Ski Areas Guide - Alpes Vaudoises Ski Region

Ski Image

Alpes Vaudoises is a group of resorts in the Alps of the Lake Geneva Region. Compared to some of the other Swiss ski areas, it's much less frequented and well-known by British skiers, but is well worth checking out, not least because some of the slopes and resorts are much quieter than some of the traditional Swiss favourites.

The Alpes Vaudoises group of resorts consists of: Aigle, Bex, Chateau-d'Oex (the alpine capital of hot air ballooning), Gryon, Les Diablerets, Les Mosses, Leysin, Rossiniere, Rougemont and Villars.

Resorts

The Alpes Vaudoises Ski region covers the following resorts:

Les Diablerets

Getting to the Slopes

Here's a rough guide on how to get to the slopes in the three main ski areas:

Isenau Ski Area

The Isenau slopes are reached by taking the Diablerets-Isenau gondola from the resort centre of Les Diablerets up to 1763m.

Meilleret Ski Area

There's a decent chairlift to take you from Vioz on the valley floor up to Mazots at 1720m. Vers l'Eglise is a small village just down the road from Les Diablerets, so if you're staying there you can get direct access to the slopes of Meilleret from the chairlift that starts there. One of the advatanges of the Meilleret area is that it links into the resort of Villars which is on the opposite side of the mountain. However, be aware that the chairlift that gives access to it is pretty slow and can be quite exposed in bad weather.

Glacier 3000 Ski Area

As with many glacier ski areas it's obviously not as easy to get to as the other ski areas in the resort - you need to get yourself up the road on the skibus to the giant cablecar station at the Col du Pillon, it's not far and the scenery really took us by surprise - the mass of rock that looms above you is incredible. Anyway, take the cable car from the Col du Pillon up to Cabane and then get on another from their to the the top glacier station (for anyone staying on the Gstaad side of the Col du Pillon you can get a cablecar from Reusch or a chairlift from Oldenalp and then join onto the final Cabane-Glacier leg).

The Skiing

The Alpes Vaudoises Ski region is comprised of 3 ski areas: Isenau, Meilleret and Glacier 3000.

Isenau Ski Area

The Isenau slopes are reached by taking the Diablerets-Isenau gondola from the resort centre up to 1763m. There are then 5 t-bar lifts available to give access to a number of red and blue slopes, including the long P14 blue that takes you back down to the gondola in town. The top range of the slopes at Isenau is 2109m, which you have to use the Floriettaz t-bar lift to get up to. There are then 2 reds that come down the mountain either side of the lift. The Isenau area is best suited to general recreational skiers and there are a couple of mountain restaurants and bars up there.

Meilleret Ski Area

The slopes at Meilleret are good, mainly blues but with a smattering of more testing reds mingled in amongst them. There's a decent charlift to take you from Vioz on the valley floor upto Mazots at 1720m. There are some really nice wooded runs up here - ski part way down the long Ruvine blue run (P26) and you can then get another chairlift up to the highest point of this area - Meilleret at 1948m. There are a couple of reds down from here as well as a blue. It's worth pointing out that there are blue runs from the top of Meilleret and Les Mazots right down to the bottom of the Vioz-Mazots chairlift and also to the foot of the Vers l'Eglise chairlift. Vers l'Eglise is a small village just down the road from Les Diablerets, so if you're staying there you can get direct access to the slopes of Meilleret from the chairlift that starts there.

One of the advatanges of the Meilleret area is that it links into the resort of Villars which is on the opposite side of the mountain. However, be aware that the chairlift that gives access to it is pretty slow and can be quite exposed in bad weather. However, once you've got over there it does give you access to a whole host of other slopes, although they did seem a lot busier in comparison to Les Diablerets.

Glacier 3000 Ski Area

The slopes up at Glacier 3000 give Les Diablerets the chance to promote itself as a guaranteed snow resort, well at least for the early and late month's of the season when other resorts might have no slopes opened. You cant ski there all year round anymore because the of the reduction in the glacier, but it's handy nonetheless and gives the resort some extra options over it's nearby rivals. As with many glacier ski areas it's obviously not as easy to get to as the other ski areas in the resort - you need to get yourself up the road on the skibus to the giant cablecar station at the Col du Pillon, it's not far and the scenery really takes you by surprise - the mass of rock that looms above you is incredible. Anyway, take the cable car from the Col du Pillon up to Cabane and then get on another from their to the the top glacier station (for anyone staying on the Gstaad side of the Col du Pillon you can get a cablecar from Reusch or a chairlift from Oldenalp and then join onto the final Cabane-Glacier leg). Once up on top at the glacier it's like a largish plateau. There are 3 blue's and a shortish red, although I've got to say the blue's are quite flat and will probably only be of real interest to beginners. Les Diablerets only has two black runs and one of them (Olden-Audon) goes right from the Scex Rouge cable car at 2970m round the back down to Oldenalp at 1840m - a vertical drop of 1130m and a great 10km run. If you get on the chairlift at the end of this black and travel up to Oldenegg you can then go down the other (shorter) black run down to Reusch. The main black has some quite steep sections and was really icy when I came down it - so be prepared ! Despite the blues being a bit too flat for my liking the scenery up their is genuinely incredible and definitely worth the trip. The cablecar ride is fanstatic too - really dramatic stuff.