Évasion Mont-Blanc, Portes du Mont-Blanc, Les Contamines and Les Houches: Which Ski Area Should You Choose?

The Resorts: What Each One Is and What It Is Not

Megève is the hub of everything. Its own skiing is organised across four distinct sectors — Rochebrune, Mont d’Arbois, Côte 2000 and Jaillet — each with a different character. Rochebrune is south-facing, sun-drenched and accessible directly from the village, making it the most popular and therefore most crowded. Mont d’Arbois, reached via gondola to 1,840 metres, is the largest sector and the one that connects on-piste to Saint-Gervais and Saint-Nicolas via the Mont Joux ridge. Côte 2000 is an off-piste bowl, quieter than anywhere else in Megève and genuinely good for powder days — though notoriously difficult to exit without local knowledge. Jaillet, accessible by gondola from the western edge of town, is the gateway into the Portes du Mont-Blanc circuit linking to Combloux and La Giettaz.

The overall terrain breakdown across the Megève–Saint-Gervais sector — the largest within Évasion at 185 kilometres — runs to 217 pistes: 33 black, 84 red, 63 blue and 37 green. Around 37 percent of the terrain is beginner-appropriate, 39 percent intermediate, and 15 percent advanced. The mountain sits between 1,113 and 2,350 metres, with a maximum vertical drop of approximately 1,200 metres.

The signature runs are the Princesse — a long, tree-lined red descending from the Mont d’Arbois plateau through the fir forests above Demi-Quartier, steep enough to be interesting and sheltered enough to ski in poor visibility — and the Épaule series above Saint-Nicolas-de-Véroce, where back-to-back red descents from below Mont Joly deliver around 800 metres of vertical with almost no other skiers in sight. For the genuinely capable, the Chamois black above Saint-Gervais and the Christomet blacks above Combloux offer steeper, quieter terrain with less traffic than anything in the Megève bowl.

For après-ski, Megève operates at a level that no other resort in this guide approaches. There are more than 60 mountain restaurants spread across its terrain, including the Folie Douce at the Mont Joux summit — the fifth in a chain that originated in Val d’Isère — which turns the afternoon session into something closer to a festival than a ski stop. If a buyer’s vision of Alpine property includes a long lunch in the sun with Champagne and music before skiing back to the village, that vision finds its most natural expression here. See all Megève properties for sale.

Demi-Quartier is not a resort in any official sense. It is a hamlet within the commune of Megève, sitting directly beneath the Princesse gondola on the road between Megève town and the ski slopes. Properties here have slope-side access to the Évasion domain — specifically to the Princesse gondola — without the price premium or the density of Megève’s town centre. For buyers who want to ski out from the door rather than transfer to a lift, Demi-Quartier deserves serious attention. Demi-Quartier properties are listed under the Megève area pages.

Saint-Gervais is the practical centre of the whole region. The town sits at 850 metres in the Arve valley and provides access to two entirely separate ski areas: the Évasion Mont-Blanc domain via the Le Bettex gondola, and the Les Houches–Saint-Gervais domain via the Tramway du Mont-Blanc. That dual access is unusual and undervalued. A property in Saint-Gervais can credibly market access to 455 combined kilometres of skiing across two separate lift systems — plus the Mont Blanc Unlimited connection to the full Chamonix valley for guests who want it. The town is more affordable than Megève, has its own railway station (Geneva direct, approximately 1 hour 45 minutes), and a thermal spa that operates year-round. Browse all Saint-Gervais properties for sale.

Saint-Nicolas-de-Véroce is a hamlet on the southern slope of the Saint-Gervais mountain, connected directly to the Évasion domain via the Chattrix and Croix du Christ lifts. It is entirely residential in character — no resort infrastructure, no après-ski — but the skiing access is excellent and the position, facing Mont Blanc across the valley, is among the finest in the region. Saint-Nicolas properties fall under the Saint-Gervais listings.

Combloux sits on the ridge between Megève and the Arve valley, connected via the Pertuis chairlift to the Portes du Mont-Blanc circuit and from there to both Jaillet and La Giettaz. The village holds the “Famille Plus” certification and is routinely cited as the better-value alternative to Megève for families who prioritise skiing over restaurant choices. The Plaine Joux and Jouty chairlifts above Combloux are consistently among the least-skied lifts in the entire Évasion domain — a fact that makes the reds beneath them a genuine find on busy school-holiday weeks.

La Giettaz sits at the eastern end of the Portes du Mont-Blanc circuit, straddling the departmental boundary between Haute-Savoie and Savoie. Skiers with a serious interest in off-piste terrain have noted La Giettaz’s freeride credentials for years without the wider market catching on — the Torraz sector in particular offers a 360-degree panorama of the Aravis chain and powder that stays untracked long after busier areas have been scraped. The Torraz snowpark is a legitimate facility rather than the token arrangement common to smaller satellite resorts.

Les Contamines-Montjoie is the most underrated skiing in this entire guide. The resort sits 8 kilometres south of Saint-Gervais up the Val Montjoie valley, with no through road and therefore no passing traffic. Its ski domain covers 120 kilometres of piste across 46 runs — 11 green, 15 blue, 16 red and 4 black — between 1,164 and 2,437 metres. That maximum altitude of 2,437 metres at the Aiguille Croche is the highest point in the entire Évasion network. The vertical drop of 1,311 metres is the greatest in the region. The area has a snow reliability record that consistently outperforms resorts at similar mid-range altitudes, thanks to a weather corridor that channels precipitation into the valley and north-east-facing slopes that retain powder days after comparable terrain elsewhere has turned to slush.

The skiing divides into two principal sectors: Signal and Aiguille Croche. Signal is intermediate territory — rolling blues and consistent reds through forested terrain, with the best cruising descents around the Tierces and Nant Rouge chairlifts. Aiguille Croche is where this resort earns its spurs for advanced skiers. The two pistes from the summit — the Aiguille red and the Croche black — carry consistent steep pitch and are almost always mogulled from mid-season onwards. They are among the most demanding groomed runs in the Mont Blanc region that do not require a Chamonix lift ticket.

The Col du Joly descent toward Hauteluce is a separate pleasure: a long, open, predominantly red route crossing the ridge at 2,000 metres and dropping through two valleys to 1,200 metres, with the full Beaufortain mountain range ahead and Mont Blanc in the mirror. In March, in spring snow, it is exceptional. The official Les Contamines resort website has current piste and lift status.

The only material drawback of Les Contamines for property buyers is the access: a 20-minute bus journey from Saint-Gervais, with no ski-in connection to the rest of the Évasion domain. The bus runs regularly and is included in the Évasion pass, but for buyers who intend to ski seven days a week and want that flexibility on-piste, the logistics require factoring in.

Les Houches is the outlier. Geographically it sits at the mouth of the Chamonix valley, 6 kilometres from Chamonix centre and approximately 20 kilometres from Megève. Its ski domain — 55 kilometres, 27 pistes — is served by a cable car and a gondola climbing from 950 metres to 1,900 metres, with an almost entirely north-facing aspect that makes it the most reliably snow-covered low-altitude ski area in the region. See Les Houches properties for sale and all Chamonix valley properties.

The Kandahar World Cup downhill course, officially called La Verte des Houches, is among the most technically demanding groomed descents in Europe at this altitude. At 3,343 metres long with a vertical drop of 870 metres, it is used by the World Cup circuit in January most years — which means Les Houches periodically closes entirely for race preparation, a consideration for guests visiting in early January. The name “La Verte” is an artefact of 1946, when green denoted the highest difficulty rating before the modern colour system was introduced.

Beyond the Kandahar, Les Houches is a family and beginner resort of genuine quality. The tree-lined pistes function in conditions that shut down higher-altitude areas, the village is authentic rather than purpose-built, and access via the Mont-Blanc Tramway from Saint-Gervais creates a genuine link with the Évasion core — provided you hold the right pass. For a broader view of the Chamonix area, see our Chamonix valley ski property guide.