{"id":556,"date":"2014-08-14T11:37:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T09:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainpassions.com\/wordpress\/?p=556"},"modified":"2021-04-08T12:07:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T10:07:38","slug":"ski-val-cenis-vanoise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainpassions.com\/winter\/ski-resort-reviews\/alps\/ski-val-cenis-vanoise\/","title":{"rendered":"Val Cenis Vanoise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A<\/span> few snowflakes dance in the headlight beams as we leave the eerily-deserted autoroute, cruise through the frontier town of Modane, and turn onto our old friend the Route des Grande Alpes<\/a>. We climb steadily through increasingly snow-laden landscapes past the brooding mountain fortress of l\u2019Esseillon, feeling a growing sense of isolation and remoteness. Things change, though, as we reach the cheerful villages of Bramans, Sardi\u00e8res, Solli\u00e8res and Termignon, after which a gentle run through Lanslebourg, and Lanslevillard brings us to our accommodation in Le Haut and a solid base from which to discover Val Cenis Vanoise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\nA respectable 1574m (and some 364m of vertical) later we release our lift poles amid the kind of scenery we\u2019ve come to love, and which are much more likely to be served by discrete drag-lifts than by more intrusive high-capacity, high-speed chairs.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\"Flambeau
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The wide, Blue-graded cruise on Flambeau from the Sources chairlift brings dramatic views of the valley.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\"Local
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Local knowledge: we explore the silent world of an unmarked forest trail above Lanslevillard.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Going Up<\/h2>\n

Next morning we emerge from our apartment in Les Balcons de Val Cenis<\/a> to discover that our location is ski-in\/ski-out, so we can ski direct to the nearby Val Cenis Haut gondola lift, passing the local ESF ski school meeting point. Happily, there are no queues and the lift drops us smoothly at the base of the Arcelle six-seater chairlift for a second-stage haul to almost 2400m. From here it\u2019s just a quick blue-graded swoop down to the Solert six-seater chairlift, from whose 2540m top station there\u2019s a choice of red descents or – our choice – a gentler blue cruise towards the Mont Cenis sector. We stop, though, to take the Met four-seat chair up to 2800m (the highest point in the whole ski domain) which serves the Jacot Met black piste plus both red and blue runs. We take the red (Met), which feeds us onto the long, blue-graded cruise over to the Mont, en-route to which we leave the Qu\u00e9bequoise blue piste and take a recently-tracked cut-through which drops us beside the historic Col du Mont Cenis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Snail’s pace<\/h2>\n

The old road (constructed by order of Napoleon in 1805) by which the Col is accessible for much of the year lies buried under snow during the winter months, transforming it into Europe\u2019s longest Green run, the aptly-named l\u2019Escargot. From here the possibilities include a (very) leisurely Green-graded cruise on l\u2019Escargot, or a steeper drop on Ramasse, a red piste which feeds onto the blue-graded Madeleine to bring us smoothly down to Lanslebourg beside the Ramasse six-seater high-speed chairlift. After taking the lift we work our way back towards the Vieux Moulin gondola, and over towards the excellent Chalet La Ran\u00f4va for a welcome lunch break.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Off-piste – back to nature in Val Cenis Vanoise<\/h2>\n
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When we emerge our guide (who happens to be Director of the Val Cenis ESF team) shares a little of his local knowledge by showing us an unpisted trail frequented only by the occasional Nordic skier, a route which leads us through silent forests and past a frozen waterfall. Having gained some useful insight into the kind of possibilities which abound here if you know where to look, we spend the rest of the afternoon calmly exploring the sector above Lanslevillard, before skiing right back to our apartment in Le Haut.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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