Val d'Isère: piste guide - Telegraph Extent of the slopes Vast and varied Val d'Isère's slopes divide into three main sectors, two reachable from the village. Bellevarde is the mountain that is home to Val d'Isère's two famous downhill courses: the OK piste that is used for the World Cup every December and the Face piste that was used for the 1992 Winter Olympics and the 2009 World Championships. You can reach Bellevarde quickly by underground funicular from La Daille or the powerful Olympique gondola from near the centre of town. From the top you can descend to the valley, play on a variety of drags and chairs at altitude or take a choice of lifts to Tignes" slopes (see separate chapter). Solaise is the other mountain accessible directly from the village. The Solaise fast quad takes you a few metres higher than the parallel cable car. Once up, a short drag or rope tow takes you over a plateau and down to a variety of chairs that serve this very sunny area of predominantly gentle pistes. From near the top of this area you can catch the fast Leissières chair (which climbs over a ridge and down the other side) to the third main area, in the valley running up to the Col de l'Iseran. This area can also be reached by the fast chair from Le Laisinant or by cable car from Le Fornet. At the top here is the Glacier de Pissaillas. Fast lifts Access all areas High capacity lifts provide good access from the valley and there are lots of fast chairs higher up. But there are still a few slow chairs and draglifts around. Queues Few problems Queues to get out of the resort have been kept in check by lift upgrades and additions - but occasionally the Olympique gondola up Bellevarde has a short wait. On Solaise the slow Lac chair back up to the Tête Solaise can generate queues, but a recent reporter praises "the good queueing systems, with each chair ﬁlled to capacity." Crowded pistes in high season is a more common complaint than queues. Terrain parks Beginners and experts welcome Above the La Daille gondola and served by the Mont Blanc chairlift lies the DC Valpark (www.valdiserevalpark.com). Maintenance can be a bit hit or miss - but a recent April visitor said: "My son really enjoyed messing about in the park which, all credit to those responsible, was kept open and maintained as well as possible in warm conditions." There are 18 table jumps and 25 boxes and rails of all shapes and sizes. Plus a large hip, 3m wall ride and four kicker lines, with up to ﬁve jumps in a row ranging from 3m in the blue line to 20m in the pro line. Head to Tignes for a half-pipe. For experts One of the world's best Val d'Isère is one of the top resorts in the world for experts. The main attraction is the huge range of beautiful off-piste possibilities. There may be better resorts for really steep pistes - there are certainly lots in North America - but there is plenty of on-piste action to amuse most experts, despite the small number of blacks on the piste map. And some of these have been converted to "naturides," which means they are never groomed (a neat way of saving money!) but they are marked, patrolled and avalanche protected. Many reds and blues are also steep enough to get mogulled. On Bellevarde the famous Face run is the main attraction - often mogulled from top to bottom, but not worryingly steep and a wonderful blast if it has been groomed. Epaule is the sector's other black run - where the moguls are hit by long exposure to sun and can be slushy or rock hard (it is prone to closure for these reasons too). Most of the blacks on Solaise and above Le Fornet are now "naturides" (and the proper black from Solaise to the valley is no steeper than the alternative red). Wayne Watson of off-piste school Alpine Expérience puts a daily diary of off-piste snow conditions and runs on the web at www.alpineexperience.com. For intermediates Quantity and quality Val d'Isère has just as much to offer intermediates as experts. There's enough here to keep you interested for several visits - though pistes can be crowded in high-season, and the less experienced should be aware that many runs are under-classiﬁed. In the Solaise sector is a network of gentle blue runs, ideal for building conﬁdence. And there are a couple of beautiful runs from here through the woods to Le Laisinant - ideal in bad weather, though prone to closure in times of avalanche danger. Most of the runs in the Col de l'Iseran sector are even easier - ideal for early and hesitant intermediates. Those marked blue at the top of the glacier could really be classiﬁed green. Bellevarde has a huge variety of runs ideally suited to intermediates of all levels. From Bellevarde itself there is a choice of green, blue and red runs of varying pitch. The World Cup downhill OK piste is a wonderful rolling cruise when groomed. The wide runs from Tovière normally offer the choice of groomed piste or moguls. A snag for early intermediates is that runs back to the valley can be challenging. The easiest way is down to La Daille on a green run which would be classiﬁed blue or red in most resorts. It gets very crowded and mogulled by the end of the day. None of the runs from Bellevarde and Solaise back to Val itself is easy. Many early intermediates ride the lifts down. For beginners OK if you know where to go The nursery slope right by the centre of town is 95 per cent perfect; it's just a pity that the very top is unpleasantly steep. The lifts serving it are free. Once off the nursery slopes, you have to know where to ﬁnd easy runs; many of the greens should be blue, or even red. One local instructor admits: "We have to have green runs on the map, even if we don't have so many green slopes - otherwise beginners wouldn't come to Val d'Isère." A good place for your ﬁrst real runs off the nursery slopes is the Madeleine green run on Solaise (a "quiet skiing" zone served by a six-pack). The Col de l'Iseran runs are also gentle and wide, and not overcrowded. There is good progression terrain (and a big "quiet skiing" zone) on Bellevarde, too - though getting to it can be tricky. From all sectors, it's best to take a lift back down to the valley. Snowboarding Watch out for the flats Val d'Isère's more upmarket proﬁle attracts a different kind of holiday boarder from Tignes; the resort is, perhaps, seen as Tignes" less hard-core cousin. But the terrain here is great for freeriders. The easier slopes are suitable for beginners, and there are very few draglifts. But there are quite a few ﬂat areas where you'll end up scooting or walking. Specialist snowboard shops are Misty Fly and Quiksilver Boardriders. For cross country Limited There are a couple of loops in each of three areas - towards La Daille, on Solaise and out past Le Laisinant. More picturesque is the one going from Le Châtelard (on the road past the main cable car station) to the Manchet chair. But keen cross-country enthusiasts should go elsewhere. This guide is taken from Where to Ski and Snowboard, written by Dave Watts and Chris Gill.