"I’m really impressed; the runs go on for ever, there are ski lifts everywhere. It’s a skier’s dream," sums up the American Salomon freerider Reggie Christ after spending a day in the 3 Valleys ski area for the X-Wing Rally. He was left literally speechless by the variety and size of the ski area. "We don’t have this in the States."
This French speciality (also present to a lesser extent in Italy and Switzerland) started in 1972 in the Espace Killy and in 1973 in the 3 Valleys, the first ski areas to be linked with a single ski pass. These linked domains came into being for a number of reasons. Firstly, the advantageous geographical layout that made it easy to create the connections between the ski areas, and secondly the very different history of ski resorts in France, the biggest of which were built in the middle of the mountains on sites where there were previously no villages and which were chosen solely for their ’benefit to the skier’.
The newest linked ski areas to be created in recent years are Paradiski and Les Sybelles. The former is the combination of Les Arcs (already made up of four villages) and La Plagne (ten resorts in itself) thanks to the magic of an amazing towerless cable car. The latter is the combination of six resorts in the Maurienne.
An attractive proposition
From a technical point of view, linking ski resorts results in ski lifts with bigger capacities being installed. The knock-on effect of this is a better spread of skiers around the pistes and therefore shorter queues at the bottom. Furthermore, these ski areas are often at high altitude, which of course guarantees better snow cover. And if Mother Nature is found wanting, an alliance between ski areas provides a sounder financial footing for investing in more and better artificial snowmaking systems. The same applies to the general maintenance of the pistes, since here again there is a greater number of staff and piste grooming machines.
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Regarded as an inevitable development to increase their market shares, linked ski areas are undeniably an attractive proposition, particularly on the foreign markets. They represent real added value for the skier who is not content to explore a resort from top to bottom, in other words vertically, but wants to travel from one resort to another to experience the different surroundings in a horizontal exploration. "Because of that, you can ski for a week without ever skiing the same piste twice! You never get bored," says a 3 Valleys customer. "It’s as if you switch over to another world every time you arrive in the next valley," she continues. Skiing from one resort to another feels like you’re touring around on skis. The vegetation changes, the surroundings are very different, the architecture varies, the terrain moves on, from broad cruising pistes to mogul fields to undulating trails. There is no end of possible combinations, which you can tailor to your preference and level; each one follows on from the other but no two are the same. Panorama follows panorama as you proceed from piste to ski lift to piste. Passing from one mountain ridge to another is like a journey in itself. The feeling of unlimited space within reach of your skis satisfies the thirst for freedom in everyone, even the most die-hard freerider! And as for off-piste enthusiasts, you could say that the size of their playground increases almost exponentially when they take on a linked ski area. Another tempting little detail is the guarantee of always finding pistes in the sun. Three good reasons why linking up a ski area produces a result that is greater than the sum of its parts.
©photo : OT Brides Les Bains |
