Any opinions on La Clusaz?

A snowHead

Over on the Ski Solutions room at Chaletdirect I've got quite a nice offer for a week in La Clusaz.
It's a new resort for me. I've had a quick look at the map.

Any opinions on the suitability for me?

I'm 37, have skied for about 9 weeks, consider myself a competant intermediate, will do any pisted run without dying.
Tend to like getting on with it and covering ground.

My last 3 trips were....
Portes Du Soleil - liked that, stayed at Morgins and never made it further than Avoriaz, but covered every piste up to that point.

Grands Massif - thought it was OK, some great Black runs, bit bored of the layout by the end

Les Arcs - Covered the whole area in a week, liked it.

I don't really care about night life. Just want to be provided with good skiing.

A snowHead

tomstickland, I've only been once in winter and once in summer. Really liked it. There's not as much variety as PDS, but it's well worth a trip to Grand Bornand for a day to add a bit of difference in. Some good on mountain lunch spots and a bustling little town. I think you'd enjoy yourself. When are you thinking of going. My only concern is the low alt can sometimes make snow cover a problem.

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tomstickland, It is a great place for cruising. It should suit your type of skiing as stated above. I am going back in January for 5 days after having been there a couple of years ago for a similar short break. You might find you've done everything in a week.

I remember the town itself as quite small - more French pretty than St Anton levels of apres ski. Not sure I'd describe it as "bustling"? Sort of "pleasant".

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I went at Christmas during a poor snow year (2002?) and struggled as the connections between the various parts were closed. It is low compared to PDS and Grand Massif but if the conditions are good I'm sure I would have enjoyed it. I liked the town - its a proper town not a ski station. The bus system was very frustrating but that might have been a function of the lack of snow too.

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tomstickland, It is a nice little town. If I was to be picky there are still a hell of a lot of old slow lifts around which you might find frustrating if you like putting some miles in. We had poor snow in Feb a couple of years ago and ended up doing day trips to Chamonix and La Thuile. We only went there because we were offered a cheapie as well.

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tomstickland, went in January 07. Good skiing, nice town, decent bars and restaurants

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If you like getting the miles in you will find it limited unless you dont mind going over the same runs.
As everyone else says smallish but pleasant town. If you have a hire car you have a bucket load of other resorts to spend a day or two in if you are after some new terrain.

After all it is free

if you got bored with the GM, then La Clusaz will disappoint you in terms of skiing.

Hmm, I'm wondering if I'd prefer a big area. I like big areas.

If I end up paying £800 - £1000 for a weeks holiday (everything) then I should consider the 3 valleys or the unfinished usiness at the Les Gets end of the PDS. There's some other big resorts I've not been to yet either.... La Rosiere, Val D'Isere etc.

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A good ski area for mixed abilities in my view. Like going there whenever I am staying in Annecy. Obviously not as big as Les Arcs or Grand Massif (how can you get bored in a week?!) but more than enough for a week. You can also ski in nearby Le Grand Bornand (linked by free skibus) if you get the Aravis lift pass. Village is actually quite nice with good restaurants. £800-£1000 is a lot of money would certainly try 3 Valleys. Alpe d'Huez is a good one to have a look at. If you only want catered chalet, try Ski Peak in Vaujany (same ski area).

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Pam W speaks the truth.

I like La Clusaz but couldn't recommend it to someone who likes notching up the kms.

We spend quite a bit of time in Le Grand Bornand these days, close and similar to La Clusaz. They're great places for pottering round as a family but I wouldn't even consider either for the annual 'tear-it-up' week.

Yeah, I'll have to decide whether I want to see a new area and enjoy what is there or whether I do really want a big playground.

I got bored with Grands Massif because I'd been then before and then spent 8 days on my own skiing it again. I ended up doing some of my favourite runs several times in sucession.

I was looking at a chalet in Chinaillon with bus link to La Clusaz, giving 90 + 120Km of piste, so that's 210km.

Grands Massif is 265Km.
Paradiski 425km
PDS 650km
3 Valleys 600km

Deux Alpes 220km
Alpe D'Huez 240km
Val D'Isere 300km

I never managed to cover all of the PDS, but managed 95% of Paradiski in a week, Grands Massif I did it all.
So I seem to need about 450km of piste, so that's around 60km per day. So I spend 6 hours per day skiing it's 10km/hour.
How does that sound?

I'm aware that there's a lot more to it than this in terms of measuring ski quality, but I do enjoy covering ground.
I reckon my best options would be.....
-Les Gets/Morzine and clear up on all the bits I missed there
-3 Valleys, more to do there
-La Plagne, liked that area, happy to revisit
-Val D'Isere, never been there

Are there any other places worth considering?

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

tomstickland, if you really want to pound around ticking off the miles on new (to you) lift linked pistes I'd say the Espace Killy is your best bet. Then you've probably exhausted the entire world's big ski domains and would never go near the vast majority of ski areas - including some with very special qualities. Just not mega-pistes. My son, who is a really very good skier - and boards too - has spent two entire seasons in the EK. He was working, not just skiing, but he got out a lot and reckoned he'd nowhere near exhausted its potential in all those months.

It seems a bit odd to use language like "clear up on all the bits I missed there". Sounds like you'd go off in search of the bits you hadn't done, even if they were duller than the bits you had done. Just to tick them off. Seems a shame. There are some great places to ski in North America, but none of them would come close to providing the mileage you "need".

I'm not surprised you got bored, by the way, skiing on your own for 8 days. I do ski alone sometimes, and enjoy it, but a day is enough.

Why don't you change tack and do a specialised course for a week - Warren Smith or similar - there are lots of them? Or go to a UCPA and take a week of off-piste tuition in Chamonix. or learn to snowboard. Or telemark. Something a bit different.

A snowHead

tomstickland, You would be pretty surprised by the amount of downtime an average cruiser has on a days skiing. I have a Navman A300 GPS device which measures distance, speed, time moving etc and automatically switches off when going up on lifts. While I am not the fastest cruiser on the moutains I certainly like trying to "eat up the miles". However, over many years my stats remain pretty similar whether on the annual boys trip (generally faster skiing, less stops) or with the OH (more steady pace, stand around a bit waiting or looking at the view). In a 7 or 8 hour day out on the slopes the most I can hope to manage is about 32/33 km of downhill skiing (usually about 5,500m vertical) at an average moving speed of 22ish kph (best ever max 87 kph). Actual skiing time is only about 1 1/2 hours!

Saalbach ski area provides these stats for you on line by logging your lift pass every time you go through a lift so I know that the A300 is pretty accurate as the two figures pretty much agreed when I was there last Christmas.

It is also a bit of a myth that the large areas allow you to do more sking. Most of the large areas require the use of linking pistes (and there's always the home run) which means you inevitably ski many of the same pistes time and again (though not necessarily straight after each other). I find that an area in excess of 100km will adequately give you enough interest for a week as an intermediate cruiser. It also encourages you to try the harder bits you might otherwise miss out in a larger area meaning that you actually test yourself a bit. Similarly, skiing the same run more than once means that you get to learn the turns, bumps etc, again helping you develop more style (you need to get on to the Ski Challenge 10 link and try that to see how familiarity has a startling effect on performance!).

Obviously the above comments don't apply if you are the kind of guy who skis at full pelt down every type of run, drinks high energy drink out of your camelback and eats power bars on the lifts. I saw such a guy in Saalbach and his stats on the website were incredible!

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I think altitude is the biggest problem for this resort. We went early March (2001) and it was raining rather than snowing! We ended up skiing on the odd bit of mud/grass at the bottom of the piste to get to the next part of the resort. Other than that it is a pretty ski area. Nice cosy restaurants and a couple of good hotels.

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I'm starting to think that I should be going to a more mainstream resort
My current option list is:
-Paradiski, really liked this area
-3 Valleys, really liked this too
-Espace Killy, new one for me and I have go and see Val D'Isere
-Alpe D'Huez, another big name I've not been to yet
-PDS, great area, want to take a good look at the Les Gets end

Help!!

Any opinions on La Clusaz?

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