Skiing & Snowboarding in Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise

Sainte-Foy has a well earned reputation as a freeride snowboarding hotspot and certainly punches well above its weight in the off-piste department given the size of the resort. You’ll spend your days hitting natural rollers, drops and powder runs through the trees. Because the mountains here are predominantly north-west facing, any powder tends to stay nice and light all day long. And, because it’s a quiet, uncrowded resort, powder doesn’t get tracked out in the first five minutes.

It’s a delightfully quiet and pretty village with uncrowded slopes and a conspicuous lack of queues for the lifts. If you did for any reason get bored, it also serves as a great base for a day trip to the nearby Val D’Isere or Les Arcs.

The skiing & snowboarding

Sainte Foy is an ideal place to learn to snowboard as the conditions are ideal. There are pistes at every level to support your development as a boarder. It’s also a great place for kids as its small, safe and there aren’t too many lunatics flying around at breakneck speeds.

For boarders the real draw of Sainte Foy is the off-piste. The whole mountain can be reached using the two main lifts and there are a ton of backcountry options. Probably the most rewarding (and pretty demanding) off piste runs is Le Fogliettaz which has unreal snow all the time. You could also try Morion which is a much harsher, steeper and often icy run. A slightly easier backcountry run is Shaper’s paradise. All of these runs will present the boarder with a ton of natural hits and kickers to play all day (or all week) long on.

If the weather’s good, there’s one run in Sainte Foy that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face – the north face of Foliette. Accessible from the Col de l’Aiguille, it’s a 45 minute hike up to the start of the run. Your efforts are rewarded with a 1700 m floaty off-piste descent down to the village of Mazure. This is backcountry boarding at its best, but it’s essential that you carry a full avalanche rescue kit, and ideally take a guide.

For freestyle snowboarders, you should get all you need from the natural contours of the resort, but if you do want some manmade fun there is a good snowpark called Cret Serru.

Where to stay

A lot of development has taken place around Sainte Foy in the last number of years. While this has been very much in keeping with the local style, some fear that it is eroding the very traditional character of the village. For holidaymakers though, it does add a few dining and entertainment options to what was previously a very quiet resort. The resort is still quiet and definitely not the place for rampant hedonists, but now there is a bit more life about the place in the evenings.

Hotels and chalets are consistently good throughout the resort (mostly because they are all quite new). La Mercerie is a particularly attractive chalet while Auberge Sur La Montagne is a chic little boutique hotel.

Where to eat

Standout restaurants include Maison a Colonnes and Le Bergerie, but again, all the restaurants are of a pretty high standard offering filling and quality food for good value.

Après shred

Apres is limited because of the size and nature of the resort, but there are still a few good spots to make a decent dent in the days sobriety – try Le Saint Germain which is a top quality wine bar, L’á Coeur which is a new-ish and buzzy bar or the Iceberg which is a town staple. Again if your jonesing for something a little more hectic you can always head over to one of the bigger resorts for a minimal fee in a taxi.