Les Fermes de St. Sorlin

...Sorlin is part of the Les Sybelles ski circuit, situated in the Maurienne Valley. Les Sybelles offers 310 km of linked piste and St Sorlin has 120km and the highest point at 2620m. The whole Les Sybelles area is relatively undiscovered by the British market, and very quiet, we went the first week of Jan 2008 and never once queued for a lift. In fact at certain times we were the only ones on the piste!

The main resorts to stay in are ...
...and nightlife.

Les Sybelles ski circuit

2007/2008 price for a 6 day lift pass - 169 euros covering 310km piste.
Lift tickets the hands free electronic variety.
We actually spent most days in the St Sorlin area as it had the best snow and really good off piste, and you can travel quite a way on the St Sorlin lift ticket (28 euros per day) If you leave the St Sorlin area you will have no option but to do ... more

St Sorlin d'Arves

St Sorlin is part of the Les Sybelles ski circuit, situated in the Maurienne Valley. Les Sybelles offers 310 km of linked piste and St Sorlin has 120km and the highest point at 2620m. The whole Les Sybelles area is relatively undiscovered by the British market, and very quiet, we went the first week of Jan 2008 and never once queued for a lift. In fact at certain times we were the only ones on the piste!

The main resorts to stay in are Le Corbier, La Toussuire and St Sorlin, although there are a handful of other smaller villages. St Sorlin is by far the prettiest village with traditional buildings, ramshackle old farms and a 17th century baroque church. Very quaint, but also fairly quiet with not a lot of apres ski. Le Corbier and La Toussuire are pretty ugly resorts with high rise buildings but seem to have more in the way of shops and nightlife.

Les Sybelles ski circuit

2007/2008 price for a 6 day lift pass - 169 euros covering 310km piste.
Lift tickets the hands free electronic variety.
We actually spent most days in the St Sorlin area as it had the best snow and really good off piste, and you can travel quite a way on the St Sorlin lift ticket (28 euros per day) If you leave the St Sorlin area you will have no option but to do a drag lift. Being snowboarders they are not our favourite but we both coped easily and never once fell off, even on the long one back from Le Corbier. From the base of St Sorlin it's just 2 fast chairs up to the highest point - Les Perrons. From here you have 3 options to get back down into resort - a blue but you have to scoot as it's very flat at the top, an un-pisted red called Tufs which was fab, or the free ride route which is good off piste. The red joins up with the blue to take you all the way down and it's a real leg burner, it doesn't seem steep at first but it's progressive so you pick up a lot of speed very quickly.
From the top of St Sorlin you also have access to the Les Sybelles circuit, by either a long boring blue or the off piste route.
La Toussuire is a resort set in a bowl with lots of chairs from the base in all directions. At the bottom is a row of restaurants overlooking the piste. Le Corbier resort is a similar layout, although I don't think a bowl (I say don't think as the day we went there it was snowing hard with not much visibility)

Snow conditions

We were so lucky, and I am well aware that the snow conditions can make or break a holiday - would St Sorlin be the same without so much snow? Maybe not as what really made it for us was the fresh powder and the mostly untouched off piste. It was snowing when we got there and most of Sun, we had bright blue skies on Mon, and the week followed a similar pattern - a day of snow with no visibility followed by a day of sunshine. We had one day of high winds and the upper lifts were closed, so of course we had to venture as high as possible to see just how windy it was. Yes, very windy it almost blew me over on the drag lift a few times.We woke up on our last morning to at least a foot of fresh, so we quickly unpacked our boards and had a fantastic last day! Considering it was a Saturday it was the quietest day on the slopes with just a handful of people out. So all day long we made fresh tracks in the powder. At the top it was over knee high and really hard work getting up when you come a cropper!

Accommodation

We stayed at Les Fermes de St Sorlin, a self catering complex right at the top of the resort. We booked in the UK and got a total bargain, they had an offer on the first week of Jan so we paid £142 for the apartment for the week. The apartment was lovely, nicely decorated, well equipped and spacious.. There is a nice swimming pool with sauna and jacuzzi on site, but when we went it was very busy, making it difficult to swim. The lift ticket office is opposite, access to the piste is just a couple of minutes walk and you can ski back to the door. On the complex is a small supermarket, bread shop, restaurant and bar. We had a good set menu meal in the restaurant, 3 courses with wine came to approx 50 euros. The bar is VERY lively as most of the clientelle here are Dutch.So it is loud music and non stop party party. We found a quieter bar at the hotel opposite. The main town centre is a short drive away - this is where a car comes in handy, although the ski bus runs until 7.30. Here you will find a handful of restaurants and bars (of the more quieter nature I might add!) I can highly recommend the Avalanche, a bar below and restaurant above, we had a lovely meal here. They have occassional live music in the bar.

So, my advice is - go before it gets popular. And expensive. (The average price for a beer/pastis was 2.5 - 3 euros) With lots of snow it's an excellent choice, especially if you're a snowboarder who likes off piste. We called it OUR mountain as quite often we were the only ones off piste (and sometimes the only ones on piste too) You can tell a lot of money has been put into linking the resorts and building new facilities, a couple of the mountain restaurants seemed brand new. At the moment it's half French and half Dutch who go with just a handful of British, but I am sure over the years that will change and it's only a matter of time before a british operator opens a chalet/clubhotel here. (Rocket ski already have one in Le Corbier)

note - when I say off piste I do not mean the pack a shovel on your back and go hiking to find it type of off piste, I must admit I do play it safe and stick mostly to the designated free ride areas, or the areas between 2 pistes etc. This I learnt from experience

for more ski resort reviews see www.franceandbeyond.co.uk 

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