Chatel Report 18th -25th Jan 2014

A snowHead

Travelled with Wife and family (5 in total). This is my second time to Chatel having taken a school group there almost 15 years ago.

Flight - flew with Easyjet to Geneve from Manchester. No problems with luggage. 20kg checked in (actually weighed 21kg but wasn't an issue either way). Took my ski boots as hand luggage, again no issues. Many carried helmets strapped to their rucksacks which was no issue either.

Accomodation - Stayed in an apartment in the 'Loy' area of Chatel, halfway between Chatel Village and Linga on the lower road. Used the ski bus daily which was very convenient and much better than I thought it would be having used ski in/out accomadation for the main in previous trips.

Hire/ Rental - I hired from Vertical Horizons, which was near Loy, cant recommend them enough. All English or fluent and very helpful. All the equipment was ready and labelled up for us on Saturday and didn't take long to sort. I went for the advanced ski's, (Rossignol) don't remember the exact model but they worked just fine both on and off-piste although would probably have gone for a more off-piste type ski if I'd have known how good the conditions were going to be. All family gear was excellent, boots very new, skis good and helmets provided were decent.

Skiing/Conditions

I'll try and break it down daily but can never seem to remember the days exactly!

Sunday - (Chatel Area) Nice Clear day on good conditions having received some decent snowfalls earlier in the week, very mild
Monday - (started in Linga made our way to Pre La Choux) reasonable conditions although the clouds came in and the snow fell throughout the day.
Tuesday - (Chatel) Snow fell all day, visability was almost zero at times and was best in the Chalet Neuf area of the resort and at lower levels.
Wednesday - Bluebird day, great skiing all over Chatel started in Petite Chatel and had great fun off-piste between runs.
Thursday - Pre la Choux - Snowed most of the day and heaviest of all the snowfalls during the week, also snowed over night.
Friday - Chatel - Started the day with light flurries but ended in lovely sunny conditions.

As you can see above we spent most of the time skiing in Chatel. Everyone will have their own preference but I find that the skiing is more varied here and I feel we can access a few more miles doing it this way. We went to Linga and Pre La Choux on days when the whether was poor so that may contribute. We didn't opt for the Portes Du Soliel lift pass which I did last time I visited as we were quite content with the availability of the area on the Chatel pass. I would have liked to get down to Abondance given the conditions but time seemed to run out.

Not much seemed to have changed since I last visited. The run down to Chatel still suffers even when they have decent snow and some of the links to different areas are annoying especially when you have people in the group that are not so confident on reds. Would be great if they invested in a link between Linga and Chatel. The village is nice we only went to two Apres bars - Avalanche and the old Tunnel Bar which is now a modern French bar.

Food - Ate out twice at Antonio's. We stayed in this hotel when taking a ski group and it has been really modernised and has a great restaurant. Suited us as they also had a free shuttle service there and back from our apartment. We ate in their restaurant in Pre la Choux too where they did great Pizzas at the top of the Chairlift. Also ate in Loy in a typically French restaurant near our apartment.

Great week in all and happy to answer any questions people have who are due to go out.
Smile

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Chatel Report 18th -25th Jan 2014

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