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TR, Morzine, 14-19 Jan. 2018

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
A quick 4 day trip for an intermediate skier, sticking to blues and reds. Thoroughly enjoyed my first trip to PDS and would definitely return.

Parking - BRS silver zone - £34 - been tarted up a bit since my last visit. Efficient service with swift transfer to airport

Flights - Bristol to Geneva, £89, including 20kg bag both ways - baggage check in no problems, and flights were uneventful and pretty much on time.

Transfers - AlpyBus - GVA to Morzine, return - about 26 Euros each way - again, on time and uneventful. Just what was needed from a transfer. Return transfer was rescheduled from 1145 to 1000 which meant a couple of hours sitting around GVA waiting to drop-off my bag. Bit of a pain, but no major hassle

Bought a 4 day PDS pass (about 175 Euros), but in retrospect could have probably saved some money by waiting to see which area we wanted to ski each day and buying appropriate duration pass (a couple of days we only skied for 3-4 hours).

Accommodation - sister-in-law's apartment up on road to Avoriaz - bargainous not very many Euros for contribution to cleaning and laundry; very close to bus stop which meant it was very easy to get about the resort

Ski hire - 45 Euros from Intersport on Rue du (de?) Bourg - booked online for discount - brand new Atomic Redster XR - did the job, worked well when put on edge; edges nice and sharp, and ran well over the snow. Very friendly shop, offered to change the skis during my stay.

General impressions of Morzine - first time I have stayed in a proper town when skiing, and first time I have had to get a bus to the lifts. I quite liked the vibe of being in a proper town, but wasn't so fond of the rain. Getting a bus to the lifts wasn't anywhere near as much of a hassle or ball-ache as I thought, so long as you timed your arrival at the bus stop well.

Skiing

Skied with my brother-in-law who knows the area well.

Monday - blue skies until mid-afternoon. Over from Avoriaz to Chatel, towards Torgon. Spent a happy hour or so lapping an empty Braitaz piste. Perfect conditions - sun out, pistes well groomed and no one else there. Let it rip. Ended up skiing for the best part of 7 hours. Didn't stop. No lunch break, no coffee breaks. Just two middle aged gits hooning about with huge smiles on their faces and sore legs. Into Bec Jaune to over-celebrate.

Tuesday - payback time. Legs and head a little sore. Late start, which didn't matter because the weather had closed in. Not many lifts open in Avoriaz due to high winds, so we headed to Pleney to ski the Morzine-Les Gets side. Bit of a miserable day to be honest. Lots of rain and very wet snow, depending on altitude. And the wind started to pick-up. I'll usually ski, ski and ski, but after about 3 hours we were both soaked through, so we headed for home. Snow varied in consistency from sugar to wet (but OK) snow to hideous sticky porridge which felt like it could rip your knee to bits if you weren't careful.

Wednesday - temperatures had dropped, so it was snowing in Morzine first thing, and carried-on snowing throughout the day. Again, high winds prevented many lifts from opening in Avoriaz so we headed over to Morzine-Les Gets again. And what a belter. Lots of powder (well, as powdery as it's going to get in Les Gets) on top of the pistes. Great fun, especially for someone who's never really skied off piste. Couple of cracking falls, but soft landings. Headed over to Mont Chery and what a blast. Must have been about a foot of snow on the pointe pistes. Great red running under the Les Planeys chair, too. Seems to have been a little bit of a landslip/avalanche on the corresponding black run. Huge lumps of Lord-knows-what have fallen down the hill. Thoroughly enjoyed my first real dabble into "off piste" (no, I know it's not proper off piste). Ended up doing about 6 hours.

Thursday - headed over to Avoriaz for a few hours because the wind had dropped a bit. Most of the runs around Avoriaz were very busy, so not much hooning about. Lapped the Prodains run. The runs above Super Morzine which were quieter, so we lapped those. Vis higher up was pants, as we discovered when we went up the Arare drag. Could see the piste markers, but that was about it. No idea where anything else was, no least the bank of snow I skied in to. Cue almost peeing myself laughing.

Beering - BiL likes the Bec Jaune, so ended up there a couple of nights. A very popular microbrewery pub mainly frequented by Brits and a few French on the nights we were there. Decent beer, about 5-7 Euros a glass or 15-17 Euros a jug. Had a couple in Le Cottage which seemed a popular apres location.

Thoroughly enjoyed my little trip, and wasn't too disheartened by the changeable weather - it is a mountain in January, after all.
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