Sat, 28 December 2024
Vertical Climbed: 9,005 meters (29,545 feet)
Vertical Descended: 9,065 meters
Valmorel is a ski resort in the Tarentaise Valley, located in the communes of Les Avanchers-Valmorel and La Léchère, in the Savoie department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in France. The resort was inaugurated in 1976 and is connected to the Maurienne station of Saint-François-Longchamp, together forming "Le Grand Domaine."
Valmorel is situated at an altitude of 1,320 meters in the Vanoise region of the French Alpes. There is a connection to Saint-François-Longchamp in Maurienne via the Col de la Madeleine, as well as with the Doucy-Combelouvière. Valmorel is considered to be a "fourth-generation" resort, built after the major developments of the 1960s with the aim of better integrating with the environment. The architecture is inspired by traditional Savoyard chalets: buildings of 3 to 4 stories constructed with wood and slate roofs.
Access is from Albertville on the N90 national road, taking exit 37 to La Léchère/Doucy Tarentaise/Valmorel exit. The resort name is derived from the Morel Valley, named after the Morel River, a tributary of the Isère.
History
In 1974, the communes of Aigueblanche and La Léchère formed the District of the Aigueblanche Basin to combat rural exodus by creating a winter sports resort. The station of Valmorel was established in 1976, designed by architect-urbanist Michel Bezançon as a "station-village" with architecture inspired by traditional mountain villages. In 1988, the resort became part of the newly formed commune of Les Avanchers-Valmorel. In 2011, a new generation Club Med establishment was inaugurated in Valmorel, featuring eco-friendly certifications and private chalet sales.
Valmorel offers 165 km of alpine ski slopes as well as some cross-country ski trails, situated between 1,270 m and 2,550 m in altitude. The resort is equipped with 31 ski lifts, including drag lifts, chairlifts, gondolas
Valmorel offers activities such as snowboarding, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowscoot, sledding, Nordic walking, snowshoeing, and dog sledding. Unofficial cross-country ski routes are accessible around the resort, and the nearby Nâves station offers several trails for enthusiasts.
Off Piste Routes
The Combe de la Rave
From the top of the Lauzière chair ski down towards the village of Celliers via the Col de la Madeleine road (closed in winter). There are a few cliffs which you can avoid with care return via Roset chair.
Les Pelèves
From the TK du Riondet. Unpisted itineary down to the Roset chair.
L'Orgentil
A magnificent descent, fairly gentle in terms of gradient, in the direction of St Jean de Belleville. You'll need a taxi to return to resort, or fit skins.
Ski Touring
Trip Report
We'd seen that Valmorel St Francois Longchamp has cheap tickets at the weekend. Our preference was for SFL rather than getting stuck in the Vanoise transfer day jams but it was impossible to book a Grand Domain lift pass through the St Francois site so Valmorel it was. We decided to start at Doucy which was a bit more accessible for us and lower down. There is not much car parking in Doucy but it is free.
A characteristic of these Savoyard resorts is that you always seem to do a lot of lifts before skiing. This is partly down to the face that Doucy is a bit out on a limb located on a long, shallow ridge and partly that we wanted to ski St Francois Longchamp in the morning before returning to the Valmorel side. It took 5 lifts to reach the Madeleine some 750 vertical meters higher. Once into SLF we skied the SW facing slopes as far as the Marquis lift, we didn't go as far as les Clochettes as it didn't add much. You've got 350 vertical meters from the col to the resort but the Soleil Rouge chair will take you to 2270 meters. The lifts are a mix of drags, slow chairs and some faster lifts, in particular the Frene, Molleret and Marquis give good value for money. Pistes are largely blues except for l'Aigle black, which is more red than black to be honest.
On the other side of the bowl is the Lauziere lift, a long slow chair that was taken out by a spring snow slide a few years ago. It creaks up towards the Grand Pic de la Lauziere with a challenging red and a black piste (actually marked red on the terrain but steep). You can rejoin the Frene chair via the Madeleine col road - open to cars and the Tour de France in the summer.
Valmorel's slopes don't start at the col, there is the Celliers valley between the two domains and sometimes the links are closed. You can't ski back to Celliers but this little satellite village does link into Valmorel via a gondala lift. Back over in Valmorel we took the lifts up to the Col du Mottet at 2403 meters then a small drag to the Col du Gollet at 1981 meters which gives access to the Goulet black - non pisted with quite a bit of vegetation pushing through. There is an interesting Club Med complex on the pistes, similar to the Arcs 1950 development. Finally it was getting dark and we took the long and shallow run back to Doucy. This piste doesn't have snow canons and must suffer in poor snow years.
Pleasantly warm. Some stones especially on the Valmorel side of the domain. Hard man made snow in places. About 30cm of dense snow on the pistes.
