Courchevel Off-Piste

Guide 1 Vizelle & Suisse

Vizelle offers some excellent inbound and relatively safe descents. It is a very underestimated area, and would be the showpiece in many other resorts around the world. With Access from the Vizelle and Suisse lifts uplifts are quick and easily accessed. There are four black pistes and two reds accessible, first tracks down these is amazing....each with over 500m of vertical. Between these runs there is some excellent off-piste terrain with steep North, South, East and West facing slopes.

The better of these off piste areas is Suisse (Map location 1). This can be accessed directly beneath the lift. There are several steep sections and technically probably more challenging than the couloirs on Saulire. However this challenge is somewhat diminished by the ease with which you can retreat from the off piste to the piste below. There are some great features, a large cliff drop for the more advanced Freerider and several rocky outcrops for slashing, dropping and great photos. The area is a great introduction to steeper off piste terrain, its accessibility and lack of isolation are great benefits.

A second excellent area is directly beneath the vizelle lift (Map location 2). Accessed from Combe Pylonnes, or head towards piste M and cut left. Simply head for the Vizelle bubbles, the descent is rocky with some great little features to drop and slash. There are quite a few rocks so keep your eyes open, cat tracks criss cross also so watch for these in flat light. Head back to Vizelle and do it all over again.

Another area worth mentioning is a patch of off-piste lying between the Vizelle telecabine station and the Combe de Saulire piste (Map location 3). It can be accessed from a cat track to allow weaker intermediate skiers an easy way to bypass the steepest part of the Combe de Saulire. The steepness of gradient and the feel of the snow are similar to that found in the couloirs up on saulire. Test your skills here before heading up there.