Conditions Report
Report from Friday the 13th of February, 2026
Sainte-Foy Tarentaise is a small ski resort. At least by European standards.
It’s only about 2,500 acres, roughly the same size as Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Our new French friend Eric told us we had to go to Sainte-Foy.
So we did.
What we found was an unknown freeride paradise. Just four chairlifts. One of them accesses terrain on par with Palisades Tahoe.
Maybe better.
There were very few people around, even on a holiday weekend. Right now is peak season in the Alps, with both French and English school holidays in full swing.
We rolled up around 9:30 a.m. and headed straight up from the base.
From there, we waited in line for the L’Arpettaz chair, which hadn’t opened the day before. Ski patrol was being cautious, and rightly so. Avalanche danger remained at 5 out of 5, Extreme.
We loaded the chair around 10:30 a.m. and followed a new local friend, Luke, into a wild pillow-stacked gully. That first run showed us exactly how deep and perfect the snow really was.
I lapped the chair twice more before noticing a sign saying another, higher chair would open at noon.
It was 11:24 a.m.
Perfect timing.
I headed over to wait for the Marquise chair, which rises above treeline into mellow, rolling alpine terrain. It hadn’t opened since before the monster storm.
I arrived just in time. Only three other people were waiting in line, and it was a six-pack chair.
The locals told me to stay with them. They said this was going to be special.
I was all in.
By the time the lift opened about 30 minutes later, the line had multiplied.
We were first chair.
They pointed me toward the best opening line, and I dropped in directly beneath the lift.
It wasn’t steep, but it was deep.
I carved trenches through the aerated powder and popped off a few pillow rocks on the way down.
After the first pitch, I caught up with Al and Harry and followed them as they lit the mountain on fire.
It was all I could do to keep up.
They led me down run after run of fresh, sunlit powder, smiling the entire time.
True French hospitality. No ego. Just skiing.
Sainte-Foy is the real deal.
And it sits right across the valley from Les Arcs, one of the largest ski resorts on Earth, and next door to La Rosière and La Thuile, another massive interconnected ski domain.
This valley is stacked with ski royalty.
Merci, la France.
