great time at La Ros. If black runs and on piste bumps are more your thing you will probably find the skiing a bit tame. |
Agreed.
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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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Aaaah, this is all exactly what I was afraid of. Friend is not too bothered about a resort having lots of piste as she will be spending most of her time looking after her child. Mine is older and will be causing the sort of havoc only a small ginger child can cause when let loose in a room full of toys, while her father and I try and fit as much skiing into the week available to us as we used to spread out across 3 weeks (pre-child.) I have moaned about OH's friends in the past who are 'cover the kilometres' obsessed, but I don't want to have covered a resort in a couple of days if I am there for a week. I do like the off-piste stuff, but like my challenging reds and a few blacks too.
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pandora, providing that the link is open to la Thuile then there are some PROPER blacks over there. Many people ignore them but they are fun in good snow and real bum twitchers in poor snow. Some of the la Ros reds are quite decent. You would not ski all the runs in San Bernado in a week. If the weather is decent then it can be great. Can be a brute if the weather is bad.
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pandora, there is a very good creche and nursery- Les Galopins in the village with a centre in Les Eucherts, they take children from 18months so you may find mum can get some skiing after all. There are over 150 kms of piste in the Espace San Bernardo which as FTS says you should find sufficient for a week. There is a high percentage of black runs in the area, pistas 2 & 3 going down to La Thuile have gradients of 77% so they can be a challenge when icy. You can also find some of the most challenging off-piste skiing anywhere in the Alps, as La Rosiere is primarily a family resort the snow doesn't get tracked out too quickly and you can also go heli-skiing, any of the ski-schools can arrange trips and guides. So that you can get the most from your week it would be worthwhile for your group to go out with an instructor for a day to get a better understanding of the terrain. The area gets some of the biggest snow-falls in the Alps so conditions are usually good, its consistently in the top 5 Frensh ski-areas for snow cover. I wouldn't worry too much about the negative comments, most are from people who've never been there, and who certainly haven't skied the off-piste. I do have an interest, I own a chalet in La Rosiere and having skied there continuously for the past 10 years I can recommend the village as the best value skiing in the Tarentaise.
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I've been to La Rosiere and the surrounding area a number of times and my girlfriend and I are the same level skiers as you by the sounds of things. Ignore what the chalet owners of La Rosiere say, at your level you will easily ski all the pistes in the combined La Rosiere/La Thuile area in 3 days. If you take a car though you can also get to Les Arcs (via Bourg or Villaroger) with a 30 min drive or Ste Foy with a 25 min drive so that might be an option for day trips - even Tignes/Val D'Isere is easily reachable in 40 mins.
La Ros is a nice resort, quite small but some really good fun fast cruising runs if there's no powder and bags of slopeside type powder if it snows. La Thuile is good fun as well, as long as you don't mind the long drag to get there and there are a few trees which you won't really get in La Ros.
I'd say if you had young kids who were just starting skiing it would be an ideal resort (although it can be pretty windy in the middle bowl) but I personally wouldn't choose to go there for a full week. If you want a base in that area I'd go for Peisey-Vallandry or Belle Plage/Plagne Soleil I think, but if you do end up with La Ros you won't be massively disappointed.
Another thing to note is that Les Eucherts isn't the main area of the resort, its a short bus ride away.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| levart wrote: |
| I've been to La Rosiere and the surrounding area a number of times and my girlfriend and I are the same level skiers as you by the sounds of things. Ignore what the chalet owners of La Rosiere say, at your level you will easily ski all the pistes in the combined La Rosiere/La Thuile area in 3 days. |
And by the same rational you would easily ski every piste in Les Arcs in 4 days and every piste in the Espace Killy in 6 days.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I tired of the La Thuile/La Ros piste network in 3 days as well, although I can see - as David L says - that the scope for off-piste is enormous. Piste-wise, the La Thuile side is a bit more interesting than La Ros.
The route over to La Thuile from La Ros is a long drag which you definitely don't want to fall off (it's in the middle of nowhere), and a red connecting run which in my opinion is right at the top end of what 'red' means. My view is that anywhere else in the resort it would be marked black, but they can't be honest about this as it would seem to limit the connectivity of the two areas. The bad part of it is quite short lived, but timid people in your group might be put off.
Fontaine Froide is the best run in the whole 150km area. I could happily do it all day long.
Runs 2 and 3 on the La Thuile side, which FtS alludes to, are incredible black runs.
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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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I heard that La Rosiere is going to be the next Bansko.
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I have skied 2 days of a 5 day break on the Radstadt/Altenmarkt hill, having skied a day and a half of a short break on the same hill the year before.
As you can see it is a tiny area.....my point being that I have NEVER been bored on a skiing holiday. Taking La Rosiere as an example; I would happily ski the main resort run, Tetras for a whole day, choosing different ways down, different turns, different drills...you get my drift.
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You know it makes sense.
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paulio, Yup, that little drop down to the pass drag is a wee horror for many and I'm really surprised that it's not been seriously reworked to make it a blue or a second softer path added in conjunction. David L's pretty much laid it out, the skiing's better in the La Thuile side of the area but La Ros is the marginally nicer resort. You do have to factor in that if your kid's in La Ros and you're skiing over in Italy, you will lose a significant amount of ski time each day travelling that long link back and forth.
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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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Frosty the Snowman, I agree, I don't think the amount of piste mileage is that important when you get above a certain threshold (and La Rosiere/La Thuile is well above that threshold IMO). But I think the range of terrain is an important factor in keeping the skiing interesting, especially if you are an experienced skier. In my limited experience of skiing La Ros and La Thuile the more interesting terrain is on the Italian side of the domain, and both resorts are over-shadowed in this respect by the other resorts in the Tarentaise. All in my humble opinion of course.
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Poster: A snowHead
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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've been to La Ros twice and we spent most of our time skiing on the La Thuile side which had a greater variety of runs and good mountain bars/restaurants and of course fab pizzas in La Rascard down in the La Thuile village itself. It may not be as big or bustly as other resorts but we had a great time anyway - it's what you make it. 
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Mrs johnboy, everyone raves about that Rascard place. I found it grim and unfriendly, not to mention that it was almost always shut. Hey ho.
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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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pandora, La Ros would be OK for you ski wise. For your 2 yo there is the Galopins nursery which is very good - the only downside (and the reason we did not go back to La Ros when our little un was younger) is that the nursey is located away from the slopes, a 5 min walk back into town then up a small hill. Not the end of the world admitted, but is a bit of a drag comapred to other resorts we have been to before and after La Ros (where the nurery/creche is slap bang at the foot of the slopes), so this is something we looked out for in future. imho location of the nursery is just as important as location of your chalet or hotel, esp if you plan on lunching together ....
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| paulio wrote: |
| Mrs johnboy, everyone raves about that Rascard place. I found it grim and unfriendly, not to mention that it was almost always shut. Hey ho. |
If that's the "raved" about place we eat at, while the was nothing wrong with the food I had, they forgot the B-i-L,s main, a steak.
Rushing one out, it came to the table the thinist, most over tenderised (they must have given the local psycho the hammer) "steak" I've ever seen. More like a posh burger. How we laughed.......
Twenty-eight euros for a posh burger. Must have thought he was back in VT.
And the place always seemed shut.
John.
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masmith, there's a second location now, right in Les Echerts, in the ESF complex close to the main lift.BCjohnny, unfortunately since a lot of the posters here have been to La Thuile, Le Rascard has changed management, not nearly as good as it used to be, there was a rumour that Fabio, the owner was so unhappy with way it's being run that he would take control again. There are however, lots of other good restaurants in the area, Lo Reindet up on the Col de Petit St Bernard hasn't changed at all, if you ike meat and lots of hearty mountain dishes, that's the place to go and the Roxy by Fourclaz chair lift is still one of the best mountain bars anywhere. Going out with an instructor for a day enables you to find all the best places and where to ski to suit the conditions. I agree with FTS, Tetras is a super run to hone your technique and it's big enough to offer an almost infinite variety of routes. On a power day even the green runs through the forest can be tremendous fun. The Espace San Bernardo ski area is a real contrast between La Rosiere and La Thuile, the runs in France are mostly south and south-west facing whilst the Italian side is predominately north facing, that's why on a sunny day you'll get a lot of Italian skiers on the French side, according to the Tourist Office La Rosiere gets more sunny days than Carcassone. The pistes in Italy also get a lot more grooming than the French side, so for a flat out blast the runs in the Belvedere sector are hard to beat, especially pistas 18, 19, 20 and 6 which goes all the way down to the village. After 10+ years of skiing the area I'm still finding surprises, if you want to see some interesting photos of the area, have a look at the gallery on his website www.morealps.com I almost forgot to mention that you can learn to kite ski or board up on the Col.
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Wed 2-09-09 11:05; edited 1 time in total
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| David L wrote: |
| masmith, there's a second location now, right in Les Echerts, in the ESF complex close to the main lift. |
2 years too late ....  but useful to know for friends .... thx.
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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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We skied in Levi (Finland) for our family holiday last year. My sister is a bit Arctic Circle obsessed and we went out there with the expectation that we were going on a 'winter holiday' not a ski holiday. We had a fabulous time snowmobiling, toboganning, xc skiing, etc, but would have been totally fed up with the skiing if that is all we went for. If I'm going to the Alps, I want a good bit of skiing - I did the '50 ways to ski between the trees at the side of the piste' last year. The heliskiing does sound good - if I can get over my fixed-wing pilots mistrust of all things whirly!
I think I'll keep leaning on my friend for anywhere else!
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depends.
pros
1. Child friendly and small.
2. No tricky pistes eg reds that are actually black etc
3. easy to get back to pick kids up
cons
1. south facing (ice and rocks little frsh/soft snow)
2. windy (very) th esnow that has not turned to ice blows off
3. cold because of teh wind (kids need buffs/tocs/ plus helmet/plus attention to avoid problems esp if going to Italy)
4. very little in the way of interesting/long pisted skiing
5. not a whole lot of off piste as far as I could see.
6. Mountain restaurants an expensive disgrace
all that said we had a great holiday- the skiing was just not that great- compared to- just about anywhere really (well known resorts not micro hills)
I would not go without children.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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well that does it for all south facing resorts, amazing that I've always managed to ski down to the village right up to the last week of April. As for cold the village is at 1850 metres and the Col de Petit St Bernardo is 2200 metres, so yes it will get cold, especially in January when most of the winter storms arrive, but so what, cold and bad weather are part of being in the mountains. There aren't that many resorts with vertical descents of 1.5metres which at an average red piste gradient of 18% gives a total piste length of at least 6kms and there's an 11kms red run from the top of fourclaz down to La Thuile, obviously these don't count as long/interesting skis. The total ski area is over 3,500 hectares, but not a lot a lot of off-piste to be seen by, edsilva, never mind that one of the top three rated off-piste vertical descents of 20kms is accessible from the Espace San Bernardo I suppose that wouldn't qualify as long/interesting either. I don't know what restaurants edsilva, was eating in but I know I can still find a set lunch with a glass of wine or beer for 12 Euros, maybe I'm naive if I think that good value. Whenever I've shown skiers what the area has to offer their reaction is of surprise that there is so much skiing on offer and what terrific value the restaurants are, especially when compared to some of the mega stations nearby.
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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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so are we saying it is not worth going there if one is an experienced skier without kids ? 
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rayscoops, My kids, and all those that went with us had fantastic holidays. We were lucky with the weather but I suspect that the 4th trip may have been our last. There are many great places yet to visit but nowhere will ever match a resort in which the kids blossomed. I am sure that is why I am so fond of the resort.
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You know it makes sense.
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rayscoops, I suppose it depends on what you mean by experienced, I've been skiing since the 1960s and I love it there, my sons who have skied since they were 3 yrs old, now 29 and 33 both have businesses there, they are both about as experienced as you can be, ski and snowboard instructor and extreme competitor respectively. Both are now promoting speed flying, skiing with a parachute attached, they are also kite skiers and boarders, as La Rosiere has become one of the main centres for these activities. None of us have young kids but the area keeps us happy.
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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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Frosty the Snowman, David L, just kidding guys, any resort that has slopes to slide down is just fine for me .... apart from long drags ....
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FAQ
but OH and I like a decent bit of skiing. Having never even considered La Rosiere before, and therefore knowing nothing about it, will it keep 2 advanced-end-of-intermediate skiers (about 45 weeks skiing experience) happy?
