St Sorlin d'Arves - Les Sybelles ski area

I came across details of this St Sorlin d'Arves for the first time
today and was wondering if anyone knew about it. There seems to be
very little information available about it, other than it being part
of Les Sybelles ski area (I hadn't heard of that either).I thought I
might go there for three days at the beginning of April and would
appreciate hearing anybody else's knowledge of it. Thanks.

Paul,

We (family group adults and children) skied from St Jean D'Arves (just down
the lane from St Sorlin) over New Year 2004-2005. St Jean is a small village
of mainly self-catering apartments in wooden chalets at about 1600 metres
and there was enough fresh snow that we were able to ski in and out of our
digs. St Jean is stunningly located and overlooked by the Aigulles D'Arves,
three unlikely looking spiky peaks. It has a few restaurants and bars, a
couple of ski hire shops, an ESF ski school, some beginner drags and a chair
over to Le Corbier. St Sorlin is a bigger (and not so cute) version of St
Jean and has quite a lot of runs in it's own right whereas St Jean relies on
the link into Le Corbier and beyond.

The villages of St Jean, St Sorlin, Le Corbier and La Toussuire are linked
(albeit St Jean and St Sorlin by bus) and are part of the so-called Sybelles
(from 'six belles' i.e. there are another couple villages linked too but the
other two are kind of off the beaten track). Lots of blues and reds and more
skiing miles than we could cover in a week.

The anti-clockwise Le Corbier - St Sorlin cruise covers a lot of miles over
2-3 hours and takes in the longest drag lift we have ever known (a couple of
kilometres or more) and the piste takes you through some remote and lonely
valleys and mountain passes and the opportunity to drop 1000 metres in one
run from the top of a chair at St Sorlin.

There was lots of off-piste going off all around, not much in the way of
queues nor night life for that matter. Fresh snow helped a lot but I would
imagine some of the links could have been very muddy and stoney a couple of
weeks after we left but I believe that would have been the case everywhere
in France at the time.

We drove (chains required for last few miles) via Chambery and wouldn't do
that again as traffic was like going to Southend on Sea on a sunny August
bank holiday. Our accommodation was with Eurogroup who also let buildings in
St Sorlin. All in all I was a happy punter and the children want to go back.

Best of luck.

Ross







"Paul Clifford" wrote in message
om...
I came across details of this St Sorlin d'Arves for the first time
today and was wondering if anyone knew about it. There seems to be
very little information available about it, other than it being part
of Les Sybelles ski area (I hadn't heard of that either).I thought I
might go there for three days at the beginning of April and would
appreciate hearing anybody else's knowledge of it. Thanks.

here is a bit of info about the area:
http://www.pistehors.com/resorts/northern/maurienne/

it claims to be France's 4th (or 5th now that Paradiski exists) largest
ski area. The snow is good this year although in April it may be a bit
soggy.