Orelle - Gateway to the 3 Vallees

The 3 Vallees is one of the worlds biggest interlinked ski areas.

It is truly a fantastic area, with high alpine, trees, and couloirs… all easily reached from a modern super fast lift system, but all of this comes at a cost, lodging, on mountain food (OMG €6.5 for a can of soda), and lift tickets all come at a premium, so can the tiny village of Orelle be the answer?

The 3 Vallees is actually spread across 4 valleys, with the 4th valley dropping down from the Cime Caron, Val Thornes, into the Orelle valley. It was always a bit of a secret, as there used to be just the one chair lift that opened up a lot of off-piste, but all that changed when Orelle finally got the funding to build two super fast gondolas that can transport you from 900m to 3,200m in a blink of an eye, well quick enough that after doing up your boots and putting on sunscreen it’s time to get off.

The Orelle-Cime Caron can move upto 2,500 people per hour at maximum flow. The two cable cars, are among the fastest in France, and the 2,300m altitude gain takes less than 20 minutes, and there is ample free parking at the base station, where you’ll often feel like your in Spring, with green fields and grazing cows often seen, only to be in high alpine before you know it.

Be warned the base station car park if full by 9:00am most days, but there’s lots of additional nearby parking with a free shuttle bus running all day.

Orelle is a short drive from Modane, and sits in the Maurienne Valley, where we run our Splitboard Workshop, which boasts six stand alone ski resorts, seven if you include Orelle.

Lodging and food is far cheaper in the Maurienne Valley than in the high altitude ski resorts of the 3 Vallees, and basing yourself here is a real option. You can also stay in Orelle itself but to be honest there’s not much going on, but if ski, eat, sleep is all you want then its an inexpensive option.

If you do base yourself in Modane or surrounding area, and have your own car, you can easily drive to a different resort each morning (even into Italy for a day at Sauze D’Oulx), all of which have free parking, and if you fanny a day or two in the higher Val Thorens, or even further into the 3 Vallees then you can get yourself to Orelle for first lift and make a real day of it, without breaking the bank (especially if you take a sandwich with you).

So yes in many ways Orelle is the answer!