Town Slopes
The principal ESF ski school meeting points run along the base of the pistes next to the
Jandri Express 1 cable car station (55); and are easily accessible from the upper righthand corner of the place des 2 Alpes in the centre of the resort, just beyond the central lift pass office and handy for L'Orée des Pistes button tow (9) and the free-of-charge Coolidge Nord & Sud button tows (10 & 11).
The area immediately in front of the piste-side Hotel Les Melezes, at the mid point of the rue des Vikings, is also easily accessible from the roadside and the pistes. This area houses the free-of-charge Petites Vikings (13) & Grand Viking (14) button tows: these serve the gentle slopes closest to the ESI ski school meeting points, and are handy for all users to gain height from this end of the resort, in order to traverse over to the central slopes and the principal ski lifts, or to do the same in the opposite direction to reach the longer and more progressive green-graded pistes at the southern-most end of the base-area slopes, which are served by the Gentianes and the Rivets button tows (15 & 16).
At the Alpe de Mont-de-Lans quarter, the ski school meeting points are set out around the base of the
Belle Étoile chairlift (26); next to the Petit Bosquet, Bosquet, and Champamé button tows (lift numbers 5, 4, and 3 respectively). Between this area and the central base area there are some slightly quieter slopes: served by the short L'Alpette chairlift (6), which is the sole chairlift serving the beginners' zone, plus the Limaçons and the Lutins button tows (7 & 8).
All of the main base-area slopes are groomed to form motorway-wide superpistes. They are all designated as a beginners' zone, in one continuous strip along the edge of the resort, and clearly signed as such on the pistes to instruct all users travelling through the area to limit their speed. Most are easy gentle pistes which are accurately graded green, but the blue-graded pistes served by the Lutins (8) and the Côte Brune button tows (12) are actually quite steep, and so provide progressing beginners with their first real challenge once they have got to grips with the basics.
Children's Snow Gardens
The central Snow Garden is safely fenced off from the main pistes on the slopes in front of the
Jandri 1 gondola terminal (25); additional sites are located near the
Belle Étoile chairlift (26) and near to the Vikings ski tows. All are within easy reach of the town & services, and are equipped with simple rope tows and/or conveyor-belt surface lifts, plus colourful cartoon-character display boards & fun obstacles.
These facilities are monitored by specialist nursery instructors from the ESF & ESI ski schools, and are subject to demand; pre-booking is recommended
(further information & contact links are given in our
Childcare chapter).
2100 m (6888 ft)
Although this area looks quite compact on the piste map, it actually has a fairly substantial beginners' zone, fanning out over wide & open snowfields overlooking the pleasant
La Patache bar/restaurant; and easily accessible from town using the
Jandri 1 gondola (25) or the
Belle Étoile chairlift (26).
The designated beginners' slopes share this area with the parallel-running
Crêtes &
Petites Crêtes pistes, but are clearly segregated from them by boundary ropes. These slopes are the central focus for the ski schools at the end of each week, when they organise beginners' & novices' races here.
A couple of chairlifts & rope tows serve the pistes surrounding Les Crêtes 2100; the
Crêtes chairlift (28) and the
Jandri 2 cable car (33) also depart from this busy sector interchange, facilitating first forays out into the core ski area.
To return to Les Deux Alpes, beginners can either take the long, flat, often patchy,
Chemin des Demoiselles track all the way down to town, or simply ride back down on one of the 2-way lifts.
