If the Haute Maurienne Vanoise encapsulates everything that we love about skiing in Europe, then Val Cenis is the centre of all things good. My second visit to the region in as many months proved to be as good a week of skiing we have had anywhere in the world.
We based ourselves here for a week in March (during French school holidays no less)! at the wonderful Les Alpages De Val Cenis Condo-hotel. Staying in a large self-contained apartment midway along the resort between the towns of Lanslebourg & Lanslevillard reminded us of a Canadian ski resort base. And if one is not in a gorgeous authentic French Alps village like nearby Bonneval sur Arc, that can only be a good thing. With Canada-like architecture, comfortable apartments, undercover parking, spa & pool area, restaurant, plus a nearby ski lift, bakery, bar & ski service/retail shop, the only thing to make it better was to be able to ski directly to the door at the end of the day. And so we could! Magnifique.
The best place to ski during winter storms in the Haute Maurienne, Val Cenis spans a wide part of the valley with north to south-westerly aspected slopes providing sub-alpine and forested freeride terrain that will suit all off-piste ski abilities. The 6-seater Arcellins chair serves a broad scope of mixed alpine, sub-alpine, forest & gullies, whilst avoiding the sometimes painfully long, flat journey all the way to the bottom of the resort. The highest lifts in the eastern sector of the resort [Met (2800m), Solert (2540m) & the old Plan Cardinal 2-seater all have similar alpine/sub-alpine off-piste providing lovely turns on a reasonably mellow pitch when the snow is fresh.
One area easy to overlook, but the best in the resort, is the Termignon sector. All but deserted during a storm, the area has fun piste trails & marvellous freeride terrain. An expansive area of sub-alpine forest can be accessed via the Sources chair & Grand Coin surface lift (teleski). Whilst one needs to know the entry & exit points, it was easy enough for us to do a great run in the zone below Sources chair the first time we tried, even though technically the area is protected and skiing off-piste there is prohibited – whoops! If the snow is deep, the ski under the Turra chair through the trees back to Lanslebourg can be awesome. Otherwise, swallow your pride & download on the Turra chair because the long, flatter than flat trail back into town is just not worth it. Different if heading into Termignon, where the Bois de Coqs piste cuts through the worst of the interminable zig-zags. The Alpen rock restaurant at Termignon’s mid-mountain Replat des Canons, whilst having some deficiencies, is an overall wonderful place to shelter from the storm & enjoy a meal.
For those lovers of groomers, Val Cenis has plenty to like, particularly for novices, beginners & intermediates. Lower tree-lined runs allow for comfortable turns during storms and the snow-covered summer road up to Mont Cenis provides the perfect learning slope for anyone new to sport, as well as a guaranteed easy exit for more adventurous folk like us, smashing through the gullies & trees above the road. Advanced on-piste trails at Val Cenis are light grey at best, so not particularly challenging. The gondolas & modern hooded chairs serving the lower mountain right along the valley make it easy for everyone to get up the hill in comfort.
There is a mass of backcountry at Val Cenis above the lifts & east of the Plan Cardinal chair that we simply did not get a look at. There were two reasons. One was the snow was so good & the resort off-piste so deserted that we simply did not need to go look. Two was we only skied Val Cenis during blizzards, so would not have been able to navigate beyond the resort boundaries even if we’d wanted to!
From our base at Val Cenis, aside from several days in the resort, we made day trips with our rental car to all the fantastic local mountains - Bonneval sur Arc, La Norma & Aussois. The skiing at each of the them was sublime. Powder every day & super-cheap lift passes on big skiable vertical mountains. To top it off, French school holiday crowds were not in evidence anywhere & coming back to our abode in Val Cenis was a pleasure. Val Cenis is indeed the centre of all things good. See you there next season. And the one after that. And the one after that ………… You get the idea.
You can see our thoughts on the pros and cons on the Val Cenis overview page and also see our European ski resort ratings regarding how we score it compared to other skiing areas.