FLAINE

NEW 21 Dec 2013: More on the proposals for a new mega-lift (the "Funi Flaine) which would take skiers from the valley to resort in 15-20 mins can be found here.

Flaine (and the Grand Massif) is one of France's top ski areas.  No question.

The road to Flaine

The mountain and its various villages boast an impressive list of attributes.  Here are seven of them.

1.  Easy access: You can leave Geneva airport and be at Les Carroz in 45 minutes.

Above Les Carroz

2.  Easy access: Drive to Morillon instead and you have the easiest access to the skiing: a drop-off point for skiers, places to hire skis and a big car park.  And at 700m, you are unlikely to get stuck, have to get the snowchains out, etc.

3.  Choose where you stay.  Samoens has a powerful rustic village + jumbo gondola option; Sixt Fer a Cheval is completely away from it all; Les Carroz has various hotels and feels like a proper place.  And then we have Flaine.  This gives the "traditional" French ski in-ski out experience - the twist being the unique architecture.  The setting is a bit like Val Thorens, although the overall set-up feels much less urban - even if you don't like the architecture.  The wikipedia entry, charting the development of the site since 1959, is well worth a look.  

4.  A big ski area.  At 265km, it's bigger than La Plagne (225km) and Les Arcs (200km). The layout of the mountain gives you a real feeling of travelling around.  Meanwhile, the lift pass, at €43, is slightly cheaper than Les Arcs' €46.

5.  Great snow record.  The summit at 2500m may not sound too high, but the location of the Grand Massif really makes a difference - the area consistently posts some of the highest snow depths in the Alps.

6.  Some epic pistes.  The Cascades run from les Grands Platieres and the Marvel green run above Morillon are both worth making a detour for.  Try lunch at the Lac de Gers:

7.  Summer.  The Giffre valley is beautiful and boasts the feared cycling climb that is the Col de Joux Plane.  More sedate pleasures can be found strolling around the Cirque du Fer a Cheval beyond Sixt.

A few other things to watch out for:

• The Bissac at Flaine is a great spot to meet up, but gets very crowded, and the toilets can't cope with the demand.
• At the big Platieres gondola, you can beat the queue by opting to stand up rather than sit down in the cabins.
• The lift at Morillon 1100 struggles with the crowds during the (March) Paris school holidays - so must be a mare during the main February crush...
• If it's bad weather, the links to Flaine may close.  Even if they don't, they may be very, very cold.

For more on the area...some links:

The Telegraph's guide to Flaine

The We Love 2 Ski review of the area

Where to Ski and Snowboard's review

www.flaine.info - an independent English-language site

The summit, at 2500m

Flaine

WHERE TO SKI? Winners and Losers 1995-2013

The excellent Where to Ski and Snowboard 2013 is now available - it's easily the best guide to resorts, their rude comments about Les Arcs' architecture notwithstanding.

As its name suggests, it's an annual publication, which first appeared in 1995.  A look at that first book tells us which resorts have maintained and/or strengthened their position, and which are on the wane, at least in the British market.

One change, of course, has been in the title of the book - the original guide did not include the word "Snowboard", although there was a chapter devoted to the growth of "Le Surf", as the French used to call it.

"It is estimated that by the year 2000, 

one in three people riding the lifts 

will be a snowboarder"

Not sure if the snowboarder ratio ever got to quite that level; certainly in Les Arcs last year, the number wasn't getting much above 10%.

Back to the resorts.  Then - and now - the bulk of the guide is devoted to chapters on the main destination.  There were more chapters in 1995 than in the latest edition, with the net effect being there are more resorts who have "lost" their individual chapters than there are winners/newcomers.

In France, the winners - each now proudly boasting their own chapter - are Samoens, La Tania and Les Gets.  The losers are La Clusaz, Les Contamines, Valloire, Isola 2000 and Valmorel.

In Austria, the main winner this year is Soelden.  It was in the original guide, but then lost its place, and has now been rightly restored as "Austria's best kept secret", with its 130km of pistes, near-2000m vertical descent and, er, varied nightlife.

Hochsoelden

WTSS 2013 also gives good coverage to the Vorarlberg region.

A number of Austrian resorts are no longer covered in detail - the most notable perhaps being Zell am See, Zell am Ziller and St Johann in Tirol.  Each were mainstays of the ski brochures during the 1980s and 1990s.

Other Austrian resorts no longer covered include BKK, Fieberbrunn, Galtur, Innsbruck and Niederau.

In Italy, Bormio is out, with Passo Tonale and the Trentino region on the rise, each boasting a chapter for 2013.

Finally, Switzerland.  Arosa, Flims, Lenzerheide and Les Diablerets no longer justify a chapter.  The rising star is clearly the Val d'Anniviers, with four pages now devoted to Zinal, Grimentz et al.