Les Karellis
Off season · opens 19 December 20261,600 mVillage altitude
2,520 mTop of the ski area
60 kmLinked pistes · Domaine skiable des Karellis
18Ski lifts
€35Adult day pass
Les Karellis is a ski resort in the Maurienne Valley, located in the commune of Montricher-Albanne, in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Live webcams
All webcams (4) →Webcam 1600MWebcam-HD
Webcam 2130MWebcam-HD
▶ Watch at the operator ↗
Karellis 1600 - Front de neigepanoramic
Each player is the camera operator’s own, loaded only when you ask for it — it may set its own trackers.
Official players of the resort, live image. Checked on 16 October 2026.
Snow, opening and weather
Snow report →The domain is due to open on 19 December 2026 and close on 10 April 2027. Open pistes and lifts will appear here as soon as the resort publishes its daily report.
Right now at the ALBIEZ-MONTROND station (1,633 m)
Source: Météo-France, ALBIEZ-MONTROND weather station, 5.6 km away. Hourly measurement — not the resort’s own snow report.
Avalanche danger
Good snow from early February to mid-March. 93 days a winter at 30 cm or more on average, and 355 cm of fresh snow, measured over 24 winters at the Météo-France “Les Menuires” station. Fortnight by fortnight, over 24 measured winters →
3-day forecast
Village 1,600 m · top 2,520 m
Forecast corrected for altitude; fresh snow = forecast total at the top; UV = peak of the day. Beyond 3 days, check the resort’s own report. Source:Open-Meteo.
Seven criteria rated from 1 to 5 stars, in half-stars, from this page's sourced data. A rating is a rank among the 315 French resorts we cover — 5 stars means “among the best in France on this point”, not “perfect”. Nobody types these in.
- SnowCan you count on the snow?3.5 / 5
Top of the ski area: 2,520 m · Bottom of the pistes: 1,600 m · Days above 30 cm per winter, measured: 93 days · Days above 30 cm, December to March, model: 99%
- Ski areaIs there enough to ski all week?3.5 / 5
Km skiable from the resort, linked area included: 60 km · Lifts: 18
- ValueIs the lift pass reasonable for what you get?4.5 / 5
Adult day pass: €35 · Adult 6-day pass: €180.60
- Families and beginnersIs it right for children and beginners?3 / 5
Share of green and blue pistes: 56% · Magic carpets: 2 · ESF ski school · Ice rink, pool, rail sledge…: 1 · Famille Plus label
- AccessIs it easy to get to?3 / 5
Average drive time from 20 major cities: 4 hr 37 · Nearest railway station: 22 min · Station-to-resort shuttles per day: 0 · Nearest airport: 1 hr 25
- Atmosphere and après-skiIs there life in the evening and off the slopes?1.5 / 5
Bars and pubs: 0 · Nightclubs: 0 · Restaurants: 3 · Upcoming events: 0 · Collective tourist beds: 2,129 — index: what the map and the listings publish
- Luxury and comfortHow upmarket is the resort?1 / 5
5-star hotels: 0 · 4-star hotels: 0 · Share of hotel rooms in 4 and 5 stars: 0% · Spas and saunas: 0 · Jewellers, watchmakers, fashion boutiques: 0 · Adult day pass: €35 — index: what the map and the listings publish
“Atmosphere” and “Luxury” are indexes: they count what OpenStreetMap and the event listings publish within 2.5 km (bars, nightclubs, rated hotels, spas, upcoming events), not what you experience there. A zero means “nothing mapped”, not “nothing there”. Sources per criterion: snow (altitudes declared by the resort (ANMSM, official website), STRMTG register, OpenStreetMap; snow depth observed at the Météo-France station, ERA5-Land model) ; ski area (figures declared by the resort (ANMSM, official website), national lift register (STRMTG), OpenStreetMap) ; value (the resort’s official price list) ; families and beginners (OpenStreetMap pistes, price list, ESF ski school, Famille Plus label, OpenStreetMap leisure) ; access (OSRM drive times from 20 cities, SNCF stations, GTFS shuttles, airports) ; atmosphere and après-ski (bars, nightclubs and restaurants within 2.5 km (OpenStreetMap), upcoming events (OpenAgenda), collective tourist beds (INSEE)) ; luxury and comfort (rated hotels within 2.5 km (OpenStreetMap) and by category across the commune (INSEE), spas and boutiques (OpenStreetMap), day pass price).
Lift passes
All prices (child, family, season) →€180.60 6 days
Price declared by the resort to ANMSM (the French ski resorts’ mayors association) — not the official price list, which prevails. Season not stated by the resort. ANMSM ↗
- Skiable vertical
- 920 m
- Snowpark
- Yes
Ski-area figures — village, bottom, top, km of the linked area: ANMSM — figures declared by the resort (16 Oct); lifts: STRMTG — French national lift register (1 Jan) . In a linked ski area the map cannot tell where the resort ends: its own km stay “n/a” until the resort declares them.
The ski area in figures
Measured on 7 October 20264 kmLongest piste — Ponsonnière (green), 333 m of vertical
511 mBiggest vertical without changing piste — 2,265 → 1,754 m, 2 km
2,490 mHighest lift top — Tete D'albiez 2 (platter lift), national lift register
17,003Total lift capacity, people per hour — 18 installations: 6 chairlifts, 10 drag lifts, 2 magic carpets
33 yrsAverage age of the lift fleet — oldest 1969, newest 2016
2,000Biggest lift, people per hour — Vinouve (detachable chairlift, 2006)
13 kmTotal length of lifts — 13 lifts mapped
909 haSki area boundary (OSM)
476Inhabitants — Montricher-Albanne (INSEE 73173)
Measured on OpenStreetMap (altitudes: IGN RGE ALTI), not taken from the brochure. The vertical above is that of one piste, not of the whole ski area. Population: INSEE municipal population via geo.api.gouv.fr.
Source: national register of mechanical lifts (STRMTG, CAIRN), fleet as of 1 January 2025 — lifts attributed to Les Karellis only (“KARELLIS (LES)”), magic carpets included.
Staying and hiring gear in Les Karellis
The partners covering this resort, shown side by side, and the shop to kit out before you leave. Some links earn us a commission — never at the expense of the price or of the data.
Collective accommodation
2,129 bed spaces in tourist residences, holiday villages and hostels
- 3 hotels · 141 rooms
- 5 holiday villages and family centres · 1,850 bed spaces
- 1 youth hostel or sports centre · 279 bed spaces
Commune: Montricher-Albanne · INSEE tourist accommodation survey, 2026, read on 12 September 2026. Collective accommodation only — privately let flats and second homes are not counted. INSEE dataset ↗
Stay & accommodation
Vacances Bleues
Club hotels and holiday villages, often full board.
Holidu
Holiday-rental comparison site.
Gear & equipment
Absolute Snow
UK ski and snowboard shop — delivers to UK addresses only.
Hardloop
Mountain gear shop: ski touring, avalanche safety, winter clothing.
Beyond skiing at Les Karellis
Without skis on — 2 km of snowshoe and walking trails
Swimming pool
- Espace Aquatique et Piscine · Montricher-Albanne · 0 km away
- Piscine de Valloire · Valloire · 7 km away
- Centre nautique et Espace aqualudique · Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne · 7.4 km away
Dog sledding
- MUSHING SPIRIT · Valloire · 7.3 km away
Paragliding
- Parapente Air Line - Activités · Albiez-Montrond · 5 km away
- Lenvair Parapente · Valloire · 9 km away
- Envergure - Parapente · Valmeinier · 9.6 km away
Museum
- Ecomusée "Montricher autrefois" · Montricher-Albanne · 1.1 km away
- Musée de la Résistance Rosine Perrier · Villargondran · 4.2 km away
- Espace Alu · Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne · 5.6 km away
- Musée des Costumes, Arts et Traditions Populaires · Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne · 7 km away
Cinema
- Cinéma · Montricher-Albanne · 0.2 km away
- Cinéma Casse-Massion · Albiez-Montrond · 5 km away
- Cinéma Star · Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne · 6.9 km away
- Cinéma · Valloire · 7.4 km away
- Les Karellis · OpenStreetMap
Source: DATAtourisme (open data), within 10 km of the resort; places in a large town of the valley are left out. Checked on 12 September 2026. Lines marked OpenStreetMap come from the map, within 3 km — opening times on site. Opening times and prices are the operator’s — check before you go.
Ski schools and practical information
Ski school
ESF Les Karellis
54 instructors
🇬🇧 9 English-speaking instructors — lessons in English available
🗓️ This school sells its lessons online — book ↗
Source: esf.net
Resort contacts and documents
- Tourist office
- Office de tourisme Les Karellis · Le Forum, 73870 · +33 (0)4 79 59 50 36 · info@karellis.com (declared by the resort, ANMSM)
- Resort app
- Android (declared by the resort, ANMSM)
In case of accident
112 — the European emergency number, free of charge, triggers mountain rescue. On the pistes, the ski patrol number is printed on the piste map and at lift ticket offices. Piste rescue is charged: check your insurance or take the option sold with the lift pass.
Resort data: declared by Office de tourisme Les Karellis and distributed by ANMSM · read on 16 October
Off the pistes: off-piste and ski touring
The resorts for off-piste skiing → 4 Marked off-piste itineraries · 2 km
1 km Ski touring routes
Named itineraries: Enfers · Mottes
Itineraries surveyed on OpenStreetMap within a 4 km radius (7 September 2026): “marked” means an itinerary exists on the map, not that it is open or safe on the day.
Ski touring routes described
12 ski touring routes documented within 10 km of Les Karellis — up to 1,311 m of climb.
| Summit and route | Ski grade | Climb | Altitude | Aspect | From resort |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tête d'Albiez le Vieux · Par la combe de la Rama | 2.1 · E1 · F | 872 m | 1,600 → 2,472 m | NE | 1.2 km |
| Pointe des Chaudannes · Par les pistes des Karellis | 2.1 · E1 · F | 950 m | 2,519 m | NE | 1.5 km |
| Casse Massion · Casse Massion par Les Karellis | 2.1 · E1 · F | 833 m | 1,600 → 2,433 m | E · NE | 2.1 km |
| Pointe d'Emy · Versant SE | 2.2 · E1 · PD | 1,180 m | 1,620 → 2,797 m | SE | 3.3 km |
The other 8 routes, with grades and vertical →
Not a piste. Neither marked, nor patrolled, nor secured: transceiver, shovel, probe, the day’s avalanche bulletin and, better still, a guide. Ski grade (1.1–5.6) = steepness and commitment; exposure (E1–E4) = consequence of a fall.
Source: Camptocamp.org topo guide (CC BY-SA), routes starting within 10 km, read on 13 October 2026. Descriptions and photos are on Camptocamp; an empty cell is a field nobody has filled in. Camptocamp ski touring routes ↗
Piste map
Open on OpenSnowMap ↗Official piste map
Pistes coloured by level, lifts as lines. The resort’s official map is the reference in season.
Base map © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) · pistes © OpenSnowMap (CC-BY-SA) · data ©OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Getting to Les Karellis
From Paris: 7 hr 01 (661 km) by road.
By road
- From Chambéry: 1 hr 14 · 92 km
- From Grenoble: 1 hr 30 · 122 km
- From Annecy: 1 hr 43 · 139 km
- From Genève: 2 hr 12 · 177 km
- From Lyon: 2 hr 24 · 191 km
From other major cities (15)
- From Valence: 2 hr 33 · 214 km
- From Saint-Étienne: 2 hr 57 · 239 km
- From Dijon: 4 hr 16 · 392 km
- From Clermont-Ferrand: 4 hr 17 · 356 km
- From Besançon: 4 hr 32 · 349 km
- From Montpellier: 4 hr 40 · 419 km
- From Marseille: 4 hr 45 · 428 km
- From Nice: 5 hr 11 · 413 km
- From Perpignan: 6 hr 02 · 567 km
- From Nancy: 6 hr 23 · 602 km
- From Strasbourg: 6 hr 27 · 567 km
- From Toulouse: 6 hr 58 · 653 km
- From Paris: 7 hr 01 · 661 km
- From Bordeaux: 8 hr 15 · 746 km
- From Pau: 8 hr 52 · 843 km
Excluding traffic and winter conditions; passes closed in winter are avoided.
By train
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne Arvan station
regional station · then 22 min drive (17 km)
Nearest main station: Chambéry - Challes-les-Eaux, 1 hr 12 by road.
No direct bus line from the station to the resort appears in the open-data timetables (checked on 11 October 2026): ask the resort about a private shuttle or a taxi.
Shuttles and buses from the station: see the resort’s official website.
By plane
- Chambéry-Savoie (CMF): 1 hr 25 by road · 100 km
- Grenoble-Alpes-Isère (GNB): 2 hr 03 by road · 167 km
Take me there
These links open the app with Les Karellis as the destination. Your starting point is never sent by us — the app asks you for it, if you agree.
Charging an electric car
1 charging station within 2 km
2 charging points · up to 22 kW
- KGNZ- Montricher-Albanne - D81B · EASYCHARGE · 2 points · 22 kW · 0.4 km
Freely accessible charge points read from the French national EV charging database (data.gouv.fr ↗, operators’ own declarations), checked on 9 October 2026. Check availability before you leave: the database says what is installed, not what is free tonight.
Road conditions
From 1 November to 31 March, snow chains or winter tyres are compulsory in most mountain areas (French “Loi Montagne II”).
Driving times computed on the OpenStreetMap road network (OSRM), SNCF stations (open data), airports (Wikidata). Indicative, not a timetable: allow extra time in snow.
Introduction from the English Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA).
Frequently asked questions
How high is Les Karellis?
Les Karellis sits at 1,600 m at village level, and its ski area rises to 2,520 m.
How many kilometres of pistes does Les Karellis have?
From Les Karellis you can ski 60 km of slopes across Domaine skiable des Karellis, 18 lifts.
What is the longest piste in Les Karellis?
The longest piste is Ponsonnière: 4 km (green run), for 333 m of vertical. Measured on the OpenStreetMap map, segments of the same name and level joined end to end, altitudes from the IGN RGE ALTI terrain model — a resort sometimes advertises a longer run by chaining several pistes.
How high do the lifts go in Les Karellis?
The highest lift, Tete D'albiez 2 (platter lift), tops out at 2,490 m. Source: STRMTG, French national register of mechanical lifts (CAIRN database), file dated 1 January 2025.
How many lifts does Les Karellis have, and what is their capacity?
The French national register of mechanical lifts records 18 installations at Les Karellis (6 chairlifts, 10 drag lifts, 2 magic carpets), for an authorised capacity of 17,003 people per hour, of which 2,000 for Vinouve alone. The fleet spans 1969 to 2016, an average age of 33 years. This count covers the resort itself, magic carpets included, not the whole linked ski area — a resort brochure often announces a different number. Source: STRMTG, French national register of mechanical lifts (CAIRN database), file dated 1 January 2025.
How much is a lift pass in Les Karellis?
The adult day pass costs €35 and the 6-day pass €180.60 (season not stated by the resort, declared by the resort to ANMSM (the French ski resorts’ mayors association)).
How do I get to Les Karellis?
By road, Les Karellis is 1 hr 14 from Chambéry (92 km), excluding traffic and winter conditions. By train, the nearest station is Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne Arvan, 22 min by road from the resort. No direct bus line from the station to the resort appears in the open-data timetables. The nearest airport is Chambéry-Savoie, 1 hr 25 away.
How long is the drive from Paris to Les Karellis?
7 hr 01 for 661 km from central Paris, excluding traffic and winter conditions. Computed on the real road network (OpenStreetMap): allow more on a school-holiday Saturday.
When does Les Karellis open?
According to the official website, the resort opens on 19 December 2026 and closes on 10 April 2027 (2026-2027 season).
Is the snow reliable in Les Karellis?
Good snow from early February to mid-March. 93 days a winter at 30 cm or more on average, and 355 cm of fresh snow, measured over 24 winters at the Météo-France “Les Menuires” station. This verdict rests on 24 winters of Météo-France measurements (1972-2023); in season the daily report prevails.
Is Les Karellis good for beginners and families?
The resort holds the Famille Plus family label.
Nearby resorts
Full page in French. The French page carries the editorial guides and a few extra readings; every figure, webcam and price on this page is the same one. Les Karellis in French →
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