7 days in Serre Chevalier

I’ve visited a lot of ski areas around Europe but, until last week, I hadn’t got around to Serre Chevalier in France. Seeing as Nonstop is running ski instructor courses and holidays there this year, I thought it would be a good time to check it out. So, I got together a group of friends and took a holiday in Chantemerle, one of the four linked villages that make up Serre Chevalier.


I’d heard a lot of good things about the area – it’s the third largest resort in Europe, has an expanse of off-piste terrain, amazing tree runs, quiet slopes and lots of sunshine. So it had a lot to live up to!

Europe has had a pretty darn amazing season so far. Apparently the Christmas and New Year period in Serre Chevalier was off-the-hook with tons of pow for shredding. Unfortunately a bout of wind and warmer weather had crusted up the off-piste a little for our arrival, but the pistes were amazing! The variety of trails had the classic European feel with wide open perfectly groomed motorway runs, with a few tree-lined cat-tracks further down towards the valley.

There's a lot of sunshine in Serre Chevalier and clouds are easy to avoid!

What made the whole experience very un-European was the lack of crowds. The mountain was eerily quiet at times, which meant that you could open up the throttle on the wide open pistes, without the fear of collision on every turn.

The variety of terrain suited our mixed ability group well. The blacks were challenging, particularly the “Luc Alphand” downhill run in Chantemerle – definitely worth a spin to tire you out at the end of the day, and the bonus is that the run ends directly outside The Station – one of Serre Chevalier’s hottest après spots. It is definitely one of the more challenging home runs I’ve experiences, but is a hell of a lot of fun when conditions are good! On the other end of the scale, the beginner slopes and intermediate terrain was plentiful, particularly around the Villeneuve area (home of Ski Connections ski school). There are also a few parks to play around in. The Snow Park between Chantemerle and Villeneuve has a great variety of kickers, from easy green through to scary blacks and has some fun and accessible rails, boxes and bonks. Then for the more experienced jibbers there’s a natural feature park called the “Mele Zone” with a big variety of log bassed jibs – it was mostly big and high stuff with icy surroundings – definitely one for when the conditions are a little softer as the area is ungroomed. There are also a couple of boardercross tracks dotted around, which are always good fun!

Enjoying a bit of boardercross

Après and nightlife is a lot of fun. As mentioned before, the Station Bar at the base of Chantmerle is a popular après spot and has very affordable drinks during the two hour happy period (3€ for pints and 1€ 50 wines). On the downside you have to tolerate a rather irritating house band. Villeneuve equivalent The Grotte has a great vibe and is lively right from après until 2 in the morning. Also, we spent a couple of evenings in Mojo bar in the village of Villeneuve where Adam, one of our trainee instructors, works. It’s a really nice little French bar for a more chilled out drink and two-for-one cocktails on Wednesday nights!

Seemingly the wind and sun had made this a predominantly piste week. However, all is not lost when you know somebody in the know. On Tuesday afternoon we were lucky enough to hook up with Christian, our course host in Serre Chevalier, and a bunch of his instructor buddies. He had word of a secret powder stash that was sheltered from the wind and sun. Of course I jumped at the opportunity to hunt it down, even though it involved a fair hike and brutal traverse (for a regular snowboarder). Those experiences are a story for another day. Stay tuned...

How to earn your turns... stay tuned!