Sainte Foy Tarentaise : 01 January 2021
It’s been snowing all week in Sainte Foy! The New Year week is always the busiest week of the season, but this year it is very quiet in comparison to previous years. Ironically, it could still be the busiest week of this season!
Searching for the positives in a difficult situation is always important, and this is particularly so as we close the book on 2020. The above photo was taken on a New Year’s Day day when it was snowing and we had cloud cover for most of the day. We like the way it glimmers hope for 2021, and we look forward to a year when the world gets back on track!
Those who are here are having a great time! The lift company has been fantastic, and even though they are not allowed to operate the lifts for the general public, they have groomed the pistes for those eager to skin, hike or snowshoe up the mountain. Two pistes, Les Charmettes and La Chapelle are open for us to ski back down, but many are venturing higher up into areas which are closed and therefore considered off-piste.
The lift company is continuing to prepare the pistes for the much hoped-for start of the ski season, and snow canons continue to pump out artificial snow onto the pistes to secure their longevity through to the end of April. The snow canon in this next picture has been turned on to cloud-making mode though.
For anyone who is in Sainte Foy at the moment, please be aware that mountain safety is not at the level you would normally expect during a normal ski season, and that you need to be extra vigilant when venturing out onto the slopes.
- Pisteurs are triggering avalanches on an ad hoc basis only, to secure the facilities (buildings, chairlift, etc.)
- Pistes are not groomed. However, be careful, piste bashers can circulate in the middle of the day.
- The mountain ski area is not monitored. There are no ski patrollers on the mountain.
One of the best things about Sainte Foy is the way it is family orientated, and nothing demonstrates this better than our two luge slopes. Young children, (and the spirit of children living inside grown-ups), have buckets of energy for sledging long after their ski legs have given up for the day. The whooping and excited screams of children feeling the exhilaration of sliding down a snowy slope in Sainte Foy is something to warm the heart on a chilly late afternoon in the mountains.
The terrace at La Bergerie is a great spot for parents to keep an eye on their kids’ sledging skills, whilst warming their hands and cockles on one of the best vin chauds in the resort, all outside and socially distanced of course!
Thank you to the lift company for preparing the luge and beginner slopes for us.
The new Arpettaz chairlift has been giving its first rides up the mountain, but only for Sainte Foy Ski Club training sessions, the lifts being otherwise closed.
Snocool has been running excursions to their igloo in the forest. Thanks to Steve and Iona McDonald from Whiteroom Snowboarding for this great photo of them in the igloo.
‘Belle année à vous ! Que cette année soit meilleure que la précédente !’ Happy New Year to you! May this year be better than the last!
Read other articles about Sainte Foy on the Time to Ski blog page
