First Day of Skiing in Flaine (Le Grand Massif Ski Area, French Alps)

The ski area of Le Grand Massif in the French Alps comprises of 5 alpine ski villages: Flaine, Samoens, Morillon, Les Carroz and Sixt with views to Mont Blanc. We are staying in Flaine, the biggest of all ski villages and highest at 1700 metres. It is also the ski village that has a wider access to lifts and slopes. The nearest city is Geneva, Switzerland.

Flaine alpine ski village is built in Bauhaus modernist style. Many people call it ugly and outdated. Dutchman calls it bunker buildings, haha. Only the art and achitecture enthuasiasts are able to appreciate the village.

For our first day of skiing we started rather late. We had to recover from the hours of driving and lack of sleep the night before. So we decided to just ski in the Flaine ski area. The weather was not really that great as well. It was gloomy, and as we reached the top at 2480 metres (the highest peak in Le Grand Massif), visibility was really bad.

We had to go down real slow following the sticks that serve as piste border markers as our guide. Luckily you can still see them, but as to everything around us? It was an endless sheath of white covering consuming every space in the mountains. You really see nothing but white. Half an hour into this kind of misty weather condition, I am not enjoying it anymore.

Skiing should be fun. It should not be a punishment. Nor it is a competition. I always remind the Dutchman this.

Because you cannot see what is in front of you, you have to do some guess work. Not knowing the quality of the slope and snow, I fell down once because I skied head on to a huge mound of snow. I also almost skied down a very steep slope thinking it was a bit flat. Visibility was really crap. I hated it. It only got worse into the afternoon when it started snowing.

For posterity, Dutchman took a few pictures of me and our first skiing and snowboard run for this wintersport holiday.

At half past 3pm I was done for the day and sought refuge at a brasserie in Flaine Forum for something to drink whilst the Dutchman did a last slope run.

More piste and skiing stories soon.

Le Grand Massif ski pass (for 6 days).

This is the visibility at more than 2000 metres. Really bad. Can you find me? So the Dutchman stopped taking pictures until we reached pine tree level.

Light snow started to fall again here. They make visibility almost impossible.

It can get very cold in the open lifts!

Tree level area where visibility was much better.

Then it started snowing… ski game over for me. The lifts usually close between 15:45 and 16:30 depending on where the lift is located and what type it is.

Snowed down. This is at the beginners area. This is also the lift to reach the first restaurant/cafe terrace on the piste from Flaine Foret.

Gorgeous view of a day’s end in the Alps.

Travel Period: January 2016
Destination: Flaine, Haute Savoie (Rhone-Alpes), France

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First Day of Skiing in Flaine (Le Grand Massif Ski Area, French Alps)

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