{"id":541,"date":"2014-08-13T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T09:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainpassions.com\/wordpress\/?p=541"},"modified":"2021-09-17T11:58:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T09:58:30","slug":"ski-puy-saint-vincent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainpassions.com\/winter\/ski-resort-reviews\/alps\/ski-puy-saint-vincent\/","title":{"rendered":"Puy Saint Vincent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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P<\/span>uy Saint Vincent\u2019s pistes are clearly visible to skiers over in Serre Chevalier<\/a>, yet somehow this place is often regarded as being inaccessible. In fact, the drive from Brian\u00e7on is a short one (around 20km) and easily accomplished if you ignore initial road signs and instead stick to the main road until a second route is signed at L\u2019Argenti\u00e8re-la-Bess\u00e9e. If we\u2019d known that we\u2019d have got to Puy Saint Vincent more speedily, but in the process missed some of the scenery which adds an impressive visual backdrop to skiing in this quite remarkable location.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n…things open out to reveal a first glimpse of the snowy splendour of the high mountain sector basking beneath a clear blue sky.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\"Ski-in
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Ski-in ski-out accommodation at La Dame Blanche apartments at Puy-Saint-Vincent 1800m.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\"The
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The powerful Pr\u00e9s six-seater chairlift leaves from the Puy-Saint-Vincent 1400 village.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Up and away in Puy Saint Vincent<\/h2>\n
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Our accommodation at the Dame Blanche turns out to be piste-side, and as soon as we\u2019re installed in our apartment we head down to the ski-room, boot up and ski out straight down to the lifts of the 1600 village. Getting there takes little more than a minute or so, giving little time to find our feet before things narrow for the final run to the lifts, where we have a rendezvous with an ESF guide who grew up in the next village, and has skied just about every corner of the local mountains.
\nRather than take the nearest lift, we begin by skiing down to the 1400 village, where we pick up the Pr\u00e9s six-seater chairlift, which has been designed to carry gondola-style cabins as well as chairs (at which point it will become a t\u00e9l\u00e9mix<\/em> lift).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The haul takes us smoothly up to 1850m, where we take the blue-graded 4 Fontaines piste past the Draille drag-lift and back over to the 1600 village. It\u2019s a nice, gentle introduction to the safe and mostly wide tree-lined runs beloved of early-intermediates who prefer to stay low for now, and on which more experienced skiers return to the villages from steeper terrain above the tree-line. The next haul, on the Cr\u00eate des Bains 4-seater chairlift, is again mostly through forest, until things open out to reveal a first glimpse of the snowy splendour of the high mountain sector basking beneath a clear blue sky. At the top of the lift it\u2019s clear that there\u2019s more still to come, so we take a brief scenic cruise on the aptly-named Travers\u00e9e piste, which takes us a little further round the mountain to pick up the Rocheur Noir chairlift.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\"Ski-lift,
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The chairlift emerges from the Larch forest as it gains altitude.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\"High
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The 2000m sector with the Lauzes chairlift serving red and blue-graded pistes.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Higher above Puy Saint Vincent…<\/h2>\n
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This time it\u2019s a modern 4-seater fixed lift with a magic-carpet-style loading system, so it\u2019s no slouch, taking us smoothly to just above the shadowy and remote-looking Vallon du Formel. The lift serves just a couple of runs but with several options. Take the lower end of the Cr\u00eate du Rocher blue piste and you\u2019ll join the Travers\u00e9e run we’ve already skied, while the red-graded Vallon des Auffes does much the same, but via a more direct route. We take the blue before turning off onto Draille, a steepish red which falls away through forest to a simple but effective drag-lift which gets us back to our turn-off point. This time we join Cr\u00eates, a blue-graded boundary run, for a gentler cruise through the tree-line, complete with a brief but highly-enjoyable off-piste excursion through silent forest where the snow lies deep and largely untracked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Further down we pass a chalet-style mountain restaurant, whose sun-deck is beginning to fill with hungry skiers, so decide to ski back over to the 1800 village for an early lunch in our apartment. Easy. We\u2019re getting to like this place, and starting to find our way around \u2013 not something anyone is going to find too difficult, given Puy Saint-Vincent\u2019s winning combination of a well-planned piste layout and clear signage. When we head back out the sun is still shining and down here at least there\u2019s barely a breeze, so we decide to head high and see how things look and feel up around the topmost terrain, on the flanks of La Pendine (1750m).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The view from (almost) the top…<\/h2>\n
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Being in a ski-in\/ski-out location means that going up begins by going down, so we ski down to the 1600 village to join the Bergerie 4-seater high-speed chairlift<\/strong>, which takes us smoothly back above the tree-line to the start of the red-graded Clos d\u2019Aval. This useful piste drops back down through the forest, but unlike its counterpart also served by the Bergerie lift, it first passes both the Bruy\u00e8res drag-lift and the Lauzes chair-lift. Take the former and you\u2019ll be able to ski down on the blue-graded M\u00e9sanges to the Grand Combe chairlift serving the very topmost terrain.<\/p>\n

Do as we do, though, by continuing to the Lauzes chair, and you\u2019ll find that the ensuing ride tops-off at 2100m, and with plenty of room to spread out on some of the longest runs in the whole domain (with around 700m vertical drop). Before we do so, we pause to take in the sensational views of the Parc National des Ecrins. Visible ahead of us in the far distance is the topmost terrain of Serre Chevalier<\/a>, and far below it our starting-point in Puy Saint Vincent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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