France: Trois Vallees
We spent Christmas in the French Alps. Just uttering “the Alps” has a level of mystique and reverance that “Whistler” doesn’t seem to invoke. Understandably, I was pretty excited about carving up the powder there and comparing it to Big White, Silverstar, Whistler, Blackcomb, Apex, etc, etc.
As it turns out, Les Trois Vallees, one of the best set of resorts in the Alps (French, Swiss, Austrian or otherwise), while definitely world class, was probably about equal to Whistler/Blackcomb. There were similarities in the way multiple resorts merged into one giant entity. The conditions and snow are similar though BC seemed to have more powder in general.
The biggest differences weren’t in the skiing itself but the supporting experiences. Signage on the slopes are horrendous, prompting you to lose your way and end up in some other resort or village. This kind of detour can be disastrous at the end of the day. Also, they use Green->Blue->Red->Black classifications. Red supposedly is like Black Diamond but I don’t agree. The Reds were at best, Blues in Whistler. I didn’t get a chance to test hte Blacks but I think they were mostly like single Black Diamonds. Also, because we were skiing over Christmas, there were absolutely no lines to complain about. A welcome change from the toursit trap that is Whistler. Equally, the costs were much less prohibitive: 90 euros for 3 full day passes to all three resorts.
Kathryn has a very descriptive account of our trip on her blog. Don’t forget to check out our pics (we saved you the trouble and trimmed the set down to just 18 pics).
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