 Poster: A snowHead
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Nice spring slush slight ruined by user error and me not doing up the dins on my slalom skiis, and a nice superman wipe out as they pre-released on me in slushy, bumpy snow.
Have switched to freshly waxed Preachers on proper Din settings for the water-skiing. They make slush fun.
Done by midday, T-shirt skiing by 10. Evening barbecues, weather is gorgeous.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hi, not sure if this is the right place to post but specifically wanted some PDS advice as have never been before. Looking at Feb half term 2023 (it's a GCSE year so can't do Easter) and really need to find somewhere easy to drive to from the UK. We've been many Feb half terms so I know that it's never as quick/easy as it sounds! Have been suggested PDS (Grand Massif and Evasion Mont Blanc areas). Assume the resort is all easily linked together? And if we're staying (self catering) on the French side, is Les Gets the shortest resort to drive to? Thanks
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Kettonskimum1971, We are based in Châtel and very easy to access by car from the U.K., as is Les Gets, both are around 8:30h from Calais. Châtel is more centrally located in PDS where you can ski off in 3 directions and a couple of lifts away from Swiss side and Avoriaz. The Châtel area itself is quite vast and the highest lifted point is one 150m or lower than Avoriaz. Both are great villages with lots to do when not skiing.
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Morzine slightly easier to access more of the PDS from than Les gets, especially if you have a car so you can drive round to Ardent gondola.
For what it's worth (and not really the right thread...), I have friends who swear by Evasion Mont Blanc, and they did post some very empty slope pics from there this last Feb half term. We have been there at New Year and found the slopes pretty quiet. It's a more traditionally French area, and there are no big UK tour ops that go there.
Having skied both areas extensively I prefer PDS for the skiing, but Evasion for the lack of crowds.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Kettonskimum1971, I think I saw your other post that suggested you want snow by the door - you will be ok in Les Gets but as mentioned you’re at one end of the PdS area. Morzine is better situated and only 5km further on, but there’s no ski in/out - you’d have to go up to Avoriaz for that, another half an hour and 20 hairpins.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@polo, "wild" life? look pretty domesticated to me  .
par contre, we have wolves on our fave golf course.
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have the braking bumps appeared yet@polo,
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@under a new name, yeah they are pretty tame, but you don't want a herd of them rushing towards you at any point....which has happened with the goats more than once. I wouldn't keep any of them as pets, but each to their own.
@Mother hucker, only open a few days, and very dry, so didn't see any issues, but then again I'm more cross country scenic touring than risking bones on forest reds. Spotted a few new features, extra berms etc. And seems to be a lot of work done on the front of mont chery, from a distance looks like an elaborate series of high wooden trail / bridges, on the black to the left. I'll head up for a look soon hopefully.
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@polo, Its usually horrendous give it a few weeks of folks dragging their brakes
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@polo, looks lovely. We're planning to pop over from St Gervais les Bains next weekend, probably Sunday, for the day. Have never seen the area in summer, so will make for a nice change
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@swskier, yeah it's great to walk/bike areas you know from winter....it takes me back to carving the same vicious meadows just a few months ago, but nice for different reasons now.
Fixed my bike so I'll probably take it up next weekend....you walking / biking? Recommend a stroll around Lac de Montriond down the road as well, and along the river into Morzine is nice.
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Loads of top mountain biking routes on the "Swiss Side" as well. Morgins is well-known for its downhill routes and is used by a lot of top-level, even pro, cyclists, but there's also a huge amount of more gentle stuff for us mere mortals, much of it lift-served from Morgins, Champoussin and Champéry.
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You know it makes sense.
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@polo, we'll be on foot. Expect we might well have a walk around the super M/zore area, as we love l'Passage, and may well go in there for some lunch. Sure we'll have time to also check out Lac Montriond.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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The massive chalet construction boom is still going around LG at least. I counted over 30 new chalets around the lower half of route des Chavannes and Gibanez. I have a lot of new fancy neighbours, but thankfully I’m still the only building in the whole area that is split into apartments.
Gonna be more traffic and year round occupancy it seems. No one bothered by climate change or there is just so much cash floating around, some of those trillions dished out ending up in ski resorts.
Great for architects, agents, builders, and potentially a lot of maintenance work will be going around.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It’s not just the boom that’s massive, it’s the size of every single new build, all 4-5 bed minimum, some must be 6-8.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@polo, wow! So much building work going on. It is four years now this July since we completed on our sale and moved out of our chalet in Les Gets. I am always interested in your posts and reports of what is going on. We are staying in Morillon next January for three weeks and intend to come over to PDS for a couple of days.
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@Pamski, prices are still high, but it can’t last forever
Here’s the view from my balcony now. There are already 5 new ones completed down to the left and another 10 further up the hill to the right.
The light brown one in the pic is typical new size, a double house (it’s all one building) with great views over town
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Stuff I learnt this week
Lounge festival artists are contracted via an agent, so none of them tend to be local. In the meantime, actual local bands like Trash Tones play their regular gigs and are notably better….they regularly play Morzine and le Biot as well.
Play all sorts…..indie, rock n roll….serious musicians, every Tuesday in august at Chamois d’or.
Every Wednesday there’s an open mic gig at Super G. Very much an ex pat crowd, some great singers and today a 9 year old Aussie lad with his guitar had the confidence and skill to join in for a few tracks.
Crankworx which ran recently for 3 years ended up costing the resort about 250k, as the crowd tend to bring their own picnic and drink, day trippers.
Mont Chery costs 800k a year to run (net loss). Great for locals, but not good business until they add more access, upgrade lifts.
The UCI World MTB championships are coming in a few weeks for the first time in about 18 years. There have been several world cup stages/ legs held here over the last 10 years , but lots of excitement as the last world championship in 2004 was huge, and things have progressed a lot since then…..24-28 aug
https://www.lesgets.com/en/temps_fort/uci-mtb-world-championships-2022/
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@polo, and the chances of any MC upgrades?
Difficult to actually attribute those costs.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@under a new name, you know all the plans that have been proposed, new cable across town from school to MC, link over to Roc d’enfer, new pistes down to Perriere etc
None of them got going despite approvals. Just chatting to some of the transfer drivers, fountains of knowledge, but they don’t expect anything to happen soon. Imagine costs have shot up since original plans too.
Best case they upgrade some lifts, but one of the odd things is that it’s not exactly hard to access MC as it is….3-4 min walk from bottom of Chavannes, or the little train, buses etc.
Leave it alone in my view, although one fella said they might eventually shut down lifts altogether. Ski touring only….tough slog
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I always enjoy MC when we make it across, seem enough lifts to me already to me and the walk as @polo mentions isn't long enough to put off anyone who really wants to ski there.
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@DJL, I suspect the combination of leaving the main ski area and the relative difficulty of pistes there mean the vast majority of LG tourists (families) aren’t motivated. I met a big group of Irish families last year out for the week, the kids had a ski lesson there in fresh snow and they came back and told the parents is was awful, kept falling over, so none of the main group wanted to try despite my raving. Tant pis, more for us.
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You know it makes sense.
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The last few years of us owning up by the lake/school there was all the talk of the new lift going over the village. I always thought any expansion at MC would be a shame as I loved it as it is.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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The skiing on MC is great, but the lifts are just too slow. OK if it's a nice warm sunny day, but no fun when it's cold and snowy, which is when you ideally want to be over there.
My son even managed to fall off the Planeys chair lift last year, luckily not too far out of the station, so he only had about a 8 foot drop.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from a superb 2 weeks split between Morzine and Les Gets. First summer family holiday in the PdS. Mrs F and I and our 2 teenage lads absolutely loved it. We will definitely be back. Sometimes I wish we had a much simpler life, running a small boulangerie or an artisan produce shop in these parts. Property prices as others have mentioned are eye-watering … there must be a lot of spare CHFs knocking around in Geneva.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@polo, Yup caught the first set at the Lion D'Or on Tuesday - excellent stuff! Don't miss this:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/morzinecrew/permalink/5697221776984369/
Local ska band, can't recommend highly enough!
Mt. Chery is, thank God, frozen in time. LG can't close it because the Prefect says the Les Gets ski-area is too crowded and they'd have to stop building apartments, which of course ain't gonna happen. But there's not enough footfall (bootfall) to warrant new investment, and no commercial gain to anyone. The whole of Roc d'Enfer has recently been made a nature reserve of some kind, so nowhere to expand to either (other than Perriere, maybe that was victim of nimbyism?). The slow lifts are what keeps it special, it's altogether a more genteel experience!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@shep, is Lion D’Or same as Chamois d’Or? Anyway I arrived just as first set ended. Second set goes up a level as kids are supposed to be in bed and they do a great version of killing in the name of. Good to hear MC won’t be going anywhere.
I’ll look out for that ska band, but not around next week.
@franga, glad you had a good time, simple life is key here if you’re lucky enough. Most people I know are self employed, or in catering, drivers, some instructors, musicians, others are retired, a few just scrapping by, and a few just filthy rich.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Oops yes - Chamois d'Or. I think you may have taken over our table - mini Shep did indeed need to go to bed!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I joined a table right at the back, with the every day barflies and groupies. CJ is the amazing guitarist with dreadlocks, even though he’s Swedish, and Alex is the lead singer, class act.
Easiest way to spot me is my grey staffie pup (see page 1), the one getting all the attention from the ladies
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@polo, who’s getting the attention? You or the staffie? 
High excitement in Chatel. Au revoir à L’Abreuvoir (“Chez Ginette”)! The bar opposite Vonnes was on fire tonight. We came over the pass around 21.45 to be waved down by a Gendarme opposite the old custom house. Mrs DJL was worried about the amount of duty free gin we had on board even though it had made it through two Swiss borders but no, not Douanes, but friendly advice that the road was closed. We parked up and walked down for a look. Four fire engines in the road and pompiers on the roof damping down. It looked a bit of a mess and they must have called for reinforcements from down the valley as they don’t have 4 pumps in Chatel.
Apparently Ginette was safely evacuated but the bar will certainly be closed for a while.
Luckily the road opened for downhill traffic after 5 minutes so we avoided a 90 minute detour via Evian.
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@DJL, the dog of course…..I swear I get asked 10+ times what’s her name and age every time I take her to a busy pub. I was explaining this phenomenon to the friendly waitress I know at La R’Mize on the weekend, and as we were leaving the restaurant she asked me my name, as soon as I replied she said “no not you, the dog”. Can’t believe I fell for that.
Fires seem to be all too frequent, was a big one above La Troika locally last week as well. Thankfully none of them seem to spiral out of control as it hasn’t rained in 2 months….finally getting a decent breakdown next week though.
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Quick q for @polo or anyone resident. We’ll be in town (Morzine) next weekend (27/2 for the MTB worlds in Les Gets. Are they running any extra buses from M to LG (I know there’s the regular local bus) for the champs? We would prefer to bus it to avoid parking car or bikes.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@andy from embsay, if you really need a space I might have one in my garden, but depends if immediate neighbours are there and if you bring red wine . I will be back up there from next tuesday to sus it out. You can definitely leave bikes in the garage tho, short walk from town.
Tourist office always on the ball with these things, but from the main event page I saw this....not exactly cyrstal clear, but positive
"From Wednesday 24th to Sunday 28th August included, a free shuttle will run non-stop from a car park in Morzine and a stop in the centre of Morzine to Les Gets (different times each day). In Les Gets the shuttle bus will stop at the Colombière roundabout at the Morzine entrance to the village (see village map)"
https://www.lesgets2022.com/en/access-and-parking/
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Thanks for the offer @polo, - I think drink may be taken, so doubt we’ll be riding up! Managed to find the event guide this morning and it looks like there’s a “fan zone” with bar etc on the Mont Chery side for the downhill on Saturday and then somewhere near the school for the XC on Sunday. My mate used to coach young Pidders in his Paul Milne CX days and is friends with his folks, so hoping for some celeb spotting over the weekend!
I assume the MC lifts won’t be open to punters on Saturday?
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FAQ
