 Poster: A snowHead
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Is there a bus from Cluses to Essert Romand?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Or anywhere sensible to park for a week?
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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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Essert Romand isn't that high and, as DJL says, there's a road from Thonon that doesn't go over any high mountain passes. I would wait until the day before checking the Chamonix weather forecast and if it threatens snow lower than 900m, either buy chains on the way in a french supermarket or service station. Also, do you know if your accommodation is up or down a steep driveway?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just back from a month in Chatel. We spent last season in Chatel and after the wonderful conditions we had then I thought it would be nonsense to hope for the same. We didn't have quite the same blizzard conditions however there were plentiful quantities of new snow to allow lots of fun in the trees. The new Bochasses chair lift in Champoussin is a great addition, a change from the long T bar that was there although our snowboarding buddies complained as it has a bar that comes down between your legs and you have to balance the snowboard on a very small ledge - weird.
We also discovered a free (we think - its a small navette type) bus that goes from Chatel bus station each day at 9.45 am and returns 16.50 - cuts out the drag lift trip over to Morgin and allows for a drink in the Le Corbeau on the Morgin side before a wobble off at the end of the day.
We have enjoyed staying in Chatel and found the people there very welcoming and the lifties very helpful especially when friends came out and had a bit of trouble with the pull down drags!
We're back out in 3 weeks for another 3 weeks and I can't wait - hopefully some ski touring to come.
I've just read this back and it looks like I'm a bit anti-drag lifts - I'm not really.......
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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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snoozeboy, as you say it can just be the final bit of the journey up a steep drive or road that stuffs you if you don't have chains. I have seen two or three cars up our road today with chains on although the road itself is plenty clear enough now.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Thanks for all your ideas for my bonkers Aussie mate.
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Can someone tell me how much for a carte neige and if it's any cheaper for children? How / where do you get it from?
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mihaid, in Morzine you buy a Carte Neige (if you want that specifically) from the ski club office, which is by the Pleney lift office. A contribution from the sale goes to the ski club.
The lift company sell a broadly equivalent product providing cover.
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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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if it's any cheaper for children?
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no it's not, flat fee for all (fair enough I suppose, children's evacuation and medical treatment costs as much as adult's)
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Is there a similar office in avoriaz? And anyway, how much isone for 6 days.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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mihaid, you will be able to buy the carré neige addition when (and where) you get your lift pass. Normally, you are offered it. The fact that you have taken insurance will normally be reflected in a code on the lift pass. If you already have a pass you can buy just the insurance, but then you need to keep the receipt and the pass together, so the rescue people can see that you've got it.
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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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The Carte Neige was about E17 for three weeks when I got it in Jan, they offered it when I got the lift pass.
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Thanks everyone for your comments. I notice that there seems to be a carte neige and a carre neige. What is the difference if they're different. Is the insurance calculated as €x/day ?
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You know it makes sense.
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Just got back from a week long family ski trip in Les Gets. Had the best time. The skiing all week has been amazing, the pinacle being Friday which saw the best conditions i have ever experienced. The driest fluffiest powder ever, and just so much of it untracked everywhere. Just epic. Looked good on saturday too from the bus transfer back to Geneva 
Les Gets/Morzine is such a perfect resort for a family, can t recommend it enough. We will most likely be returning next year. The ski area is ideal in so many ways, having enough terrain to keep the adults occupied in the morning giving time to get back to collect kids from ski school, as well as nice runs for the afternoon for mixed ability skiing and in particular for kids to do again and again.
Loved Mont Chery, so quiet and so much to do. Could spend days up there, especially in the conditions we had last week.
Les Gets town was great, plenty of restaurants and bars, but not too loud and full of teenagers (I guess that s more up in Morzine/Avoriaz?). Great pizza at Le chalet, on main street by pharmacy. Good local/french cuisine at Le flambeau, further up towards mont chery lift, and at le tourbillon (pretty building opposite Ba bar). Eating at the Yeti bar for lunch by the nursery slopes proved easy and relatively cheap 5 euro for a soup with as much bread as you like, great tartiflette at 10 euro, they are happy to allow extra plates for kids to share food, so worked fine for us.
Ski hire at Sport 2000 was excellent. Really helpful service and decent kit. Stayed at Les Fermes D'emiguy, which had mixed reviews on trip advisor, we found it to be excellent. Nice pool, bit of a walk into the lift, but no bother as skis were left in the hire shop.
All in all a brilliant trip 
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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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| mihaid wrote: |
| Thanks everyone for your comments. I notice that there seems to be a carte neige and a carre neige. What is the difference if they're different. Is the insurance calculated as €x/day ? |
Carte Neige is an annual policy, carre neige is the daily one, €2.80 per day.
http://www.carreneige.com/en/index.php
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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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Can anyone advise me on the lifts on the Champoussin side? I ski alone and am a failure at t -bars so want to avoid these at all costs...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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You can "ski through" Champoussin clockwise (ie from Morgins towards Crosets) without using a drag or tbar, but you need to know where you are going. Foilleuses - Bochasses - Aiguille des Champeys - Point de L'Au. the tricky bit is from the top of Bochasses down to Aiguille. Ask the way to the goat farm chairlift.
Anti-clockwise ie from Crosets to Morgins, you can't, you will have to take a tbar, but you can ski direct into Morgins bypassing Champoussin altogether. It is a very flat run at the bottom though.
Have a look here: http://www.sisag.ch/download/champery/sismap/winter_large/SisMap.html
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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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sanman, Are you out next week? Do you fancy that Torgon/La Chappelle session? Drop me a line if you do!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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sanman, ummm, crosets to Morgins, take Mossette, traverse out to the couloir of the rock, drop in, ski it, simples.
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under a new name, sorry old boy, I'm afraid I dont quite understand your banter 
DJL, may well do that, we are online in the apartment now (yes! arrived in the 21st Century only 13 years late) so will message you from there
Safe journey everyone travelling today/tomorrow
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| sanman wrote: |
Safe journey everyone travelling today/tomorrow |
Ummmm, that would be us, hoorah.
Do you currently need chains from Cluses to Avoriaz?
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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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For anyone styling in Chatel or the swiss resorts we went to the Val d'Iliez thermal pools yesterday, it was fab. Only about 20 mins away and a really nice way to chill out and soothe those aching ski legs. Indoor and outdoor hot pools, jacuzzis, various jets, waterfalls, bubble beds, fab steam room, saunas. Really nice place. http://www.thermes-parc.com/en
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mihaid, Not likely to need chains, all main roads are clear. Maybe if it really dumps you might need them for last part of your journey, we've had our chains on once this week to get up a steep drive. I'd be prepared though if you don't have winter tyres on.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Anyone in Chatel or Portes du Soleil from Saturday that fancies meeting up for a half-term ski, would be most welcome.
I'm there with family and would love to get away for a morning or afternoon for a charge around. PM me if you're in a similar boat.
SB
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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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thank you, sanman!
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Anyone fancy a Level 1 BASI Telemark course in Morzine Les Gets in April. Currently trying to get enough takers to make the course happen. Last years course was a hoot by all accounts. If you fancy it and have access to FaceBook, visit Morzine BASI Geeks page and you can find all the details.
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You know it makes sense.
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Just back this weekend. New fast six-man Bochasses chair in Morgins (with associated piste changes) has transformed that area, although it seems to be bringing more skiers through and causing a logjam at the Aiguille lift.
The piste realignment due to the new lift has brought more custom to the "Terrasse" restaurant, which although busier by a factor of two or three, is now serving better food, faster - presumably because the increased custom means they can actually afford to hire staff.
My local contact in Champoussin says he has "heard" that the old Point de L'Au two-man will be replaced for next season with a four man on the same route. This is not exactly a concrete assurance but is the strongest indication I have had yet, and the Swiss are very cautious about committing to anything.
Made it to Mont Chery one day, 45 minutes to get from Morzine to the top of Pleney (for the size of the town, its initial lift capacity, i.e. to get people from the town to the slopes, is woefully inadequate IMO) but Mont Chery was deserted. Avoriaz hideously busy on the way back after lunch as well, nothing new there.
Other than that, snow was excellent, four days bright cold sunshine and two of cloud/fog with snow. At least we made the most of the first four.
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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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for the size of the town, its initial lift capacity, i.e. to get people from the town to the slopes
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were the chairs running? was there a queue there too?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Yep massive queue for the bubble and for the chairs. We got there about 10.10 am which I wouldnt even regard as peak time
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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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sanman, no, I'd have thought you'd have missed the ski school crush.
Mind you, it was vacances scolaires and some UK half terms...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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MrsCnP, great to hear you enjoyed it so much, you certainly hit on a good week for weather and snow conditions. I can't remember better, but then again it is hard to think how the conditions of the first four days could have been improved in any way.
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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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under a new name, yes we thought that too, we took the chair and there were no ski schools getting on. It was stopping a lot though. I expected a queue, but 45 minutes bottom-to-top was a bit much.
And I agree one can't gear up to transport ten thousand skiers per hour when you only need that capacity for two hours a day, three weeks per year. But the town keeps growing (I saw several new chalets being built alongside the Super Morzine bubble for example) and they really should be doing something to increase lift capacity to go with it. Personally, if asked, I wouldn't recommend Morzine itself at half term, purely for this reason.
I wonder if the absence of Prodains was a factor? Or is that running now?
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We too were out at Les Gets for 1/2 term for the 3rd year running. It was certainly busier than last year and the Chavannes chair ' giving up the ghost' on Thursday lunch time created hideous queues. The main problem with queues once up the mountain is in getting between areas - particularly out of the Chavannes bowl back to Les Gets / Morzine. We solved this by getting on the little train and heading over to the secret mountain for 3 days. Perfect, quiet pistes in great condition and a lovely atmosphere in general. The lack of high capacity lifts and the 'hassle' some skiers seem to associate with a short journey across Les Gets keeps it the perfect place to be during the busiest week of the year in my opinion and what views from the top!
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sanman, Does the new Bochasses lift mean that if we are going for the clockwise circuit starting in Chatel we can take the Foilleuse chairlift in Morgins and then head straight onto the Bochasses chair hence avoiding the left hand of the double drag lifts which we have usually taken? If so it would make it quite a bit quicker to get round to Les Crosets.
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sanman, as far as I am aware, they're running the Prodains cable car till the new bubble goes live (at considerable cable replacement cost!!) - it does occur to me that maybe they are running the Pleney bubble on a go slow as it is on its last legs, acknowledged to be under sized for requirements (and due for replacement soon).
If you have a car you can always sneak around to the Fys.
Yes, I am continually amazed at how they can continue to fit new builds into a finite space!
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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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DJL, yes you can ski straight from the top of Foilleuse to the bottom of Bochasses. It replaces the long tbar that used to run up the side of the big wide slope (don't know its name) between Morgins and Champoussin. The old Crete draglift, and the one that ran beside the snowpark, are also gone. Ski down from the Foilleuse towards Champoussin, then bear left along that bit under the trees that can get icy, then from where you used to cross the draglift, you will see the new chairlift down below.
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under a new name, is the Fys the one near the bridge/tunnel? We wouldn't have a car anyway as we ski across from Switzerland. Good to hear the Pleney is to be replaced, that's exactly what is needed.
It always amused (or annoyed) me that when getting off the Pleney you have to walk up steps to get to the snow. Why didn't they build the lift higher up the hill in the first place?!
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FAQ
And yes, Mont Chery rocks! 
I'm sure they could stretch to that.