jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
After skiing a couple days at the sprawling megaresort Serre Chevalier, I headed 40 minutes south to the gorgeous under-the-radar region of Queyras. First up was Ceillac (pronounced SAYE yahk), only 25 minutes from my B&B up a twisting mountain road before coming to a large valley:
The four Queyras ski areas have a reasonably priced combined lift ticket. If I'd had more time, I would've bought a three-day pass but given my vacation constraints, I went with two days for 66 euros.
It goes without saying that Ceillac skied bigger than the modest-looking map below conveys. 2,400 vertical feet and they didn't bother to include several trails at the top.
All of the Queyras mountains have a quad chair that takes you from the base to mid-mountain, after which all uphill transport is via detachable Poma platters, which must be well past 50 years of service.
They all provide a pretty jarring slingshot effect that lifts skiers up to a foot off the ground:
Another interesting thing at several of the Queyras hills share is the way two parallel Pomas go uphill for a while and then veer in separate directions to different parts of the summit:
Beautiful views of the valley and absolutely perfect on-piste conditions. There couldn't have been more than 50 people on the lift-served mountain, while more than double that were on the extensive x-c network.
The summit offpiste area, where the skied-in offpiste had soft chalky turns:
There's a long interesting trail that winds around the shady back of the mountain:
-- which concludes with a long tuck back to the parking lot.
Past some old barns:
I could've easily spent the entire day at Ceillac; however, I wanted to check out Arvieux, about 20 minutes away, so I packed up at 12:45:
Once again, you take a fixed chair out of the base:
Similar to Ceillac, parallel Pomas:
Arvieux is smaller and completely below the treeline. 1,500 verts total, but you tend to stay on the upper 900:
The main attraction is, once again, lots of skiable trees. Unfortunately, most of the ungroomed snow had gotten crunchy in the days since the previous storm so I stuck with the groomed runs, which kept me occupied until 4 pm.
The four Queyras ski areas have a reasonably priced combined lift ticket. If I'd had more time, I would've bought a three-day pass but given my vacation constraints, I went with two days for 66 euros.
It goes without saying that Ceillac skied bigger than the modest-looking map below conveys. 2,400 vertical feet and they didn't bother to include several trails at the top.
All of the Queyras mountains have a quad chair that takes you from the base to mid-mountain, after which all uphill transport is via detachable Poma platters, which must be well past 50 years of service.
They all provide a pretty jarring slingshot effect that lifts skiers up to a foot off the ground:
Another interesting thing at several of the Queyras hills share is the way two parallel Pomas go uphill for a while and then veer in separate directions to different parts of the summit:
Beautiful views of the valley and absolutely perfect on-piste conditions. There couldn't have been more than 50 people on the lift-served mountain, while more than double that were on the extensive x-c network.
The summit offpiste area, where the skied-in offpiste had soft chalky turns:
There's a long interesting trail that winds around the shady back of the mountain:
-- which concludes with a long tuck back to the parking lot.
Past some old barns:
I could've easily spent the entire day at Ceillac; however, I wanted to check out Arvieux, about 20 minutes away, so I packed up at 12:45:
Once again, you take a fixed chair out of the base:
Similar to Ceillac, parallel Pomas:
Arvieux is smaller and completely below the treeline. 1,500 verts total, but you tend to stay on the upper 900:
The main attraction is, once again, lots of skiable trees. Unfortunately, most of the ungroomed snow had gotten crunchy in the days since the previous storm so I stuck with the groomed runs, which kept me occupied until 4 pm.
