Saturday Times, March 17 2007
'The Late Late Ski Holiday - where to find the snow and the best late deals in Europe'
SAINTE FOY, FRANCE
Why: The closest that most people get to Sainte Foy is seeing the road signs after Bourg Saint Maurice as they whizz by on the transfer bus to the Espace Killy, half an hour down the road. A new lift this winter opened up an area of the mountain that was previously accessible only after a good hike off-piste. The new terrain has made Sainte Foy a good all-round resort, albeit to grumbles from experts in the know who don’t want to share these glorious slopes.
Sunday Times, September 24 2006. 'Straight to the top of the piste.'
'Don’t put up with second-rate skiing — go for the best. Launching this season’s coverage, Sean Newsom picks the 10 spots to get your winter high.''Where do you go to find the best of what the skiing world can offer? Right here. To stoke the fires of our collective anticipation, we’ve brought together our pick of the world’s top 10 ski resorts. All offer something above and beyond the norm. Call it the X factor. Call it a happy marriage of geography and technology. Call it whatever you like — but ski or snowboard in any one of them, and you’re all but guaranteed a winter to remember.
No:1. STE-FOY TARENTAISE, France
Size doesn’t always matter — and Ste-Foy Tarentaise is a case in point. A tiny, four-lift resort, it has long been the preserve of off-piste guides, who bring their clients over when the powder in nearby Val d’Isère has been ground to crud. Now, however, thanks to some sensitively handled redevelopment, the place has been reborn — as a cute and quietly luxurious retreat for families (or anyone else who’s tired of the mega-resorts). Yes, the skiing is limited, but at all levels the quality is superb, and when you’ve had your fill, the larger lift systems at Les Arcs, Val d’Isère, Tignes and La Rosière are all within easy day-tripping distance.'Saturday Times, February 18 2006. 'Psst...can you keep a secret?' by Martin Symington
'"Boy its great to be back in my favourite skiing area bar nowhere!" says Nick Parks. Coming from one of the most distinguished British mountain guides in the Alps, this is a tribute, indeed, to Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise. On a steely-cold January monrning, Parks and I ride the trio of chairlifts from the base station to the heights of Col de l'Aiguille. Minutes later we have left the pistes and are the only skiers ina vast snowy bowl with stupendous views to the glistening crags of 3800m (12,476 ft) Mont Pourri and the sculpted blue ice of Glacier du Geay. It has not snowed for more than a week, but we still trace fresh tracks through virgin powder all the way down to the frozen stream on the Monal valley floor."One dump in Val d'Isere or Les Arcs and within hours you are struggling to find the untracked stuff that we all love.. So you see why I make a beeline for Sainte-Foy whenever I have a day off" my guide says. He is not the only one. Last season I kept hearing instructors and other habitués of the Tarentaise mega-resorts mentioning, sotto voce, a mysterious hidden jewel with fabulous snow and deserted slopes almost on their doorstep. So why don't more skiers choose Sainte-Foy? Because we are invited to swallow the bigger-is-better folly that reigns in the region. Val and Tignes make up the huge Espace Killy; La Plagne, Les Arcs and numerous outlying villages are all part of Paradiski. Little Sainte-Foy on the other hand, is alone and unlinked, with too little accommodation for most tour operators to even bother offering it. So few people have heard of it.
"I usually suggest to my most discerning clients that we ski a day in Sainte-Foy" says the ski coach Colin Tanner, of Val d'Isere based Development Centre. "So where is it exactly?" I had to ask, dimly recalling a village on the road from Bourg St Maurice to Val d'Isere and Tignes. From here, Sainte-Foy ski station is 4km off to the left, up a steep mountain road. It consists of a scattering of farm buildings, chalets and apartments, plus a few restaurants and ski hire shops huddling among the forests. There are three chairlifts and 25km of prepared piste. But such numbers give few clues to the scope of the skiing. To start with, the top lift serves superb off-piste routes such as the Le Monal and Foglietta, for which you need a mountain guide. However there are many other easier, unpisted 'itineraires' accessible without a guide. It is hard to think of anywhere better suited to off-piste rookies who want to take their first step out of the comfort zone. Intermediate skiers find empty black and red runs that are different from the factory skiing of Espace Killy or Paradiski. I felt a sense of really being in mountain wilds rather than a processed resort, as I skied from the Col de l'Aiguille down the swooping north-west facing slopes to the base. The vertical drop is more than 1000m, which is respectable by even Big Val's standards. There is a nursery slope served by a 'magic carpet' lift [actually there are two! - site editor] at the station base. A fourth chairlift, serving newly graded blue runs from the resort's highest points, is due to open next season.
Catherine Wolseley, from Carlisle, who owns an apartment in Sainte-Foy, tells me; "My three children all learnt to ski here. It is the ideal family resort, because all the runs funnel down to a single spot. Kids can't get lost, so you don't need to watch them all the time." Strong intermediate skiers and snowboarders who are not motivated to stray off-piste are the only people who would probably find the slopes of Sainte-Foy limiting. On the other hand some of the most extensive linked ski areas in the Alps are nearby. Les Arcs (via the outpost village of Villaroger) is ten minutes by road. Val d'Isere, Tignes and La Rosiere, which links with la Thuile in Italy, are not much farther.....Sainte-Foy is a minnow among mega-resorts, but I am with Nick Parks: deserted slopes high in the majesty of the Tarentaise valley are as good as skiing in the Alps gets.'
'Powder' magazine, February 2001, 'Little Euro Areas that Rock' - Top US skiers JT Holmes and Jenn Berg, writer Leslie Anthony and videographer Shawn Styles spend time in Ste Foy.
.......'Climbing from Bourg St Maurice toward Val d'Isere, the temperature drops and the snowfall begins. halfway we hang a left to Ste Foy, where there's a foot of new snow on the ground, zero visibility, and four cars in the lot. The turning is good and getting better on a firm base, but after several piste runs from the Col de l'Aguille to get oriented, we are disoriented. Off-piste is out of the question because of the fearsome whiteout, so J.T. and I traverse under the Rocher d'Arbine and ski killer pow on the massive slope above the Fil Neige Le Tetra, while Shawn and Jenn plumb a couloir underneath the chair de l'Aguille. The find of the day, however, is the charming and ancient Restaurant Telemark in the Plan Bois at 5,600 ft, where a couple of pinhead soul skiers lay out fantastic regional dishes on medieval tables under hand-hewn beams. First class nosh in the middle of nowhere is what Europe is all about, so we linger over lunch then ski til five.We awake to poor visibility again the next day, and seek definition in Ste Foys legendary trees; well-spaced larch and pine with no undergrowth, spread across rollers, hollows, cliffs and open glades. Later we make a couple of runs out of the traverse that J.T. and I cut; today it's deeper and spookier, but the skiing is epic. Despite the bonanza, it's what we don't see that really makes Ste Foy. Tours from the top of the highest lift in either direction access long, leisurely runs down to small villages, then hook back to the resort via trails through the woods. You can also, as in most of Europe, ski off the backside to other valleys and villages. All too soon, we have to leave......'
For guiding, at Chalet Morion we recommend Mountain Tracks. Mountain Tracks is a specialist guiding company set up by Nick Parks. Nick first visited Ste Foy in 1989 and has been coming back ever since. Mountain Tracks run awesome off-piste weeks here throughout the season and private group bookings are also available on request. Check out the website for full details.
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