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  The content is a tad out-of-date, but has good links to local webcams.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.