Anywhere worth going in the Jura?

A snowHead

Drove to Morillon this half term and with two kids on the point of killing each other in the back looked longingly at the signs to 'Jura ski resorts' on the way. Is there anywhere worth looking at for next year in this area for very low budget family friendly skiing or is it not worth the gain of knocking a couple of hours off the travel time?

A snowHead

I know both, we've a flat in Morillon and my office is in foothills of the Jura.

I don't go which is probably all the answer you need Very Happy

There's a number of micro stations in the Jura on the Swiss and French side, the best, I understand, are towards Geneva. The snow's really chancey, it can be OK but the size of the stations doesn't vary.

Joking apart though, the other reason I don't go is that although I work in Jura area I live in the pre-alpes and it's the same drive time to Gstaad as the Jura which makes it no competition.

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

I have often travelled through the Jura en route to Switzerland. The resort of Metabief close to the Swiss border at Vallorbe at about 1000+ metres above sea level looked quite interesting passing through in March this year.

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I thought you meant the island off the West Coast of Scotland. I was about to reply armed with advice. Instead I'll just shut up again...

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Have to agree with ise, Metabief, Monts Jura, Les Rousses are small and low altitude. But at the right time and with good snow, a day or two of skiing, unplanned, in a small friendly resort can be superb.... and a lot cheaper than Gstaad! A week planned in advance? That's another matter...

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Really old thread, apols for the resurrection. But just finished a really enjoyable week skiing some of the Jura resorts and I thought I'd chuck a small write up here as it seems the best place.

None of the Jura resorts on their own are big enough to justify a stay longer than a few days. However, if you have a car, there is some fantastic skiing available in an easily accessible loop from Lelex to La Cure, with each station easily justifying a day or two in some cases. Starting with the station closest to Geneva, Lelex-Crozet - this is accessible from either side of the mountain - either from over the Jura in lelex itself, or alternately and easier to get to, from the small village of crozet, no more than 15 minutes drive from Geneva airport. From crozez you take a bubble up the jura, and from there you need to take one slowish chair and you are gtg. From the time you park your car, its roughly 20 mins till you are at the top of the resort and skiing. In terms of pistes, there is a decent range of blue's, greens, red's and a few blacks, the grading is pretty accurate. There are two fantastic red runs that would put many bigger and higher resorts to shame in terms of both pitch and distance, particularly pistes I and O from the Monthoissey chair. There's also two very nice blacks on the ski down to lelex, with some decent lines of moguls down the longer chairlift runs. Much of the resort is over the tree line which is lower in the Jura than the alps, but there is of course plenty of tree based off piste you can do if you are feeling sufficiently quick about the ankles (trees are pretty close together, beware!). Crozet is serviced largely by chairlifts, with some drag lifts on the eastern side of the resort. For family skiing, it gives a really nice range of runs for pretty much the whole family. For those who say "but it's the jura, it'll be too easy for me", I'd just mention that the french ladies ski team were training there the last time we were up last year - if its good enough for them......

Moving eastwards along the Jura, the next stop to make is Col de la Faucille. This is a smaller resort than Crozet, and similarly it links down to a the valley village of Mijoux - it offers a mix of short but steep reds, a decent if short black and a nice blue run down to Mijoux through the trees - this is a narrow run that isn't always open, so be aware that if you park in Mijoux, you may not be able to ski back. It also boasts a FANTASTIC restuarant with a panoramic view of the alps that is worth the ski pass on its own. Ideal for one day, more suited to beginners and improvers than more advanced skiiers, but still has enough steep pitches to keep you on your toes. Easiest access to this resort from Geneva, is by car through Gex, it'd be around a 40 minute drive up from Geneva airport.

Finally as you move along eastwards, you leave the Monts Jura resorts and you will meet the resorts of Les Rousses / La Dole. This is an area of 4 separate stations, the biggest of which is entirely in Switzerland (la dole). Its been open since the 1950's, and its a proper old school higgledy piggeldy resort, with a newish high speed chair lift, along with about 15 surface lifts, between drag lifts and an ancient tbar. It has two blacks, and several really nice reds, similar to the pitches of the reds in Crozet - long enough to give you a decent workout. Off piste, it has lots and lots of tree lined runs, again needing care and attention to detail, but you are rarely more than 500 metres from a piste. The resort does a great job of hiding some of the nicer pistes by simply not marking the turn offs to get to them in any way shape or form, my favourite run is the sharp red Petroule, over by the tabagnoz tbar. Also strongly recommended is the quatre murs black, mogully and icy and narrow (if you like that sort of thing). This resort does a dual pass called the franco suisse with the neighbouring french resort of Jouvencelles, the skiing there is very beginner and family friendly (gentle blues, gentle short reds), but generally the swiss side is more suitable to intermediate skiiers.

Very close to La Dole is the small village of La Cure - it boasts its own small station called Le Noirmont, which is not to be dismissed - it has a lovely black, a nice steep red and a really really beautiful tree lined green. Its only open Wednesdays and weekends, and is again pretty quirky - has a chairlift that you think will take you up to the top, but then you are ejected onto two draglifts that do the hard work. Just down from La Cure is St Cergue which has two slopes of their own, and night skiing with Fondue from Wed - Saturday for 33 francs (pass and fondue included!)

All of the stations above have accommodation very very close to piste side, you won't have any queues worth mentioning for any lift. Generally, with the exception of crozet, you will be slapping your skis on in the car park and skiing from there. Access by public transport isn't great - you can get to la dole using the train from nyon - la cure then the ski bus, but its easiest to get to them all using a car.

Hope this clarifies!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

coddlesangers, Nice review....we regularly take day trips up to the Jura stations and really enjoy them. We have always bypassed Le Noirmont on our way up but, based on your feeback, I suspect we'll be popping in to take a look Very Happy

After all it is free

its definitely worth a stop in for a morning or afternoon - the black is great fun, its wide and ungroomed, lovely soft moguls, perfect for practicing mogul technique. As you'll know as well, most of the jura resorts have the massive advantage of emptiness to recommend them, so many of the runs you can blast along at whatever speed tickles your fancy. You also get some excellent comedy onsies on display, mostly from the 1980's.... Laughing

I have happy memories of skiing with our children, and with their slightly older cousins (who at the time lived near Gex) at Col de la Faucille and went there quite regularly with their school. It was a great place to get young children on skiis and introduce them to skiing. But, as it is low, you do have to choose your times to go there. It was always much cheaper than the alpine resorts.

I still have the recipe for the crepes from the creperie there as my sons thought those crepes were the best they have ever had anywhere, more than a decade later and they are still remembered and talked about!

It was also in the restuarant mentioned above by coddlesangers that we saw a ferret on the dining table happily tucking into lunch with the human members of its family. It really amused my children who were a bit fed up that lunch time as rainfall meant we were curtailing the days skiing.

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as a little aside, lovely whisky is Jura - perfect for the hip flask on a ski tour wink

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Once the ski season has finished, Zebra Trout and a fine single Malt! Heaven, yes Jura France.

Thanks for this - these are the nearest resorts to me - in fact I can see La Dole from my office desk. Despite this I have never actually tried any of them, driving round the lake to the Alps instead. I was sledging with my daughter a couple of weekends ago in St Cergue and drove the long way home via La Dole to take a look at them, and the snow conditions looked fantastic.

You know it makes sense.

coddlesangers, thanks for that - great stuff. I drive across the Jura quite often, and have stopped for a coffee in Les Rousses, and had a bit of a walk around, but never skied there. They've had a few really bad years for snow - not the sort of place you'd want to book a holiday months in advance, but sounds just right for an opportunistic day or so for people who live close by.

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

CH2O - zebra trout? Sorry snowheads off piste......... I have read about trout fishing many moons ago in the Jura - are there any good websites telling you about this?

A snowHead

countryman, http://www.truite-ain-jura.com/

A snowHead

we've detoured several times through the Jura on the way back up to Calais but never stayed on to ski. based on the above I'd quite like a nosey on skis, love these tucked away day resorts. We found a few in the Pyrenees years ago and pretty much had the places to ourselves Happy

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Anywhere worth going in the Jura?

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