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Avoriaz for Skiing & Snowboarding
| Ski Areas in Morzine & the Portes du Soleil |
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The Portes du Soleil ski area is vast with 650km of piste and offers something for everyone. Comprising 14 resorts over France and Switzerland, the lift system of 209 lifts allows skiers and borders to freely enjoy this winter adventure park. |
| Avoriaz Ski Area |
Avoriaz is a vast ski area perched 600 meters above Morzine on the cliffs above the valley Ardoisières. Access from Morzine is easy enough, either directly from town via Super Morzine and the Express du Zore or from the Prodains Valley. The latter offers two mechanisms of uphill transport; Prodains téléphérique and TS du Verare and TS Combe du Machon. The former can get busy in the peak season and the latter is exposed to the elements but does take you higher up the Hauts Forts avoiding the busy Avoriaz town area.
For the more advanced skier with a penchant for steep fast blacks and long mogul runs the Hauts Forts is the place to head. There are multiple black runs dropping down to the TS du Crot and onward to the valley floor, amongst them the Coupe du Monde downhill course. For those wishing to take a more leisurely approach then drop down the Bleue d’Arare and onward to the home run of Le Crot. Both are excellent runs and not as easy as you may think. The former is used for ski races and the latter does not see much action until the end of the day so you can be relatively unencumbered by avoiding hordes of your fellow skiers and boarders.
Further afield, above Avoriaz, sits the Secteur Chavanette. This is a huge ski area sitting above the tree line with multiple blues and reds. In addition the wide bowl geography of the area creates patrolled but un-pisted skier cross areas featuring vast natural terrain of varying degrees of difficulty. Lots of little and not so little rock and cliff drop offs, natural half pipes and a multitude of natural kickers to practice your slope style on. The area is served by two express lifts; Express du Fornet and Express Choucas meaning you do not have to wait long to return to your favorites. The runs here tend to be longer than average for this section of the Portes du Soleil as a function of a greater vertical drop and are great for those wishing to get the leg burn going on a top to bottom drop.
In closure proximity to Avoriaz there is an excellent beginner blue serviced by the TS Seraussaix lift and surprisingly it goes by the same name! The run is wide and not so steep meaning advancing beginners can move it on a level on a long run. Directly out of Avoriaz under the Express Lac Intrets is an excellent mogul run - Stade du Slalom.
Secteur Linderets can be accessed from Avoriaz and is mainly lower in altitude contrasting the bare upper slopes of the latter with tree lined sheltered runs. Alternatively the area can be reached from the télécabine d’Ardent but this necessitates a drive form Morzine town. However the upper reaches of the Linderets valley drop from the high point of the Portes du Soleil, the Grand Mossettes. There are three main runs in this higher area, one of each colour; blue Abricotine, black La Frontalière and the red Les Cases. There is an additional red accessed via the TS Cubore known as the Mur du Cubore which sports some pretty hefty moguls. This latter lift is also an access point to the Fornet valley above Avoriaz. La Frontalière is a wide snowcross area with no obvious piste and is a take your pick area sporting a multitude of natural features; cliff drops, natural half pipes and valleys and kicker jumps of varying size. When the snow has been absent for a while the whole area becomes covered in moguls so if your into that kind of thing put this at the top of your list. Les Cases is a cracking red run with a steep gradient, rarely being pisted merely increases the challenge. Abricotine takes a more leisurely route down the valley but still has some fast sections to keep you entertained. There is ample opportunity get on and off piste amongst all these runs and with very little likelihood of following a dead end requiring a huge cliff drop or similar. The mountain to the skiers left offers a huge number of off piste drops to the blue Abricotine via a traverse as long or as short as you want to make it. Access is via the TS Cubore.
Lower down the Linderets valley within the tree line there is a multitude of express lifts quickly accessing a variety of reds and blues of varying demands; Express Linderets, Express Prolays, TS Brocheaux and on the opposite side of the valley the TS Chaux Fleurie. The Combe et Floret, Les Tannes, Mossettes and Stade du Slalom are all more than worth a visit, regardless of the colour grading. There is ample and obvious access to off piste tree runs in between these runs and many chances to leave the piste whilst keeping it in comforting view for those just beginning to venture into the off piste world. The sides of the Stade du Slalom in particularly are littered with kicker jumps onto and off the piste.
The opposite side of the valley is accessed by the newly installed TS Chaux Fleurie express chair, a vast improvement on the old three person lift which took an age to transport people to the top of the Col du Bassachaux. This lift is mainly an access to the Linga and Châtel areas but offers a red and blue down into the centre of the Linderets ski system. The off piste under the lift line and the surrounding area is excellent fun with a multitude of lines which despite the easy access take a little while to get tracked out. Exercise caution as they do lead to some small and some not so small cliff drops.
The home run Parchets drops down to the bottom of the télécabine d’Ardent and is an underused run, with the exception of the end of the day, worthy of your attention. For those wishing to take it steady it is wide enough to be traversed and flattened out. For the rest it is steep enough to really build some speed or alternatively play around in the edges on the little wall rides and kickers.
Linderets is somewhat of a cross roads in the Portes du Soleil with multiple destinations one of which is Switzerland and the resorts of Morgins, Les Crosets, Champoussin and Champery. All can be accessed via the Express Mossettes and the high point of the ski area, the peak of the Grande Mossettes. |
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last updated 5-Feb-2008 |
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