Peisey-Vallandry - slopes
The skiing at Peisey-Vallandry is best suited to intermediates although there are good options for beginners and experts too. It’s also in an ideal location for exploring both Les Arcs and La Plagne since the mighty Vanoise Express cable car linking the two resorts is located in the heart of Plan Peisey.
Ski highlights for all levels
Beginners: Peisey-Vallandry is a wise choice of resort for beginners and young families – there’s a very good beginner area accessible from the Peisey high speed chair, and it’s quite high up on the mountain so the snow tends to stay in good condition, plus it has the advantage of offering great mountain views.
Once up here there are options of the Flocon drag lift which accesses a ‘beginner only’ area or the Cabri drag lift and the slow 2300 chair lift to take you back to the top of the gently angled, blue graded novice runs.
Intermediates: Once you’ve progressed to blues there are some lovely winding pistes which meander down from open higher level slopes before wending their way through woodland, the appropriately named Fôret being a good example, whilst the reds here are some of the best in Les Arcs; pistes such as Aigle and Ours are wide and have long, constant pitches which will bring a smile to the fact of any skier of intermediate level and above.
A lovely little adventure for strong intermediates and above is to head through the trees to skier’s left of the Combe draglift and visit the picturesque 17th century Chapelle Notre Dame des Vernettes perched above the Peisey-Nantcroix valley; you can carry on down to the valley to return via the free bus/Lonzagne lift, or traverse back through the woods to emerge by La Vache restaurant above Plan Peisey.
Experts and off-piste: Peisey-Vallandry has just one black run, Écureuils, which snakes all the way from the top of the Blanchot high speed chair at 2,280m to just above 1,600m in Plan Peisey, but after heavy use it can become a steep and challenging mogul field on its lower reaches – which is fine if you like moguls.
There’s another black, Bosses, located on the slopes between Vallandry and Arc 1800 and accessed from the Derby chair; this is not groomed, so you get what Nature chooses to give you as you bounce through the trees back down to Derby.
As for off-piste, there’s lots of fun to be had nipping through the trees which clothe the lower slopes, especially in snowy weather or bad light, whilst more adventurous riders may want to look at accessing Aiguille Grive or Aiguille Rousse from the top of the Col de la Chal (reached via the Transarc gondola from nearby Arc 1800), from where a variety of options are available which will take you back down to the resort or to the Peisey-Nantcroix valley from where a combination of free bus and the Lonzagne bucket lift from Peisey will bring you home (you can also use the bus to get back if you decide to ski the north face of the Bellecote, accessed via La Plagne).
Ski schools and guides
ESF ski school offers lessons in English and also has a base in Plan Peisey. The ski school meeting point is at the Vallandry chair lift, just in front of the Bistrot Savoyard.
A very useful skier app launched in 2015 called ‘Yuge’, which provides details on snow conditions, which lifts are open/closed, real time data on lift queues and plenty more useful skier info. Wifi terminals at ski lifts and elsewhere throughout Les Arcs allow you to stay updated as long as you have your phone set to roaming.
Lift system
The lift system is fast and efficient throughout the sector although queues can develop in busy periods, and it’s worth trying to avoid arriving at the Peisey chair at the same time as up to 200 passengers emerge from the Vanoise Express intent on also using it!
This chairlift provides the main access to the higher slopes from Plan Peisey, whilst the Grizzly and Vallandry chairs transport you to the slopes above Vallandry.
To access the rest of Les Arcs you can ski across to the Derby chair from the top of either Plan Peisey or Vallandry and from there to the Transarc gondola mid-station, or ski down to Arc 1800 from where the Transarc gondola or Vagere and Carreley chairs will allow you to access Arc 1600, Arc 1950 and Arc 2000. It’s worth bearing in mind that both the Derby and Transarc mid-station can develop some pretty long queues at busy periods such as half-term at certain periods of the day.
La Plagne is, of course, accessed from Plan Peisey via the Vanoise Express.
Snow reliability and snowmaking
A fantastic resort for snow, Peisey-Vallandry gets a lot of sun due to its west-facing aspect, which is great in mid-winter but can result in the snow suffering a little, late in the season on the lower slopes. That said, the trees of the lower slopes provide a certain amount of shade and the grooming is very good – and access to high-altitude slopes in Les Arcs is easy. There are decent snowmaking facilities on most of the main pistes to help keep things in good shape.
