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The Portes du Soleil is the largest interconnected ski area in the world encompassing 13 villages, 650 kms of marked piste and 360 lifts. Each village within the area has it’s own unique skiing.
Morzine and Les Gets
The Morzine and Les Gets area really is an intermediates paradise. There are lots of wide tree lined runs and plenty of small vin chaud stopping points! You can access the whole area from either Morzine by taking the Pleney bubble lift or from Nyon by taking the cable car. Over towards Les Gets, the Ranfolly area is wide bowl with a whole variety of runs, from the long wide and fast to the odd tricky black! The runs down to La Turche are worth skiing, though the drag tow back is long and can get quite painful! |
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When snow conditions are good, it is worth getting over to Mont Chery (the only down point is the 5 minute walk through Les Gets). The skiing is great and for some reason not at all crowded-you will never have to queue for lift! There are a few restaurants - a fast-food self-service place at the top of the bubble lift, quick and cheap! La Solery at the top of the mountain does some excellent food, though it can get busy. The beer is good and the views of Mont Blanc are superb!
For the more advanced don’t miss out Chamossiere and Pointe de Nyon. Chamossiere has some of the best bump skiing in Morzine. The best yin chaud in the whole of Les Portes du Soleil is found at the small hut at the end of the red run on Chamossiere |
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(you can also get to the hut by taking the green run from Ranfoly back to Morzine).
The Pleney B piste back to Morzine does get very busy towards the end of the day. You can avoid most of these skiers by taking the red run down which joins the Pleney B right by The Cherche du Midi, great for a last drink before the end of the day! Or, alternatively ski back down to Nyon and have a yin chaud in the Doctors Bar on the Plateau.
See video |
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The skiing in and around Avoriaz is extremely varied. On one side there is an area solely devoted to black runs - Les Haut Forts. The World Cup Downhill run is a relatively easy, but Machon is particularly wicked! This area is served by two long, triple chair lifts. Queues are rare, but the top chair lift can get very cold as it is quite exposed.
Arare is one big blue run served by a fast four-man chairlift. Though long and wide, it does get very busy and unless you can get the first chairlift up in the morning it’s best to avoid the run. There are two other blue runs to the right of Arare which don’t seem to get anywhere near as crowded.
The Chavanette bowl is great if there are no lift queues. There are quite a variety of long blue and red runs. The Wall is accessed from the top of the Chavenette draglift. The Cubore (up and over chairlift) opens up the long bluey red run down the Abricotine Valley to Les Lindarets. The top 300 m of this run is quite tricky with lots of bumps, once past this you can take the run as fast or as slow as you want to!
The new fast four-man chairlift from Brochaux is a quick, fast, quiet and easy way into Switzerland.
May we recommend some of our favourite restaurants, Chez Flo in Avoriaz, Les Lindarets- Marmottes has the best omelettes in the Alps. La Cremarie is one of the Alps gourmet restaurants, while up at Les Brocheaux any of the three restaurants serve good food and are also quite reasonable. See video |
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