The world's toughest ski runs

Poster King

See article in today's Indo:

http://www.independent.ie/travel/winter-holidays/the-worlds-toughest-ski-runs-1613429.html

I've skiied 4 of these, and wouldn't consider any of them to be that tough compared to other runs I've done.
The Champagne Run in Vaujany does sound like a tough one alright. Anyone skiied it?

The longest run I've ever done is in Verbier, Top of Mont Fort, 3330m, to Le Chable at about 730m. Drop of over 2500m. In fairness most of it is unpisted and most of the lower bit is skiing through vinyards, over walls and avoiding all sorts of obstacles, though it is signposted all the way so could qualify as a ski run. The top of Mont Fort under the cable car is one of the steepest runs I've done, though Col de Chassure in Verbier is also scary at the top.

Vallon de la Sache in Tignes is a great long black run which I skiied again in lovely powder a few weeks ago. Awesome!

The Couloirs below Saulire cable car in Courchevel are tough alright, but the rest of that run is pretty easy.

The toughest on piste runs in my opinion are the ones which are long with big bumps all the way, like Epaule de Charvet in Val d'Isere. Those bumps will take it out of you pretty quick. Did it top to bottom recently without stopping and nearly passed out at the bottom.

sarsfield06

I agree, runs only become really difficult when there are bumps, then the thighs start to burn. This list seems to be about indurance rather than difficulty. I've only done the Cervinia run but none of the others, and I thought I'd skied a bit!

There are lots of ski races from tops of mountains to the bottom, The Inferno in Murren is one famous one, that would be a good test of indurance. Also there is a race in St Anton in April from Valluga to village, that's a tough one as it's at the end of the day so the whole course is chopped up into slushy moguls. The most vert I have covered was over Christmas in Chamonix down the Vallee Blanche, uninterrupted snow (and ice!) from 3800m to 1000m.

robinph

I think I must have done parts of the one they are on about in Cervina.

Wouldn't have done it all the way without stopping though but my GPS did clock me as going at 96kmph at some point near the top there, but that was when there was nobody else about. I tried again the next day to see if I could break 100kmph, but couldn't get anywhere near that speed the next day. I didn't notice anything particuarly difficult about any of the runs there though.

Dubhthamlacht

I'm kind of surprised they didn't mention the Sarenne in Alpe D'huez. 16km of muscle burning ache. Longest black run in europe.

prunudo

I wonder who classed these as the toughest or are they just the authur's own opinions. I've done three of those runs and didnt have a problem with them yet I wouldn't call myself a very experienced boarder.

onimpulse

Dubhthamlacht wrote: »

I'm kind of surprised they didn't mention the Sarenne in Alpe D'huez. 16km of muscle burning ache. Longest black run in europe.

I didn't think the Sarenne was a difficult black... long yes but really only the first bit was black - if you avoided the very start it would only be red by the middle & blue at the bottom. That first 300m or so was really nasty though!

mcgratheoin

I suspect that the author has just culled these from some random website - I'd be very surprised if he has skied all of them, plus enough others to make a judgement.
As mentioned, they're all endurance feats, but nothing really technically difficult there. I would imagine that most good intermediate skiers could get down all these runs with a good level of fitness, but I can easily think of one or two others that require a bit more technical expertise. One of the runs is a blue run all the way ffs.

As poster king mentions, the couloirs in Courchevel would be a bit more demanding - although once you get down the first 30m or so just off the cable car it's pretty straightforward and you need to get out of grand couloir to get a decent line. The entrance along the ridge looks pretty hairy though - great for bringing friends to the top of and seeing their reaction as you head down it...
The Swiss Wall in Avoriaz can be tricky as well - but both of these are just steep mogul fields - once you can ski moguls and powder, then they lose any fear factor that they may have initially had due to reputation.

For non-moguled pistes how about the Hahnenkamn when it's race prepared? Without racing skis there's just no way to grip on parts of it. There's also a 45 degree slope in Trysil in Norway that drops away from the top so you can't see where you're going over the crest. Impossible to turn on the first few metres (too steep & icy), but once the initial step into the unknown is complete it's just another piste...



**edit** Original article

Introduction that the Indo didn't print..

If you’ve gorged to excess over the holiday now is the time to ski off those mince pies and Christmas pudding with a mighty mountain workout that will leave those superfluous calories blazing in your wake.

Here’s my choice of what I consider to be eight of the toughest runs in the world. Strangely, none of them are wickedly steep. Indeed, whole sections of some are even graded “easy” on the local piste map.

You don’t have to be a brilliant skier to tackle them - if you’ve tucked just a few weeks of turns under your belt and have learnt to ski parallel you can have a go.

You don’t need World Cup skills. You just need strong legs and a dogged determination because there’s a catch to my post-Christmas challenge. The tough part is that you have to ski them without stopping for a single breather along the way.

Makes a lot more sense with that intro....

paddyb

he must have got these off some website. Ive done the grand motte and peak to creek. Peak to creek is not tough, its just long and not groomed.
Any intermediate could do the two above runs

mcgratheoin

On a follow up - here's the Guardian's top 10

Eavesdrop in any bar in any resort and the chances are you'll overhear people debating the greatest question on skis: Where is the best run in the world?

This discussion, as they say, will run and run. We're not attempting to resolve the question once and for all - but here are 10 of our favourites, guaranteed to blow your mind. The first five are scenic spectaculars, which will give a confident intermediate a thrill of achievement; the other five are challenges that will give any advanced skier an unforgettable blast of high-altitude adrenaline...

Intermediate


1 Parsenn
Davos, Switzerland

The birthplace of Alpine skiing still boasts one of the greatest cruises on snow anywhere. You reach it via the first true skiers' funicular railway - built in 1931, half a century after the first pair of skis to touch Alpine snow were brought here from Norway by a former TB patient. The Parsenn railway - much faster after a rebuild this summer - takes skiers up to the 2,662-metre Weissfluhjoch. Here skiers embark on what feels like an epic journey across the massif, from high above the tree line, into the forest and past some welcoming huts (more like chalet-bars) down to the valley floor for the train ride home. Longest run is an eight-mile cruise to Küblis; another version curls around to royal Klosters.

2 Sella Ronda
Dolomites, Italy

This is not so much a run as a long-distance circuit - a world classic, set in the Dolomites, home to the most breathtaking scenery in the Alps. Limestone cliffs turn pink in the afternoon sunrise above gentle pastures that make for ideal intermediate cruising. Looping around a mighty limestone crag, the Sella Ronda is a chain of about 14 miles of runs linked by nine miles of lifts, passing cheerful mountain huts and several villages along the way (Selva is the most popular base for skiers). It's easily done in a day. Clockwise involves less poling, but it's worth doing in both directions - and starting early enough to have time for detours.

3 Sarenne
Alpe d'Huez, France

This claims to be the longest black run in the Alps, a 10-mile blast promising about an hour and a half of continuous skiing down a near vertical drop of 2,000 metres. Starting point is the 3,330-metre Pic Blanc, with vast views of dozens of untouched peaks in the Parc National des Ecrins. Most of the distance is down to the long run-out along the bottom of the Sarenne gorge - rather too flat for snowboarders. The hairy part is the steep launch - though less than fearless intermediates can bypass the steep mogul field at the top.

4 South Face
Lake Louise, Canada

In a continent where most ski mountains look like pumped-up hills, Lake Louise has the most spectacular views. You appreciate its frozen namesake best - surrounded by pines, overlooked by high cliffs and the Victoria glacier - from the grand Chateau Lake Louise hotel dating from 1890. You get a long view from the ski area across the valley from any of the runs on the South Face. Perhaps the best intermediate run is from the Top of the World Express quad chair down Sunset Terrace, joining into a thrilling high-speed cruise down the black-diamond Men's Downhill - a fast, tough intermediate run when it's groomed. Juniper is a gentler alternative.

5 Vallée Blanche
Chamonix, France

The most scenic run in the Alps is a descent lasting up to 15 miles along a sequence of glaciers just below Mont Blanc. The hardest part is the walk down from the Aiguille du Midi - at 3,840 metres, the highest cable car in Europe - to the start of the run: hang onto the fixed rope, and try not to think about the 2,000-metre plunge into the valley. The run itself is a gentle cruise, easy enough for any confident intermediates who can handle patches of ungroomed snow - though you need a guide, not least for the tricky narrow squeezes between crevasses. Stop frequently to gawp at the breathtaking landscapes of 4,000-metre peaks, vast snowfields and séracs (tumbling cliffs of ice).

Advanced


6 Valluga
St Anton, Austria

The birthplace of modern ski technique remains a magnet for advanced skiers largely because of the vast powder-filled bowls that spread out below the 2,811-metre Valluga. Few skiers, however, set off from the summit itself. So dangerous is the descent that unless you are with a qualified guide you aren't allowed to bring your skis into the top cable car - a curious vehicle like a six-person standing coffin. Only the very beginning is terrifying - fall and you'll probably shoot over the cliff to instant death. Thereafter it's a thrilling cruise through rolling fields of powder down to Zürs - and some great mountain restaurants.

7 Corbet's Couloir
Jackson Hole, USA

You get a glimpse of the thrills in store on North America's most notorious run as you peer down into Corbet's Couloir from the cable car gliding overhead. It starts with a leap from a cornice and a free-fall of about 12 feet. The landing is steeper than 50 per cent, so unless you start turning very quickly you'll crash into the cliff-like walls of the couloir. This isn't even the hardest run on the mountain, which claims the most extreme lift-served skiing in the continent; it's just the toughest one with a name. Successful challengers lose no time in telling of their exploits in the lively saloons of the old cowboy town of Jackson, down in the valley.

8 Hahnenkamm
Kitzbühel, Austria

The most famous event in the World Cup calendar - and arguably the toughest - is the Hahnenkamm, to be held this winter on 24-26 January. Highlights of the course include an 85 per cent gradient at the top of Mausfalle (the mouse trap); racers regularly leap up to 80 metres through the air, at speeds of up to 90mph. Once the event is over, the course is often open to the public, conditions permitting. It isn't maintained as a racing course, so you can either slalom down gently or scare yourself silly contemplating what the racers do: no gates, no turns, straight down the mountain...

9 Pas de Chèvre
Argentière, France

You certainly need a goat-like head for heights on this one. But even intermediates skiing the towering Grands Montets area in the Mont Blanc valley will wander over from the top of the Bochard gondola for a glimpse through this cleft in the crag at the giddying plunge down to the crevasses in the Mer de Glace thousands of metres below. Plenty of powder hounds (with guide, of course) launch themselves into the steep couloirs for a thrilling descent down to the glacier. Argentière, at the foot of the mountain, is home to many of Europe's top extreme skiers.

10 Flying Kilometre
Les Arcs, France

This may look like assisted suicide but the organisers claim it's safe: and for €12.50 (about £8) you are guaranteed an adrenaline rush that will leave you wobbly for the rest of the day. Speed skiing makes a World Cup downhill race look like a bumbling meander down the mountain, and Les Arcs hosts the world championships on a permanent, immaculately groomed course that begins with a 76 per cent gradient near free fall on the face of the Aiguille Rouge. The current record, set by Philippe Goitschel, is 250.70kph (160mph) - more than twice Britain's motorway speed limit. Price includes equipment hire and survivor's medal.

Dubhthamlacht

onimpulse wrote: »

I didn't think the Sarenne was a difficult black... long yes but really only the first bit was black - if you avoided the very start it would only be red by the middle & blue at the bottom. That first 300m or so was really nasty though!

aye yeah i would agree it's not the toughest in terms of technique. The sheer endurance of it though had me wrecked for the rest of the day. And yeah the first 300m or so scared the crap out of me!

goofygirl

hmmm. talk is cheap.

really, it has little to do with the length of a run (unless you're not really in shape) and much more to do with the conditions: some runs can be absolute heaven on a powder day and then bloody impossible if it's icy...

plus as well this is only talking about groomed runs I assume. anything off-piste but still in-bounds can also be, how shall I put it, challenging depending on the line you take