Chatel/Avoriaz, FR, Mar. 30-31, 2026

[Tony Crocker]

We stayed at Hotel Macchi in Chatel, which sprawls over a couple miles. At the south end of town the La Linga lift connects into the Plain Dranse terrain and then to Avoriaz. In the other direction is Super Chatel, in general mellower terrain with connections to Morclon, Tronchey and Torgon.

Once on skis there is a two chairlift but no ski connection between the sectors. While that type connection constitutes a new ski area to me, we never went over there because the priority was getting into Avoriaz’ alpine terrain, which we never did in 2019 due to weather.

The hotel shuttle van takes guests to the La Linga or Super Chatel lifts at 8:45, 9:45 or 10:45AM. In Monday’s difficult weather we were on the last shuttle. We skied the gradual Itineraire to Plaine Dranse to avoid above tree line lifts. It was nonetheless tough because the wet snow/fog was riming the outside of our goggles. This continued on for next run from Rochassons down to Les Lindarets.

Back in 2019 Fraser said there was an excellent restaurant below Les Lindarets on the way to the Ardent parking area. We decided to investigate due to the difficult weather. That area has a cluster of at least 5 restaurants, similar to the group at Les Lindarets itself. By the time we left Portes du Soleil April 1, I can with some confidence say this is the greatest concentration of high quality on mountain dining I have ever seen.

Fortunately after those first two runs the condensation on the outside of our goggles stopped freezing. We rode the Lecheres lift out of Les Lindarets, towards the Les Cases lift we had skied down from Switzerland Sunday, to this view.

It’s obvious we weren’t going any farther up. So we returned to Les Lindarets and settled into an excellent lunch of Galettes Bretonnes at Cafe Mamo.

We then headed back to the Chatel side about 3:15, first spotting this trifecta for Liz’ fashion police.

At Plaine Dranse the clouds had finally risen some, so we skied some soft cruisers Les Rennes, Les Blattins and La Perdrix Blanche. Views in that area:

View from La Linga piste down to town of Chatel:

Even though the town of Chatel is only 1200 meters, the La Linga piste is direct north facing with a consistent fall line, so its snow holds up well. View to that piste from near our hotel:

We skied 16,600 vertical Monday.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

this trifecta for Liz’ fashion police.

To be fair, those three are wearing loud suits on purpose. To me, fashion crimes are when the wearer is unaware of how ugly/out of fashion their clothing is, e.g. old-school body bags and couples in matching outfits. OTOH, my hideous green potato-bag ski coat, soon to be replaced after two decades of service, is an interesting case in that I know how ugly it is (my wife reminds me constantly), yet I've continued to wear it all these years.

we returned to Les Lindarets

Given the number of top-shelf on-mountain establishments that you've visited/enjoyed over the years, you're standing pat on the statement that Les Lindarets' selection of fine gastronomy beats any other village?

La Linga piste is direct north facing with a consistent fall line, so its snow holds up well.

You had better conditions than my last run on Le Linga ten years ago (<- more photos of cows and cheese than skiing).

The next day, the lower 2/3 of the ski terrain got a northeast U.S.-style drenching.

 

[Tony Crocker]

On Tuesday we saw 6 inches new snow on patio furniture outside breakfast, but no sun. We got on the 9:45 shuttle to La Linga. Once on the mountain visibility was like Sunday: clouds were mainly on top of the ridgelines but light was still flat. Nonetheless we had to try some next-to-the-piste powder.

Snow quality was excellent, so I was lured a bit farther afield, skiing between the Cornebois lift and the Perdrix Blanche run. I saw a piste marker in the bottom of a gully, so I knew I was not skiing into a terrain trap. However the grooming had cut into the bottom of the pitch where I was skiing powder. I could not see that so ending up with a double ejection splattering onto the piste.

Next run we followed a traverse track skier’s left from Les Rennes. I figured I would use that track for reference skiing down but the track continued into pea soup beyond where I could judge that it would return to the piste. So we bailed and skied by Braille carefully back to the piste. Liz fell once, but she had not gone as far out the traverse as I had.

Here’s an overview of the Plaine Dranse terrain skier’s looker’s right of La Chaux des Rosees lift.

At upper right above the rightmost chair is the wide bowl off Les Rennes where we floundered in the flat light. Moving left past the first cliff band is a nice off piste line I skied a couple of times in 2019. Moving farther left a wider line narrows to this choke point.

We moved on to Avoriaz riding the Lechere and Les Cases lifts up to the Swiss border

Since we see on piste, we rode Cubore chair up to Pointe de Vorlaz so we could at least survey the Choucas/Fornet sector we never saw in 2019. But as we descended the Alpages run the fog rolled in. So slowly skied Bleue Chavanette to the busy Tour chair in Avoriaz,

We found the light improved when we were got back to Les Lindarets. So we rode Mossettes up to the border and ventured into the black ski route Frontaliere. The top pitch was groomed frozen granular, but once we got lower there were enough rocks and trees to provide references points to ski powder.

We had lunch in Brochaux before heading back to Chatel. The top of La Linga had a final powder opportunity traversing out skier’s right.

We skied 20,100 Tuesday, about 4K of powder.

Given the number of top-shelf on-mountain establishments that you've visited/enjoyed over the years, you're standing pat on the statement that Les Lindarets' selection of fine gastronomy beats any other village?

Given the quality of breakfasts and dinners we get in the Alps, I'd say half of our Euro days we have no lunch at all. That was true for 5 of the 10 days on this trip. On the two days in this TR we ate on the hill because the days were weather challenged. The last day, which I'll post shortly, was a big winner, but we had a full meal at Les Lindarets at 4PM before our drive to Flaine. That meal was at La Terrasse, which Trip Advisor rates #10 in Montriods. Most of the Montriods establishments are in Les Lindarets or the cluster of places just below it. Here's an overview of those when were were departing 5PM Wednesday.

Are these places better than, say, Chalet Etoile or Chez Vrony? Not necessarily, but there are so many of them in such a compact area.