The Grand Massif Ski Area - Samoens, Morillon, Sixt, Flaine & Les Carroz

Overview

Located in the heart of the Haute Savoie department, the Grand Massif is one of the largest ski resorts in the French Alps. Consisting of five interlinked villages - Samoens, Morillon, Sixt, Les Carroz and Flaine - the ski area offers an impressive 139 pistes totalling 265km, with 62 lifts, and with skiing between a high point of 2561m and 700m, a huge vertical drop of 1861m! The Grand Massif offers an exceptional snow record thanks to its geographical position close to Mont Blanc, predominantly north facing slopes, and continued investment in a vast network of snow canons. Experience some of the most spectacular views of Mont Blanc of anywhere in the Alps!

The Grand Massif Express telecabine offers super fast access directly into the ski area, linking Samoens village to the Samoens 1600 plateau and the rest of the Grand Massif ski area. Alternatively, the Vercland gondola offers a similarly efficient link to Samoens 1600 plateau from the hamlet of Vercland, just 3km from Samoens. Likewise, the Morillon telecabine links the village of Morillon to the ski in, ski out satellite village of Morillon 1100 Les Esserts. It is possible to ski back down to both Samoens (the hamlet of Vercland) and Morillon village if snow conditions allow. Find out more

The Grand Massif in Stats

Thanks to substantial ongoing investment, the Grand Massif is being continually developed, improved, and expanded. In recent years, we've seen new modern ski lifts, increased snow canon coverage, revised pistes to improve traffic flow, and even a whole new valley opened up between Samoens and Morillon. It gets better every year!

Winter 2022/23 sees the opening of the new Sairon chairlift in Morillon. It is quicker at 6m/s vs 5m/s, has 6 seats vs 4 seats, and the travel time is reduced to 9 minutes from 14!

Winter 2020/21 saw a huge investment into a brand new 10 person telecabine (replacing the old 4 person lift) at Vercland, called Saix. The free ski bus, which runs throughout the valley, links this new lift with the Grand Massif Express and the rest of the valley, to give you more flexibility on your skiing start and end point.

Winter 2017/18 saw huge investment with the installation of a brand new chairlift which opened up a brand new valley with several new pistes.

Check out the Family Savings page which details how much guests can save who have booked via Alps Accommodation.

Find out more about Spring skiing in Samoens and the Grand Massif.

Opening Dates - Winter 2022/23

The full Grand Massif ski area, including the links between the five villages, will be open daily from the 17 December 2022 until 10 April 2023. The individual resorts of Samoens and Flaine will remain open until 16 April 2023

The Skiing

The Grand Massif offers huge variety, from beautiful tree lined green pistes, to wide, fast blue/red pistes, steep challenging black runs, to some exceptional off piste options. There is truly something for every ability and interest, making the area particularly popular with families and groups with mixed abilities.

Beginners

Samoens provides an excellent nursery area with several pistes, a magic carpet, drag tows, and a chairlift. Located at Samoens 1600, at the top of the Grand Massif Express, it's altitude offers good snow, fantastic views, and with several restaurants its a convenient meeting point for families/groups of differing abilities. The Morillon sector also has a great nursery area, located at Morillon 1100, as well as the beautiful Marvel green piste, a huge favourite amongst beginners. Check out our beginners guide for a few ideas.

Intermediate/Advanced

With a total of 103 blue/red pistes in the Grand Massif, it's fair to say intermediate and advanced skiers will have a busy time getting through them all in a week! Whether it's beautiful tree-lined pistes in Les Carroz/Morillon, challenging red pistes in Samoens, or high speed cruising in Flaine to the backdrop of the mighty Mont Blanc, you'll find it all. Don't miss the 15km Cascade blue piste between Flaine and Sixt, the longest blue piste in Europe, with a vertical drop of 1800m!

Off-piste

Again, you'll find huge variety in off-piste skiing terrain in the Grand Massif. There is lots of fun to be had between the pistes throughout the area, excellent off piste tree skiing, and the enormous Gers bowl between Samoens and Flaine is a huge favourite with freeriders. The ski schools can provide guiding to help you find the best spots, and provide safety equipment.

Grand Massif Backstage

How about taking a lift up early, before anyone else, enjoying sunrise on Mont Blanc before skiing back down on pristine, untouched pistes? Then check out the Grand Massif Backstage for more info.