There is the marked piste map that ESF hands out at the lift station, and there is the other map — the one carried in the heads of the forty UIAGM guides who work the resort. The second map has no printed copy. It is taught in the mornings on the téléphérique, rehearsed in the early-season storms, and revised every year. These are the lines on it.
Six itineraries make up the spine of the off-piste season in Courchevel. None is a secret in the strict sense — every guide knows them — but they are not on the piste map, they require a guide and a transceiver, and they reward a specific kind of snow.
1. The Vallée des Avals
The classic. From the top of the Chanrossa chair, traverse south-east for ten minutes, and the resort disappears behind you. The valley drops 800 vertical metres through larch forest to the village of Le Praz. The bottom half is glade skiing of the kind that does not exist anywhere else in the Trois Vallées; the top is open snowfield, north-facing, holding powder for days after a storm. A taxi from Le Praz back to 1850 takes nine minutes.
2. The Aiguille du Fruit Bowl
Reached from the Saulire téléphérique. A 25-minute boot-pack along the ridge brings you to a north-east bowl that opens above 2,800 metres and holds the coldest snow in the massif. Guides will only run this with stable snowpack and visibility — the entry is a 50-metre rappel in poor years and a steep traverse in good ones. The reward is one of the longest sustained powder runs in the Alps.
3. The Couloirs of the Grand Couloir
The Grand Couloir itself is on the piste map — black, narrow, and skied by everyone with a GoPro. The four neighbouring couloirs, accessed by traversing further west from the Saulire summit, are not. They are tighter, steeper, and require dropping a cornice that varies from “small step” to “two-metre commitment” depending on the wind. Local guides rank them West 1 through West 4; ask for “West 2” if it’s your first day on couloirs.
4. The Croix des Verdons North Face
The most accessible serious line in 1850. From the top of the Verdons chair, a short hike puts you on the summit ridge; the north face drops 600 metres at 40-plus degrees onto the Pralong piste. In April, with the right snow cycle, it skis like a Hokkaido tree run. In January it is hard ice and one for experts only.
5. The Italian Side of the Col du Fruit
A full-day itinerary. A guide drives the group to the Italian side of the Col du Fruit (90 minutes from 1850), where 1,200 metres of untracked south-facing snow drops back toward the Vanoise national park. The return is by snowcat to a rendez-vous point and a second car. The day costs around €1,200 per group of four and is the closest experience to heli-skiing without leaving France.
6. The Pralong Trees, At Dusk
The least technical, the most beautiful. The larch forest above Pralong, lit at 4:30 PM in late January when the sun catches the western face — every guide books at least one client per season for this one alone. Two hundred metres of vertical, repeated three times before the lift closes. Not steep, not hard, not famous. Just the cleanest snow in the village, at the cleanest hour of the day.
The Etiquette
The guides talk. If you book Magic Mountain in the morning and ask for Vallée des Avals, the booking shows up on the shared messenger group by lunchtime. Skiing any of the six without a guide is technically permitted; ethically it is regarded as freeloading on knowledge other people have paid to acquire. The expected gesture is straightforward: book a guide for the first descent, then ski it on your own. A full-day private guide in Courchevel is €450–€550. The map is, after that, yours.
