More information - St Martin de Belleville - France

Saint Martin de Belleville's ski area, shared with it's neighbours Ls Menuires and Val Thorens up the valley, are part of the huge 3 Vallées, the biggest ski area in the world with over 600 kms of pistes and 200 ski lifts. The 3 Vallées offers not only the largest number of pistes but also a wide range of terrain spread over an area of 1400 km2. The sheer size of the area means skiers can follow the sun throughout the day.

La Tougnète (2430 m) can be reached directly from Saint Martin de Belleville with the Saint Martin cable car followed by the Saint Martin chairlift. Using this great access point into the 3 Vallées ski area, skiers can ski down to Les Menuires, turn towards Méribel, or ski down to Saint Martin through the forest.

From Les Menuires the skiing at Le Mont de la Chambre (2850m) offers a wide range of pistes and opens up the link to Méribel and Val Thorens. Secondly La Pointe de la Masse (2800m) is suited to good skiers. From the top you can access several mythical off piste itineraries (Lac du Lou, Col de la Fenêtre or Vallée des Encombres).

The huge snowfield between St Martin and Les Menuires has seen a great deal of upgrading in recent years. The two Mont de la Chambre chair lifts were added in 2001, the Saint Martin cable car in 2002 and the six-seater easy access Becca chairlift in 2003, and in 2004 another new six seater covered chairlift "Les Granges" replaced two draglifts "Le Grand Lac" and "Les Choumes." The old Chef Lieu draglift in the centre of Saint Martin was also replaced in 2004 by a rolling draglift. The new ski lift, called the Village draglift, offers greater safety and a gentler start than its predecessor. The French Ski School has around 20 ski instructors based in the village. Specially trained to teach all snow sports, the school offers group or private lessons, alpine, nordic, snowboard, free-ride and off piste courses.

There are 28 kms of cross country ski pistes winding along through the woods of the Vallée des Belleville. Starting from the village, cross country skiers can visit the hamlets of Le Bettex, Praranger or Saint Marcel on their way as well as the Burdin Mill.