We are thinking of trying Chamrousse for the first time travelling with children aged 8 and 5.
Does anyone know about the appartments there. We are trying to choose between ecrin des neiges and domaine l'arselle. Is there much difference in the quality of these appartments. what is their location like for the ski school. Any advice most appreciated.
Has anyone used the ski school there..are the children's ski lessons good and in English? The children have skied twice before but youngest has only done piou piou so far.
Would you recommend this resort for a family with young children?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I think the Domaine d'Arselle is a bit better located. It is very close to the totem pole where the kids classes are run.
The Ecrins is just at the bottom of the Bachat Bouloud lifts. The Arselle and Bouloud chairs cover the main beginners area. The Domaine d'Arselle is at the bottom of the Arselle lift.
They are far from the main center of the resort if you want to eat out. The Domaine d'Arselle is above the cross country ski area and the Saliniere restaurant is good. There is also a shuttle bus in resort.
Appts are smallish but high quality.
No idea about the ski school.
Resort is ok although the main areas: Roche Be and Recoin have some pretty steep slopes for a 5 year old. I would suggest they would only be able to handle those slopes directly accessible from the two lifts I've mentioned.
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?
Thanks very much for the useful info and map. I think we are tending towards les ecrins de neige.
Does anyone know what the snow might be like in chamrousse end of march/early april. I'm worried it might not be high enough.
I was there at the end of March this year, a bit sugary at the very bottom at 1650, the last couple of hundered meteres. Similar the year before, I think, but as my list of ski trips has been lost you will have to take my word on it! The usual notes about the weather etc etc apply, of course.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Last day I skied at Chamrousse was around 20th April last year. It is south / south-east facing so a couple of the most exposed slopes were closed (but skiable).
It was a bitterly cold day. The snow was slushy in the afternoon though despite the cloud cover.
March will be ok, the weather normally gets warm from around mid March around these parts. Chamrousse normally has snow cover into early May although it is closed by then.
The Ecrins de neige is a nice looking block from the outside with a sunny exposure and nice views. I think there is a pool too? (should be in your catalogue). You can walk to the center from there and then decide whether you go to the ski school in the center or at the Domaine d'Arselle.
Davidof do most brits stay in the arselle area? Trying to work out which ski school would be best in terms of there being other English children in the group.
We are thinking of going last week of march so maybe the snow cover won't be great.
I am very keen on this resort as we want to go by train and it looks very near grenoble. Also considering la toussuire, or valmeinier but I think these will be harder to get to and don't know if their snow cover will be any better than chamrousse.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Why don't you contact the ski school to find out what might be best, or the tourist office?
I can only say that the Arselle was a BTL/Leaseback heaven for Brits and Irish at one time but many got burned when Transmontagne went bust. Last season there were still quite a lot of Brit registered cars down there. It is not exactly an international resort though. Chamrousse has a bus service from Grenoble, takes about 45 minutes. There was talk of putting in a cable car from the train station... but I think that was conditional on Grenoble getting the winter olympics which was never likely for a second time.
La Toussuire and Valmeinier have more km of runs. I would have thought the train + bus would be much the same to be honest, there are direct trains to all the Maurienne resorts from Paris. The only + for Grenoble is there is a direct train from Lille station which can make the trip from London easier and quicker.
I think the snow and skiing would be better at Valmeinier. I've never been impressed by the conditions in les Sybelles (la Toussuire) that late in the season and "les Tossers" - as they call it on Natives, is not the most inspiring resort, but then not everyone likes central Chamrousse. The snow in Chamrousse will be ok, you can always snow shoe to the lac Achard with a picnic from les Ecrins if you want a day off skiing.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Just to correct myself, about 1h15 from the Gare Routière to Chamrousse by bus.
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snowymum, La Toussuire is part of Les Sybelles area which has over 300km of pistes but will you need that with a couple of youngsters. The area tops out at 2600m not sure how that or the general snow record compares. As a local davidof know better than me.
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Colin B - I think it is unlikely we would get to much of les sybelles due to needing to pick children up from ski school late morning. I have also looked into trains and the train service is not very frequent beyond chambery (and more expensive). So La toussuire is dropping down my list!
I think we will probably give Chamrousse Arselle appartments a go and hope for good snow. I think Chamrousse will be an easy resort to get to by train and transfer less expensive than other places.
Davidof - I have emailed the ski school for info but haven't heard anything yet. I see the proper group lessons start at age 6 so my 5 yr old daughter will be doing her 3rd year of Piou Piou I think! I think it will be a good resort for my 8 yr old son who will be doing the 1 star lessons this time.
There appear to be a few horror stories on the net about the lift company & piste grooming (or lack of) in Chamrousse. I'm hoping the lifts and pistes will be in a good state this season! I also see there is a new cable car being installed but its not clear if it is up and running yet.
Thank you all for the very useful information.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Hi Snowymum, I am one of the many Brit/ Irish owners at the Arselle apartments - I normally stay at my apartment during March and haven't had any problems with the snow conditions. Ever since I have had my apartment at Chamrousse (5 years now) I haven't experienced any problems regarding the piste grooming - where exactly are these horror stories? Originally both the Arselle and the Ecrin apartments were built and managed by the same company thus the interiors are identical. The Arselle also has 2 ski hire shops, restaurant/ bar, Sherpa shop, late night bar, take away shop, it's own lift and ski school, souvenir shop and also the sport centre with outdoor pool, hot tubs and stream room. The new piste map is here: http://www.chamrousse.com/www-plan_pistes-346-HIVER-UK-SKI_GLISSE.html - Chamrousse is an ideal resort for families. The new lift will be ready by late Dec/ early Jan. There were problems when the management company went bankrupt but the owners have installed a much better management company who has invested in the Arselle. The new management company is Mvacances - http://www.mvacances.com/fr/location-vacances/vacances-montagne-1/le-domaine-de-l-arselle-172/catalogue-hiver-10.html - there is a video of the apartments on thier website.
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.
Hello Nick
Thanks for all the information. I can't remember which site I read about the problems with the piste/lift company last year...I googled reviews of chamrousse and I think thats where I came across a bad review by someone who went in December. I think I also read a review on Tripadvisor for the Arselle appartments and some one said that one of the chair lifts near the appartments was difficult to get/on off. Anyway I can appreciate there are good and bad reviews of all ski resorts so the above would not have stopped me booking.
However I also posted on the Bend Zee Knees thread and came to the conclusion the Chamrousse ski lessons might not be ideal for my 5 yr old. The lessons in Chamrousse appear to start at age 6. The 3-5 yr olds are in the Piou piou club. I didn't want my daughter to do piou piou again this year as she has done this level twice aged 3 and 4 and I feel this year she would be better suited to the Ourson. She probably won't ski all day and so we would need an afternoon childcare option..from what I read on the ESF website the afternoon club is in chamrousse 1600, ie. not the area we would be staying in.
As we are going last week of march/beginning of April the snow cover was a slight worry. In the end we have decided to go to Montgenevre this year as there appear to be better ski school options for our 5 yr old (Intl ski school or ESF from age 5) and it is at higher altitude.
We are still very keen on Chamrousse for next year when our youngest will be 6. The Arselle appts do look lovely and we like the look of the gentle tree lined runs in Chamrousse. Chamrousse is also easy to get to. We will certainly be giving it a try in the near future. I will save your links for future ref. Thanks again for all the information.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
snowymum wrote:
some one said that one of the chair lifts near the appartments was difficult to get/on off.
That might be the Bachat Bouloud lift which I remember being a bit of a horror, there seem to have been some faults with the gates when I was there which led to my son (5 yrs old) getting loaded on his own onto the chair in front of mine. I of course hit the stop button, then I got hit in the head when they backed the chair up. Took two weeks for the bruise to go.
I don't recall a particular problem with piste grooming. The runs could be described as cut up sugar last April.
The cable car has been replaced with a Gondola but on the Arselle side you might not even take it.
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