Myself testing out my new swallowtailed board

The ski area itself is huge, but the lift system is easy to work out and it's quite difficult to get lost. The whole area is basically divided into tree runs at the bottom and wide open powder bowls at the top. The groomed runs are all well maintained and most are groomed every night, which will suit beginners and those of you who like to go fast. There are some moguls if that's your thing, however they didn't really get a chance to develop the week we were there because of all the snow. The tree runs on the lower part of the mountains are outstanding and again it's difficult to get lost because you always come out onto the nursery slopes at the base of the lifts. The powder bowls at the top are amongst the best I've ever ridden and every time you turn a corner there's another one that you've not seen before.

The terrain you can reach off the Cucumelle, Balme, Ciboit and L'Eychauda lifts is enough to keep you amused for a long time. The beauty of this area is the immense amount of "backcountry" runs that you can access from the lifts, usually by very short hikes. The management even signpost these with massive yellow signs to warn you that you're on your own, but they just served as a magnet for powder hounds like us. The terrain accessable from all the lifts is amazingly diverse, ranging from gentle powder bowls to full on steeper than steep gullies. Most of these are in sight of the lifts as well, so you're never truly on your own.

The only exception to this is "La Montagnole" which is an off piste route that runs from the top of the mountain to the bottom and takes you well out of sight of the lifts. For this reason we decided to give this one a miss, but it's meant to be great. The amount of cliffs and cornices is mind blowing. You could spend all day dropping off different ones and you'd still not have done them all. This place has everything. It's probably not that good for beginners though, especially in the conditions that we encountered, as most of the nursery slopes are at the base of the mountain. Food facilities on the mountain were good, but the restaurants could do with being about twice the size that they are to avoid the queues that developed during lunch.

Just follow the yellow signs, you can't go wrong

20 minutes earlier this was all virgin powder