Portes du Soleil Tour - the Other Way Around

Today I accompanied Jessica and Izzy on what started out as an expedition to Switzerland.  However, after an early lunch in Marmmottes,  one of my favourite restaurants in Les Crosets, we decided to carry on and attempt a complete tour of the Portes du Soleil. A few weeks back I had done this tour with Peter, going round in a clockwise direction.  That option was no longer possible due to lack of snow in the Morgins area.  However, it looked as if it would work in the anticlockwise direction.  This turned out to be the case, although it was still touch and go getting to Chatel, with at least one chairlift taking us over some very green hillsides.  The final part of the journey back into Avoriaz was not an altogether pleasant experience, with a mixture of rain and horizontal snow, but we made it back eventually, in a somewhat soggy state but satisfied with a good day's skiing.

More Booths in Morzine

Over the course of the season, we have been delighted to welcome much of the Booth/Evans family to come and visit us in our Morzine hideaway.
This week it was the turn of Nick and Katrina to sample some of the skiing and culinary delights to be had in the Hautes Savoie.   We got of to a flying start with a visit to the local Dixie Bar to watch England beating France in the Six Nations, but failing to win the tournament.
On the whole, the weather was relatively kind to us, with skiing possible on most days, and we had a relaxed tour around some of Morzine and Avoriaz's more gentle pistes.   Not forgetting to stop off in the Ice Bar (see pic) for some apres ski refreshment in the sun.

Rock Les Pistes

Rock les Pistes is a week long event hosted by the Portes du Soleil tourist board, or some such body, and featuring various entertainers that you have never heard of performing at various locations around the Portes do Soleil region .
Today we were treated to Selah Sue (no, I've never heard of her either) and her band performing at a temporary stage erected next to one of our favourite slopeside restaurants, Le Vaffieu, at the confluence of three chairlifts.   So quite hard to miss if one is returning from Les Gets, as we were.  Worth an hour or so listening with a beer in hand, particularly as it was free.

Speed Riding

OK, so this may not actually be me in the picture, BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN, if I had had a photographer in tow to record my speed riding adventure.  Thanks to a speed riding lesson as birthday present from Jessica, I had the opportunity to experience this activity, a cross between skiing and paragliding, for the first time here in Morzine.
It turns out that previous paragliding experience was not necessarily a great advantage as the main aim of the lesson was to learn how to come down the slope relatively slowly, remaining on the ground most of the time until the final section, where one could get into the air.  So my first run was mainly flying, which was great, but not what my instructor was after  By the end of the three hour session I was just about mastering the technique for steering down the slope without going too fast and taking off, until the end that is.  Anyway, great fun to try out.  Perhaps if I were to do another skiing season I would give it another go.

Grand Massif

Our season lift pass for Portes du Soleil also includes discovery vouchers, which gives us a day's free lift pass at a number of resorts in the region.  Today we took the opportunity to explore the Grand Massif ski area, starting in Morrilon, and ending up in Flaine.  Morrilon is only about 40 minutes drive from Morzine, so very easy to get to for a day trip.
The snow in the Flaine bowl was still in good condition and we enjoyed cruising on their flattering runs down to the resort centre. Flaine itself is not a particularly attractive place, and I am not sure that I would want to stay there for a week's holiday, let alone a whole season, but it would certainly make a great location for a long weekend skiing.

Les Crosets

This week we were delighted to welcome Tim to our alpine hideaway in Morzine.  
Snow conditions were good so we headed over to Switzerland for a day's skiing in the Les Crozets area.  The three of us has last skied in the Portes do Soleil region about 3 years ago, and it was good to revisit some of our earlier itineraries. One welcome new arrival since last time is the Marmottes restaurant at the base of the Ripaille drag lift.  Lovely décor and ambiance,  and a simple menu du jour that includes an all-you-can eat soup bar.  
One of the great things about having Tim in town is being exposed to his boundless enthusiasm, and constant exclamations of 'amazing' every time a new alpine view appears on the horizon.  We may have become rather blasé about our environment, but actually Tim is right, it really is amazing out here.

Portes du Soleil Grand Tour

Today's outing started off as an expedition to Chatel but ended up being a complete tour of the Portes du Soleil, via Morgins and Champery.  There had been a major dump of snow over the previous 24 hours so we had some interesting/challenging conditions to contend with, but we managed to complete the circuit with time to spare.
To round off the day I decided to introduce Peter to the delights of the Marmottes snowcross piste. This turned out to be something of a mistake as we were engulfed in cloud at the start of the run and then proceeded, respectively, to get buried in a 2m snowdrift and ski over a cliff. Not one of my better suggestions, but we survived to tell the tale. 

The Swiss Wall

For Peter's first day out in Avoriaz I was envisaging a relaxed tour around some of the gentle cruising pistes over in Switzerland.  Silly me. Once there and in in sight of the infamous Swiss Wall piste, Peter felt we ought to at least review this as a possible skiing option.  On the way up the wall in the chair I could not come up with any reasonable excuses not to give it a go, as the snow looked in perfect condition. 
So we did, and the fact that I am writing this suggests that I did in fact survive the experience largely intact.  In fact, we went on to do all the black runs in  the Champery sector, which were all in good condition and therefore relatively easy to ski.  All in all, a fine day's skiing.