Montgenevre France – Monts De La Lune Ski Area
Montgenevre France Ski Area is a very large ski area on both sides of the village of Montgenevre. It includes most of the lifts in Claviere Italy. But if you want to ski ALL of the Claviere lifts you must purchase the Monts De La Lune Ski Pass. And if you want to ski the entire Milky Way (Vialattea) Ski Region including all of Claviere’s lifts and 4 other Italian ski areas you must purchase the Vialattea Ski Pass.
Montgenevre is a big ski resort, on the border of France and Italy, in the Rhone Alps. Its referred to as part of the big Milky Way, Via Lattea ski region, but Montgenevre also stands alone as a huge ski-able resort, with high elevation – so important in the Alps today, mostly modern lifts, and great terrain.
Montgenevre skiing is a delightful mix of every type of ski terrain you could hope for on both sides of the village, with beautiful French and Italian Alps scenery. You can ski all aspects, from the north side, south facing which is a great place to start the day in the sunshine. Montgenevre has a dozen nice red and blue trails, plus a couple steep black trails which face north and east, served by three fixed grip chairs and the modern Serre Thibaud six pack chair/gondola “telemixe” lift. On the Chalvet (south facing side) side of the valley, just one beautiful lodge, Les Terraces sits mid-mountain on the beautiful Pharo trail and is lovely for a cappuccino stop or lunch on the terrace or inside the modern alpine-chic interior.
We also loved Montgenevre ego-pleasing wide trails in the upper mountain region of “Gondrans,” where a few low-angle lifts serve 1300-meters of vertical, and stunning views. Here you see ancient military stone structures at the summit – fascinating. Some of our favorite freeride terrain was on the connecting Crete lift up to a wide-open bowl. We also enjoyed the long Chamois prepared trail into Italy. This ski region typically has good snow, high elevation of 2400-2500, with a base elevation of about 1800 meters.
From Montgenevre, ride the beautiful summit gondola to L’Aigle to the summit and the French/Italian border (a fun place for international ski photos). Drop into Italy on a long fun slope and you will find three great on-mountain restaurants for Italian lunch or drinks. We loved our lunch on the sun terrace at Gimont… a wonderful mountain refuge chalet. Here there are several delightful red runs to choose from.
Montgenevre’s base valley, which is divided by a road from Claviere Italy to Briancon France, and actually includes the border, has a nice ski village with hotels, shops and restaurants, and ski bridges. A car tunnel keeps the through traffic hidden from town and the lifts. Montgenevre is family friendly, with snow parks, mascots, fun weekly activities, and there’s a thermal spa for adults and kids. We stayed in quieter authentic Italian Claviere, and could reach Montgenevre’s sunnier ski slopes in just one lift ride and ski run.
Montgenevre is part of Vialattea – translated in English to The Milky Way. Across the valley, from Claviere, is this massive ski resort, which includes Cesana – Sansicario and Sestriere. We’d hope to be able to ski all this via interconnected lifts, however the Claviere to Cesano lift connection was closed during our late March visit, lack of snow or lack of effort, the transfer lift was “kaput” – which meant a 30-minute drive down and up valley from Claviere to Sestriere. The Milky Way region’s lifts and trails seem to be extremely overstated, lifts have been removed, or are not operating regularly, some trails are not maintained, however Vialattea still boasts 400-km of skiing.
The most famous skiing of this “Milky Way” is Sestriere, famous for its World Cup ski racing, and high elevation at the summit. But since Sestriere is a frequent ski race venue, host of the 2006 Winter Olympics ski events, you encounter many international ski racers training, zooming by, and dominating famous trails that you’d hoped to ski. Also, the village of Sestriere is disappointingly ugly apartment architecture, even the “Olympic Village” and big circular concrete tower hotels seem out of place in an alpine ski village. See our review of skiing Vialattea- Sestriere, including some fun terrain we discovered in Sauze D’Oulx and Sansicario ski sectors, which are a bit quieter, with interesting trails.
Montgenevre skiing was the highlight of our ski visit to Vialattea. This beautiful region of the Cote D’Azur Alps is super historic too, an important ancient trade route, with remains of old stone military forts and medieval chapels scattered about the mountains.
Fun fact, The Tour de France often passes through here, and into Briancon – a beautiful French village of legend worth visiting on a day off from skiing.
From Montgenevre and Vialetta, on our ski safari, we enjoyed skiing nearby Serre Chevalier in Briancon. We also loved skiing the Haute Maurienne Alps, the next valley over through a 55 Euro tunnel. Here we skied Val Cenis, Bonneval sur Arc, La Norma and Valfrejus ski areas in this more authentic high alpine valley, an hour away via tunnel from Bardonecchia Italy (another fun but rustic ski area) to France.
The International Montgenevre France/Claviere Italy, Monts de la Lune, Ski Area Stats:
Elevation: 1358 – 2840M
Vertical Drop: 1482M
Lifts: 30
Trails: 87 Pistes – 110km
The French side Montgenevre France Ski Area Stats:
Elevation: 1780 – 2840M
Vertical Drop: 1060M
Lifts: 24
Trails: 78 Pistes – 95km
Vialattea – the entire 6 Ski Resort Milky Way
