Airports: Geneva - 2h, Zurich -3.5h
Village: elevation 1450m, free buses, shops and restaurants,
Lodging: Some upscale hotels, apartments, homes
Walkability score: 9/10 Budget score: 6/10
Ability level: Intermediate/Expert, Ski Schools rating: 9/10
This area is close to Verbier Village. Both sides of this ridge are steep with black and red piste that will make you exhilarate. Verbier and Tsoumaz villages present great possibility for piste skiing as well as off-piste when conditions allow. Verbier slopes are warm in the afternoon while Tzoumaz stay in a shade thruout the day
The most active and central part of Verbier ski area. Lodges, restaurants, gondolas and lifts come together and create perfect hub. Many activities - dog sledding, parasailing. Ski schools meetup area. Busy at the end of the day but easy way to head back to the village via Medran gondola. Your trip to Mont Fort will start here either via La Chaux tram.
Offers both views and excellent alpine skiing at top altitude of 2700m. It provides access to other 4 valleys and wide steep red and black runs as well as excellent glades and off-piste skiing. Reachable via lift and gondola Les Attelas is a perfect spot to watch Freeride competition on Mont Gele 3000m high slopes
3 Day itinerary:
Day 1
Start your day by heading to the La chaux base at 2260m via Medran 1 gondola and Chaux express chondola. You should unload if you had taken a chair and not cabin on this lift at Fontanet 2455 base and head down towards La Chaux via one of nice wide and perfectly groomed red/blue slopes. Once at La Chaux make 2-3 runs via either one of 2 lifts - Chaux Express or Chaux 2 to warm up. Once ready take either lift up and ski down to Attelas lift. Take this lift up towards Attelas 2734m. Stop for a coffee or just appreciate Mont Gele views on the right at the restaurant next to the lift top. Head down to Lac des Vaux lift 1 or 2. Take either one of these lifts and make a few runs in the beautiful but usually cold area back to the lift base. Depending on you level you can either start heading back towards Les Ruinetes and explore red slopes down to Verbier valley or head to Mont Fort via La Chaux.
Option 1: Head back to Verbier and stay on the front side for the rest of the day. You should take piste down from Attelas to Ruinettes and have a lunch there or make a few more runs down Maentzet lift base and take that lift one or 2 times. By now you will certainly need luch. There are few nice slopside restaurants but smaller ones require reservations. Spend afternoon on The Savoleyres slopes - see the plan below.
Option 2: If you are an upper intermediate or expert skier head to Mont Fort (but only on a nice weather day for the views). Reach La Chaux base via Fontanet and take 3 Jumbo 115 person tram. Upon unloading you can decide whether to take the Mont Fort tram or head back to La Chaux via long and sometimes steep run just under the tram. If taking Mont Fort tram make sure to take pictures at the top, have a coffee and hith the bathroom before hitting a single very steep mogul trail. This is one of legendary trails and should not be taken lightly. Especial challenge is presented by narrow and steep entrance to the trail that may nock you of your skis and send your body down hitting every single mogul at highest speed possible. I;ve seen it multiple times and it almost never ends well. Please be cautious. There is always an option to head back via tram and many chose it. If have skied doMont Fort you will need to take a t-Bar back to the base of 3 trams. On the first day I would recommend to head back to the front side and have lunch this point.
Afternoon Day 1:
Spend the rest of the day on Savolyeryes slopes and occasionally ski down to La Tzoumaz. There are quite a few trails on both sides of the ridge and they all good in the afternoon when sunny side of Savolyeris is soft and La Tzoumaz side is not as cold as in the morning. From the top of Savolyeryes you can ski down to the bottom of Maentzet lift and continue to Medran base from there. Alternativly you can take a free bus from La Carrefour or from Savolyeryes base back to Medran.All busses at verbier village run on 10-15 min schedule.
Day 2:
I recommend starting every day like day 1, perhaps spending less time on the slopes of Le Chaux. The rest of the morning is spent well by exploring Nendaz valley. It takes about 30 min to 1 hour to reach Nendaz. Depending on your level you may choose to explore Chassoure at 2700m by reaching it from the Lac Des Vaux 2. You can take long and challenging mogul trail down or just take a Chassoure gondola down. This almost 700m decent to Tortin base is both beautiful and adventurous as you can venture out of mogul trail for extended slopes that bring you to Tortin bas e eventually. Tortin base gives you 3 possibility depending how your day 1 went.
Option 1: Continue down to Nendaz valley if you want easier and more intermediate experience. Trail to Siviez is a nice, easy blue run that gives you a greate impression of the valley and surrounding mountains. At Sivez you can take Tortin lift back up and ski this run one more time or choose between Combatseline lift and Siviez gondola. Both of these offer very steep blue runs and black runs that you may struggle with when conditions are icy. Chose Sivez gondola to go over Plan-Du-Fou while stopping at the restaurant at the top for lunch and reach Prarion base at 1770 m or Ski down under gondola on a long black run. Alternatively... take Combatseline lift and ski couple of steep red runds back down the valley. You can have lunch at the top of Combatseline at 2240m.
Option 2: From Tortin base take Col Des Gentianes tram to 2950m and ski Mont Fort if you haven't on day one. Take off-piste trail or tram back to Tortine and retrace your morning path back to Verbier. The off-piste trail here is legendary and long but not as difficult as Mont Fort mogul run.
Option 3: From Tortine base take Chassoure gondola up and ski famous Chassoure-Torting mogul trail again, and again and again. You will not get bored, but probably will get tired.
Afternoon Day 2:
If you chosen Option 1 for day 2 you have a chance to explore more of Nendaz valley. From the top of Sivez gondola take a very steep black run down to Prarion - it is a very steep and often slippery one. Only take it if your skis are sharpened and you are comfortable skiing icy trails. You can also take Prarion - Plan-du-Fou gondola down and continue to Tracouet at 2200 m via Prarion lift. Tracouet is a flat top above Nendaz village. It is suitable for beginners and has all the installations for ski schools. Leave this area quickly by going down to Nendaz village at 1400 m. Don't be fooled by the color code of blue trail - it is also quite long, challenging and steep - make sure to avoid various beginners groups on this trail. At Nendaz village stop for a cofee and start retracing your steps back to Verbier village. Bus is not an option here as it will take a couple of hours to reach Verbier by bus. Your ski plan on the way back includes Tracouet via Tracouet gondola, skiing down to Prarion, Plan-du-Fou gondola up and skiing down to Siviez. Tortin lift up to Tortin and Gondola up to Chassoure, ski down to Lac Des Vaux base and lift up to Attelas. This is a true ski safari that will make you tired and you probably want to just head back to the front side of Verbier and head down to Maentzet lift base. If you still have something left in you take this lift up and take a forest catwalk trail down to Medran gondola base.
Day 3:
Today you can polish your Verbier experience and repeat day 1 or day 2 or alternatively you can expand on your experience and visit Veysonnaz and Thyon areas.These 2 areas are famous for freeride skiing while Thyon also has very large family and learning areas. The pinnacle of this day can be a Greppon Blanc mountain. It offers a wide terrain for freeride as well as connection to Vesoynnaz and Thyon bases. Reach Combastline as on day 2, take it up to Combastline base at 2240m and ski down to 2 t-bars at the base of Greppon Blanc. Take the left t-bar and unload to the left on the top. You can take one-two laps here and that the same t-Bar again. Once ready to continue take a red run down to Greppon blanc 3 lift base. You can take another couple of smooth off-piste laps here every time coming back to the same place at the bottom of this lift via either one of 2 t-bars. Meina and Les Chottes. You can stop by lodge here and have lunch if you want or continue to Thyon 2000 via long traverse - this is the only way to get to Thyon and Veysonnaz.
Day 3 afternoon:
Take couple of runs down to Mayens-De-L'ours and Veysonnaz Village if you have at least 2-3 hours left you can try Etherolla at 2450m and its spectaular black run under Etherolla lift with almost 1000m vertical drop over several miles of trail. Retrace your steps back to Verbier. It is quite important that you start heading back before 2:30 PM to have anouph time to get to Athellas by 4PM. This day better start early at 8:45 AM or you should skip on Thyon altogether.
At this point you essentialy covered all 4 Valleys. See 4 and 6 days itineraries for hidden Verbier gems.
4 Day itinerary:
For the 4 day Itinerary we suggest adding a fun filled day at Savolyeryes and Tzoumaz:
Option 1:
Start 4th day like day 1. Once you reach Attelas you will begin a very long decent into Tzoumaz village. It mainly off piste decent that often can be done even if conditions are icy. The reason is that it almost never gets natural sun in the winter and almost entirely north facing. Still if there was a warmer day and night freeze I wouldn't recommend it. If conditions allow and your legs are set for it it will take some 30-40 min to reach Tzoumaz on skis. Start by turning slightly left right before the bottom of Lac Des Vaux 1 lift. You will see the gate and it will be marked with trail conditions. This is an avalanche area so pay close attention and have avalanche equipment. While continue towards Col Des Mines. You will pass a very nice open area while turning left in a several hundreds meters and reaching a narrow cornice that is almost horizontally wraps a vertical wall of Col Des Mines. It is usually cleaned with snowblower but you still need to be very careful as passing thru this narrow area is quite difficult to stop. You should make it in one shot and not stop on the way because you may become almost certainly an opticle to other skiers takin this same path. Once reaching the split in the route at Col Des Mines in the open suddle that provides a great view on both Verbier and Tzoumaz valley take a break and then continue down to the right. The route is pretty obvious and you shouldn't get lost. Ski down a very mougly and beautiful trail while enjoing the views and reaching the cat walk at the bottom. Stay on that catwalk all the way until it reaches the auto road and continues on its side walk all the way to La Tzoumaz gondola.
Option 2:
Actually belongs to a powder day. you want to stay on the East side of Col des Mines. and ski back to Verbier village reaching either Medran or Carrefour bases. This will allow you to fully enjoy the powder off-piste skiing while not getting to far from the village. Traversing the resort on powder days is almost always time consuming and tiring. It is much better to slay close to the base and take as many runs as you can handle while returning to the same base and taking the same lift. Inca case of Verbier this would be Savolyeryes gondola which can be reached by a quick bus ride from the the Carrefour stop. The gondola will soon be supplemented with high speed detacheble chair which will make this transfer all the way to the top of La Tzoumaz village even simpler.
Reach Croix-de-Coeur - after whichever option you have chosen for the morning and have late lunch there - make sure you made a reservation if you want to have a full lunch. You certainly deserve it on this day.
Day 4 afternoon:
Explore La Tzoumaz slopes - easier close to the top and more steep back to the village. Take lift or gondolas as needed to get back to Savolyeryes and ski down the eastern slope at the end of the day. The bus will take you back to Medran in 10 minutes. Alternatively you can skii down to Carrefour by traversing eastern side of Savolyeryes via blue trail that enters wooden catwalk and soon reaches the Carrefour bus station. From there you can continue skiing down to the base of Medran.
3 Day itinerary:
Day 1-4
Refer to 3 and 4 days itinerary
Day 5
By now you have probably got familiar with all 4 valleys and identified Verbiers answer to your skiing ability. Start your day on a preferable warm-up terrain and reach Attelas when you feel sufficiently warmed up. Take mont Gele 45 person tram to the top of Mont Gele. From the top continue down to Tortin. This route provides an excellent off-piste experience even 2 weeks after the latest snow. and may take 30 min or more. You will enjoy open bowl views at firs with multiple moguls, powder stretches and finally long traverse at the bottom of the gorge followed by yet another long mogul decent into Tortin. This run can be done twice on that day but it would be difficult to get back to the top as you will have to take Chassoure gondola and Lac Des Vaux 1 lift before you reach Mont Gele tram again which can have a quite long queue to load.
Finish your day once again in Savolyeryes area or at La Tzoumaz village slopes.
Day 6:
Its a back country day. Hire a guide (in advance) and take one of multiple backcountry routes around Verbier. This is based on you desire, ability and guide as per which route you may take. Spoiler - They all are beautiful.