St Sorlin d’Arves

The “Where to Ski” guide for covers over 1000 resorts, 400 in detail, and is considered by many wintersports enthusiasts as the most comprehensive guide available. It was however in vain that I searched there for the French resort of St Sorlin d’Arves and the ski area known as “Les Sybelles” in the heart of the Maurienne valley.

When I asked my skiing colleagues about the resort, I was met with blank looks. Even the information that Olympic Gold slalom winner Jean Pierre Vidal (the event in which our own Alain Baxter briefly won bronze) hails from the area, did not make them any the wiser.

St Sorlin may be unheard of today, but within the next two years, if developments go according to plan, the resort will link up with 6 others and offer a combined ski area of over 300km. Maybe not quite the 3 Valleys, but les Sybelles will rank amongst the top ten biggest ski terrains in Europe.

Until recently, the Maurienne valley has been largely ignored by the British market. Its reputation for offering ugly, inaccessible French ski resorts with poor infrastructure and limited skiing ensured that the British took the high speed autoroute along the neighbouring Tarentaise Valley and ascended to the reliable Brit-friendly resorts of Courchevel, Meribel, Val d’Isere and la Plagne.

From time to time, British companies have tried to entice their guests to some of the 20 odd Maurienne valley resorts such as Val Fréjus and Valloire, but there has never been any significant enthusiasm for these destinations. It is a small, mainly self-drive market who venture off the well-beaten track.

Will we be tempted to try somewhere new? Significant developments suggest we will. Construction of the autoroute from Albertville to the Frejus tunnel has replaced a tedious valley road clogged with Italian juggernauts, with a smooth and fast highway leading to hub towns from which the mountain resorts are a short climb.

But it is the vision of one man to transform the Sybelles ski area from a cluster of largely separate villages into a seamless and impressive domain which will have the greatest impact. Originally a baker and confectioner by trade, Guy Maulin rose to become the second largest producer of chocolate in France, distributing 18 million tons each year for the shelves of supermarkets across Europe.

A decision to sell the business enabled Maulin to pursue investments in white gold rather than black magic, and he began by acquiring the ski-lift company in the unremarkable purpose-built resort of le Corbier.

Although it is linked with neighbouring la Toussiure, the two resorts offer limited intermediate skiing and have never been of much interest to the British. Maulin soon realised that attracting a truly international clientele meant attacking the massive project of fully linking up the surrounding resorts.

The solution was to acquire a majority stake in the ski lift companies for St Sorlin d’Arves and St Jean d’Arves, and this astute commercial move has led to fast -track construction work on and off the slopes.

The plan to open up the “Ouillon” mountain at over 2400m altitude during 2003 through a series of new lifts, will create a crossroads for the resorts of the Sybelles area and bring together a total of 315km of interlinked skiing, as well as a vast off piste area.

The highest resort to benefit will be St Sorlin, which until now has sat alone with its 90km of good intermediate skiing. In early April last season, most of the runs were still open and the quality of snow was surprisingly good. It’s not a high-tech resort but it has a good distribution of chairs and draglifts with effective snowmaking machines enabling skiing right back down to the village.

Built along a winding road which rises steeply, much of the newly built accommodation is to be found at the very top of the resort which has the benefit of direct access to the main runs. Work has already commenced on a new development of luxury, chalet-style buildings with over 2,100 high quality beds, a covered swimming pool and virtual doorstep skiing. This single development will increase the total tourist beds in the resort by over 30% and will, it is confidently anticipated, attract the much desired (by some at least) international clientele.

The Church at St Sorlin

The challenge will be to retain what is still a traditional French village, with a character and charm rarely found in purpose-built resorts. A cheese making factory is open to the public each morning where visitors witness production methods which have not changed for centuries, and then can make their purchases from the adjoining shop. The local museum (open Thursday afternoons from 3-6pm) displays a carefully preserved collection of local artefacts. Traditional costumes, looms, cheese making contraptions, wooden skis and lace-up boots are meticulously arranged over 2 cramped floors giving an insight into mountain life before someone hit on a far easier way to make money from snow.

A five minute drive from St Sorlin leads to St Jean d’Arves, a smaller and more compact village where the skiing currently links to le Corbier, but which until now has not had the necessary investment in lifts and snow cannons to put it on the international map. Like St Sorlin, St Jean is also the centre of a large building project which has added 800 tourist beds to its portfolio and is already being actively marketed to the British.

Looking forward to 2003, the future for St Sorlin, St Jean and the other resorts of the Sybelles area is dynamic and astute local businesses will be rubbing their hands together with anticipation. As these mountain resorts wake up to the lure of international tourists and their spending power, the question of whether they will retain their charm or simply become ski factories is uncertain.

Visitors to St Sorlin in 2004 will see the first evidence of the familiar sights of British tour operators: the ski reps, guides and chalet staff, the Saturday morning exodus of coaches departing for Lyon and Chambery airports (both less than 2 hours drive away), and the typical après-ski fare of bar crawls, tobogganing races and fondue nights.

And, without doubt, there will be the first listing in the Where to Ski guide…

St Sorlin website

Ski France (0208 313 0690) www.skifrance.co.uk features a week in St. Jean d’Arves staying in the 4* Residence La Fontaine du Roi (with indoor pool) self-catering, with apartments for 4, 6 or 8 people, including travel by air or train. When parents book a lift pass and ski hire, children under 12 receive the same for free. For the 2003/2004 season, Ski France will be promoting a 4* luxury residence on the slopes of St Sorlin with indoor swimming pool.

Ski Travel Insurance for the trip was provided by
Accomplish travel insurance