We scored a powder day at La Clusaz. Sadly, it was on an incredibly busy Saturday in January when it seemed the whole of western Europe decided to go skiing ……….. at La Clusaz.

A long queue of cars awaited us. Paid parking sucks, as does the ski bus which costs too! Walking through the original village was pleasant. Skiing the lower part of the mountain as lifts slowly opened after the storm was icy, despite the expectation of fresh snow. We headed across to the best terrain in the resort below the Massif de Balme. The linking trail was long & would not please any snow-boarder. The return trail was worse due to the Furney gondola not running & snowboarders were noted walking for much of it. Oh well, any day in the snow is a good day……

Through cunning observation, we snuck ahead of the pack onto the resorts highest chair & plundered steep waste deep powder below the Col de Balme. We got a second run in before the entire upper bowl was smashed by the frenzied humanity. Fun though, & certainly super quality, steep freeride terrain that few places have straight off a lift. Staying off-piste, the lower half of the 1200m+ skiable vertical via the Combe de Balme became gradually like elephant snot, then glue, then crud, then ice. The base levels at La Clusaz are too low for quality snow. In Austria, 1000 to 1200m elevation is ok, but questionable, in France it is nearly ridiculous these days.

As an incoming storm finally shut down any worthwhile lifts, we skied from L’Etale down the scaly L’Envers piste that crossed numerous stone laden driveways (WTF!) back into the main village. Looks like access to the private chalets trumps the lower ski slopes here.

Having called it a day & needing an urgent wee stop, I noted that any passer-by could look in on all the shrunken man-hoods through a clear glass window in the public toilets. Ah the French!

After being informed there was no refund on our lift ticket deposit (what is the deposit for?), it was with great relief that we left, possibly never to return such was my disappointment. Lucky it was a deep powder up top. Imagine what I would have said otherwise!

Whilst the village of La Clusaz has a sprawl of hotels, apartments buildings & chalets running up two valleys, we elected to overnight in the magnificent surrounds of the medieval walled village of Conflans, sitting pretty above the downtrodden city of Albertville. A fine bar with a huge array of brews, beer taps mounted on a motorcycle engine block, some tasty local food & a wander around the town walls in falling snow made everything right again.

Ski La Clusaz on a road journey from Geneva if there is deep fresh snow or if doing a reconnaissance for when there is deep fresh snow. But do it during the middle of the week, starting early to get first lifts.

You can see our thoughts on the pros and cons on the La Clusaz overview page and also see our European ski resort ratings page regarding how we score it compared to other skiing areas.