Avoriaz/Chatel/Les Gets/Morzine 2016/2017

A snowHead

Just got back from Avoriaz and the conditions were far better than last year and much better than expected. They have done wonders at getting pistes open and there were far fewer people than normal. We were at Club Med and a lot of French people had cancelled. Also heard of hotels/chalets in Morzine that had decided not to bother opening for the week. Yesterday was the first day that I would consider as busy for this time of year. The Grand Conche link to Les Crosets opened on Saturday so skied in Switzerland on Sat and Sunday and it was virtually empty. Great fun!
Skied with ESF most of the time and got taken to some off-piste areas that we would not have got to otherwise. Very strange to be so far from a piste but on snow that was harder than an actual piste.
Considering the situation they have done brilliantly to do what they have. It is limited but we skied all day every day so very lucky Very Happy

A snowHead

Noticeably busier at Pre La Joux today but still no real queues. The odd stone here and there but considering the lack of recent snow still amazing what is open and the condition of the pistes. No off piste to speak of. Got a bit cut up as the day went on and a fair number of home run idiots.

Looked across from the top of Rochassons / Chaux Fleurie and it seemed noticeably busier over Avoriaz way.

When we came down at about 1600 the top car park had filled up and the lower one was also about half full.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We were at Pre La Joux today, had a fantastic ski, only tootled around that area on blues due to having 7 year old but it was so much better than I expected, bit busy in places but fine. Had lovely lunch and a chilled out drive back to Thollon. Perfect Boxing Day!

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Saw a horrible fall though, a child off piste, I was on a lift. Made me feel sick.

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Went over to Avoriaz and Les Crosets today. Noticeably busier than Monday and survival skiing in one or two places to avoid people crashing all around. Far more rocks and bare or icy patches on the runs down from Avoriaz to Lindarets than on those above Plaine Dranse.

Went straight over to Lindarets first thing, quite icy but no rocks then through Avoriaz and down Crot which was also OK. Up the Grand Plans lift and it was clear the black runs are unskiable. Blue Arare was very nice and then went up Mosettes and down the Swiss side where there is not much open but a bit of snow making going on near Les Crosets. Then up the Ripaille drag which was marginal though the piste looked OK. Took the chair up the wall where two people were coming down - mad, it is mostly rocks and grass. Then a few runs in the Fornet bowl which was getting scraped and down to Changabang for lunch.

After lunch over to Mosettes and down the red start to Abricotine where we narrowly missed being wiped out by a teenager in a ESS Champery group who flew off the side on his backside at speed, lost both skis and hit a big rock. I was first there and diagnosed a broken collar bone but left further sorting out to the instructor who climbed back up. There was a lot of that sort of stuff going on.

So a good day in brilliant weather but the pistes are suffering and it is getting pretty busy. Mainly due to the number of pistes not open. Queues actually not too bad - longest we had was about 7 minutes but mostly less than a minute. Based on yesterday and today I would say the best PDS skiing is from Pre La Joux at the moment

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I am heading to morzine in the 18th jan for 4 days. Still three weeks to go for it all to change but at the moment it is all looking a bit grim.

Looks like avoriaz is the place to go and then take it easy on the ice?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Landing in Morzine on the 2nd for first days skiing will be a week today.

Praying like mad for some snow but looking at the forecast it doesnt look like much is on the horizon. In the meantime can everyone whose there please stop scraping it off! Thanks.

After all it is free

5 weeks for me... Let`s all start doing a snow dance or what ever works for you!

@no_snow_in_swindon, apologies, but I scraped off a bit more today at PLJ! More rocks in evidence in a few areas and quite icy both first thing and then generally later where it had been scraped by passing skiers.

Some of the unavoidable pinch points were getting very challenging for the beginners and lots of crashes in evidence. Some of the locals we spoke to suggested the number of rescues and ambulances in operation yesterday was much higher than usual and with everyone squeezed into a restricted area it is easy to see why.

Despite all the above the queues were shorter than I have experienced in a peak half term week and a table for lunch was easy to find.

On the plus side the weather has been superb with blue sky and sunshine throughout.

Here's hoping the suggested turn in the weather next week brings a couple of metres.

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@DJL, fingers crossed. We arrive on 7th Jan and am sure it will have snowed by then Puzzled

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We were at Lindarets yesterday, it was very icy! The skiers and decent boarders seemed to fair well, we are beginner/intermediate boarders and found it really challenging. Alot of the snow had been blown off the top of the runs and it was busy and dangerous. I saw 3 helicopters in a short space of time... Have done 2 days in Les Gets, very little open and it's icy and hard packed. You can't ski down to the village from the top of the chavannes. There are 2 drag lifts open at the bottom of slops which are also icy. We are heading back to Avoriaz this morning, Les Prodains, see how that is compared to Lindarets. It's really disappointing but we are trying to make the most of what is open Sad

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We skied PLJ -> Avo on Tuesday, and boarded it yesterday.
Parking at PLJ ok both days, even arriving @ noon on 27th.
Our neighbours went to Ardent both days, and said that parking was challenging.
There was a reasonable queue for lift passes so buy online, or elsewhere before you go.
In places the snow was hard with cannoned top coat, but down the edges of the pistes was generally good in the cannon-wash.
Lift queues were also all under 1 minute apart from Cornebois where we waited about 3 minutes as people were not filling the chairs.
At one stage yesterday we were the only people on Rochassons, but as we got nearer Avoriaz the skier density increased, with Crete and Prolays being pretty crowded.
Chapeau to the snow making efforts - to have the amount of runs open given the lack of snow is quite amazing.
I have an insider on the snow-making side of things who told me ( contrary to what I previously believed ) that they can continue to use the canons even when the dedicated snow-making reservoirs are empty, as they just use water from the grid.
So even though conditions are a long way from optimal, there is still a reasonable amount os stuff to go at.
If you do not have a PdS pass and are trying to choose between Chatel and Morzine / Avo, (keeping in mind the Plenney has a couple of runs open too.) I would opt for the PLJ just because there are fewer people.

Echo the earlier comments. Lifts not very busy but lots of people and lots of beginners, ski schools etc clogging up the pistes. A lot of accidents and seeing the blood wagons often.

If I'd had a week booked I'd have changed location but it's only a quick 3 nighter.

You know it makes sense.

Afternoon people,

My family and I arrive in Les Gets tomorrow evening. I'm well aware the skiing at current isn't great so am considering skiing les gets on the first day just to get our ski legs back and then get a PdS pass for the remaining 6 days and skiing avoriaz/morzine.

My main question is the best place to park? I've read above that there are car parks at some of the lifts but is it possible to park in Morzine and get lifts up and across to the skiable Avoriaz area aswell or not? Just thinking in case of full car parking near the lifts in avoriaz and wondering if there is anywhere else.

Also anyone local know if there is any snow forecast between now and the 6th?

Thanks Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@joshmbuk, If your driving around from Les Gets to ski Avoriaz then park at Ardent. To get to Ardent head to Montriond then see signs for the Lake (Lac Montriond), drive past the lake and you get to Ardent. IMO Ardent is usually quieter than parking at Prodains and also Ardent is Free where as Prodains parking has charges. (lots of people and Navettes head to Prodain which was rammed this morning). Ardent telecabin gets you up to Linderets from there you have a choice of taking Chair lifts to get to Avoriaz or Chatel sector (Avoriaz via Prolays or Linderets Chair or Chatel via Chaux Fleurie Chair). As most people on here have said recently, the Pistes in the Chatel sector have generally been holding out better than Avoriaz and maybe Chatel has been slightly quieter.
I was up in Avoriaz and the Chatel sector that's open (Pre la Joux) today and did not enjoy it and it was less than perfect. Shocked

Don't think you can actually get lifts up to Avoriaz from Morzine town at present. Normally this would be parking at one of the town's underground parking lots then taking SuperMorzine telecabin and Zore chair. However I 'think' that Super Morzine and Zore chair are only for pedestrians at present.

A snowHead

There's a few cm forecast for 2/3 Jan.
If you're set on driving, then go to Ardent (early), as with the PdS you can get access to both the Avoriaz and the Chatel / PLJ sectors from here. You could go to Prodains, but you have to pay, and it puts you in the Avoriaz sector. ( which over the last couple of days was way busier than PLJ)

A snowHead

@joshmbuk, The Super Morzine Bubble is running but only for walkers and this wont give access right up into Avoriaz so the only options at the moment is the Prodains Lift and the Ardent Bubble both of which have car parks but as mentioned above can get a bit busy and hectic.

You mention parking in Morzine... You could park there and then get the bus to either of the lifts but would think this would be a bit of a faff so you may as well get to the car parks early and get the lifts up. After New Years Day i'd expect the whole area to be abit quieter as people return back to work (?) so the parking issue shouldn't be as bad.

As for snow...... Well I've just been going off of the normal forecast sites that yesterday showed a good few cm's on the 2nd (the day we arrive snowHead

) but these now seem to have downgraded their predictions. Sad

However next week does look like being cold so at least they should be able to blast out some more man made stuff. Long range which obviously can't be relied upon shows some more on the 8th/9th. Too late for us as we fly home on the 8th Sad

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Talking to one of the pisteurs yesterday - they took 27 injured people off the mountain (Avoriaz) yesterday including a few helicopter evacs. Similar numbers the day before. It's dangerous carnage. I'm done till it snows

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Lots of rescues again in Chatel and a steady stream of ambulances heading up as we left at 1430 (well we saw three so a stream in my book). One of the issues at PLJ is that the classic beginners run from Plaine Dranse uses the road to avoid the steep bit and then follows the piste below. The road is currently all tarmac so closed. The alternative is the steepish pitch below Plaine Dranse which is officially a red and is scraped to an icy base with loose artificial on top. The less experienced can't cope with it but don't want to take the lift down, the more gung-ho intermediates reckon they can cope with it but either do a series of linked sideslips or straight line it. Mix that with the flailing beginners and carnage ensues. Almost no one skis it in both style and control. After a couple of near misses I started using the bumps of pushed off snow on the left side outside the piste markers.

It is just about holding together with bare rock exposed on a couple of pistes and some of the roads used as transits needing repair by pisteurs at mid-day. Getting worse by the day and really needs topping up.

Hope it snows before March when we are next out.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Given it hasn't snowed for six weeks, you can still have a surprisingly good day, though the ice and people on the slopes can be challenging. Park at ardent by 930, then the lifts seem mostly pretty quiet.

First couple of hours ski on pisted artificial snow (we were above chatel this morning and it was great fun), lunch on a sunny terrace, then ski soft snow in the sun (fornet above avoriaz was lovely this afternoon, while abricotine was shady scraped and icy).

Take care and enjoy the mountains.

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OK. Flying out to (near) Chatel tomorrow, first day skiing possible Sunday. Are the conditions good enough to make it worthwhile? If not there's lots of stuff I need to do in the apartment and I'm back in February anyway.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@joshmbuk, I would also recommend the car park actually in Avoriaz. We were forced to drive all the way there yesterday as we set off from LG late and the Prodains car parks were full. Although it is a bit of windy road up, the car park had plenty of spaces at 11am and only cost 2.80€ as first 2 hours are free.

Take it easy on the slopes, we saw 3 helicopters in the space of an hour. We still had fun, but it was a much shorter day than we would have liked. By 2.30/3pm alot of the snow had been pushed to the sides of the piste and lots of people were blatting down the edges. My friend was taken out quite badly by someone out of control.

We are having a day off today and travelling home tomorrow, I hope you get some snow!

Such a shame about LG, we were here last Christmas and there was so much more open despite the lack of snowfall. We have still had a lovely time and the canons are running constantly but there is only so much they can do with little or no base at all.

After all it is free

I will be heading up PLJ in 90 minutes time.
The weather is spectacular at the moment.
It's just great being in the sunshine and up on the hill.
The fact that the snow making teams have got a bunch of runs open is a real bonus.

Better today in Chatel. It was colder overnight and there was substantial snow making. Some runs were genuinely enjoyable first thing - an inch of fresh (artificial) on a groomed base.

Still busy and accidents in evidence and as the day went on it gradually reverted to scraped pistes and piles of loose stuff.

The village seemed busier and more cars in our parking area tonight so I think we still have people arriving for New Year, perhaps apartment owners who decided conditions weren't worth spending a week here but have driven out for the NY weekend.

Last day for me tomorrow after I have done a GVA run so hoping for a nice quiet Saturday on the slopes but fear it will be busy by the time I get back to the village.

Still, skiing in the sunshine for a few hours beats commuting to London and sitting in the office!

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Felt quieter today but skiing very ropey. Helicopters out and lots of blood wagons - joking aside, I've seen more serious accidents in 2.5 days than I've seen in all my trips since 2016.

Advice remains to get up v early and do what you can before leaving to beat the queues for the buses back to Morzine.

The following are covered in hard packed ice and very dangerous past midday:

Mossettes - run back down from the top to the bottom of the lift. Extremely bad near the end

Chaux Fleurie - run back down to here, mainly bad at the start

Chaux des Rosees - run from top to bottom of this lift. Pretty bad all along but treacherous at the end.

Be safe.

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We're flying out on Monday and today our chalet company called and offered us the choice of switching to a hotel in Austria. Great service to offer the switch however we're still going for Morzine as we wanted a chalet rather than hotel, we know and like morzine and hopefully the forecast of snow comes true for Monday/Tuesday
Fingers crossed

You know it makes sense.

@no_snow_in_swindon,
The really tiny amount of forecast snow next week will make no difference to the conditions here in the pds. I would seriously consider Austria.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Lifts passes and rental equipment have been booked and paid for. And for seven of us that soon adds up. I'm sure we'll still have a great time in the pds

A snowHead

G@no_snow_in_swindon,

I'm sure you will. There is skiing to be had. Have fun.

A snowHead

We're out 15th Jan. I hope the longterm forecast is wrong and something changes soon!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@zzz, are you still awake?

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We've had a few days in Les Gets with beginners - lovely sunny afternoons with good snow on the few runs that are open and it was practically empty.

I seriously doubt this week's predicted snowfall would be much to write home about.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

now the amount of snowfall forecast this week seems to have diminished significantly to amount to a mere dusting, the temperature is not supposed to go above freezing for over a week. between now and Saturday, what sort of snowmaking capacity does morzine, and the PDS in general have? will we see significantly more pistes opening by Saturday? will it be possible to get to avoriaz from morzine without using a bus? obviously if there is more snow than the 3cm or so forecast it will help across the board, but at this point I'm looking more towards sub zero engineering rather than mother nature to provide!

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@MountainIdiot, there is a fair bit of snowmaking capability in some areas and it would make quite a difference if they can produce artificial over several hours. This is what improved things on Friday at Pre La Joux. That said it won't allow more pistes to open. The closed pistes have generally got no snow apart from patches of artificial and it will take a lot more than a dusting of fresh and some man made.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

MountainIdiot There could still be 10-20cm over Wed and Thursday. That is still not much (although it would be very welcome) and it will need a hell of a lot more for the links from Morzine to open up.
I'm not out until the 14th and luckily we are coming by car so getting to various places will be easy (as long as it's early).

Long Term, next Thurs & Fri currently look promising but so much can change between now and then, so take any forecast over 3 days away with a pinch of salt.

I follow a few forecasting sites but like http://www.chatelweb.com/chatel_snow_forecast.php as it follows various weather models rather than just the most promising one Very Happy

After all it is free

Avoriaz today - snow still good and it looks like a ski resort (not ribbons as such) far less busy on arare and fornet (best snow imho) the run back into Lindarets was wacky races on speed - icy and over crowded and quite frankly miserable to ski. It came over cloudy and cold this afternoon but snow yet to materialise.

I skied between the 21st and the 31st December. In summary;

21-24th - Surprisingly good, best area was Plaine Dranse with Arare/Fornet close second. Linderets was okay. Basically limited but very good piste skiing and no off piste.

25th - Did not ski, wanted to spend all of Christmas day with 5 year old Smile

26-31st - Conditions started to deteriorate quite quickly as resort got busier. By the 27th it was very bad in certain places. Abricotine normally a super easy and safe run became basically sheet ice in sections.

I saw a lot of blood wagons. After we did abricotine we decided to stop in Brochaux and have a vin chaud to get us going, we were sat there for 15 minutes in which time we saw 3 blood wagons go past. The figure of 27 a day above does not seem that outlandish.

In conclusion I had fun, but I breathed a sigh of relied after the last day. Not looking forward to those conditions again, back in February or possibly a bit earlier fingers crossed the next few weeks get some proper snow down.

G

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I’m glad I stumbled across this thread, I’m due in Avoriaz on the 7th - is there any skiing to be had at all in Morzine / Avoriaz?

Cheers.

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Avoriaz/Chatel/Les Gets/Morzine 2016/2017

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