St Gervais and surrounds - trip report 8-13 March

Hi all. Here's my report – I'm a regular lurker on J2ski although I hardly ever comment as I don't have that much to say. Maybe this report makes up for it…

Pierre and his 2 mates get together in March of most years to enjoy a week on the slopes in the Mont Blanc area. They are experienced skiers who are comfortable on pretty much any terrain.
I had 5 weeks snowboarding experience (Espace Killy, Three Valleys and Snowmass/Aspen), comfortable on most terrain but prefer to avoid icy steeps, bumps and drag-lifts.
After assurance from Pierre that I would not be out of my depth with him and his mates, and some sweet words with the missus, I accepted the invitation with some trepidation.
Getting there:
Air France from Cape Town to Paris, connecting for the 50 minute flight to Geneva. Pierre picked me up on the Swiss side, and from there it was an easy 1h15 minute drive to our apartment in St Gervais. The 2 mates made their own way there, driving from their homes in northern France and Germany respectively.
Accommodation:
Self-catering apartment 3 minute walk from the centre of town. Private rental arranged directly with the owner, 360 Euro for the week – in true French style it is furnished to sleep 7, but really only big enough to accommodate 4 people.
St Gervais is quite a change from the typical French resort towns I had previously experienced. It does have ski holiday feel to it but clearly has a substantial permanent population. There was hardly any snow at village level, the snow cover was patchy at best until one got higher up towards Le Bettex.

Sunday: St Gervais
We drove the 2km down to the St Gervais Bettex lift (there is a regular free bus service but we were chomping at the bit).
We initially planned on heading up to the St Nicolas area but quickly found that the shady pistes were rock-hard. We decided to follow the sun and enjoyed a productive day gobbling up mileage all around the Mt Arbois area. We stuck to the pistes as we found our snow legs. The pistes were nicely groomed and the slopes were not busy for a Sunday. Generally the pistes are not very challenging but lots of fun. A good variety of tree-lined cruising, perfect for a first day and more than enough to keep one occupied for several days. My GPS watch recorded that we covered 70km (slopes and lifts) for the day. The snow held up very well considering it was a warm bluebird day, it only started getting a bit slushy on the lowest runs towards the end of the day.
The lift system is quite good although there are a number of slower chair lifts, and there is a nice sense of travel, I would imagine even more so if one were to make the hop across to Megeve.
We ended the day with a beer at Bettex, followed by a couple of beers on the apartment balcony and a quiet night in. This sequence of events in fact set the tone for the rest of the week.

Monday: Les Contamines
We decided beforehand that we would buy lift passes on a day-to-day basis, giving us the flexibility to choose our destination, dependent on the weather, slope conditions and our mood. Les Contamines is included in the Evasion Mont Blanc pass, which is the pass that covers the whole area including St Gervais and Megeve.
We drove the 15 minutes up the road to Les Contamines and parked at the Gorge telecabine. The pistes were quiet, the snow nice and grippy on a fairly hard base. Most of the skiing is above the tree line and there is acres of off-piste accessible from the lifts. Due to the lack of fresh snow the off-piste snow was quite solid so we stuck to the pistes for the first while. The mountain has a feeling of wide open spaces and big mountain views; what is better than this on another bluebird day? After a few warm-up runs we covered some steepish bumpy off-piste terrain in preparation of what lay ahead on Tuesday. As the snow softening just a tad, I was getting fairly comfortable in those conditions.
Due to a navigation error we ended up on the Grevettaz black run late-morning – bad news for 2 reasons from my point of view. Firstly, it was an unpisted soft mogul field end to end, with a few bare patches where the soft snow has been scraped down. No fun on a snowboard. Secondly, the only way out of that part of the mountain is the Grevettaz drag-lift – one of those lifts marked with a yellow triangle on the piste map and a "Teleski difficile" sign when you get to the lift (why couldn't they put the sign at the top of the run??). I had no option but to overcome my mental block relating to drag-lifts. After a false start I made it about 200m up, to where the lift crosses a piste. The change in camber threw me off me feet and I decided to walk the rest of the way up. After a 15 minute walk and 3 false summits (with no end in sight) my friends appeared on the piste that runs parallel. I was persuaded to try the lift again, so we skied to the bottom. I got back on the horse and this time held on until about 150m from the end – sadly the last 150m was the pitch where the gradient was over 50 degrees.
I walked to the top and, well and truly knackered, we made our way to La Grange restaurant for sausage and chips - 7.90 Euro.

After lunch we made our way up to the Aiguille Croche lift. More magnificent views. There is a tricky traverse about 150m to skier's left from the top of the lift which takes one to a spot where you can peek over the top of the ridge down the valley to Megeve. We spent the rest of the afternoon in that area. We skied all the way back to where the cars were parked, but the pistes below Etape (1470m) were quite soft, and distinctly porridge near the bottom – downloading would have been a decent option after an awesome day's skiing. We covered 60km first lift to last run.

Tuesday: Vallee Blance
I was a bit apprehensive as to whether I was experienced enough to do the VB, added to the fact that I had read that it is not ideal for snowboarding. We met with our guide, Martin, on Monday evening and after a chat about my experience and ability he was satisfied that we can go ahead as planned.
Vallee Blance ought to be on the bucket list of any competent skier who wants a high-mountain experience of a lifetime.
The Aiguille du Midi 2-stage cable car takes you up to 3842m, in the shadows of the peaks around Mont Blanc. The views from the top are breathtaking and heart-stopping. For the uninitiated, the excursion begins with the guide roping everyone's harnesses and walking us along the ridge… The ridge is about 100m long, 1m wide and a sheer drop off each way; the only thing between you and oblivion is a rope barrier that is strung along the one edge of the ridge. It was quite a rush and downright scary, to be honest.
Once the ridge is negotiated and skis/boards are donned, the actual route back to Chamonix is about 20km long and is along a glacier. It starts off fairly steep, followed by long traverses to ensure that you don't immediately drop to the bottom of the creviced valley. The glacier forms a wild mass of cascading natural ice sculptures before it eventually opens up into the Mer del Glace - a flatter glacial area flanked by the glacier walls.
Inevitably one must negotiate a narrow gully at some point to make it across the glacier to the Mer del Glace. The narrows were very mogulled and for everyone other than very experienced skiers that section turned out to be a test in thigh burn endurance. The flatter areas have a track about 4m wide where it is crevice-free and safe to ski. The last section consists of windy lines around rocky outcrops, where one finally has the option to hike up to the Montevers telecabine and take the tram to Chamonix, or ski further down the valley all the way to Chamonix. Our guide chose the latter but we found the snow cover got too thin further down and we ended up having to do a 20 minute hike out and then ski down to Chamonix along a jeep track with soggy patchy snow.
The snow at the top half of the excursion was of the hard, frozen variety which made the steeps tough going. The tracks along the flatter sections were quite grooved, which made it easy to catch a leading edge on a snowboard. Ask me, I did that twice and went flying.
The cost was 150 euro per person, which included the lift pass, (50 euro) and the guide, Martin, who provided the harnesses, rope, transceivers and laugh-a-minute commentary. For an experience of a lifetime it is well worth it at the price. I would however echo the view of many others that the long traverses and flat grooved tracks mean it is not ideal for snowboarders

Wednesday: Les Houches
Another bluebird day. Les Houches is a small village near Chamonix and is included in the Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass. It has 17 lifts and 24 pistes, almost all amongst the trees. Most of the runs are cruisey reds and blues. The famous Kandahar world cup black lived up to its reputation and is worth several visits. On the lower sun-drenched areas the snow got slushy in the late afternoon, but generally the snow was good and the pistes were in great condition.
There is a timed slalom run open to anyone, we had good fun doing a few runs down the course before better sense prevailed and we stopped before someone's ego caused them serious injury.
Sausage, chips and a Pepsi at the Prarion Hotel (spectacular views) was about 13 euro.
Part of the charm of Les Houches is its accessibility from the Tramway du Mont Blanc. The tram line starts in Le Fayet down the road from St Gervais and, in winter it runs all the way to Bellevue (1800m) above Les Houches. From the tram stations one has direct access to the pistes. We took the return trip from St Gervais, the cost is a few euro add-on to the lift pass.

Thursday: Agentiere
Would you believe, the 5th bluebird day in a row. For the first time there is a bit of a breeze, which kept the air temperate pretty fresh. We drove the 30km to Agentiere, main mission being to do the black runs off the Grands Motets lift. Argentiere is a steep mountain known as an off-pister's heaven. The area is included in the Chamonix 'Le Pass', except if you want to go up the Grands Montets lift, in which case you need the Mont Blanc Unlimited pass (10 euros extra). The pistes are generally either steep and fairly wide, or a more gentle but narrow traverse around the hills. The pistes were beautifully groomed, the snow base was solid/hard with a wonderful grippy layer on top. Every square meter of off-piste between the pistes was well and truly tracked out and quite bumpy. The area was by far the busiest we experienced the whole week but, even so, we did not wait longer than 3 minutes to get on a lift.
The Grand Montets cable car was initially closed due to high winds, but we were quite happy to cover the available ground. At 12h15 the Grand Montets lift opened and we took the first one up. Just as well, as queues soon formed and a 30 minute wait was in the offing for people who went up later.
From 3300m the views of Mont Blanc and surrounds are as good as it gets. We took the Point de Vue run down; it is classified as 'high mountain glacial terrain' so it is dangerous to venture outside of the marked (but ungroomed) area. The marked area is however several hundred meters wide, so you do get a true high mountain feeling. This one run alone made the day in Agentiere an unforgettable day.

Friday: Megeve
Although one can ski from St Gervais to Megeve, we chose to drive around to the furthest end of Megeve called Cote 2000. Once again the theme of the week prevailed: quiet, well-groomed pistes under blue skies.
Megeve offers a large ski area in itself but we stuck to the area around Cote 2000. The lifts on this part of the mountain offer some limitations – the only way to access Cote 2000 from the rest of Megeve ski area is via one of 2 'teleski difficile' drag-lifts. It is also the only place where we ended up having to wait longer than 3 minutes to get onto a lift. I overcame my demons and mastered both lifts flying colours.
An added bonus was that a World Cup Ski-Cross and Moguls event was being hosted there, so there was plenty of atmosphere around the place. We reserved a table at the Auberge Cote 2000 for lunch, from where we had a perfect view of the pro's showing us how it's done down the competition courses. Delicious steak was 25 euro. The good lunch and waning energy levels meant that we were happy to do the same runs we did in the morning.


St Gervais is a perfect base to enjoy the Mont Blanc area – whether one sticks to the Evasion Mont Blanc area or whether one ventures across to the Chamonix area. For those who prefer ski-in/ski-out, there are plenty such options around in Bettex, Megeve, Les Contamines and Les Houches. For me this holiday ticked all the boxes.

Thanks Dan-o, I really enjoyed reading that! :)

Well done for learning how to manage on the difficult drag lifts with your snow board.

It sounds as though having a car to drive around to different ski/snowboard areas came in very handy!

Great write-up; thanks for posting that.

Took me right back; used to live not far from there about 25 years ago and Les Contamines and St.Gervais were regular weekend adventures. Doesn't sound like it's changed too much at all - which is a good thing! 8)

Always nice to encounter a "teleski difficile"; you just know that if the locals have gone to the trouble of putting a drag lift up some ridiculously steep/rocky slope, then there's something worthwhile at the top of it! :lol:

Nice report. Mate of mine went there 2 years ago, loved the place. Might have to check it out.

Been to St Gervais many times and I love it there. You can get great self catering accommodation and there is also a brilliant ski school in the form of BASS Megeve.