I’ve never heard of Les Sybelles prior to our last winter’s trip to Saint Sorlin d’Arves. It turned out to be a great destination. Especially if you, like me, like lift-accessed off-piste riding!
Why? First, it is a pretty large ski area, connecting 7 villages, each with their own ski lifts. Second, it’s got the vibe of a family/youth ski resort, which means the off-piste is not too crowded. It also means there’s inexpensive accomodation available.
So, a few routes and areas that we checked out:
- Tete de Bellard → Teleski de Cuinat Button Lift (there’s a lot of coulours leading down to Torrent de Bellard there)
- Grand Truc → Saint-Colomban des Villards
- Area along Telesiege des Charmettes Chair Lift
- Descent into St. Sorlin from L’Ouillon at the end of the day
Going down from Tete de Bellard was the steepest and scariest feat (I’d really like to do it again).
And Grand Truc was probably the grandest 🙂 although it took us a while to find a good route through the forest. In its lower part you can hit a nice line of forest clearings just before dropping onto the Rougemont piste of St Colomban.
Here’s a short video we made there (time: end of January / beginning of February):
We found a really good deal for accomodation + lift passes from Snowtrex, it was one of those Saturday-to-Saturday packages. The drive from Geneva took about 3 hours with a stop at Leclerc to buy some cheese, wine, and potatoes au gratin.
St. Sorlin where we stayed is a pretty quiet place, not much happening there, but we just needed the snow 🙂
Overall, I can totally recommend this place!
