And from that point i didn't. And will not mention it further.
We arrived in GVA about lunch time after a pleasant flight from Birmingham which was made all the more comfortable by taking advantage of 'meet and greet' parking. A quick call to our driver about 10 mins from the airport and he was waiting at the departures door when we arrived. Our cases out, he took the keys and we were at check in,,,brilliant.
At GVA our transfer coach was waiting and thankfully we were the last passengers to arrive so the coach was ready to go straight away.....or so we thought. The inghams rep was onboard and selling lift passes and Ski school vouchers, you know the drill, and i was sure we were going to depart any time soon. but 30 mins later we were still in the car park. Why? Well it turns out the rep wasn't travelling with us so she had to do all her sales before we left, i wasn't happy. I estimate it was about 45 mins of unnecessary waiting.
The coach travelled to Cluses where we switched to a mini bus for the trip up to Flaine while the rest continued on to Cham. Total journey time was about 90 mins.
First impressions of Flaine as we arrived.....Not too bad. Sure it wasn't ever going to appear on a chocolate box but my eyes were immediately drawn away from the resort to the huge bowl behind. The snow looked amazing. As we stepped of the coach we were hit by the cold, it was -15 on arrival and my lungs burned as i tried to breathe the sparkling air. This was something new to me, i have never seen the air sparkle, it was like someone had filled the sky with glitter, it was amazing to see.
We stayed at the les Terrasses De Veret apartments and check in was swift. We had a single bedroom apartment and we were disappointed, the rooms were tiny to a point where you could not open doors and cupboards without hitting furniture. We even had to rearrange the bedroom just so we could access the wardrobe. But i am not going to dwell on that as we were here to ski.
The best thing about the apartments was the location. It was the closest block to the lifts in Flaine Foret, out the door, turn left at you are at the Grand Vans lift and the whole of the grand massif is at your feet. There was also a free pool and outdoor jacuzzi.
The Apartments
Balcony view
View of the grand vans lift from our door
Jacuzzi
The Grand massif area, when staying in flaine is basically split into two domains. The flaine bowl and 'the other side' as i called it both massively different.
The main bowl is mostly bleak with a few trees right at the bottom where as most of the 'other side is tree lined' and in fact is advertised as their 'Canada experience'.
You can buy three different lift passes but in reality there are only two decent ones. The flaine bowl and The full area.
If you were there for a weekend the flaine pass would be enough to keep you busy any longer and you want the full area.
Flaine Bowl view
Flaine Bowl:
The skiing in Flaine starts at either of two points, Flaine Foret (upper village) or Flaine Forum (lower village). Both have there own beginners slopes and ski school meeting points. The beginners slopes in Foret are served with a magic carpet on a 150m slope (Bissac) and a drag lift to the longer Meleze slope which is great for learners. It also has a small skier cross track (acticross) for kids.
In Flaine forum the beginners (Erable) slope is served by slow two seater chair but the slope is almost flat at points and can mean poling so best stick to Flaine Foret.
Foret beginners area
Forum beginners area and old chair
Access between the two levels is plentiful. For the beginner there is a long green run that snakes through the trees but is sadly very flat in places and requires poling or walking. It also crosses one of the fastest reds (faust) back into resort and can frighten the newbies who have to cross it. It also merges with another red at the end (almandine) so it can get quite busy at the end of the day, another reason to worry the beginner.
Other ways to move between the levels are 2 short reds, a set of yoghurt pot lifts and further in town there are two of what only can be described as 'asscenders'. They are basically big lifts like you would find in shopping centres that run on tracks like cliff railways. Sometimes these lifts seemed to be randomly closed that meant chancing your luck on a slippery path!
THE FLAINE BOWL
To access the Flaine bowl you really need to start out from Forum. Here there 4 lifts that scoop you upwards.
1. The main 16 man DMC gondola to Les grandes Platieres, the highest point in Flaine. From here you have a choice of blue, red and black runs back to resort. However only the red and black will have you sking straight away because the blues start off VERY flat. You have about a 300m pole session to get to any type of gradient.....and it really becomes a chore.
It can be worth it as further along this plateau you have two great reds, Faust which is fast and quite steep in places and runs continually all the way back to forum and Lucifer which is quite an appropriate name....Lucifer is a moguled devil and will have you giggling like a naughty schoolgirl. The bumps were huge when i was there.
Mont Blanc from the top of the DMC
Flats from the top station
2. Tete des Verdes - a 6 man fast detachable chair whisks you out of forum to about 2/3 altitude and seemed to be where most beginners progressed to. It was always a good alternative to the DMC at busy times and i never waited for more than a minute in a queue here.
From the top you can go right and choose 3 or 4 ways back to resort by either fast cruisey blues or the bottom half of Faust, the nice fast/steep red. Go left and you take a short blue to the bottom of an old slow chair that will take you the rest of the way to the top DMC station.
My personal choice here was to choose neither left or right and opt for the off piste playground underneath the tete des verdes chair. Bumps, jumps, gullys and what was left of the powder was here and for an off piste newbie like me a solid piste was never to far away.
3. Bois draglift - This drag is steep and not for anyone that doesn't get on with them. The warning signs indicate a slope of 60% but it didn't give much trouble when i rode it. However it only takes you to the top of two or three short reds and blues and to the Jam Park so it wasn't that well used. The runs down were pretty enough, in the trees, and fun but didn't seem worth the ride.
4 Aup De Veran - anothr gondola from the bottom end of Forum. It looks to serve a nice area but was out of order for the full week i was there.
THE GRAND MASSIF
Access to the rest of the grand massif is all from Flaine Foret and the Grand Vans Chair. It is a lovely, fast 8 man affair and surprisingly i never queued once. Admittedly i was nearly always on it at 9am but even at the end of the day when visitors from the next valley were scrambling to return there was never more than a 1min wait.
From the top of this chair (2200m) you have two options, left or right.
Right goes back to resort on the death trap that is know as the "Tourmaline" piste. I say deathtrap because of the traffic, the piste is fine, very enjoyable but unfortunately it is a massive bottle neck as its the only way into Flaine from the other resorts. Towards the bottom it snakes a touch and it can be carnage.
Half way down Tourmaline you have a drag lift that gives access to a short fast red and a Moguled black. Both lead back onto tourmaline.
Go left and your off to towards the rest of the domain. Les Carroz, Samoens, Sixt and Morillon await. This whole area is a paradise for the intermediates and although there is only about 1000m of descent the runs seem to go on and on. And when you do find a village or lift it turns out to only be a mid station.
Within minutes of hitting this area you are in the trees, beautiful pines that looked simply stunning in the winter frosts.
The highlights for me were the wonderful time i had with my daughter on the loooong green run called "marvel", it twisted eternally through the trees, over bridges and past frozen streams and waterfalls. And the Velarge red run from Samoens down to Vercland which had the same tranquil feel but with a racy edge.
Looking down portet to Les Carroz
Stunning woodland
To be honest there is simply too much to write about, you need to dip your toe in sometime soon, Flaine and the Grand Massif was a big surprise and i would go back there in a heartbeat. Although next time i would look at Les Carroz or Morillon as a base.
Positives:
Huge area, Lovely tree lined runs, brilliant snow, no crowds.
Negatives:
Very limited & expensive apres, Flat spots that boarders will hate, Still a few slow lifts here and there. Split level resort makes walking around the shops and bars a pain.