Ski Area & Piste Map

You’ll soon be a regular user of the Grand Massif Piste Map and perhaps the Grand Massif App as you plan your holiday – there’s a lot to do. 

The local lifts are:

    • Vercland, 2 minutes drive away with free parking next to the lift, taking you up to Samoens 1600.

    • Samoens Grand Massif Express, 5 minutes drive with free parking next to the lift, taking you up to Samoens 1600

    • Morillon, 3 minutes away, parking across the road, taking you to Morillon 1100 ski village

Morillon and Vercland are both walkable. The ski bus is also really easy – a couple of minutes down the hill. 

They are each fast & high capacity gondolas with the Vercland lift being installed in 2020. With lifts up to 2,500m and 1100 snow-cannons covering 50% of slopes it’s as snow-sure as anywhere, with ski season running mid-December through mid-April.  

Beginner 

Both Morillon and Samoens have great nursery slopes and ski schools. Morillon in particular is well suited to beginners, with a large nursery area just below the Morillon 1100 gondola station. Simply get the gondola from Morillon to Morillon 1100, then exit the bottom of the station. 

ESF have a big ski school up there and can offer a wide range of lessons. It’s usual to put children into ‘ski school’ for a few hours a day where they’ll learn with other children, but there are also adult group and individual lessons.  

Samoens has a big nursery area at Samoens 1600 in between the Grand Massif Express and Vercland lifts. Most of the other runs up there are at least blue. 

Usually even total beginners will be on ‘real’ ski runs within the week – both children and adults. Everyone will feel they’re making progress and doing ‘real skiing’ while it’s a great feeling watching the children or new skiers on their first runs. 

The variety of green and blue runs on the Grand Massif is unusually good. At Morillon the greens are long, beautiful, tree lined runs back into the resort past cafés and lovely scenery. The blues are sensible next steps rather than terrifying.  

Everyone should try the Marvel green run into Morillon through the forest, which is particularly picturesque.  

There are ‘fun zones’ dotted around the area – 3 in Morillon, 3 in Samoens, a further 11 through the other Grand Massif resorts. There are usually a variety of features including jumps and tunnels and they can be a nice change from the pistes.  

Intermediate 

Early intermediates will find the whole Grand Massif area opens up – it’s possible to traverse the whole area on blue runs.  

Notable runs include Les Cascades – the 14km, 1700m blue run past frozen waterfalls down to Sixt. Other notable runs include Marmotte (Samoens), Grand Cret (Samoens), Dolomie (Flaine) and Lucifer (Lucifer).  

Above Samoens and Morillon is the small plateau of Tete des Saix (2118m) which connects Morillon and Samoens to Flaine and Les Carroz: 

    • From Vercland or Samoens GME take the Chariande Express or ski the Aouia (blue) then take the Colouvrier lift 

    • From Morillon, take the Sairon lift, ski Les Chars (blue) then take the Colouvrier lift 

At Tete des Saix there are some long runs back down into the valley, like the Marmotte or Dahu followed by Grand Cret,  

To get to Les Carroz there are runs straight from Tete des Saix, with Flaine connected by the Sortilege run (red) to the Vernant lift to connect with the Flaine bowl. 

Flaine is another great area – a huge bowl with the highest lift on the Grand Massif (Grandes Platieres) up to 2,480m with a huge variety of runs for the intermediate.  

From here Grandes Platieres you can take the Serpentine to the start of Les Cascades, the 14km run past frozen waterfalls down to Sixt Fer-a-Cheval.  

Advanced 

If you’re a more advanced skier or boarder there’s much to enjoy you explore the full Grand Massif area, with some challenging free-ride areas in addition to the black and red runs you’d expect. 

At the ‘difficult’ end of the scale, Onyx is held to be the most difficult run – a vertical drop of 680m inside 2km from Tete Pelouse at 2480m and accessible from the Flaine lifts. Onyx is under the Gers lift, to the right hand side of the Combe de Gers bowl, one of the 6 free-ride zones in the Grand Massif. 

Most of the free-ride zones are easily accessible from the chalet and are named after one of the black runs nearby; 

    • Corne is under the Colouvrier draglift, easily accessible from the chalet via Vercland or Morillon lifts 

    • Corbalanche is easily accessible from the Colouvrier lift, underneath the Tete Des Saix lift out of Les Carroz 

    • Veret is accessed via the Vernant lift, so not too far as described above. 

    • Gers and Agate are best accessed from Flaine. 

If you’re new to the off-piste world, a guide from one of the ski schools is a great idea as they’ll introduce you to the appropriate slopes and lines.  

Beyond the Grand Massif 

If all this isn’t enough, Porte du Soleil area is 25 minutes away with the nearest stations in Les Gets. If the Grand Massif is big,  PDS is the biggest ski area in the world, stretching over to the Swiss Alps and including such resorts as Avoriaz and Morzine.  

Secure your dates!

Simply send an email to tim_j_sharpe@hotmail.com and we’ll talk you through it, or send us a WhatsApp/text at +44 7980 681207.