Beginner Ski Areas in Chamonix

Chamonix centre has two low altitude nursery ski areas which are easily accessible on foot or by bus.

If you're a total beginner, the Savoy nursery ski area is probably the best place to start. There's a magic carpet here (basically a conveyor belt in the snow) and two drag lifts. 

Once you're ready to stretch your legs, Planards ski area has more terrain, several drag lifts and a chairlift.

Le Savoy nursery ski area

The Savoy nursery ski area has a very gentle gradient. The pistes are nice and wide, letting you practise turns and build confidence before heading higher up the mountain.

Free and discounted ski lifts for beginners

If you're a complete beginner, you don't need to buy a lift pass - at least not yet. The magic carpet is free of charge, so you can get used to sliding on snow in your own time.

You'll only need to buy a lift pass once you're ready to progress to the drag lifts on the other side of the field. You can get your pass from any of the ski pass offices.

Make sure you ask for a beginner lift pass, as these are a lot cheaper than a standard lift pass.

If your group is mixed ability

If you're skiing in a group with mixed ability, beginners can base themselves at Savoy, whilst your more accomplished skiers can take the Brévent gondola up to the main Brévent and Flégère ski area.

The Brévent gondola starts and ends at the top of the Savoy field, so it's easy to meet up again later in the day.

When you're ready for a break

There's a small café near the big drag lift at Savoy when you're ready for a chocolat chaud, or something stronger. Non-skiers can stop here too.

The Folie Douce hotel is also right next to the Savoy slope. This has a great après-ski scene and several bars - as well as plenty of hotel rooms. 

Les Planards beginner ski area

Les Planards is the bigger area of the two nursery areas in Chamonix centre, with drag lifts (one short and one long) and a gentle gradient green piste to build your confidence on.

Once you're feeling confident on the green piste, you can progress to the longer drag lift. Hop off half way to start making turns on slightly steeper terrain, or commit to the entire slope by riding the drag all the way to the top.

Also at Planards, there's also a two-person chairlift accessing a steeper blue piste and a red run.

When you're ready for a break

There's a restaurant with a large terrace at the bottom of Planards. Any non-skiers in your group can join you here.

The Planpraz cable car is a 500m walk from the centre of Chamonix and takes you up to the Brévent-Flégère ski area. Aside from the best views of Mont Blanc in the valley, there's some good beginner to intermediate terrain up here.

Beginner slopes at Brévent

To get to the green pistes, exit the gondola and take the 'Funi 2000' funicular straight in front of you.

Here you'll find the highest altitude green run in Chamonix called ‘Verte 2000’:

• fairly short (275m)
• served by its own drag lift
• a great place to do lots of practise laps

The other green piste is the 'Retour Plan Praz'. This takes you back to the Plan Praz gondola (to descend down into town) or onto the blue piste linking back to the bottom of the Parsa chair lift.

If you can already link turns

If you're ready for more of a challenge, the blue pistes 'Vioz' and 'Blanchots' are also accessed by the Parsa chair. Both are longer slightly steeper slopes to practise on.

Take the Sources and Charlanon chairlifts to access the other blue pistes in this area.

Beginner slopes at Flégère

The Trappe chairlift at the top left of the Flégère cable car serves two gentle green pistes, the 'Trappe' and 'Libellules'. These pistes are a little longer than the ones at Brévent. Being just at the top of the tree line, they also have some pretty impressive views across the valley to the Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc.

For little kids

Check out Libellules, a fun-zone with banked corners, arches to ski under and small snowpark features to play on.

When you're ready to move on from the green slopes, take the Chavanne chair and try the 'Chavanne' blue piste. If you're knackered by the bottom, the Chavanne bar is a great place to stop.

Another blue to try is the 'Retour Flégère' piste. This takes you back to the Flégère cable car, where you can jump on the gondola to the valley floor.

If you've parked at Brévent, you can get a bus back to your car from just outside the Flégère car park. Alternatively, take the 'Evettes' blue piste to the liaison cable car - this takes you back to the Brévent slopes.

Le Tour - Balme ski area can be found at the far end of the Chamonix valley and is accessible by ski bus or by car. You can also take the train to Vallorcine from where you can get on the Vallorcine gondola, which links up to the ski area.

The area offers plenty of variety for beginner skiers, from the nursery slopes of La Vormaine (1,500m) to the green and blue runs higher up the mountain. And the natural rolling terrain is the perfect place to learn and perfect your skills.

La Vormaine: largest nursery ski area in Chamonix

La Vormaine (1,462m) is the largest nursery ski area in Chamonix, served by four drag lifts of varying length and a magic carpet lift.

There are two green pistes and one blue piste here, as well a small snowpark and freestyle area.

The nursery area is very wide and flat, allowing plenty of space to make progress and build confidence. You’ll find this area located just to the right of the main gondola and bus stop, alongside the main home run back into the village.

Le Tour/Balme ski area

Higher up the mountain this ski area has more blue pistes (the highest concentration of blue pistes in the Chamonix valley) and the terrain is mostly gentle and not too steep.

This makes it very popular with beginner skiers and snowboarders looking to progress.

The majority of the blue pistes are accessed by four drag lifts (good for skiers but not so easy for beginner snowboarders) and two chairlifts.

If you're not feeling confident about tackling the red home run at the end of the day (it can get very busy near closing time) you can take the Charamillon gondola down the mountain instead. 

At Les Grands Montets ski area you can progress quickly from the gentle nursery slopes of Les Chosalets (1,252m) to some of the most exciting steep skiing the valley has to offer. Luckily there are some blue and red runs to test your skills on before you hit the steep stuff.

Les Chosalets 

Les Chosalets nursery ski area is at the lower end of Argentière just up from the turning for the Grands Montets car park. Served by two drag lifts (one very short and slow, one much longer and slightly faster), this is a nice area to learn for skiers or snowboarders. The two slopes are very different; one is very short and flat with its own drag lift. The adjacent slope is much longer and wider, also with its own drag lift and just as gentle lower down. It gets steeper nearer the top making it a good slope for progressing on.

You can also access Les Chosalets from the snowshoe and cross-country ski trails that loop around the valley floor. To get there on foot from the Chosalets bus stop, walk uphill on the narrow lane through the houses to get to the slope. It’s surrounded by trees and has a small snack hut at the bottom of the lifts.

Grands Montets

This is not the place to come if you're a beginner. After a couple of weeks skiing or snowboarding under your belt, perhaps you could tackle the easier blues up here, but even those can be tricky and rather vertiginous in places. Plus everyone else around you is going for it, so the last thing you need is to be putting yourself in their way. Take our advice, there are areas in Chamonix much better suited to beginners and this is not one of them.

A great family resort, the Les Houches ski area offers gentle undulating slopes for beginners. There are three nursery areas for beginners in Les Houches. One is in the village of Les Houches, and the other two are higher up in the main ski area.

With the Le Tourchet nursery slope in the centre of the town, you can be close to the bars, restaurants and public transport. If you fancy enjoying the views then 'Ecole', at the top of the Prarion gondola, allows beginners to enjoy gentle slopes at a higher altitude.

Le Tourchet

Located not far from main church in the centre of Les Houches, about 1km up the road from the Bellevue cable car. You’ll find two drag lifts and two pistes here on which to practise. The shorter drag lift gives you access to the lower part of the piste whilst the longer one takes you to the top of the ski area and allows you to get more turns in, before getting back to the bottom. The slopes have a very gentle gradient and are nice and wide, allowing you to make confident, large turns.

Look out for night skiing on the Tourchet piste - on certain evenings during peak season the slopes are floodlit and there is music and hot drinks at the bottom.

Les Houches

There are two nursery slopes at the top of the mountain in the main Les Houches ski area. The 'Mont Blanc' area is at the top of the Bellevue cable car and the 'Ecole' is at the top of the Prarion gondola. The Mont Blanc piste is the slightly longer run of the two and both pistes are served by their own drag lift. Ecole also has a slow-moving chairlift which you can use to practise getting on and off. The gradient at Ecole is incredibly shallow, so you might want to progress onto one of the nearby blue pistes once you've mastered the basics.

Head down the back side of the mountain to the Melezes chairlift which takes you to a variety of wide blue pistes. These slopes tend to be slightly quieter than other areas in Chamonix valley, making them great for beginners to practise on. A word of caution - don't go any lower than the bottom of the Melezes lift as you'll end up on a red piste and the only way back up is an incredibly long and technical (read difficult) drag lift. When ready to return home, you can ski blue pistes all the way back to the bottom of both the Prarion gondola and the Bellevue cable car.

La Poya

The little ski area called La Poya (1120m), can be found in Le Buet close to Vallorcine at the top end of the Chamonix Valley. The nursery slopes give complete beginners a gentle introduction to the slopes of Vallorcine. Once you have mastered the basics you can use the Vallorcine gondola to access a variety of pistes further up the mountain.

It has a gently sloping ski area with two small drag lifts and a rope tow to enable beginner skiers and snowboarders to get to grips with the basics. There's also a children's play zone and a small café on site.

To get there, you can take the Mont Blanc Express train to Le Buet, which is free if you already have a carte d'hôte, a Chamonix Le Pass or full MBU ski pass. You can't get the bus to Le Buet, but you can drive and park close to the ski area.

Even if there are several equipment options to choose from, we recommend you go for the most basic. 

Beginner skis are short, flexible skis that are easy to turn or, if you're snowboarding, you'll have a shorter stiffer snowboard that's easier to control and generally cheaper too.

You won't need to know about the technical aspects of any of the equipment as ski hire shops will advise you to get the best model for your ability and size once you've booked.

If you're learning to ski for the first time, Chamonix has plenty of choice of ski schools who teach children and adults.  

Children's lessons are determined by their age and ability, whilst adult lessons are determined by ability and interests.

If you're joining a ski school as a complete beginner, you will probably start off in the nursery areas where you can buy a beginner ski pass for a minimum of four hours or one day at a time. There are different prices for each of Chamonix's beginner ski areas which you can find via the link below.

If you're a skier looking to progress after having already learnt the basics, you can buy a ski pass for the mid to high mountain ski areas from as little as four hours. You should consider buying a 'Chamonix Le Pass' ski pass rather than the 'Mont Blanc Unlimited Pass.' The Chamonix Le Pass pass is valid for Brévent-Flégère, Grands Montets, Le Tour-Vallorcine, Vormaine, Chosalets, Savoy and Planards.

Buying all the gear before you go can be daunting if you’ve never set foot in a ski resort before. The key items to bring with you, along with the obvious ski jacket, ski trousers and goggles are as follows:

• layers - thermal tops and leggings, fleeces, hoodies, hats and a good pair of ski gloves and a helmet. Weather on the mountain can change pretty quickly, and you are much better off wearing layers of thinner items as opposed to a big, bulky jumper.
• socks - a variety of socks ranging in thickness, it may sound weird but in our experience hire boots can be quite painful with the wrong socks.
• sun cream - even when it’s cloudy the sun here can (and will) still get you, and don't forget the underneath of your chin as the sun reflects off the snow too. Don't forget a lip salve with an 50SPF.
• piste map - make sure to always have one in your pocket while you're out on the mountain. You can pick up paper copies from the lift pass or tourist office once you've arrived in resort.