Champery

Champery offers access to the Portes du Soleil domain with 650km of pistes, 206 lifts, 243km of cross-country skiing, 7 funparks, 3 halfpipes, 2 countries and just one lift pass! Thanks to the unique location on the north-western slope of the alps, the Portes du Soleil ski area gets dumped upon with powder by every snow cloud coming from the north or west. And in Europe, they pretty much always come from the north-west. This makes the Portes du Soleil a freerider's paradise. The 206 lifts together with some small hikes give access to wide powder fields and challenging terrain.

"As far as I was concerned, this had been one of the best ski days I'd had in three decades of sliding around the world..."
Michel Beaudry, POWDER Magazine.

Champery is a pretty village, with narrow streets, pleasantly rustic wooden buildings, informal cafes, nice little shops and a friendly atmosphere. Its access to the Portes du Soleil ski circuit is good, although the local slopes do not allow skiing back to the village and suffer from poor snow reliability on south facing slopes. For intermediates the local slopes are adequate, experts will need to head further into the Portes du Soleil and for beginners they are far from ideal. The main cable car station is situated on the lower edge of the village so there is either a 5 - 10 minute walk to and from your accommodation or a short ride on the local shuttle bus service. There is a new 6 man fast chair at Grand Paradis (just around the corner from Champery) and there is a free, efficient bus service that links this with Champery. You can ski back down to Grand Paradis at the end of the day or take the cable car down from the mid station.