Another skiing question

[Purdey]

My son and his girl friend will be staying at our house between Mirepoix and Pamiers in January so that they can ski and snowboard. They are not beginners. They don't particularly want to  drive far  so please can anyone  tell me the nearest resorts to us and what they can expect at these.

[Anders<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpac]

Hi, They will have to drive a bit unfortunately.  The easiest to get to and probably the best for intermediates is the Three Valleys at Ax les Thermes.  They can get onto the motorway at Pamiers and drive straight down to Ax on that road although it becomes single carriageway at about Tarascon.  There is quite a bit of parking in Ax and you can get Cable car up to Bonascre, so no hairpins to deal with. Mont D'Olmes is closer on the map but is a slower road.  Go to Mirepoix, then down to Lavelanet, then head towards Montsegur, they will then turn off right shortly after Montferrier onto a winding road.  It is a much smaller resort (only drag lifts)and not so snow sure though it has cannons. Another nice resort is Guzet.  Not quite as big as Ax and it is a bit further to drive.  Go via Pamiers to Foix and then take the road to St. Girons.  At St. Girons turn towards Seix and Guzet, it is signposted.  It is another winding road but of the three resorts it actually had the best snow when we went (we missed the good snow by a week -c'est la vie). If snow is bad altogether, then head past Ax straight to Andorra and stay somewhere for the night to make up for the long drive, it isn't too expensive.  Remember, if there is snow, then snow chains can be anything from 'recommandes' to 'obligataire' anywhere in the mountains.  Also the choice of equipment for hire on the mountains isn't the greatest so it might be worth stopping at a hire shop en route or keeping hold of anything decent for more than a day. Hope it helps.

[Purdey]

Thank you so much, that was all very helpful - particularly the reminder about snow chains.

[Pepsimax]

[quote]Thank you so much, that was all very helpful - particularly the reminder about snow chains.[/quote]

We have a house near Lavelanet and have ski - ied both at Ax and Mont D'olmes. We love ski - ing in Ax as it has some lovely runs and great montain restaurants.The lifts at Mont are a little difficult and the resort has enough runs for a day.

We are loking forward to ski ing there at Christmas.

[St Bernard]

Normally, there's lots of information available at the tourism office at Pamiers. I believe that there is a special deal if you go by train from Pamiers to Ax (there's a navette from the station to the bottom of the slopes) and there are special buses at the week-end from Pamiers to Ax for skiers.

[Purdey]

Thank you to everyone for your helpful replies. I hadn't thought about trains from Pamiers - that might be a convenient option.

[Fionah]

Another question ... as skiing people (which I am not) ... if you were on holiday here in the winter time and wanted to do some skiing, how far would you be prepared to drive?  We have just bought a place that is about 25km away from Les Monts d'Olmes and are aiming at renting it out throughout the year.  It would take about an hour to drive to Ax-les-Thermes - is that too far to drive for a day or two's skiing?