Ste Foy Venture Ski, www.ventureski.co.uk Reviews

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Good Points: The off-piste terrain. No wonder the guides from Val bring their clients over. The upper slopes are north-facing and have a lovely, steep, even pitch. This is the kind of place where any confident intermediate should lay aside his or her dreams of high-speed carving for a day or two and buy himself a couple of lessons on powder. With so little traffic on mountain, this is the perfect place to make the breakthrough into off-piste skiing or boarding.

Bad Points: Not everyone is going to like the place. Anyone who's looking for big-resort buzz will be lost here.

General comments: For years, people have been driving past Ste Foy, on the way up to Val d'Is re and Tignes but now they might be tempted to turn off and take a look.

There have been lifts here since 1990, but what's really put the resort on the map has been a big surge in new building over the last two or three or years. Now there's accommodation to match the quality of the slopes, and the word is spreading. This is no longer just a place the guides from Val d'Is re bring their clients when the powder there has been skied out.

There aren't the facilities, or the bars, or the sheer energy that you find in Val, M ribel or St Anton. Nor is there anything like the amount of skiing. 35km of pistes is not a lot however, anyone who's reasonably comfortable on red-rated runs will ski everything twice before lunch.

But in many respects that's the whole point of coming here. Ste Foy is an antidote to the hassle and hustle of the megaplexes - to their crowded pistes, endless queues, and industrial scale. This is a place where you don't have to rush to the lifts each morning if you want to catch some decent snow. You can tackle it at your own pace - and if that means kicking back for a couple of hours on a sunny terrace then all the better.

It's not just the fact that Ste Foy is small that makes it special. Four other factors elevate it into the super-league. Off-piste, beautiful chalets, proximity to Val d'Isere, Tignes & Les Arcs and Venture Ski.