 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
NOTE: Info about the most important (the ski area) can be found in the end of the post.
A bit of background so you know from which point of view this is written: Guys trip, we have done it every year since ~10 years ago when we started with 4 people, grew to ~14 people over the years. We have always went to Val Thorens except 1 year we did Tignes. Normally we rent an apartment for 1 month and then some are there 1 month, some are there 2 weeks and some only 1 week. In addition to those trips, I have been to Sweden some times, and a couple of times to Austria although it is a long time ago.
Back to this years guys trip. We decided to do something different than Val Thorens and booked 14 days in Avoriaz, week 3 and 4. We where less people than normal this year. First week we where 7 and had an apartment in the Crozats complex. Nice apartment with good space for french standards. OK easy to go skiing just get out the door, put your skies on and ski down through the city. A bit annoying though that the city is pretty flat so some poling was needed to catch a real piste. Going home was very easy, just end the days trip at the top of the city and then ski directly to the door. Going down to the city was OK, there are public inside stairs and escalators, very nice except the escalators where not always running, a bit annoying when bringing home groceries and beer (7 boys at age ~30 drink quite some beer).
The second week we where only 4 people and had an apartment in the Antares complex. It is at the highest point of the city and we where a bit worried about the trip down to the centre, but that was made very smart. 2 huge public escalators and a public covered area made it extremely easy to go down town and back again. The apartment was typical french, very small. We had booked a bit more expensive than we usually do and had hoped for a bit more space, but the result was just a nicer apartment, not a bigger apartment. Oh and another point of the Antares: What a fantastic view from there, must be one of the best in the alps.
The city of Avoriaz is very nice. High buildings ensuring short distances to walk and as a bonus the architecture is more interesting than the usual concrete castles. I will not say it is pretty, but is a lot better than other purpose built resorts. The resort is car-free which means snow on all streets and transport only by foot, horse or piste-basher-looking-thing-with-room-for-people. It works very well due to the short distances you need to walk in the snow and a "taxi" trip is only 10 EUR, use it even for short distances when you have luggage.
We ate out on the mountain for lunch, food as expected, varied from place to place, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes less lucky, prices OK, a bit cheaper than eating out here in Denmark, was more or less the same as in Val Thorens and was as expected.
For the evening, most of the days we cooked dinner ourselves. We went out a couple of times and got some nice food without being totally blown away, also as expected here I would say.
We do drink a lot when we are on ski vacation and in Avoriaz more or less the only place that suited us was "The Place". The first week we where there it was a bit dead, but we made huge parties anyway and had a blast. The bar staff was friendly, we quickly tought them how to brew a proper vodka-redbull (half litre beer glass, half vodka, half red bull, no straw, no mixing, then it gets better as you reach the bottom) and after 4-5 of those with good friends, it is easy to have a fun evening even though the place is a bit to the dead side. The second week, 300 medical students from Denmark arrived and they also partied at "The Place". And oh, they did know how to party so there was a great atmosphere that week. I guess it didnt hurt either that most of them where female  Just remind me never to get sick, the prospect of being treated by those insanely drunk doctors-in-spe is not really uplifting. Huge thumbs up the the resident guitarman Andreas btw, he was really good.
We travelled with Nortlander Ski Tours, flights from Billund and Copenhagen to Chambery. No delays, everything worked fine and the Nortlander guides where more than great, can only recommend it.
And now to the skiing. When we arrived there was a lack of snow on the lower slopes and no off piste at all. However it snowed a lot during our stay and the result was a couple of whiteout days, 4 fantastic sunshine days and a couple of epic powder days, where the last one also offered great offpiste skiing. The rest of the days where a bit of everything between those, overall I would have liked to see a bit more sun, but I can hardly blame Avoriaz for the weather.
The skiing area is HUGE. Some of it is really good with good altitude and therefore good snow and modern and fast lifts. BUT some of it is very low and the snow suffers from that. Also they have a surprisingly high number of old lifts, slow chairs and drags, specially on the swiss side. We did some long trips to the swiss side, round the loop, to the city farthest away etc. but the slow lifts and the low pistes made it a mixed experience. There is also a lot of flat or narrow transport pistes, sometimes it feels like 7 ski areas connectected by boring road-like pistes and not one ski area. The feeling is reinforced with the places where you need to take the bus. Dont get me wrong, the bus system works fine, but riding a bus through a wet city does not really give me the high-alpine fix I am after. In the end we used mostly the good parts of the skiing area and when you do that, the area is not as huge as first thought. That a lot of the area is low is also a good thing. In whiteout you can have some decent skiing and the snow on the trees is absolutely stunning. Several times we had to stop just to stare at the picture-perfect landscape. There are also some beatiful cliff formations in the area and it is nice the way Avoriaz is placed on a shelf in the middle of some very rough terrain.
There are also some nice challenges, we did the swiss wall a couple of times, first time it was very icy and probably one of the hardest runs I have ever skied. I will not call that run fun, but it was a great experience. The second time there was 50cm powder on top of the icy moguls and that made it a lot easier. I know that there are those that say you should only do runs like that if you are a super-skilled skier, but we had fun and where not in the way for anyone and that is good enough for me. Also the black runs in the Avoriaz bowl are really challenging and where great in powder. There are also all sorts of park options which looked nice, I didnt go for them as I recently had surgery in my back twice for a prolapsed disc and a damaged nerve and the doctor recommended to stay away from the park. However the park options looked nice and inspiring, I guess there is lots of fun to be had there.
Overall we had some great skiing days, but I will prefer 3 valleys or espace killy for a more well thought out ski area, better snow(altitude) and better lifts. However I am glad we tried something else this year, it is great to explore a new area and with the above comments in mind I will still recommend trying out Avoriaz.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great Report. You should a look at Les Arcs sometime as it is a brilliant Ski Area with a very good lift system.
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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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Thanks for the report == always wondered what Avoriaz was like.....
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