Les Menuires - Need feedback for very easy runs in the area leading down to Bruyers

A snowHead

I am party leader looking at booking next years holiday for 12. Is Les Menuires suitable for beginner skiers?

I am hoping that with Les Menuires - that they will be able to make use of the nursery area and the free magic carpet. Additionally if they take the Bruyers gondola up would they have enough very easy runs to get them back down to the bottom, or alternatively could they ski down to Val Thorens to use the greens but also get back to Bruyers Gondola (where our Chalet would be?). Basically there need to be routes that have a very easy gradient and in some parts no worse than the easier lettered runs down Le Pleney in Morzine.

Previously they went to Courchevel 1650 and this area was perfect for them but as we are all going Catered, at present I don't think the budget will stretch to 1650.

Thanks

A snowHead

Yoohoo, a post I can reply on and know what I'm on about!!

I went to Les Menuires last Xmas (2011) and am about to return there in 6 days time.

I'm not the best skier in the world and love staying to blues/greens.

Most of the "bottoms" of greens/blues that come back to Bruyeres/Croisette have some steep bits at the bottom (probably only the last 100 yards).

There is a lovely green run from the top of Roc de Marches 1 lift, the first 1/2 mile or so is flat. There is one drop where I take care, so assume they would need to. This is the La Voilette run. However, the last bit, coming into La Croisette is rather steep. Cant remember any other way round it.

Another good, flatish, run is "Gros Tounge" which is a blue but, in my opinion, only a blue due to it not being very wide.

There are a couple of lifts lower down and run to the bottom of La Masse which dont require passes, both are greens and very nice for the beginner. Guess which runs I will be on next Saturday before my passes start on Sunday on the mountains. Smile

I'll update you when I return as things will be fresher in my mind.

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

Dear Gary,

Thanks for feedback, please do update me upon your return. We are looking at staying with Ski Amis and the Chalet is bang opposite the Bruyeres gondola.

If you could also feed back on the gentle chair lifts (and the nasty ones as they will want to avoid these like the plague!).

It's so difficult trying to suit everyones needs so your help would be really appreciated.

cheers and have a great holiday

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I went with Ski Amis last year, very good location. Dont aim to be at the lift for opening, unless you want to be v early, leave it til about 15 minutes later to allow the queues to go down.

Finding it in the first place is a good test! When you get to where you think you should be, there is an entrance to a car park on your left, walk through the entrance and there is a door in front of you, through that and down the passage to the lift. Up in the lift to the next level and all the chalets are there. Took us a few minutes to work out how to get in!!

On first morning, take the lift upwards and the lift is there. If the two timids go to the right, past the lift, there is a moving carpet there but this will get full of kids having lessons.

Alternatively, turn left and walk to the other moving carpet. From here they can ski down, keeping right, and then use the bucket lifts to return to where they are. Passes are not required for these lifts.

I'll update further in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

The Mont de La Chambre run is nice and gentle all the way from top to bottom, the only tricky bit is the very top of the Boyes piste from the base of the Mont de La Chambre back down to Bruyeres. This is only 150 m long but is more of a red and gets mounded as the day moves on. You can easily miss this by turning left on the M de La C piste a couple of hundred metres onto the run after leaving the Bruyeres mid station. All roads lead to Bruyeres once turning left. If your friends can't manage that then they really need some lessons.

La Viollette, mentioned above is a horrid, flat green path IMHO

They could pop to Val Thorens but would need, as a minimum, a Belleville valley pass. Make sure they go via the blue Pluviometre (lovely top half). The route back is via Plan de Mains Chair and the Bouquetain (sp) funitel, and then ski Mont de La Chambre from the top. Better skiers should catch last lift up to the M de la C, beer at the top, and then blast down 4 Vents red towards Reberty, it's a lovely run.

Toward the end of the week, if they are doing ok and confidence building, take them up Roc des 3 Marches 1 & 2 lifts and ski via Grand Lac and Pelozet to St Martin Mid Station (lunch at Grand Lac Resto, good value) and then back via St Martin Chair lift, Gros Tougne & Violette or Petite Creux if it is quiet and not too hot (can get mounded). If they are doing very well then take them down Pramint & Jerusalem (reds that lap the St Martin 2 Chair) coz they are MINT.

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mini_mo, hold on a sec. You say the timid skiers previously went to Courchevel 1550 and then with you to Morzine and they still need "flat runs and magic carpets/drag lifts." Have they taken lessons? Maybe they aren't cut out for skiing?

Back to the question in point. My eldest who was then just shy of 4yo had his first weeks skiing at Les Menuires. Spent a lot of time on the carpet near the bubble first couple of days. Then up to the top of Bruyeres 2 and down the Mont De La Chambre blue a couple of times. And then all the way to the bottom. The lower green runs were too slushy (mid-March) to be of any use. Snow was much nicer higher up.

As Gary says the bubble doesn't open particularly and consequently there is always a queue when it does. Either join the queue early or leave later. Still a queue but shorter.

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

After all it is free

Thanks

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

mini_mo, quite a quandary for you. It sounds as though lessons are really essential for them. Maybe you should arrange for the whole lot of you to take lessons - at the appropriate level, obviously in different level classes - at the same time each day, so if they don't have anyone to ski with if they're not in lessons. wink

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pam w, +1

I have stayed in those Ski Amis chalets and we had a great holiday! I know what GaryCantley, means about finding the chalets. We were lucky even though we arrived very late there was a chalet "bod" putting out some rubbish other that that we may have had a problem and slept in the car!! Great location and the staff could not have done enough for us! Bedrooms a little cramped but they are only for sleeping!

As everyone has said, lessons, lessons, lessons! They will need to realise that it is wrong for them to cramp your holiday! By all means ski as a group in the afternoons but it sounds that they may be a little selfish in expecting you to guide them for a week! A better choice if in Courchevel is 1850, after all some of those runs are tame to say the least!

Enjoy the holiday. LM is a nice ski area!

It sounds like quite a few of you have stayed with Ski Amis in the Chalets in Bruyeres. We would stay in Chalet Hayley. I would be grateful if I could have some feedback re rooms, food, service etc? The reason I thought LM looked so good is that it would be absolutely ideal for the parents of 2 young kids so they could ski in and out and swap over care/collect from ESF snow garden which I understand is 50m from Chalet Hayley. It does all sound very convenient but I think the Chalet is slightly less luxurious than we are used to (but you cant have it all).

You know it makes sense.

If you're looking for loads of blues, plus good skiing for the rest of you I'd seriously look at La Plagne, especially Belle Plagne, which is ski in ski out.

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

A snowHead

I stayed in Chalet Hayley earlier this year (1st week of the season). The hosts (Chris and Karen) are great. The chalet itself is very compact compared to others I've stayed in, but good value for money. The food was very good and we were well looked after. It is an excellent location if you have children and are using ESF. You can drop them off very easily in the morning, and then come back to the chalet for lunch if you want to do something cheaper and easier than a mountain restaurant with children. There are some nice restaurants nearby (Marmottes, a few doors along, was my favourite).

My wife was a near beginner when we went - was able to do a snowplough on greens after some lessons in the UK in advance - and in ESF group 1. She had a very good patient instructor. There are some green and easy blue runs that are usable for this level, but not a lot of choice. If they get lessons their instructors will show them where is good for them to ski. Once they're confident on blue runs it's much easier to get around.

A snowHead

Hi gary,

Any news/feedback on Les Menuires?

Thanks

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

I've stayed at Hayley too. Location and hot tub are fab, rooms were fine (not memorably tiny anyway) - the lounge is a bit small though and the year we were there the managers 'office' was hosted in what should be the store cupboard (off the lounge) so we had reps coming and going all the time, which my group really disliked.kieranm, were they still doing that this year? If so I'd try for another of the chalets, but the complex as a whole is great.

if you go Alpe d'Huez, be very careful with location - some places are a bus/long walk from those greens, and some bits of green are not very green or are very busy. Some is fab, so in the right place it's excellent but I remember finding it rather tricky on one holiday.

Peisey/Vallandry should be fine imo. The blues are very gentle, some of the reds barely steeper - the lack of green is only because Paradiski doesn't use them, and for the rest of you it would be fab! The esf ski school has been good for us too (barring one L4 madman) and very cheap, which might appeal to your friend...

aj xxx

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mini_mo, I am in Reberty for most of the season which is just above where you are proposing to stay. Sevabel the lift company have spent quite a bit of money in the last 4 years in this very area making the slopes very familly friendly and have created some quiet runs which are effectively less of a gradient and signposted familly run. This does not necessary stop other skiers using them. There are greens from Les Bruyeres down towards La Masse and then on to the Tortollet chair lift which takes you to Les menuires centre from where you can take a green back to the bottom of La Masse or a chair up to take a familly run back to Crosette Centre or a run back to Les Bruyeres which includes one familly section and a side path to remove some gradient. There is also a longer run Violet which is fine for nervous beginners. There are carpets at Les Bruyeres, Reberty 1850 & 2000 and outside the vallon apartments together with a polytunnel carpet at Les Bruyeres. So you are spoilt for choice. The Mont de La Chambre blue run down top from the is always full of beginners. As suggested earlier Val Thorens via Pluviometre is fine and if you return direct to Les Menuires via the blue Boulevard Cumin then you can do this without a VT lift pass as you dont use any VT lifts. A debutants pass which covers quite a large area for beginners is available at 21 euros per day. Overall in my opinion this area is a good choice.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Hi all,

Apologies for not posting sooner after our return but it was a bit of a mare of a holiday!

The day we left for France, one of my boys (15) was sent home from school ill.

Woke him up, put him in the car along with wife and other son, also 15 and set off.

Things that made the trip there and back easier.

1. Purchase a toll widget to allow for fast passage through the tolls.

2. Do your homework on where you will get fuel. I filled up before leaving Norfolk, then Le Clerk in Reims Sud and Carrefour in Chambery Nord. The return I done the reverse. I also had a couple of other stations in satnav in case they were required.

In resort.

As others have said, plenty of blues and greens.

Pluviometre down through Val Thorens and then the blue back to Les Menuires is a wonderful run. To get onto this run from the top of the Bruyeres lift you need to take the RED. No worries though as the red is flat. Same as the run from Val Thorens back to Les Menuires, the faster you go the easier the run is. I done it last year with my father at his speed and it was hard. This year, doing it with my boy it was easier as we were faster.

The run to St Martin is the same. The top 1/3, to the top of the second lift, is quite steep but from there its mainly parellel skiing all the way down.

Local lifts around Bruyeres. The bucket lift has now gone, replaced by a chair lift which goes a couple of hundred metres further up the mountain.

Generally, I would say, most blues at the top of the mountains are steeper than further down, but you need to go to the top to get the best of the rest.

Oh yes, dont forget the play parks too. Great for just skiing through without taking on the jumps and laughing at the offspring who do take them on and end up in a snotty heap when it goes wrong Smile

One last thing. Apart from the red to Pluviometre, I hadnt attempted a red before. Thought I'd give Jerusalem a go on the last day. Bad move, stick to what you're happy with. I'll be taking more lessons prior to attempting a red again!!

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What went wrong on Jerusalem? (I love that run).

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

swiftoid, the start of the run is fairly steep for some.

After all it is free

Help!!

Les Menuires - Need feedback for very easy runs in the area leading down to Bruyers

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