We stayed in a chalet over in l'Altiport which is to the right hand side of the resort, but well served by ski buses (Lemon bus), a 15 minute walk up, and a series of green pistes which link off the main runs under the Marmottes I lift.
Fortunately for us, our chalet was right on the piste, literally 20 metres from the groomed green, which we of course skied/boarded to through the thick fresh snow. Our first day was a bluebird day, and I was on a pair of hired Rossi Bandit 80's as my skis only turned up that night.
First morning, we investigated the area to get a feel for the slopes. Marmottes is close to Les Bergers side of town, nearest the Altiport and the Club Med, and where you also take the Scare Chair (Alpauris) over to Signal de l'Homme and Auris. There are 2 main chairs that take you up the mountain here: Romains and Marmottes I. Romains dumps you off onto the greens which are lovely cruises back into town, and there are a lot of interlinking runs here. Many are used by ski schools, but we never found them overly busy.
Marmottes I takes you higher up where you can either take reds and blues back down or across to the top of the DMC first stage, which starts across the other side of town underneath Signal mountain.
This is taken from the Romains chair, looking across to L'Altiport:
and this is looking back down into ADH from the top of the same lift:
Signal mountain is where they hold the night skiing on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5.30pm, included on your lift pass. It looks wonderful lit up from a distance:
We skied over at Signal on the first day, down the very steep but massively wide reds which allow you to really open up and hit some speed, although the edges on my rental Bandits were not filling me with much confidence! Over the back of Signal, there are some nice blues and reds down into Villard Reculas at 1480m, where the snow was still superb, and masses of off piste opportunity as well. We passed on that on day 1 but went down to Villard Reculas and back on the TSD chair to the toip of Signal again.
If you ski off Signal, you come to the base station of the DMC gondola, which goes right up to Lac Blanc at 2700m in 2 stages. This is going up the first stage from town:
and looking back down from the mid station:
From the mid station, you can take the greens (which to me were more like blues with some speed easily made running down the perfectly groomed rolling pistes) back into town, or head off down the Poutran red piste and onto L'Omlet into Oz en Oissans. There is a gondola back up from Oz and also across to L'Alpette where you can reach up to Dome des Petites Rousses or down into Montfrais.
Our first day included heading up the 2nd section of the Marmottes lift to Clocher de Macle where we were faced with a series of black runs and a difficult mogulled red called Promontoire. These runs are most definitely not for the faint hearted, and beginners or timid intermediates should stay away. From here you can continue up the Marmottes 3 to the Glacier on Pic Blanc at over 3000m, or ski down on or off piste to the DMC mid station or back into ADH again.
The lifts are all in good working order, some are older gondola or bubble lifts, but only once did we queue and that was waiting for a cable car up from l'Alpette to Dome or from the top of the DMC for another cable car to Pic Blanc, and that was only for 1 car to come down. Everywhere else it was straight onto lifts and no waiting at all -absolute bliss.
On Wednesday, we awoke to over 40cm of fresh snow in the morning; what a day to try out my new skis which had finally been delivered to the chalet:
It snowed all day, and visability was not great, but we had massive amounts of fun. The fresh snow quickly piled up:
For some of our group, it was the first time they had seen, let alone skied in fresh powder, including our very own Stewart Dowling. This photo was taken as we left the chalet at 8.45am that morning, and the grin on his face was twice as wide as we returned at 4.45pm that afternoon. For someone with only limited skiing experience, Stewart had an absolute ball that day:
4 of us took off and had a play on and off piste in the fantastic soft fluffy powder that continued to fall all day. One of the boarders in our group found it hard going and got stuck a few times:
The day finished as all of the others did, with a ski back down the green run to the front door of our chalet, where he had a few beers in the hot tub, and a sauna before dinner. A great way to relax and also keep the costs down.
2 of the other guests in our chalet, a father and son who were really good company, joined us for a day on Thursday. We were also joined by their friend who had come up for 4 days on his own and was stopping at another hotel in town, so with those 3, myslef and Mrs H, and the 2 lads in our group who were boarders, 7 of us headed over to Signal de l'Homme on the famous Scare Chair. Stewart politely declined....
This was not at all scary despite what some people had said, although it was certainly steeper than most chair lifts. It did offer some spectacular views across the valley however:
Over on "The Dark Side", you are faced with a long chair up to Signal de l'Homme. The red runs down the front here are very steep, and in flat light we were more careful not to let oursevles run away, but the Fontfroide piste offers some high speed skiing if you are prepared to let yourself go. This is me at the top before a fast run down:
Over the back, you can ski round to Auris, and the Escapade red run was not pisted so we were knee deep in powder once again, and finding out who was fit and who wasnt. We skied the nice blues in Auris and headed back over to ADH for lunch.
There is a nice outdoor cafe at Chez Leo in the Marmottes centre just out the back down the steps, reasonably priced and massive portions. A pint was 5,20 euros in there, I have paid a lot more in other places.
However, over at Beau Soleil at the base of the DMC there is a really good and well priced restaurant: spag bol at 6 euros and they give out free water too. Its a perfect place to break the day up, and that afternoon we headed up the DMC and skied down Poutran and L'Omlet into Oz en Oisans 1350, although the snow down here was not quite of the same quality. 2 great runs to open up and hammer down if its quiet like it was when we were there.
Friday morning came and we awoke to sunshine on top of another snowfall overnight.
This was just the most perfect days skiing I think I have ever had. Blue skies, no wind at all, sun shining, cloud down in the valley beneath us, and on top of perfectly groomed pistes, a further 15cm of snow. Heaven:
We headed up the DMC and down the lovely long red Rousses run into L'Alpette:
From here you can take the Alpette cable car right down into Vaujany or up to Dome at 2800m, but we chose to ski down the gorgeous Chalets blue run all the way into Montfrais at 1650m:
These runs were blissfully quiet and in wonderful condition, and skiing among the trees just added to the beauty of it all. We found a fabulous restaurant at L'Alpette called La Grange - quite pricey but superb food. 13 euros for a massive pizza which fed 2 and was quite simply the best pizza I have ever tasted. It was wonderful to sit outside and eat in the sun as well.
The morning had gone so well, apart from one of the guys having quite a bad fall and hurting his knee, and after lunch we took the big Alpette cable car up to Dome:
From here there are 2 choices: the Belvedere red run with a flat section or the Dome red unpisted run - we chose the latter and had a right laugh in the deep fresh snow that fell the day before:
The Dome run also has a flat section after this, and we decided to head down off piste to pick up the Lac Blanc chair which collects people from the bottom of the Tunnel run. The lake was covered in snow and made for a great scene:
At this stage, the group split into 3 groups. The 2 boarders headed back into ADH along with 2 of the guys including the one who had hurt his knee, whilst myself, Mrs H and one other took the Pic Blanc cable car to the highest point at the top of Pic Blanc, from where there are stunning views across a large portion of France.
It was windy up here, the first time we had felt it all week, and it was time to hit La Sarenne, the famous longest black in Europe. We had heard all sorts of different stories about it, some saying it was deadly, others it was never a black apart from in places, so we headed off.
The first section was tricky with a steep and narrow entrance, and then a moguled section which was nasty as the wind had blown snow off, and then it was either a long track or head through the deep stuff off piste. Mrs H took the track, Paul and I went the more challenging way down.
La Sarenne is certainly long. It works its way down the back of Pic Blanc into the Gorge de Sarenne. After the first taxing section, there is a long easy part, but every so often it throws something at you, like a short steep section which needs concentration, and it keeps you on your toes. Is it a black? Certainly not all the way down, and the botto section once you drop into the trees is a long easy schuss which the very few boarders we saw on here struggled to keep speed on.
As we hit the bottom part, we went under the low cloud which gave us a chance to cool down, as the air temp had risen above 0c be now and it had been a long and hard but thoroughly enjoyable day.
The run allows you to either take the Chalvet chair up to a red which goes back into ADH, which sadly was closed, another chair back up to Signal de l'Homme, or alternatively head down to the mid point of the scare chair where you can hop on and head back up to ADH.
As we landed back in ADH, it was a perfect sunny afternoon and time for a beer to think about the Sarenne run. Stewart and his Mrs joined us, and Stewart and I headed up the Romains chair for one last run together. He was absolutely buzzing.
The following morning, the sun was up but bad weather was on the way in. I took a half day on the slopes whilst everyone else packed, and had one more last run over to Montfrais which I found was the best area in my opinions, quiet and beautiful with a good choice of varied runs, and a fantastic hot chocolate down at the cafe there. Visibility soon changed as the cloud came in, and at 12.30 I called it a day, took one last look from the top of the Plat des Marmottes, and skied back into the chalet, unclipped my bindings, packed my stuff, and headed by minibus down to Grenoble to return home.
ADH can class itself in the big league when it comes to the amount of skiing on offer. When conditions are as good as we had, this is exteneded massively with off piste opportunities.
Our chalet was in a perfect position to ski in and out, and I will now find anything which involves a walk or bus ride to be a pain in the backside so I would recommend chalets in the Altiport area for sure.
Eating and drinking - well we only did that at lunchtime and Chez Leo in Marmottes is good and comes in massive portions, whilst Beau Soleil by the DMC offers good food at good prices. Up the mountain, La Grange is worth one vist for sure. I am told the duck malgrat at 19 euros was exceptional.
Favourite runs: the greens under the Marmottes and Romains chairs are great for skiers or boarders of any level, Poutran and L'Omlet into Oz are long steep cruises, Chalets down from Alpette into Montfrais was my favourite and offered the best scenery, whilst the reds and blacks up at Clocher de Macle offer a challenge to good skiers.
The Sarenne is worth doing if only for the sake of saying you have done it. Its not a great run by any means, just very tiring. And some of the runs over on Auris at Signal de l'Homme are good fun too, especially after fresh snow.
Off piste, just look around and try what you see. It was all good fun.
Escapade at Auris and Dome were probably the best unpisted runs we found.
Would I return? Absolutely. I only had 4 out of the 6 days we should have had, so feel I missed out on that. We still managed to ski a hell of a lot of the 250km on offer, and we were really lucky with the weather - 2 bluebird days and tons of fresh snow to boot.
However, there are other places I want to ski, so ADH might possibly get a short Easter visit from me if I can sort something out this season.
Oh, and one final word regarding my new skis, Scott Neo's. They were absolutely fantastic. I skied with more confidence than ever, and they were great in the powder as well as one the piste. A perfect weight, quite heavy and reasonably stiff too, but easy to handle and great to carve when the piste opened up sifficiently to allow me to ping them round corners on their edges. Thoroughly recommended.
