Morzine, Avoriaz and the Portes du Soleil
I stayed in Morzine for 10 days over New Year and got most of my snowboarding in at Avoriaz. Here’s the trip report I’d been promising.
After an overnight stop in Geneva on December 28th, we got our transfer to Morzine first thing the following morning. We checked into our apartment and those of us without lessons booked headed straight for the Super Morzine lift to take us to the snow.
With the well documented slow start to the winter season, many resorts had been struggling for snow. Morzine was no exception. fortunately it is just one part of the Portes du Soleil, the largest connected ski area in Europe, and whilst Morzine is fairly low (1000-1600m ish), Avoriaz goes somewhat higher.
On our way up the mountain we were having our doubts as to what conditions lay ahead. At the top of Super Morzine was a chair lift taking us over the Zore run. On day one, Zore looked more like a golf course than a ski slope. Worrying times.
Chairlift down the closed Zore run down to the Super Morzine lift
A long flatish icy blue run took us to another chair lift before we hit the centre of Avoriaz. In general, most runs were OK for snow, though you had to do a fair bit of jumping and manuvering to avoid rocks popping through the piste. As it was the end of Christmas week and a couple of days before New Year, things were pretty busy too. None the less, there was snowboarding to be done and we had it for all it was worth for 3 days.
Come New Years Day, we were kept from accending the hill as usual by 2 things:
- Rain. Heavy, heavy rain, and bad vis.
- Hangover. Heavy, heavy hangover, and bad vibes.
New Years Day in Morzine. What happened to the snow?
Sitting around watching the Simpsons is something I’d done enough of over Christmas back in England, and I wasn’t taking a day off the slopes too well. Cabin fever was getting to me bad. The only thing consoling me is that the Morzine weather forecast was for snow and lots of it over the coming days.
The forecast was spot on. I woke the next day to Morzine a picture of snowy white, with more falling all the time.
Snow on the Pleney at Morzine
If it was this good at resort level, it was going to great up in Avoriaz. And it was. The temperature had dropped enough for the cannons to get to work, in an attempt to build a better base and bring some longevity to the slopes.
If you were up early enough there was loads of untracked powder to be had. The visibility wasn’t up to much though throughout the day, expecially on higher runs, so we stuck mainly to the runs going down to Les Lindarets.
The following day was awesome. Blue skies. Powder underfoot, though perhaps not as fresh as the day before. The perfect visibility made for a great day all round.
Great visibility in Avoriaz
By the end of the day, heading back down to Morzine, the Zore run was already starting to return to its patchy state seen on day 1, if only towards the very bottom of the run.
The next day was pretty mediocre until it started snowing late on in the day. From there it was all good right through to the end.
Personal highlights:
- Exploring the further reaches of the Portes du Soleil toward the end of the trip, including Chatel and Champery
- Doing the Swiss Wall, the famous near-vertical drop mogul field. So Black they mark it Orange
- Hitting kickers in the 2 snowparks that were open in Avoriaz
- Not stacking on any rail attempts
- Much improved fakie
- Jumping off bigger and bigger ledges and loving landing on the steep
And some more pics…
Swiss Wall vertical drop in the distance, taken from the quietest lift, leading to the best powder
Sunset over Morzine on our final day. Last time down the Zore.
I should also give a shout to Mint Snowboarding, the new UK led snowboarding school in Morzine that took care of our first time snowboarders. Seems like the ESF are feeling a bit threatened by the competition. Good luck guys.
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