FRENCH SKI RESORT LEAGUE TABLES (1): "Le Grand Ski"

A couple of seasons ago, Alpes magazine ran a special issue called "La Palmares des Stations".   This ranked the different resorts under a series of categories.

The first is "Le Grand Ski" - ie an Ofsted-style league table aimed at those for whom the skiing is everything.

The magazine devised a complex scoring system which included:

- Height of top lift
- Vertical descent
- Range of pistes (see below)
- No of pistes
- Access to big ski area
- Events, competitions, etc
- Price of lift pass
- Price of accommodation

Perhaps the most interesting stat is the one on range of pistes.  They calculated the % of reds and blacks as a % of all pistes.  The higher the %, the greater the score - I've set this in brackets below.

Anyway, the winner is.....Alpe d'Huez, which got maximum scores on both height of top lift, vertical drop and number of pistes, as well as on price of accommodation (Serre Chevalier, Le Corbier, Chamrousse and Villard-de-Lans all did well here, too.  Courchevel, and indeed the Trois Vallees generally, did not.

Here is the full ranking (% red/black pistes):

1.  Alpe d'Huez (44)
2.  Les Arcs (48)
3.  La Plagne (33)
4.  Val Thorens (52)
5.  Vars (45)
6.  Chamonix (49)
7.  Serre-Che (50)
8.  Val d'Isere (44)*
9.  Tignes (47)
10. Les Menuires (51)
11. Meribel (43)
12. La Clusaz (37)
13. Chamrousse (48)
14. Avoriaz (43)
15. Courchevel (36)
16. Montgenevre (58)
17. Le Corbier (25)
18. Allos 1800 (51)
19. Villard-de-Lans (51)
20. Chatel (45)
21. Isola 2000 (26)

* Clearly, this assumes that all piste gradings are the same, which of course they aren't - cf the savage "blue runs" around Val d'Isere....

WEBSITES OF THE TARENTAISE

All of the resorts have their own sites of course (my favourite is www.pralognan.com). The Les Arcs official site looks quite smart, but loses marks for not being kept up-to-date.  For example (on 27/12/11) the link to the piste map is for 2010/11 rather than the new 2011/12 version.  Here are some links to some other places on the web:

For Les Arcs: www.espace-arcadien.fr.  The content is a tad out-of-date, but has good links to local webcams.

Also for Les Arcs: www.lesarcs.net will sell you chalet/apartment accommodation, but has lots more.

Finally, a bit more of a collector's piece: the Les Arcs film festival.  Oh yes.  There's still a bit of a debate about whether the investment has been worth the while (the idea was to extend the season, as part of a more "diverse" offer of activities....)

For La Plagne: www.perso-laplagne.fr.  This is a great site - lots about new developments, history of the resort, etc etc.  La Plagne fans who don't speak French will still enjoy the pictures.

For the weather: Meteo France.  This is the local forecast, with "previsions" for the next few days.

For getting excited/depressed about local snow conditions: www.snoweye.com.
This has just about every resort in Europe, with various cameras in the big reports...

For cycling: www.grenoblecycling.com.  This is based further down the Isere valley, but includes descriptions of most of the main cols in the area.  Recent posts include video, which makes it doubly exciting.

To improve your French: www.bourgstmaurice.tv was set up this year by an enterprising local.  And the regional newspaper www.ledauphine.com is worth a browse/a follow on Twitter.

LA PLAGNE

La Plagne is one of France's best-known resorts, but arguably falls short of being one of THE best....

It has glacier skiing, but it's a pain to get to it.  Les Deux Alpes, Tignes and Val Thorens beat it here.

It has lots of skiing above 2000 metres, but not that much above 2600 - again unlike most of the other "big league" resorts.

It has a great area of easy skiing above the main centres, but gets very crowded above Bellecote in particular.  

It has numerous villages, each with different styles and strengths, but does feel a bit like a ski-conurbation, certainly in the main bowl.

It's linked to Les Arcs via the Vanoise Express, but it's a bit of a slog to get back.

Arguably it had a stronger position in the 1980s than it does now.  The advent of Paradiski aside, there hasn't been massive investment in the lifts.  It is the Everton of skiing.  Instead of Bill Kenwright, La Plagne can point to the literary folk and academics from Paris, who were instrumental in the development of the resort in the early 1960s, alongside the local movers and shakers in Aime and the valley below.

Like Everton, La Plagne still has a lot going for it:

1.  Loads of mountain restaurants, for example in the Montchauvin sector, or above Champagny.  Far more than Les Arcs.

2.  A proper "snow front" at Plagne Centre, with handy restaurants for mixed-ability parties to meet at.  Again, a big contrast with Arc 1800, which can't really compete in terms of handy foot-of-the-slopes rendez-vous points.

3.  New investment in lifts - see the fabulous perso-la plagne website here.

4.  Upgrading of the dilapidated shopping centre at Plagne 1800 - also documented in detail at the above website.

5.  A bobsleigh track, used during Albertville 1992 and earmarked for use in the doomed Annecy 2018 bid.

6.  A logo which has, er, stood the test of time.  Its history is documented here.
7.  200km of pistes, including some great areas away from the main bowl - Champagny, Montalbert, Les Coches.

Arguably Les Arcs has better views, on average.  But there can be few better places to stop for lunch and survey the scene than on the south-facing Champagny side, looking over towards Courchevel.

www.la-plagne.com