Whilst it had been nice to see a few of the big, high-profile ski resorts on my Europe trip, it was refreshing to visit the petite La Fouly which was akin to some of the little gem Japan ski areas that I’m used to, where skiing is taken back to its roots without all the glamour and spiffy heated chair lifts.

The drive from Orsières to La Fouly was nothing short of spectacular, and the ski area gets an award for the best views from the car park. The beauty of our Chinese Porsche Cayenne paled into insignificance (take a look at that photo and tell me that the BYD doesn’t look like a Cayenne!). The splendour of the telemark turn also couldn’t compare to the vistas from the ski area of mighty peaks and glaciers, which could also be seen from the cute little restaurant and auberge at the base. Despite the striking glacial scenery, La Fouly is probably a ski area that’s best hit up on a storm day when the only views are of trees and big fat flakes.

We hit up La Fouly on the 2nd bluebird day after a big snowstorm, and it had potentially warmed up the afternoon prior. Not being able to shake the habit of being at a ski area for first lifts, we arrived way too early as the lifts didn’t open until a leisurely hour. This sort of made sense because it was an unhurried sort of place, the slopes were in complete shade because it was the height of winter, and the off-piste snow was set-up hard, making it la foully (I keep wanting to spell it with 2 Ls!).

We had a look at the off-piste which would be fun on the right day. The hill had lots of good pitch with plenty of skiable trees, whilst other trees looked like they loved each other too much whereby the skiing would be beyond technical. The off-piste and sidecountry zones skiers’ right out wide looked particularly tasty.

From the brief visit, the question that remained unanswered was in relation to the regularity of the off-piste being “on”. La Fouly is unreliably cited to get only 3.6 metres of snow per season on average. With respect to snow quality maintenance, the valley seemed to have a good fridge effect and the NW aspect should be OK for good snow, whilst the elevation is just moderate. Compared to nearby Verbier, the village elevations are similar whilst the top elevation of La Fouly at 2,171 metres is far lower. Either way, we didn’t score great snow, so it was just the groomers for us.

The pitchy groomed runs were fun and the place was deserted, save for the mellow family-oriented area. The piste didn’t keep us entertained for long considering it’s a small ski area, and too many repetitions of that annoying narrow blue cat track would drive us spare. A couple of runs were closed or should have been closed. In one zone the apprentice snowmaker had potentially left the hose on resulting in sheet ice. Attempting turns on that glazy mess made one feel like la fooly (sorry couldn’t help myself)!

Pays de St Bernard day passes were very cheap, although one old slow chairlift and a few surface lifts didn’t provide a lot of value for our francs. That’s of course unless you’re crazy enough to hit up all the Pays du St Bernard ski areas in one day.

The sleepy little La Fouly village appeared delightfully charming and authentic, although we stayed down in the lovely town of Orsières at the Hotel Terminus with its fantastic restaurant.

Despite there being no powder, I enjoyed the old-school experience of La Fouly. My only disappointment was that I didn’t get to pat any St Bernard dogs, and instead only got to hang out with a drooling powder hound.

(Blog Moderators comment: The true story about the 'Chinese Porche Cayenne' will come out one day .....)
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If you want untouched powder, take the top T-bar at La Fouly and (looking down the mountain) go skiers right. Duck the rope and then continue further skier's right before dropping wherever you'd like, as all runs converge into the same gully which leads you back to the piste. The freeride zones are accessed and skied very quickly, small verticle, and surprisingly popular on a powder day. The lift ticket is cheap around 46 CHF, if you have a 4 Vallees season pass, it's free. I recommend going here on very low-visibility days because it's hard to get lost off piste and you have the trees to help guide you when skiing. Wasn't a bad experience at all, but certainly wasn't out of this world, however we did go on a very low-vis windy day during the recent storm. Snow was decent, powder to be found.
See our video here