Winter & Ski Home Ski Resort Reviews Pyrénées Peyragudes

“No, Mr Bond - I expect you to ski...”

The on-mountain mood is relaxed, not least as it's hard not to get distracted by all that scenery.

Already familiar to millions of James Bond fans worldwide as the location for the opening sequence of Tomorrow Never Dies, the family ski station of Peyragudes is set high above the Vallée du Louron in the central French Pyrénées. Although a long drive from Channel ports, access is relatively simple from Pau and Toulouse airports (or Tarbes Gare TGV for rail travellers) – and the area is already a popular destination for both French families and Spanish skiers from across the nearby border.

With state-of-the-art four- and six-seater high-speed chairlifts, Peyragudes is nothing if not well-equipped.

Peyragudes was created in 1988 by combining the terrain of two ski villages on opposite sides of one substantial mountain and an administrative frontier – Peyresourde being in the Hautes-Pyrénées, while Les Agudes is in neighbouring Haute-Garonne.
For skiers the most obvious advantages include a choice of landscapes to add variety to days on the slopes, plus flexibility to find the best snow conditions in both mornings and afternoons. Ski-school areas are ultra-accessible, and while green-graded terrain looks relatively limited, blues are often exceptionally wide and encouraging. Those confident on reds have some long runs, including (snow-cover permitting) the Vallée Blanche, which makes it possible to ski a combined vertical drop of almost 1000m.

Spacious modern apartments overlooking the front-de-neige in Peyrasourde village.

Both ski villages are sited at 1600m altitude. Les Agudes was purpose-built during the 1960s, while Peyresourde is much more recent (and still developing). Apartment accommodation on this side is either on or around the front-de-neige, or a little further away at Balestas, which is served by free shuttle-buses. The proximity of the Franco-Spanish border makes this a very popular choice for skiers from Spain, adding a cosmopolitan vibe and obliging restaurants to extend their lunchtime and evening opening hours.

The groomed ski area has plenty of options for all ages and abilities.

Budget-conscious skiers who nevertheless value the quality of their accommodation and skiing experience. Peyragudes may be so far relatively little-known, but it combines great skiing with a friendly, welcoming attitude to visitors. The studied attention to the visitor experience extends to beginner facilities – the ski-school area in Peyresourde couldn't be more accessible. Intermediates and more experienced skiers have some bracing steeps to enjoy, and have French, Spanish and just a few British skiers for company. Finally, the geographical location is among the most dramatic in the Pyrenees, with genuinely panoramic mountain scenery.

Peyragudes has been in our sights for some time, but until now we haven't managed to see and ski it for ourselves. Even so, it's clear from sustained heavy investment in visitor accommodation and state-of-the-art high-speed chairlifts that this is a ski area with attitude. Added to which, the tantalizing webcam images have long intrigued us. So when the opportunity finally arrives to drive back down to the Hautes-Pyrénées we don't need any encouragement, particularly since the newly-opened A65 autoroute has shaved almost an hour off the journey beyond Bordeaux.

The right approach...

The new road is impressive in its efficiency, but scenery-wise it's the eventual approach to our destination, via the more conventionally-beautiful Vallée du Louron, which will haunt us. The sheltered spot has a huge, man-made lake and recently acquired a traditionally-styled tourism village overlooking landscaped parkland, the setting for the more contemporary (and still-expanding) Balnéa spa centre. From the village we follow the signs up the nearby mountainside towards the Col de Peyresourde. The final approach road is yet another new creation, providing easy access to the ski village, whose bright, cheerful skyline soon comes into view.

Even in a season notable for its variable snowfalls, cover here has held up reassuringly.

Minutes later, after parking the car, unpacking the skis and changing into our ski gear, we take one of the passenger lifts which simplify getting from car park level up to the front-de-neige. From here the ski lifts are just metres away, our choice being the Sérias chairlift, a high-speed 6-seater which takes skiers direct to the Col de la Flamme (1967m), for a choice of blue- and red-graded runs either back down to Peyresourde or – our choice – over into the Agudes sector. As we plan to head still higher, our first run is a short one, as we soon join the Flamme fixed chairlift for a ride up to 2085m.
Once off the lift we ski the top section of the blue-graded Val des Agudes piste, before peeling off onto the steeper (red) detour of Chevriers. The snow quality has benefitted from the sector's early morning sunlight, and our bracing plunge down to the liaison with the gentler Passe Bleue piste (which in turn feeds back onto Val des Agudes) is great fun. Soon the outline of Les Agudes appears below us, growing larger until we reach the departure point for no fewer than five ski-lifts. It's surprisingly quiet over here, and the architectural style of the purpose-built ski-village speaks of an earlier period than that of its youthful counterpart on the other side of the mountain. But Agudes shares the same doorstep skiing concept, and as a bonus catches the morning sun.

Steeper, but also wider...

Terrain-wise, things are also noticeably steeper over here, with a big-mountain feel to the ski area falling away below while the the six-seater Cap de Pales chairlift powers us smoothly back up to the top of the mountain in single haul. At the top we ski off the lift to join the other skiers who have converged on the 2233m Belvédère. The meeting-point for three chairlifts has something of a party atmosphere today, as our visit coincides with Spanish national holidays, boosting skier numbers and ramping up the energy levels several notches.

The upbeat style even extends to on-mountain signage.

Fortunately, with the present gathering of skiers clearly about to spread themselves out in several different directions, the nearby pistes look set to remain unpressured. Sure enough, we have the blue-graded Gourgs Blancs blue-graded cruise virtually to ourselves on the run over to the exit-point for the famous red-graded Vallée Blanche.

No exit...

Sadly, large barriers inform us that it's closed until the next snowfall tops things up lower down, so we continue on the gentle, open blue run down to the base of our next lift, the Serre Doumenge. This six-seater replaced two previous chairlifts, and its environmental credentials include small on-chair bins for cigarette butts and other debris (which self-empty discretely as they approach the lower station) to help keep the mountains cleaner.
At the top are both black- and red-graded runs, plus the Traverse des Isards, a top-of-the-world gateway to a potentially long blue cruise all the way back down to Peyresourde village. The first section is Aigles, a wide, gently-curving run which crosses Rhododendrons, a red-graded piste which we now follow as it threads its way between a snowpark and a boardercross run to terminate conveniently at Le Cabanou mountain restaurant/bar. We've already covered some distance, so it's a welcome sight. Forsaking the currently-empty panoramic sun-terrace, we head inside and peruse the piste-map while recharging our thermal energy levels with vins-chauds.

A relaxed moment at the junction of several pistes above Les Agudes.

When we finally emerge we skate our way over to pick up the Combe de Magnéras for a gentle blue cruise down towards Peyresourde. Things are looking a little livelier now on the front-de-neige as we head for the base of the Privilège chairlift.

Minutes later, at 2233m...

The powerful four-seater hauls us back up to Belvédère in under seven minutes (a journey which previously required no fewer than four fixed-chairlift rides). Not surprisingly, travelling at around 5m/sec adds a degree of wind-chill, but softened today by the still sun hanging in a near-cloudless Pyrenean sky, as it so often does here. And the en-route overviews of the mountain include free-stylers in the snow-park we'd passed and the first hungry skiers taking their places on the snack bar sun-terrace.

Diners on the sun-terrace get to see everything happening in the nearby snowpark.

Not surprisingly, by the time we reach the top of the lift we're feeling more than ready for a lunchbreak, so from Belvédère we take the Cap de pales red piste and pick up the blue-graded Combe de la Flamme for another excursion into the Agudes sector. This time it's a releatively brief one and we only ski the upper terrain, since after reaching the base of the Flamme chairlift the run then veers sharply left, passing over the Col to re-enter the Pyresourde side. From here there's a choice of red and blue return runs back to the village, our route finally taking us beside the ski-school area, where novices are making their first turns, between riding the magic-carpet lift for further gentle runs.
It's the perfect calm and secure starting-point for tomorrows skiers, who as yet have no idea of just what lies in store for them by way of a reward for their efforts. But they won't have long to wait – and when their very first big lift-ride finally reveals just what lies further up the mountain right here in Peyragudes, they're going to be amazed. Just like us, in fact.

© Roger Moss