Most ski holidays are spent in the same resort, skiing the same runs, apres at the same bars and the chalet host rustling up something fairly similar every night. If you are a bit bored of all that why not try a Ski Safari?
Ski Safaris are an exciting way to explore more of the mountains and add a whole lot of adventure to your ski holiday.
Touring in the Savoie (c) Mountain Tracks
One of the best Ski Safaris to start with is the Courchevel to Chamonix itinerary which takes 6 days. This travels from the wide pistes of Courchevel in the French Alps on the edge of the World’s biggest ski area, Les Trois Vallées (The Three Valleys), before skiing over from La Plagne to Les Arcs in the huge Paradiski area with rolling meadows and tree skiing. From there you travel to Sainte Foy, a hidden gem for off piste and touring for the day. Next up on the agenda is the charming La Rosiere, from here you ski over into the Italian Alps resort of La Thuile.
After La Thuile the Italian part of the adventure continues with a day tour around Punta Croce to Courmayeur where you spend the next day enjoying the sunny tree skiing of one of Italy’s best resorts and probably the best lunch of the trip!
Skinning in the Italian Alps (c) Mountain Tracks
The grand finale of this amazing adventure is the bucket list descent of the Vallee Blanche to Chamonix where you can celebrate a fantastic area in the lively capital of the Alps.
As well as being a great way to explore the Alps it is an ideal introduction to ski touring. Whilst most of the tour uses lift systems, the Sainte Foy day allows you to find your feet touring off piste and the Punta Croce is an excellent intro level tour with just 500m of ascent which rewards you with an 800m descent into Arpy. There’s nothing seriously technical on this itinerary and with IFMGA Mountain Guides leading the way you won’t even have to pull out the piste map!.
Endless powder in Sainte Foy (c) Mountain Tracks
Whilst the adventure of skiing right across the alps is obviously the highlight of the trip there will also be opportunities to try lots of local speciality French and Italian food, enjoy the different apres-ski on offer in the resorts and improve your off-piste technique along the way, and to top it all off you don’t even need to worry about your luggage as that will be transferred between the hotels during the trip.
The Courchevel to Chamonix Ski Safari runs from Saturday 27th January to Saturday 3rd February with Mountain Tracks for £1,595. The price includes half-board hotel accommodation.