THE LOST RESORT
Few people outside of France have heard of Les Sybelles, but it’s a big ski area with some big skiing.
By Alf Alderson
France and skiing – think Three Valleys, Espace Killy, Paradiski and any number of other huge, interlinked ski areas. Or maybe not…
Maybe think Les Sybelles instead. Heard of it? Not many skiers from outside France have, yet it’s one of the biggest ski areas in a nation with some ski resorts that are the size of small countries (I kid you not – were the Three Valleys a country it would be bigger than at least two of the planet’s smaller nations).
‘Les Sybelles’ consists of six linked ski resorts in the Maurienne massif; St. Jean d’Arves (1550m), St. Sorlin d’Arves (1600m), Le Corbier (1550m), La Toussuire (1750m), St. Colomban des Villards (1100m) and Les Bottières (1300m), with a claimed total of 260km of pistes (plus another 50km of Nordic trails), not to mention some very impressive and seemingly limitless freeride options; and it was the latter I went to explore last Easter.
All six resorts are small enough that you can explore them all in a day or two, and they lie in the shadow of the three mighty fangs of 3514-metre Aiguilles d’Arves. I stayed in La Toussuire, and skied with UIAGM guide Philippe Vincent (who has climbed the Aiguilles d’Arves 115 times – probably more now, since that was last winter…).
I met Philippe at the bottom of the Tête de Bellard chair on the north side of town. To get here I’d walked through La Toussuire from my base at the recently refurbished Hotel Beausoleil; being brutally honest La Toussuire is the kind of place you’ll either love or hate, all 70s style hotels, bars and cafes, many of which were colourfully draped with banners and placards announcing the fact that the Tour de France would be in town in July.
This 70s architecture is prevalent in Le Corbier too; both villages were developed some forty years ago in a no-frills style which would allow ordinary mortals to enjoy the skiing experience without dipping into their life savings. Personally I don’t have a problem with the concept of getting the non-wealthy into skiing (since I’m one of them), and, if this somewhat Brutalist style of architecture offends your eye – well you hardly see the resorts once you’re up in the mountains; plus, Les Sybelles has also done a good job of situating its ski lifts such that they don’t impinge on the scenery too much.
If you’d prefer a more rustic, alpine feel to your ski holiday, the other four villages that make up Les Sybelles offer this, so everyone is catered for – particularly when you consider that prices for everything from accommodation to ski hire tend to be noticeably lower than those in the nearby mega-resorts.
All this I learnt from Philippe on our way by ski lifts and a five-minute hike to the gently rounded summit of 2431-metre L’Ouillon (apparently the highest pasture land in Europe…). On the way there we’d been whisked over and above ski slopes facing every angle and of every level of difficulty – although to be fair the majority were blue and red with the occasional green or black thrown in for good measure.
Philippe explained that Les Sybelles aims to attract the family market, hence all the intermediate terrain – “But that’s good for us, because it means the off-piste is never busy – and there is lots of it”.
This became apparent as I got my breath back and Philippe smoked a fag on the top of L’Ouillon. He pointed out the lay of the land, with Mont Blanc and the Tarentaise region clearly visible to the north, explaining that from ‘our’ summit you can ski off-piste in pretty much any direction.
Our particular direction would be south, taking advantage of the spring sunshine that was rapidly warming the snow to a soft, buttery texture that even the most inept of off-piste skiers like me could tackle with ease.
We swooshed down easily angled slopes without another soul in sight, eventually pitching up at the Col de la Croix de Fer. Cyclists will recognise the name instantly, for the col has featured 16 times in the Tour de France.
There wouldn’t be anyone cycling over it today, however, for it was still under several feet of snow, which we continued snaking our way down until we came to the village of St. Sorlin d’Arves. St. Sorlin has a more traditional alpine appearance than La Toussuire, and as the name suggests it sits in the shadow of the Aiguilles d’Arves.
From St. Sorlin we headed on a series of chairs lifts up to the area’s highest point, 2620-metre Les Perrons, and I remarked to Philippe how amazed I was by the fact that so few people seem to have heard of Les Sybelles.
He grinned. “That has its advantages – quiet slopes most of the time! It’s not just the amount of off-piste skiing that goes unrecognised, it’s the quality of it too”. He’d been constantly pointing out great freeride lines as we rode the lifts, and our next descent was a perfect example of what he meant.
From Les Perrons we headed skier’s left towards two areas known as Disneyland and Alaska, where we found steep, north facing chutes that still offered decent, untracked snow almost three-weeks after the last snowfall.
For skiers looking for something less testing, Les Sybelles has a lovely selection of easy blues and reds that will flatter any intermediate skier, and although some of the lifts are a bit slow (a matter being rectified over the next few years by the installation of several high-speed lifts) queues are a rarity – we encountered not one over what is traditionally one of the busiest periods of the season, the Easter weekend.
There are also some fine mountain restaurants where you won’t spend the price of a new pair of skis on a salad and chips. Philippe and I enjoyed a late lunch at L’Alpe Restaurant above St. Sorlin (you can also stay here in a traditional alpine chalet) where we enjoyed watching a boisterous Australian shepherd dog entertaining itself by rounding up the restaurant’s goat kids and the occasional stray child and herding them around the establishment. It’s a great way of keeping children under control, and one that I feel could be usefully employed elsewhere.
By the time we’d finished it was getting late in the day and we had to rush to ensure we made all the lift links back to La Toussuire. Our final run was one of those where you really appreciate the presence of a mountain guide…
Philippe had decided we should drop into a steep north facing slope above the resort (by steep I mean over 40-degrees, which is quite steep enough for me) which didn’t have too many tracks down it and where the angle quickly diminished to something less challenging for an easy run out.
He checked the snow to make sure it was stable; handed out a few words of advice on how to make the short drop and ski the steep stuff beneath; then off we went. Remarkably I got down it without mishap, and it served as a great confidence builder for the next day since dropping into something that steep isn’t something I usually do as a matter of course. But when an experienced mountain guide reckons you can do it – well, you do it. After all, he must be right ‘cos he’s the one who has to pick up the pieces if he’s wrong…
As I remarked, it was good to have my confidence levels pushed up for the next day, since a full-on white out had replaced the bluebird conditions we’d previously enjoyed. Philippe did his best to show me around the clouds, but after an easy descent of a solitary off-piste valley called Comborciere it became obvious we would have to stick to the pistes today as we just couldn’t see where we were going when off-piste.
No bad thing, as it gave me the chance to enjoy swooping down a variety of wide, open (albeit not very clear) reds and blues above La Toussuire. For intermediate and family skiers this would be just too much fun in sunny weather, and the fact that it was still skiable even in this murk was a bonus.
This was my last day in Les Sybelles so it’s a shame the weather wasn’t playing ball, but it simply left me feeling I needed to come back again since there’s obviously a lot more to be discovered in the biggest ski area I’d never heard of.
TRAVEL INFO
Les Sybelles is 1.5-hours from Chambery Airport, about ten-hour’s drive from the Channel and there’s a train station at nearby St. Jean de Maurienne, and prices for accommodation, lift passes etc. are considerably lower than at most other ski resorts in the French Alps.
I stayed at Hotel Beausoleil in La Toussuire www.beausoleilhotel.com
Peak Retreats offer seven-nights in La Toussuire at Le Haut de Comborciere from £195 per person based on four sharing a two-bedroom self-catering apartment, including Eurotunnel crossing. www.peakretreats.co.uk
