 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from a great 3 night/4 day break with Snowcoach.
Travelled out from Dover on Friday 12 March, about 18.00 and arriving at the Hotel Terminus, La Fayet at 8.00am on Saturday (French time). Coach was a bit cramped but OK. Greeted at the Hotel with a cooked breakfast and our room ready - small but functional with en suite facilities.
On the 9.30 coach up from the hotel to St Gervais (journey of about 15 mins) and had a great day buzzing round the area in the sun and with good snow. Lots of easy cruising runs, not much difference between the blues, reds and at least one black. Pretty much motorway cruising - but that's what my ski buddy and I enjoy. Took the 4.00 coach back to Hotel for afternoon tea. Chicken dinner was good and plentiful and free wine drinkable.
Took the offer of a Sunday coach trip to Les Contamines. A much more open area, ideal for sunny days with good vis - which we had. Again mile after mile of wide, relatively easy motorways. It put me in mind of the Solaise area of Val d’Isere. A pork roast dinner rounded off the day.
On Monday the coach took us to St Gervais but we skied straight over to Megeve. Another intermediate heaven with more easy motorway type skiing. Back to St Gervais for the coach back to the hotel where tartiflette was on the dinner menu.
On Tuesday, our last day, the coach again took us to St Gervais but we skied and bused over to Combloux. A revelation. Again relatively easy skiing on long, cruisy motorways, but in one of the prettiest areas that I have ever skied. The Christomet chair goes through what seemed a haven for birds and other wildlife. Travelled back to St Gervais in the afternoon. Returned to the hotel on the 4.30 coach, to shower and prepare for evening departure.
Left Hotel at 20.00, joined another coach (with much better legroom) and drove through the night to get the 07.50 ferry from Calais. We got home at 09.10 English time.
The hotel is fine if a bit tired in places. It offered a jaccuzzi and steam room, and there was no shortage of good food, including help yourself hot breakfasts. The hotel bar seemed to be about the only après ski action in La Fayet, which is a bit of a dismal town down the mountain from St Gervais, though it does have some thermal baths for people who like that sort of thing.
We skied 4 separate areas over 4 days and had a wonderful time. Admittedly motorway skiing isn't for all, but the runs were in lovely condition, were long, cruisy rollers and just what we wanted. We didn't see much off piste action (or opportunities). It’s possible to ski a 5th area without much effort; a tram leaves from right next to the Hotel for Les Houches. You’ll have to pay for the tram and also a different lift pass. Some people from the hotel also went by train to Chamonix for the day.
Our main criticism was the pretty antiquated lift system in the four areas we visited. All areas have gondolas out of the resort bases, but up the mountain there are too many slow, rickety 2/3 man chairs and often vicious drags. Also, Megeve’s best ski area – Cote 2000 – can only be accessed via a long and steep drag. And another even steeper and longer drag is needed to get back to Megeve centre. Hard to believe that Megeve supposedly wore France’s ritzy resort crown before Courchevel came to the fore. Somewhat surprisingly, Combloux (which I’d never heard of before) had some of the better chairs with at least a couple of 6 packs.
Also, do be aware that in the Combloux area, the blue run down to Le Giettez is a path of no less than 65 markers long, and the Torraz chair back up is painfully slow – taking about 20 minutes. It is used for downloading beginners who use the rather nice nursery slope at the top of the chair. There are a couple of nice reds and non-challenging blacks off the top of the chair but do think about staying high and using the two drags rather than keep going all the way down to the chair.
All of this cost the princely sum of £279 with Snowcoach plus £113 for a 4 day lift pass. A few beers was our only other expense. A bargain in anybody’s book.
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