Morzine/Les Gets, FR, January 30, 2019

Tony Crocker

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We arrived at the Champs Fleuris hotel, which was recommended by Fraser. It’s maybe 100 feet from the gondola to Pleney and we skied to the hotel front door at the end of the day. It was snowing most of the morning so we were in no hurry to get out. We could buy lift tickets at the hotel of many varieties, something still not possible at Iron Blosam at Snowbird. In addition to single or multiday tickets, you can have a choice among the full Portes du Soleil complex or just a single sector.
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So it’s fairly easy to define ski areas on the basis of those tickets: Morzine/Les Gets, Avoriaz and Chatel in France. I presume there also a sector ticket for most of the Swiss side which we never saw. Due to the weather and nearly a noon start Wednesday we bought a 5-hour ticket for Morzine/Les Gets, which is mostly below tree line.
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By the time we got on the hill the snow had stopped and the clouds were lifting above the slopes.
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There were 8 inches of new snow, very fluffy despite the low elevation as temps remained cool in the 15F range. In some places that was on top of the 18 inches that fell Sunday/Monday.

We first skied to the Pre Favre chair and then to Cherniaz, where there are 3 chairs. Overall terrain is fairly mellow, and since the trees are dense, a good place to look for powder is along chair liftlines. Liz under the Troncs chair:
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The Cherniaz lift has a long runout.
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The snow under that lift was easily 2 feet deep and it was easy to get stuck. I took a header in there to some applause and laughter from the chair riders.

The best powder run of the day was the midsection of Tetes chairlift, looking back up here.

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Looking down from the same spot is a blind rollover.
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There are exposed rocks in there but I had scouted that riding up.

From the top of the Cherniaz lift is an overview of Les Gets.
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At far right of the above pic and zoomed below is Mont Chery.
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James recommended skiing over there, but we failed to navigate that correctly in the late afternoon.

We skied into the Chevannes sector and rode to La Rosta, where Liz needed a thaw break.

View down the ungroomed Yeti run, with Ranfoilly in background:
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I joined Liz and helped her finish the soup of the day, pea/lentil with potatoes and a cheese slab mixed in. We skied some powder between the Yeti and Eglantine runs and then a run on Ranfoilly before departing Chevannes. From top of Ranfoilly we got a view of Chamossiere, the highest part of Morzine/Les Gets but closed for weather and snow stability today.
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On our second try we made it to the Melezes run to the Les Gets valley floor at the Perrieres lift just before 4PM. We had determined that a free bus runs every 10 minutes between Les Gets and Morzine, so we were willing to finish our ski day at Mont Chery, where the lifts probably ran to at least 4:30. We caught a local Les Gets bus, which went to the central part of Les Gets but instead of looping around to the Chery base it climbed switchbacks on the opposite side. The bus stopped to turn around at the base of the Folliets chair. As it was now 4:20PM we decided to get on that lift and ski back to Morzine. I skied 14,500 vertical, about 5K of powder, including a few shots on the way from Pleney back to our hotel on our last run.

It appears that to ski Mont Chery you must first ski into the central part of Les Gets, then take that shuttle which looks like a train (James had pics in his 2014 report) to the Chery base. The terrain above central Les Gets looks flat and less interesting than the La Turches/Perrieres runs, and the latter were also easier to reach from Chavannes where we were skiing and having the soup 2:30-3:30.
 
A shame that you missed Chamoissiere, Mont Chery, and the entire Swiss side. Still, it looks like you saw a fair amount of the circuit.
 
Portes du Soleil is near Geneva and can be seen piecemeal over time near the beginning or end of trips.

The weather was going to cause problems wherever we went for the end of this trip. It was inevitable we would miss some of the best terrain at Portes du Soleil, but at places like Andermatt there's almost no pleasant skiing at all if the weather is bad.
 
On a business trip to Helsinki in early/mid-January, I was going to stop at a European ski destination for a long weekend of 2.5-3.5 days.

I was thinking Geneva and the Portes du Soleil since it's so close. I have skied most of the areas I am interested in near Zurich (St. Anton/Arlberg, Ischgl, Davos, St. Moritz, Andermatt, Engelberg, Laax-Flims, Arosa-Lenzerheide) and the large French mega resorts are too far/skied them.

Found a place in Morzine that is half board near Pleney slopes and Town Hall (buses to Pordains and Ardent) and was thinking of just getting a transfer from Geneva. Bases at Avoriaz seem more than adequate now 80-220cm. Might hold off a little to see if rain comes into the forecast - then I would go someplace higher (Verbier, 3 Vallees (Meribel/Mottaret)). Chamonix is less interesting without the tram at Grands Montets.

It's hard to make sense of the PDS piste map - are there certain must ski sectors? Likely will just be able to do highlights.

Also, are weekend crowds substantial due to proximity to Geneva?

James, Tony?
 
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It's hard to make sense of the PDS piste map - are there certain must ski sectors? Likely will just be able to do highlights.

Also, are weekend crowds substantial due to proximity to Geneva?

James, Tony?
I remember the top sectors to be Avoriaz/Les Prodains (pictured in the map photo below), and upper Morzine (Chamoissiere and Point de Nyon/map further down). Something to keep in mind is that the map is very condensed and doesn't portray the vast amounts of offpiste between the marked trails.

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As far as weekend crowds, all I have is my anecdotal experiences -- three weekend days across two visits -- and it was busy near the various villages; however, I didn't run across any lift lines. A nice option for busy days (because it's not on the interconnected circuit) is Mont Chéry in Les Gets, which has fun terrain and less crowds.

In addition to the Portes du Soleil, another option for your visit that's a similar travel time from GVA is what you brought up in the other thread: Flaine/Grand Massif.
 
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The big map above does not show any of Avoriaz, Chatel or the Swiss side, which probably have better terrain for ChrisC's tastes. If ChrisC is there for a limited time, I'd recommend he follow weathertoski's advice and start most of his ski days at Ardent.

Our final day was a new snow Saturday with upper lifts closed for wind/avy control and yes it was a zoo. Overall the lift capacity handled the crowd OK aside from taking an hour to start the day to get from Prodains through the Avoriaz base due to key lift closures. But slope congestion was high, including huge irregular moguls by mid-afternoon from heavy skier traffic.

Mont Chery probably would have been a good option on a day like that but it would take awhile to get there unless you drove to its base.
 
Thanks.

It seems like I would ski one day in Morzine/Les Gets - with a focus on Nyon, Chamossiere, and Mt Chery. Then, a day in Avoriaz into Chatel, and the next day at Avoriaz into Champery/Champoussin/Morgins ....all with turnaround times by 330/400 to get back to Avoriaz..and Morzine. I would get into Geneva at 745 am on Jan 7 or 8th - l will likely rent a car since I do not want the games of filling/finding a shuttle since time is limited.

If I can manage the 4 days off, I will likely go check out Flaine/Grand Massif for one day... it's only 30 minutes/ 16 miles to the Morillon base of the complex.

Chamonix without Mt Blanc tram (too early in the season for glaciers) and Grands Montets without tram are just not that interesting. Megeve...Nice on a storm day, but think it's over-rated - both village and skiing-wise. (No comparison to St. Moritz.) Les Contamines is really fun for a day. And would rather have multiple sectors at PDS vs. going to a single area like La Clusaz.

Otherwise, my 3 favorite areas in the Alps are Val d'Isere/Tignes, St. Anton/Arlberg, and Verbier.....and slightly lesser extent Engelberg/Andermatt, Zermatt...maybe add La Grave, St. Moritz, and 3 Vallees (Val Thorens/Courchevel). Verbier gets a special shout-out for just easy access to extreme skiing, and being the most painfully expensive place in Europe.

Since it's just me, this place looked fine in Morzine:

If conditions go to hell, I'm likely to head to Verbier vs. doing ice in Portes du Soleil. Or higher (Val Thorens, Zermatt).

Hopefully, things stay colder:

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And maybe:

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It looks like the northwestern Alps are already set up with nice bases according to Weather To Ski's coverage from Friday:

The last of a series of storms, in what has been extraordinary early season storm cycle, is now underway across the western Alps. Once again it will be the northwestern Alps that will see the most snow from this storm, especially the northern French and western Swiss Alps where another 20-40cm of new snow is expected by tonight, with 50cm+ in one or two favoured spots. What is particularly notable about these recent storms is just how low the snow has fallen, and today is no exception. This is Les Saisies – 10 December 2021:

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Reminds me of my late 2017 trip to eastern Switzerland, where Arosa/Lenzerheide, Toggenburg, and even low-altitude Atzmännig (800m base) were nicely buried in mid-December.
 
Well, this trip is now canceled. Business travel is a no-go...again, so no ski add ons.

Finland now has nearly 4x more Covid cases than the worst of the Delta variant (Aug 2021) and Beta variant (March 2021). No more office life. However, Finland is keeping all their Christmas Markets and Lapland theme parks open %!$!@.

Oh well, looked PdS was having an epic season.
 
We are glad our Alps trip doesn't start until March 20. I'd be a bit nervous about possible restrictions being in effect in January.
 
UK skiers just got short-changed by France. Looks like Fraser just barely arrived in the French Alps pre-travel ban.

How is France going to police UK skiers landing in Geneva - checkpoints on the Swiss border? Traffic nightmare.



 
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