Introduction
This site was originally created for the excellent group of intrepid skiers who stayed at the Hotel Alpazur in Lanslebourg during the week of 22nd March 2003, as a place to display their photographs of the week's activities.
However, as one of my aims during the holiday was to find out whether the hotel and the resort would be suitable for bringing a group of mixed ability skiers to it - which it is - the site is now used display the photographs and videos taken on some of the six holiday trips I have been on to Val Cenis - Eric.
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NEW as at 3rd December 2006!! - Video of skiing in Val Cenis!
This is a video of the first holiday I organised for ab-initio skiers three winters ago. Since then I have organised a couple more, all with great success. The next trip to Val Cenis will be departing on Friday 2nd March 2007 for 10 days staying at the Hotel Alpazur in Lanslebourg for 7 1/2 days skiing.
This 30 minute long video will give you a feel for the ski area of the two villages of LansLeBourg and LansLeVillard that comprise Val Cenis. This I hope will help you decide to join us in March for a cracking week of fun on and off the slopes. It is presented temporarily in low resolution but a higher quality version will be uploaded soon.
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Visit to Valmenier and Valloire
We, that is Carole, Glenda, Val and I, decided to visit Valmenier and Valloire for a week to see if it would suit our group as a change from Val Cenis. We thought the skiing in the Valloire area was better than Val Menier but if we were to return there with our beginners and early intermediates we would have to be based in Valloire as it is a long trek over from Val Men. Peter K who was also out in the resort the week before us also enjoyed it and we all want to go back again in the not too distant future. I will shortly be adding a link to photos and videos taken while we were there so come back soon to see what we got up to.
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Val Cenis local information
www.valcenis.comLocated in Maurienne Valley and comprised of 2 villages: Lans-Le-Bourg, which limits heights of buildings to keep village feel, and Lans-Le-Villard a rustic and traditional village. The resort offers good skiing for beginners and intermediates with limited piste skiing for advanced skiers but great off piste opportunities. Apres ski includes 2 discos and 2 cinemas and public swimming pool, free cross country runs, parapenting, husky sledging, ice-skating, snow shoe outings.
* Traditional village feel
* Unique attractions including a chapel with medieval paintings and a fromagerie
* Beginners can ski up to 2800m on blue runs - great confidence builders
The ski area is a haven for beginners and intermediates with green and blue runs down through the trees and plenty of good, more challenging skiing higher up. Although there is limited skiing for the advanced skier on the pistes, there is some good off piste. With more than 1400 vertical metres and 80kms of marked piste the ski area is varied. It is one of few ski resorts where beginners can access even the highest of runs, blue runs at 2800m make it great for beginners who don't want to be tied down to the busy slopes at the bottom of resorts. With 9 green, 10 blue, 16 red, 4 black runs and 4 itineraries, there are 43 pistes served by 23 lifts.
The photo above is of a small section of the longest green (very easy) run in Europe. It is over 10 kilometres long and it ends just near to the hotel with a couple of handily placed bars along the way! This piste is otherwise known as Route National 6. Six months of the year it's a main road into Italy, for the other six, it's a ski run - aren't the French sensible! It's so easy that the guy on the right is skiing it backwards! This is the piste that our beginner skiers will be using within a couple of hours of arriving in Val Cenis to ski to lunch in the next village.
VAL CENIS PISTE MAP - On the Hotel Nanook's web site, is an excellent piste map for Val Cenis. From the Hotel's home page, click on the 'Winter' link and on the page that is displayed, you will see a thumbnail of the piste map; click on that and a degraded map will be displayed - or you can just click here - Val Cenis piste map. Expand the window to full size, lay the mouse pointer over the map and a further 4-headed arow icon will appear in the bottom right-hand corner, which when clicked on, will expand the map to full size . The Hotel Alpazur is next to the red and blue dot in the bottom righthand corner.
This map is in fact is from winter 2002/3 - the only changes to it, and one is a major one for us, is the installation of a new 6 seater modern lift which takes you to the top of the L'Escargot (snail/slow/very easy) green run. The bottom station of the lift is just opposite to the back of the Hotel adjacent to the two tennis courts / ice rink that can be seen on the map. This new express lift is a slow-loader and unloader and is just perfect for beginners. The combination of the new lift and 6 miles of the longest green run in Europe makes it one of the best places around for beginners to learn to ski - no nasty surprises here. There is also a new lift for the 2006/7 season that serves nursery slopes and green runs atthe LansLeVillard end of the ski area. Also the old La Met 2-man chair to the very top of the slopes, 9,200 ft has been replaced by a new 4-man chair
Val Cenis - comprises Lanslebourg & Lanslevillard - lots of info about the resort - www.valcenis.com
Hotel Alpazur, Lanslebourg, Val Cenis - a very friendly 3 Star hotel run by British and Antipodean staff - nothing seems to be too much trouble for them - 3/4 board, ski hire and workshop on the lower ground floor, 250 metres from three ski lifts including a new 6 man chairlift - the telecabine/gondola is 5 minutes away by free ski bus which stops outside the hotel - Hotel Alpazur website
Val Cenis - description of resort, ski information, accomodation and travel options - Val Cenis resort info
Val Cenis weather and webcams
Current weather and three day weather forecast from snow-forecast.com
VAL CENIS MOUNTAIN WEBCAM - This is a direct link to a new panoramic webcam which has been set-up on the top telecabine station looking across to the restaurant , round to the 6 man chair and into the valley - Mountain Webcam This is one of the best webcams I've seen A link to the webcam is also on the main Val Cenis website - www.valcenis.com - which has just been updated with new content. You can also download the Winter Val Cenis brochure in pdf format.
VAL CENIS VALLEY WEBCAM - This is a link to the Hotel Nanook's Home page. Scroll to the bottom of the window where there is a link to its webcam that looks up onto the main north-facing slopes - click on the link and a picture should be displayed - if the picture is black, a check on the time and date in the bottom right-hand corner will confirm whether the camera is working! - Hotel Nanook web cam
For those of you worried about the amount of snow on the mountain and in the village, don't fret! I have been checking the last 12years of historical data for the villages and on average the snow arrives in the third week of December, sometimes earlier and there is always a big dump during the last week of December!! It has also been noted by one of our group that the trend is for the snow to arrive later but stay longer in the spring so our date of 2nd March 2007 should prove to be nicely timed. I have been to ValCenis in early March before, the whole of the resort was skiable and it was very pleasant sitting outside in the sunshine at lunchtime having a Wilfort brune beer and an 'Omelette Savorarde'!! See the video for evidence.
Nearby ski resorts and villages
Trips out to other resorts are available but they are weather dependent and the Snowcoach ski staff make the final decision on which trips are offered - some are free and some have a small charge for lift pass upgrade and transport.
Termignon is a rustic village, a lovely mountain to ski, small but nice - excellent for early skiers - service at the mountain resturant is very slow, so take a packed lunch or have a big breakfast - www.termignon-la-vanoise.com - Included in lift pass - approx 2 euro transport charge - 10 minutes on local service bus and it may now be possible to ski back to Val Cenis from Termignon.
Bonneval is a real mountain village, not many runs, a bit rufty,tufty and could be intimidating for early skiers - www.bonneval-sur-arc.com
Val Thorens - the big one - motorway skiing in an enormous bowl with masses of runs and people, pistes are not as well groomed as Val Cenis - access from Orelle is via a steep red, so a visit to this amazing skiing area is only really suitable for confident intermediates - www.valthorens.com and www.orelle.net
La Norma is an excellent modern resort for all standards of skier. With 4,600 vertical feet of delightful north-facing skiing, mainly through trees. - www.la-norma.com
Aussois is a charming Austrian-style resort, mainly south and west facing has wonderful scenery.The skiing which starts from 2,750m is heaven on a sunny day! - www.aussois.com
Val Frejus is another modern ski area nearby with the best skiing on a sunny plateau near the top of the resort at 2,750m. Val Frejus is high and good for late season skiing and some of the slopes are more suitable for good intermediate skiers - www.valfrejus.com
The Evidence - Fun on and off the piste!
Val Cenis Ski Pics from March 2003 to see more of the mountain and villages
Val Cenis Ski Pics from January 2004 to see more of the mountain and villages
Val Cenis Ski Pics from March 2004 to see more of the mountain, villages and apre'ski activities
Val Cenis Ski Pics from January 2005 to see more of the mountain, villages and apre'ski activities
These pictures will take a while to download so if you don't have a broadband connection, click on the link to start the download, then come back to this page and read what's here while the download takes place.
Click here for Ski Holiday and Ski Training Latest News - updated 7th January 2007 includes a report of our holidays to Val Cenis and Val Meinier
Thinking about joining us on the trip to Val Cenis? - read on . . .
Before you go to Val Cenis you ought to go here - Chatham Ski Centre
You don't have to learn to ski or snowboard on the dry slope and I know that some people don't like it, but it does make the holiday much more fun as you don't spend so much time down in the valley, when you could be up on the mountain enjoying the views and usually better snow.
There is plenty of time before the holiday so it's worthwhile starting sooner rather than later. We recently had a ski evening at the Chatham Ski Centre and we have a number of people who would like to learn to ski and come on the holiday in March. The new surface at the Chatham ski slope is ideal for learner skiers but it's not too friendly yet for those who want to learn to parallel ski or even for those who can ski competently already and want to practice their technique.
The upshot of this is that as I need to generate an income of £140 per session for the ski centre I cannot do this from the learner skiers alone as the experienced skiers aren't at all keen to use the slope again until it has been run in which will take about a year.
So unfortunately for the beginners I'll have to ask you to attend the public learn-to-ski courses - if you all get together for your lessons it will be more fun for you. I'll come along and cheer you on from the sidelines!
If you start straight after New Year then those of you who want to come on the holiday to Val Cenis in March will be able to ski under control on your arrival in the Alps. If you aren't able to attend the lessons before the trip you can still join us on the holiday but you will have a much steeper learner curve!!
A four lesson deal booked in advance will cost you £96 in total and should get you to Level 4 standard. This will get you confident and competent enough to ski to the next village for lunch within 2 hours of arriving in Val Cenis!
Go to Chatham Ski Slope for further details of times and prices.
I'll send out an email to all concerned so that you can arrange to attend the series of lessons to get you up to Level 4 ski standard before the holiday.
If you have any queries, please get in touch
Email: ericfriend@helloworld.com
Phone: 07890 476 467
Skype: ericfriend or helloworld.com.uk
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