Flaine: piste guide
Expert guide to Flaine
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The Grand Massif’s ski area is nicely varied and big enough to keep even the keenest intermediate happy for a week. For experts, there is plenty of excellent off-piste terrain to be explored with a guide.
For beginners, Flaine has two dedicated nursery areas served by four free lifts, including three magic carpets. After that there are a couple of short greens and a long gentle blue to move onto. There are beginner areas in the lower villages too, though in Samoëns you have to catch the gondola up to and down from it.
Above Flaine is a wide north-facing bowl, mostly above the treeline and tremendous in good weather as it reaches almost 2,500m and keeps its snow in great condition. It’s accessed by two gondolas and a fast chair which all leave from Flaine Forum – one of the resort's two main sectors. Nearly all the pistes here suit intermediates best – a few easy cruising blues, but mostly reds which deserve their grading mainly because of short steep sections.
There’s a lot of lovely looking off piste between the pistes here. But beware – the bowl is renowned for its deep rock crevasses and potholes, and deaths and injuries have occurred.
For safer steep runs, head off from the top to skier’s right into the next valley and the Gers bowl. This is served by a long draglift that has a seriously steep black run beside it and excellent off piste from the ridges on both sides.
One of the classic Alpine runs is accessed by staying high above the top of the Gers draglift on the Cascade blue run. This run is 14km long with a vertical drop of over 1,700m, takes you far away from the lift system and is skiable by even an early intermediate. It starts very flat and gets a little steeper as it winds its way picturesquely through the forest to the tiny village of Sixt. At the end is a shuttle bus back to civilisation and the gondola at Samoëns.
For a more direct route from Flaine to the slopes of Samoëns, Morillon and Les Carroz, take the Grands Vans eight-seater chairlift from Forêt and then another chair to Tête des Saix, from where you can access each of the other sectors. Apart from the top section, the runs here are all prettily tree-lined and good in a snowstorm when the Flaine bowl may be a white-out. Most pistes here are blues and reds, and excellent for intermediates. The long Marvel green run is great for families, with signs at frequent intervals telling you about the local wildlife.
There are no half-pipes or proper terrain parks in the Grand Massif. Instead there are various ‘fun’ areas mainly aimed at kids with bumps, banked turns and trees to negotiate.
