Hi,

Can someone explain what ‘rights’ I have to ski off-piste in France? Most alpine landowners seem to be relaxed about fences and skiers in winter, but having met a very irate local when exploring round Megeve/Cote2000 I’d like a clearer idea of where I stand legally.

Obviously we try to be friendly and not cause damage and we won’t be going back there again.

I don’t want to be snowboarding with a lawyer in my backpack, but on the other hand I don’t like to be intimidated. In this instance Mr Angry wanted us to hike back up the meadow we’d just ski’d down, rather than follow the cart track we were then on, to the road. We declined and a long argument in broken FrAnglais ensued.

Chris

My understanding is that if there is snow on the ground then it can be skied - it is quite usual for people to ski through the gardens here in Le Couteray descending from Mont Buet and Loriaz - I wonder if this is just local custom in the Chamonix valley and if it has any legal standing?

My understanding is that you can broadly go where you want on snow covered ground but that there are some restrictions and caveats. A notable one is that while you might be able to travel through a meadow but you can’t just just wander about in someone’s garden in the middle of town, legalities aside it’s clearly not reasonable behaviour either.

Other restrictions include some agricultural use, military use, forestry use, industrial use (for example mining), local avalanche safety restrictions (i.e. you can’t fanny about in the release zone above a village) and the list goes on.

Over and above that, people can’t just go where they please without consequence, we’ve come to understand that we can disturb local animals to an extent that their survival is threatened so in those areas it’s best practice to follow established routes and try to minimise our impact. In some parts of Europe this has teeth and you can be landed with a fine for straying into some protected areas.

I don’t know if that makes it sounds onerous but another way of looking at it is that you can go where you want as long as you’re reasonable about it

I recall skiing through a number of gardens one year whilst returning to the base station in Chamonix many years ago. I did wonder what the legalities were when one resident make his disapproval clear. We were sorry and would have happily never have taken that route again (single days skiing - we were not sure of the route back), but faced with the decision of turning back and hiking up 250 meters, or continuing harmlessly on the final 50m to our destination (car park) we chose to continue and leave one very unhappy camper who spoke no English, and (at the time) us no more than resort French ("vin chaud").

Being reasonable is one thing when you speak the local lingo, as at least then you might get an idea of why the chap took offence in your case. What’s the French for “They are blasting dynamite down there, if I were you I’d hike back up the meadow”?

you can see a property owner’s point of view of course, speaking as an owner of a chalet in a ski station I can sympathise with wanting to keep people off your ground, you’ve got plants and, for us, some small trees under the snow which can get trampled and destroyed, you might have your car parked on the drive and so on.

We had one notable nightmare with some Germans staying in a property behind us one year, having spoken to them in three languages, four if you count “strong” as a separate one, the kids still wouldn’t stay out of the garden. I’ve lost track but the final bill for repairs to one of the cars and the fence ran into thousands (I kid you not), the fact I managed to get most of it back from them didn’t make me much happier!

Thanks guys. “you can go where you want (on snow) as long as you’re reasonable about it” is just about what I thought when I posted this question. I was hoping for some concrete legal advice, but I guess this will have to do for now

Chris