les crosets
English speaking ski school in Les crosets
Les Crosets is a small village located in the Swiss Portes du Soleil. Because of its altitude, most of the accommodation in Les Crosets is ski in, ski out, which is a real bonus for keen skiers. It’s a short ski to the main lift hub in Les Crosets, and it’s an ideal access point for exploring the wider parts of the region.
Les Crosets is located across two bowls, and the off-piste opportunities are limitless. Les Crosets also has the best snowpark in the whole of the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil. There is even a stade for the racers and many top teams come to train on the Les Crosets race piste. Even though there are extreme options everywhere, beginners are well served in Les Crosets.
The beginner slope is excellent, and there is a gentle loop that early-stage skiers can take that gets them easily out onto the slopes with everyone else.
Why we love Les Crosets
● The kids love to ski in the excellent snowpark and the natural halfpipe
● Powder hounds will love the wide-open powder bowls. There are lines to be had everywhere in Les Crosets
● The baby chapelle slope, look out for the mini church at the top, is excellent and is a beautiful gradient for learning to ski. There is a little used purple run that we take new skiers on that gets us out onto the slopes with the other skiers and quickly builds confidence.
Max
When Max isn’t teaching, he basically lives in the Les Crosets snowpark, perfecting his freestyle skills.
Gabby
Gabby loves working with kids and the facilities to get the little ones going are just about perfect in Les Crosets.
Meeting points
Snow pros ski school, les crosets
SnowPros likes to offer flexibility so we can meet you where you choose. However, we recommend meeting you at our ski school meeting points in Les Crosets.
Ticket Office
les crosets
Our first ski school meeting point in Les Crosets which can be found on the snow, up the stairs from the ticket office.
Baby Chapelle
les crosets
For beginners, we like to meet at the top of the Baby Chappelle slope. You know you are in the right place if you can see the little chapel.
Why SnowPros loves Les Crosets.
SnowPros ski school uses Les Crosets a lot and in recent years, more and more of our clients have started to request to ski in Les Crosets. They love it there for lots of reasons but here are the ones they tell us about the most.
Easy access and varied access points.
Les Crosets is super easy to get to. You follow a road up from Monthey to Val-d'Illiez and then just follow the road up to Les Crosets. Once you arrive in the village there is lots of parking, both above and below ground (pro tip, go directly to the underground car park as you come into the village and park right by the stairs. Then one set of stairs and you are by the ticket office.)
If you're a beginner or you have beginner children the beginner slope is located near the entrance to the village and you can usually park (for free) right by the beginner slope. Super easy for those with young children.
The other great thing about skiing in Les Crosets is that you don't necessarily have to drive all the way up to Les Crosets in order to go ski there. You can also access the resort via the Champery Planachaux telecabine and also via the ski lift at Grand Paradis. All of these access points do not require such a drive up to Les Crosets itself. In order to access the ski area from these points, you do need to be able to ski, however.
Altitude - early snow and high lifts
Les Crosets is located at 1672m and such makes it a snow sure location for the whole winter.
Very often and certainly in the last ten years we have been skiing in Les Crosets as early as the last weekend of November. The lifts in Les Crosets go all the way up to the Mossettes which is at 2277m and as such it is the highest area on the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil.
This, combined with recent work to create a large reservoir for snowmaking, means that Les Crosets is about as snow sure as it gets. There are multiple lifts that go up to over 2000m and the beginner area is located in the village at 1672m so it is also snow sure.
Wide range of slopes
Les Crosets probably has the widest range of terrain for different levels of skiers on the whole of the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil.
It has an excellent beginner area with a very long and wide beginner slope which is perfect to get people going on snow. One of the things that our clients often love is the purple loop, which allows beginners to take their first steps out onto 'real' slopes with other skiers. This is a very gentle green/blue series of runs served by an eight person chairlift. It's perfect for that transition from beginner to intermediate.
For those more ambitious skiers, there are multiple blue, red and black slopes in Les Crosets with varying steepness as well as plenty of opportunity to get off into the off piste safely just off the side of the main pistes.
For those really ambitious skiers, there is the infamous Swiss which is an mogul filled and very steep itinerary run, which is on the bucket list of many skiers. Please do treat it with respect though, it's not a place to mess around!
For those more into freestyle and tricks, Les Crosets has an amazing snowpark throughout the winter, with kickers, rails and boxes and a natural halfpipe. It is full of people trying to perfect their tricks all winter long and kids love it there.
One of the slopes that is not to be missed is the Grand Paradis piste. It's a really long run red/blue piste that heads down off of the back of the Ripallie lifts and it tracks down a hidden valley under the Dents du Midi all the way back to the Grands Paradis ski lift in Champery. The scenery of this run is absolutely stunning, you get a very different view of the Dents du Midi and you go past an old smuggling route on the Col de Cou whilst you ski through trees all the way back. It's absolutely peaceful and beautiful and really isn't to be missed.
Hidden decent restaurants
There are a number of really nice restaurant options in lacrosse which you should check out. They aren't immediately obvious to find, but I'll certainly worth the trip of trying to find them.
In the village you have a couple of options, for something sweet, I would suggest the Cabane a Sucre located in the village just before you get to the main parking. It has amazing crepes but also does a wide range of other food as well.
For those that like steak you should check out the Hotel l'Etable in the village which has an amazing evening menu with local meats.
On the mountain my favourite is Le Toupin which is a traditional mountain restaurant serving the usual mountain food and the fondue there is amazing.
Another great option, especially for those with families, is the Cookie Café at the top of the Mossettes lift. This place does a bit of everything and is a great place to hang out with amazing views and a really good atmosphere, especially with the music and sunset in the late afternoon.
Access to France - gateway to the wider PDS
A lot of people like to go to Les Crosets because within one lift ride, you can access the wider French area of the Portes du Soleil.
As you know the Portes du Soleil has around 650km of pistes and there are multiple access points in Les Crosets that get you over to the French side and allow you to explore more of this huge ski area.
Personally I like to stay on the Swiss side because the French areas tend to get quite busy, especially on weekends and during school holidays. The Swiss side is quieter and the general skiing standard of other skiers is higher.
