La Sambuy – grand skiing 20min from the lake
Feb 14th, 2010 by lakeannecyexpert
Most of you will have never heart of the ski resort of La Sambuy. I can’t blame you, given the ski resort boasts a grand total of one chair lift and three drags. Don’t be fooled however. On it’s day the skiing here is great and if you ever visit lake Annecy in winter, you should check it out.
I skied La Sambuy twice this week, the first time purely due to bad visibility elsewhere. I opted for half day in Sambuy, rather than wasting money on an expensive ski pass in one of the more famous neighbour ski resorts. The adult day skipasses in La Sambuy are just 14 euro, a real bargain given what you get for your money. I got certainly more powder than I paid for this week, skiing Sambuy.
You might not know, but using lake Annecy as a base you can reach up to seven top ski domains in less than an hour. This includes Megeve, Val D’Arly, Espace Diamant, La Cluzas, Grand Bornand, Valmorel and Meribel. La Sambuy would not be your natural choice for a week’s skiing, but for a quick, half-day ski fix it delivers in full.
On arrival I counted a total of two cars in the car park. Yes it was snowing and yes visibility was not great but I would have expected more locals. I ended up sharing some exceptional powder snow with just seven other skiers all morning. When is the last time you skied untracked powder all day without any competing skiers or boraders? I never do, unless of course I opt to mount my skies and dare some more dangerous off-piste an hours walk from the official slopes.
Needless to say that I had a great morning skiing and given the entire ski resort of La Sambuy is below the tree line (up to 1850m altitude) visibility was actually very good. I got probably as much skiing done as I would have done elsewhere in a full day. The lack of ski lifts was just not a factor at all and piste and off-piste was plentiful.
It has to be said, La Sambuy is great on a sunny day too. Going up by chair, you can see the impressive setting of lake Annecy and the surrounding mountains. On the summit you can even see the Mont Blanc in the distance. In my books La Sambuy is a great place to ski on good or bad weather days. Beware, don’t expect to ski with only seven people on the slopes if the sun is out.
