Les Chalets de St Martin

THE SKIING

Much has been spent, in the last few years, on making the various pistes more user friendly - especially for beginners. They are now gently graded and wider, backed up with two kilometres of snow cannons which, together with our two piste grooming machines working through the night, produce a perfect, smooth piste each day irrespective of natural snow fall.

Over the last few years all the old lifts have been upgraded. From the drag lift from the Village square, to the state of the art 8 seater telecabines which whisk you half way up the mountain to St. Martin 2. This is another recently installed new lift (a fast detachable quad) which speeds you to the top of Tougnette (2434m) meeting the six seater gondola out of Meribel. From here there is a choice of easy to hard runs into the vast 3 Valley circuit.

Another recent addition is the 6 seater covered chair to the top of the Trois Marches mountain which saves going to Les Menuires to reach Val Thorens.

The 3 Valleys claims, with justification, to be the largest ski area in the world. There are other contenders to this throne but in every instance there is an element of walking or bussing between links. Only in the 3 Valleys can you literally ski the whole region only taking skis off to get into a cable car. So vast is the 3 Valleys domaine that the entire skiing area of Val d'Isere/Tignes (Espace Killey), La Plagne, Les Arcs plus Val Morel would fit into it. The figures are mind boggeling - 190 major lifts (they don't even bother to include the 20 beginner's lifts), 600km of marked pistes - most of the lower ones have the back up of 1500 snow cannons, over 100km of itinerary runs, 60 piste grooming machines, it just goes on and on. Small wonder that once people have tried the 3 Valleys they come back year after year - and all this easily accessed from the deceptively central position of St. Martin, one and a quarter hours on skis to either Val Thorens or Courchevel.

For advanced skiers the Belleville Valley offers some of the most challenging off piste runs up to 16km long, many of which end up in St. Martin or one of the surrounding hamlets.

SKI SCHOOL & CRECHE

The Ski School in the village is run by the E.S.F. Because the majority of visitors are British, Dutch, German and Scandinavian ALL the instruction is in English (the only common language!) and we are pleased to report that every effort is made to accommodate our guests even if it involves running a class for just two or three people. In any event the class sizes are seldom more than 8-10 people. A full range of courses is available including cross country and snow boarding.

The recently built creche, also run by the E.S.F., offers accommodation and tuition for children from 2 years upwards with a range of services from part day to all day including, naturally, meals. Younger children from 6 months will be accepted on a day to day basis.

Piste Map

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