Thu, 12 April 2018
Vertical Climbed: 5,070 meters (16,635 feet)
Vertical Descended: 5,072 meters
The Espace Diamant is located between the Beaufortain mountain range and the Val d'Arly, facing Mont Blanc. It generally experiences good snow cover although climate change means that this can be marginal in the lower villages situated at 1000 meters altitude. The area links six village ski resorts: Praz su Arly, Flumet, Notre Dame de Bellecombe, Crest Volend Cohenoz, Hauteluce and les Saisies. Certainly charming but also a disadvantage as we’ll discuss.
The ski area has a claimed 192 km of ski runs sitting on the southern side of le Mont Blanc. That makes it one of the larger ski area. According to ski area expert Christoph Schrahe’s the figure is pretty accurate and puts it ahead of Les Sybelles which claims 310km but according to Schrahe only has 142km. This makes ED France’s 4th biggest ski area. You certainly get the feeling of space on the ground.
When I used to travel regularly between Chamonix and Moutiers I used to drive by some of the villages of the Espace Diamant before plunging into the Gorges d’Arly: Praz sur Arly, Flumet, ND de Bellecombe and Crest Voland.
But I’d never thought to stop and ski there. The southern part, les Saisies, Hauteluce, Bisanne, le Cernix and Crest-Voland, stay open until the end of April. Ideal for a cheeky bit of end of season skiing, especially as it is only 90km from home, most of it on an autoroute. The cherry on the cake is a four hour lift pass that costs “just” 30 euros.
We arrived at Crest at around 10h30, so that would let us take advantage of the hard morning snow, we’d follow the sun to ski the NE slopes above Hauteluce, then the SW slopes of Les Saisies and Bisanne before heading back to the West slopes of Crest in the afternoon. It was going to be a spring snow spectacular.
The slopes at Crest Voland (1230m), and indeed, everywhere, were pretty much empty despite the fantastic end of season conditions. If the stone age didn’t end due to lack of stones this year’s ski season certainly isn’t ending due to lack of snow but due to simple lack of skiers. We were like the last of the Mohicans out on the high plateaux of the Savoie.
So our plan was to take the Logere chair to Mont Lachat (it was the only lift running in CV at the time) then over into the les Saisies part of the area. Les Saisies history as a tourist area started back in 1936 when Austrian ski instructor Erwin Eckl pitched up in the area. Within a few months he was married to a local girl and started a hotel, the first in the area, with his new brother in law but it would have to wait until after the war for Eckl to install the first drag lift. In 1964 it was decided to link the local villages via ski lifts and this was the real start of the ski domain. The village center of the ski resort is both a strength: charming villages (well with the French touch of some fugly apartments here and there) both summer and winter living in harmony with the mountain but often poorly connected with disparate lift systems and pistes.
From Mont Lachat (1650m) we had something of a schlepp over to the Chard du Beurre (1889m) to la Legette (1865m). From here we skied down to the bottom of the Jorets chair (1450m) above Hauteluce but it was not possible to ski to Hauteluce itself because the Chozal lift was closed. The Lanches red piste is pleasant but we also found some nice spring, low angled, off piste to the left of the Frettes blue. It only got too soggy to ski below 1550m but remember these East facing slopes had seen the sun since dawn. There were some impressive quantities of snow on the roofs of the alpine chalets. Also in this sector is the Les Prés black, this isn’t pisted and the return is via a shuttle bus to les Saisies.
The wind from the N.E. was very tiring in this sector so we found shelter on the Legette and the Perdrix and and Cuberotte blacks. Blacks in name but not really in steepness. The Perdrix has a mini wall at the end but would qualify as a red in most resorts. The Cuberotte is more interesting, unpisted and moguled, some were the size of VW beetles at the end. Then to get over to les Saisies another weakness of the area, the long, slow Blanchotts green because you have to get to a point to cross the many roads that traverse the area via a ski bridge. [Note this has been fixed with a tunnel under the road and a restructuring of the Legette lift but you still need a rope tow to get to the bottom of the Carrets lift and the Legette doesn’t go to the top of the hill so when the Lanches piste is closed (as today 21 April 2023) you have a 30 meter climb to access the Hauteluce sector]
Les Saisies is better known for its cross country skiing. It hosted events for the 1992 Olympics. So building an Alpine ski area in what is essentially a flat plateau with a few small hills, is a bit of a contradiction. To get to the summit of Mont Bisanne (1940m) you take the fast but very long Bisanne chair and here you find another peculiarity of the area. Whereas most ski resorts build lifts to take you from the lowest part of the mountain, to the highest, in the most efficient way possible, l’espace Diamant has another vision. Certainly the chairs take you up – although often slowly, but they also transport you horizontally and sometimes downwards! The result is you can cover a lot of ground but often end up little higher than when you started. It is more like an urban transport system to link a number of geographically remote villages, than a ski area.
When we reached Mont Bisanne we discovered that the link to Bisanne, which was shown as closed on the resort website, was in fact open. The wind was also blowing again so we headed to shelter down another not particularly steep black, the Bouquetin (1500m). The Rosieres lift was another slow crawl back up the mountain but we eventually made it.
From here we’d been titillated by the Kamikaze piste. It looked direct on the map, this would be something special? It links down to the base of the Chamois chair (1700m) but it would surely breach the trades descriptions act. The boy noticed something about the resort at this point, a tendency to run 4 or 5 pistes down a single slope with a small strip of between the pistes. In this way they could double, or even quadruple dip to up the kms without really offering the punter much variety. To the left of the Kamikaze there was some off piste with a corniche and drop off but the wind had stopped it transforming and it was rutted and uncomfortable to ski. Without the wind it would have been quite interesting.
Time was running and we did the long march back to the Chard du Beurre (which has an excellent Leitner high speed chair) and the Sanglier red. This had a nice pitch of spring off piste snow above the D218b road which we skied twice.
Back to Mont Lachat, which has a very flat top, we skied down to Cernix via the Auges red. Not a bad run down through some alpages with little chalets on them. Then to end the day a few runs on the CV side. First down to the long Reys drag which was now open then the Varoche and Criee pistes.
Clearly the resort isn’t for us. That doesn’t mean it is a bad resort. On the contrary, for beginner to intermediate skiers who want a big ski area with not too challenging terrain, it would be fantastic. The links between villages that we found a bit long and boring could be part of a safari. For example, today we’ll ski over to that nice restaurant at le Magnier for lunch then head back in the afternoon. – that kind of thing. OK, I don’t actually know if there is a nice restaurant in le Magnier, apart from the main drag at Crest Voland and les Saisies everything was pretty much closed. To paraphrase Francois Cabrel
Quote:
“It’s the silence,
you notice most
The shutters closed,
The empty pistes
Where we eat our lunch
It must be skiing,
off season”
Even the time spent idling on chairlifts might be a relief for tired legs. You have a view on the south side of Mont Blanc to ponder as well as the mountains of the Savoie.
The off piste possibilities are interesting. Little valleys to one side or the other or the south face of Mont Bisanne (not without a risk of avalanches) but the lack of vertical leaves you hungry for longer adventures. The blacks are tame, there is no squeaky bum moment you might get exiting say “The Tunnel” at l’alpe d’Huez where you realize you are well beyond the point of no return and the only way is down, down, steeper and down.
Les Saisies on its own is clearly ideal for absolute beginners and low intermediates. All the runs lead back to the village so hard to get lost if you don’t stray into the rest of the Espace Diamant. La Bisanne and Hauteluce (Bellesta) are dead ends so you have to uplift back into les Saisies.
The Bellasta sector has a fast chair, plenty of off piste and a big bowl that faces le Mont Blanc. Praz sur Arly is better for vertical, given the base is a lowly 1000 meters, with tree lined skiing for bad weather days. The Véry sector offers a challenge for serious off-pisters but is not without avalanche risk.
There are plans to link into Megeve and les Contamines. It seems like les Contamines is the most serious, links were scheduled to open in 2023 but there is not much current information.
https://www.espacediamant.com/
Clearly gnarly off piste isn’t the strong point of les Saisies. Apart from what we’ve already mentioned there is an easy off piste from the summit of Bisanne. Take the Palette road (link to Crest-Voland), you can ski down crossing the cross country trails to the D71a road, cross this to reach the Covetan chair.
In the same sector you have some interesting runs to the left of the Kamikaze black. Be careful not to ski down too far to come back to the bottom of the chair at 1700m. There are cliffs lower down. In the same area but on the south side there are a lot of possibilities between the Planay bleu and Bouquetins black to ski to Bisanne 1500.
From the Chard du Beurre there are a number of itineraries under the Covetan chair. Watch out for small cliffs and where to cross the stream. Below the walking trail at 1760 meters the stream is in a small gorge. To the north east you can ski down to the road that goes to Notre Dame de Bellecombe at Plan Dernier via the Plan Chardon but you’ll need to get picked up from here.
There is a marked ski touring trail from the ski de fond area to the summit of Bisanne.
In the Praz sur Arly sector either side of the Ban Rouge black and the Rhodos offer some good introductory off piste without too much risk.
The Crêt du Midi requires about 5 minutes walk through the woods to climb to the right of the Cross of the Crêt du Midi from the Ban Rouge red. Afterwards an excellent north-east face - with a few rock bands to be aware of but you can checkout from the chair going up. There is also the couloir de la Pierre which doesn’t need a walk but is exposed to windslab.
When the conditions are risky higher up - wind or fresh snow you can ski the woods to the right of the Crêt du Midi chair. Simply ski to the right to arrive at the top of the Varins drag.
From the south-west of the Ban Rouge chair it is possible to descend down to the Plan Desert and the Notre Dame de Bellecombe sector but watch out for cliffs. The descent requires good local knowledge. To the north west the Corne off piste follows the stream bed of the same name to arrive at the cross country trails where you can skate to the Planey lift.
If you have skins the Very from Tete des Trois Coins offers a good introduction to off piste and ski touring.
Crest-Voland Cohennoz
Generally easy off piste, ideal when the avalanche bulletin is 3 or above or you judge conditions too dangerous in other areas. From the Reys there is a lot of between the pistes skiing on open pastures with little risk. On the other side of the sector there are more wooded trails under the Cernix chair with a bit more slope but without any real danger.
Notre Dame de Bellecombe
The most interesting area for good skiers with some steep and technical pistes. The fly in the ointment is currently the Reguet drag lift from the village at 1150 meters then a succession of old and new lifts to reach the top of the ski area. There is a car park at 1350 which avoids some of the misery involved in reaching the summit of the whole Espace Diamant at 2069 meters where you can ski into the Saisies sector.
The area bounded by the Plan Dessert and Vorés drags and the Lac and Plans de Fours chairs offers multiple routes. North facing steep slopes with open clearings, trees, cliffs (some big - take care following tracks), couloirs. A succession of short but exciting runs for experienced skiers.
The Mont rond sector is more approachable. A nice route is between the Gueux and Thuile blues to arrive at the top of the cross country area. Otherwise, closer to the runs head left from the top of the Boulangère lift towards the D218b road before traversing back to the lift.
Spring conditions but very windy on the summits - wind from the south.
