Absolute Alps Holidays Ski Blog

There’s been plenty of new development and replacement work to the ski lifts in the Portes du Soleil again this summer, here’s a run down of the shiny new ski-lift facilities you’ll be able to find for winter 2015.

Firstly here’s a link to the newly issued Portes du Soleil piste map for 2015, which has been updated to show the new lifts and pistes for the coming season. Check out the pink “NEW” stars showing the recent upgrades!

Chatel & Pre-la-Joux Area

Starting with the local ski area.

New Ski-Lifts & Pistes between Linga and Super-Chatel

As mentioned in my earlier post the long talked about and anticipated link between the Chatel’s two ski areas is finally being built.

The latest updates to this are:

• Both lifts will be the high speed detachable type, the initial plan was for one of the lifts to be a refurbished older style slow lift but there will now be a brand new 6 person detachable up to Super-Chatel called “Portes du Soleil” and a refurbished 4 person detachable going to Linga called “Gabelou”.
• The blue piste from Linga to Gabelou has been totally reshaped from the old windy track into a broad and fairly straight piste, making it easy for beginners to return to Chatel.
• The project is reportedly currently running a little behind schedule and is reported looking at a January opening. There has been an official announcement saying it will definitely be open this winter but the opening date has not been confirmed yet.

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This summer saw the opening of new aquatic centre in Chatel, which has been a big investment and an upgrade of the old existing outdoor summer-only pool.

The new centre called Forme d’O is a combination of pools / gym and spa areas, all finished to a very high standard.

During Summer and Winter seasons the centre will be open 7 days a week.

Inside it’s divided into 3 separate areas; the indoor & outdoor “Aquatic” swimming pools / “Oceane” adults only pool and spa area / “Fitness” gym area.

Aquatic Area

Features an indoor pool which goes from 40cm to 120cm complete with bubbles, perfect for children to play and enjoy. Plus an area marked out with 25 metre swimming lanes for those wishing to practise some serious swimming.

The outdoor 200m² swimming area is accessed by a connecting water tunnel, here you will have magnificent views across the valley even in the winter because the pool is heated year round. There are hydro-massage jets and bubble beds around the pool, with hot tub areas to relax in too, plus a swim against the current area.

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New Pointe de L’Au 4-person Chairlift

I’m most excited about the new Pointe de L’Au chairlift because the ancient, slow and very long 2-person chair it’s replacing was by far the worst lift in the whole of the PDS. It was a bottleneck between Champoussin and Les Crosets, which regularly managed to create massive snake like queues even when there wasn’t that many people around.
But the new high speed 4-person will make a massive difference for everyone exploring the great pistes on the Swiss side of the PDS, which are always a lot quieter than the main area between Avoriaz and Pres-la-Joux. The Swiss side has now had 4 new lifts in the last 4 years; 2 in Les Crosets, 1 in Morgins last year and now this one.
Along with the piste enhancements which happen along with the lifts the skiing on the Swiss side has really improved in the last few years, its’ infrastructure was poor in comparison to the French side but now it’s right up there and people should definitely spend some time exploring the area.

New Morzine Pleney Telecabin

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So we are past the half way mark now and well into the February school holidays, and it’s all good here in the snowy and cold ski resort of Chatel.

This season has produced great conditions pretty much every week, and for a period at the start of February I’d say conditions were as good as they ever get.

We started on high at the beginning of December with deep powder covering the mountain and resort, our first lucky clients staying the week before Christmas had a great time on very quiet and very snowy pistes.

A little bit of rain just before Christmas did flatten down the waist deep powder a little but the festival spirit was definitely not dampened down. It was a very busy Christmas and New Year in the resort with the holidays falling mid week again after a couple of slightly quieter year when they fell on the weekend, but with the great snow cover and massive expanse of the Portes du Soleil to discover lift queues are never too bad here.
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Ski helmets and the debate about whether to wear one or not, is a topic that is constantly coming up in news.

I would definitely say that more and more people are wearing them each year on the slopes, a recent survey said that up to 77 percent of British skiers now claim to wear a ski helmet and that’s up from 62 percent just a couple of years ago in 2010. 77 percent is pretty impressive figure and I would be very interested to know how that figure breaks down by age group.  Parents usually insist on children wearing them and it’s an essential cool piece of kit for most snowboarders too.

This year a major ski insurer, Essential Travel,  has become the first in the UK company is insist that all ski insurance policy holders must wear a helmet on the slopes. This created quite a fuss in newspapers and on-line, but was it just a publicity stunt ? or just sound advise ?

So what are the arguments for and against ?
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This year we have 3 new ski lifts currently being installed throughout the Portes du Soleil, for the coming 2012/2013 ski season.

Morzine is replacing the old and slow Troncs chairlift with a new high-speed six seater chair. This lift starts at a collection of restaurants and runs up to the Nyon area which has a snowpark and several great runs, including the fantastic red from the top of Pointe de Nyon. I regularly stop for lunch at the nearest restaurant to the bottom of this chair, so I’m looking forward to speeding off up hill straight after lunch next season.

The Morgins lift company is installing a new high speed lift to replace Les Bochasses, which was a very old T-bar drag lift. This lift is in the area between Morgins and Champoussin, it too has several great pistes that always used to be very under used and quiet because of the cranky old lift. But with a new lift in this area I reckon there will definitely be more skiers on the pistes next season.

Avoriaz is busy replacing the big old cable car that runs from the bottom of Prodains up to the resort, the old cable car only had a capacity of 400 people an hour. But the new 3S cable car system will have a capacity between 2000 and 2400 people an hour.
The 3S system is the latest ski lift technology, which combines the benefits of large cable car with the constantly moving chair lift system. Avoriaz will have 12 cars with 35 seats in each, the cars rest on 2 cables with provides a more stable ride.

The lift station at the top is also being completely rebuilt to provide improved entry and exit. Although we are going to have to wait until mid-February 2013 to try out this new lift, but I’m sure it will be worth the wait. Whenever I went to use the old lift it invariably departed just as I got there and so the whole trip would take well over half an hour.

I’ve been skiing the Portes du Soleil for over 10 years now and thought I should share a few of my favourite mountain side restaurants. What is better than a little local knowledge when looking for somewhere to stop for lunch.

Fantaski – Chatel / Pre-la-Joux

Location – First restaurant at the top of the first lift (Pierre Longue)

This restaurant is often a favourite with guests staying at our ski chalet, it’s easy to find and a great rendezvous place for a big group, loads of seating outside for sunny days and a wood burning stove inside for chilly days. Great value food with cheese burger and chips (Surfer et frites) for under €10. It can be a little slow to serve food during busy weeks of the season so a good idea to avoid the 12:30 – 13:30 rush hour.
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