176 inches has fallen at Kirkwood in the past 5-6days!! The clock is ticking..,

Very well pisted snow in Tignes..... they need a dump badly.

But it was still great.

[www.youtube.com]

Colin it snowed over here in the Portes du Soleil ! I went ski touring after work and the snow is excellent. Did it snow yesterday in Tignes ?

Apparently it did.... but I arrived back in the UK the day before.



There was a couple of light flurries last Wednesday + Thursday but not enough to make a difference.

The Piste bullys are earning their keep at the moment.

Well I'm off to Morzine on Saturday. Looking forward to my first visit to the Portes du Soleil and getting round as much of the area as possible.

Seemed to have timed it pretty well, after the reasonable fall of snow on Sunday there are top ups forecast for the rest of this week then another dump forecast this weekend. With a bit of luck it'll be powder Monday, a nice change from my shitty office existence.

Lionel this is where you live is it not? I have enjoyed many of your photos from this area over the past few years

Hi Nelbert,

I think you are now in Morzine so I am sure you are having a great time because it's been snowing overnight. I hope the snow is good.

Yes indeed that's the place where I live, the Morzine valley and Portes du Soleil area. Thank you for your comments.

Hi

Just have from 4 Vallees, Switzerland (Verbier, Nendaz, Siviez & Veysonnaz). Good week, snow cover rather thin in places. Link from Nendaz broken, link between La Tzoumaz<-->Verbier close to broken. Lots of rocks both off and on piste, by week old skis now look far older - I wish I had taken my old skis.

Snowed twice, 6" each time, but the lack of pisteing meant that this either blown away or was skied into loose piles of snow+icy base. I don't understand why the pisteing was so poor.

Why I would go back:

- The orange 'marked off piste' runs were excellent fun - just a wee bit thin
- Lots of other interesting off piste lines to test a poor skiier like me!
- Excellent for similar-ability Red+ groups with no end of lines to try
- Black run off Mount Fort excellent and loads of off-piste options down + spectacular views.

Why I would not go back

- Ski Pass (area): £238 for 6 days - steep for open terrain compared to other linked resorts like 3 valleys/Paradisiski/L'Espace Killy.

- Link from Nendaz-->elsewhere closed making it the '3 Valleys'. This closure is apparently all too common and meant getting a bus every day with 1000's of others since there is only 2 long blues at Nendaz. Could be fixed with new lift carrying folks both directions.

- 'But we pisted it last week' attitude towards pisteing the runs.

- Outdated lift infrastructure, for £238/week I want modern chairs, not poma's+t-bars + 2 man chairs!

- Stop/go lifts and go-slow lifts. Due to beginners/kids failing to get on the outdated lifts!

- Ques - far worse than other recent ski-holidays, and again due to outdated lifts

- Link out/back from Siviez<-->Veysonnez is via Poma/T-Bar! == queues

- Not good for mixed ability groups, no blues linking the valleys, if folks not happy on Moguled reds then Veysonnez inaccessible from Siviez == bus required.

- Link from Siviez/Veysonnez --> Verbier is via 2 cable cars routes with a steep often moguled red down into Le Chaux/Verbier off both. Link back is only via 2 orange marked off piste routes meaning those not skiing off-piste 'Blacks' will be getting the cable car down.

- Not a resort for boarders. Some flat links between resorts, too many t-bars/poma's. Skiiers must have out-numbered boarders 20:1.

- Quad chair from Siviez to Tortin meets 2x cable cars. Quad chair is a huge bottle neck == 20 mins in queue.

If I did go back

- I would not stay at Nendaz, I would stay at Verbier or Siviez. Likely Verbier since their lift infrastructure is far newer/more complete. Veysonnaz too far out, would require a good hour to get to Siviez each morning.

- I would take my touring kit. Lots of tourers about the place. Quite a bit of snow-shoeing going on too.

Photos: [www.veletron.com] Video to follow.

We flew Easyjet Edi-->Basel for £45 each + 1 ski bag between 3. Resort is ~3 hours drive from Basel (hire car was £300 incl chains/winter tyres/blah). Bought food in Aldi in Sion before heading up to resort. Apartment (which would sleep 5) was €600 for the week, Area Pass: £238 for 6 days. Total cost PP incl food/beer/ski pass/car park/car hire/fuel/insurance was: £650. I've paid a grand for a week's skiing beforehand so this was not too bad.

Nigel



Edited 5 times. Last edit at 15.46hrs Sun 27 Feb 11 by veletron.

Hi Nigel,

Your pics are very good ! Great scenery. To avoid the queues it would be good to avoid the February period which is packed everywhere in the Alps. Thanks for sharing your nice pics.

Hi

Aye, it was half term, but I have done half term at the French 3 Valleys with far less queueing than at Swiss 4 Valleys.

Weather was kind to us!

Nigel

I'm just back from Verbier and my comment would be the exact opposite wrt the queues - I thought they were remarkably quiet for half term and we were pratically skiing onto every lift bar a couple of the big telecabins at the top. Perhaps everyone was stuck in Nendaz ;-).

We were in La Tzoumaz and the link to Verbier was closed (we skied it anyway - bit like the burnside on a bad day, but with trees). Pisting in Verbier and La Tzoumaz seemed pretty good, though the runs were in a pretty bad state by the end of the day they were back to corduroy each morning. Some agening lift infrastructure - couple of two man chairs we used to get up from the end of the closed run down from La Tzoumaz were fast fixed grip chairs except they had to be continually slowed to allow small kids to get on and the bubble back from Verbier was old, but one of the instructers said they've been trying to replace it for a few years, but want to move the base further into Verbier so you no longer have to catch the bus to get to it and the owners of chalets over which it will run have objected.

Looking at your pictures we did most of the same itineraires as you - I was on telekit, though didn't do many teleturns on the moguls or the icy pistes.

Aye, as I mentioned in my post, I thought the Verbier end of things was more modern. The bus out of Nendaz each morning was a PITA. Was waiting up to 30 mins+20 mins on bus to get to some decent skiing, and up to an hour to get back in the evening. Main queues were the quad chair in Siviez that meets 2 cable cars. That + bus meant that it took a good 2.5 hours to get from Nendaz up to Col des Gentianes/Chassoure each day before I actually got some skiing in. Had the link out of Nendaz been complete it would have been far less frustrating.

Had a really good week, but will stick to my usual stomping grounds of 3 valleys, les arcs/la plagne and Tignes in future.

Did you get over to Veysonnaz/Thyron. The ski tour over the back of Etherolla was good. Long trek from La Tzoumaz though I guess. Wanted to do the two ski-tour runs off Mont-Gele but decided they were likely beyond me!

Nigel

We all bought full area passes but never used more than the La Tzoumaz and Verbier areas due to the poor snow conditions on some of the links. The group i was with had kids in ski/board lessons in the morning and some who are good skiers were boarding for the first time so we tended to come back to our chalet for lunch after picking up the kids.The nearest we got was skiing down to Tortin via the three itineraires on the last day. We stopped for lunch half way down the Col des Gentianes - Tortin route our third itineraire of the day. We discussed doing the blue to Siviez and then the lift up to Combatzeline and the red back down, just so we used the whole area pass, but deceided it would be a bit gatuitous - sounds like it was good not too if the chair back was busy.

I really enjoyed Verbier and would go back. It was quiet (for half term), the off piste iteneraires were fun, getting there was easy, I drove with friends from cambridge and compared to getting to the big French resorts the drive was brilliant no traffic queues at all anywhere* just straight through the telepeage line.


*the exception was the return chunnel. We were 2hrs early as the drive was so easy, but the queue was already backing up down the slip road from the motorway and it was due entirely to British passport control. The Eurotunnel checkin was brilliant - they have some fancy number plate recognition system so when we got to the booth the automatic machine just said "welcome Mr X please confirm your booking" followed by which train would you like (offering a choice of two with very little delay) and then issued the letter hanger - very fast and efficient. We then joined the back of the queue for GB passport control which was backing up right to the eurotunnel checkin booths.

GB passport control a bloody useless and slow. They had every booth in operation, but there were still lots of extra staff wandering around who seemed to be doing sod all. They were still unable to keep up with the numbers of people using the chunnel.

Hi

Just editing a video of the week now, and wishing I was back there!

Had an ammusing incident at UK passport control @ Dunkirk a couple of years ago. Woman was waving us through (or so I thought), and barrier was up so I drove straight past her. She came running alongside the van banging on the door until I stopped. Not a happy bird... She then proceeded to look in every nook and cranny capable of hiding person/contraband. The bog was erm 'fragrent' and she exited the van while covering her nose, and muttering under her breath!

Next year, I am thinking of driving to Alpe d' Huez, and kipping in the Aire for 2 weeks. Probably leave it until March to avoid freezing to death.

Nigel

In a similar vein many moons ago i went caving in poland over new year on a uni trip in a uni minibus. On the way back we were lastish off the boat and customs at dover were going to search us they were all lined up waiting and it was obvious what was about to happen. I drove up to the custums official and as the smell rolled out of the window the custom official turned away, shook her head at the lined up search team and waved us on.

I dropped the minibus back at the university offices and next day had a phone call from the senior proctor asking me to come and clean the minibus. Outside was black due to the dirt from polands brown coal powerstations, and the bus stank so I could see why we weren't searched.

Well we had a superb week in Morzine.

The heavy snow from Saturday night right through to Sunday night did the job for 2 days of powder riding, 1st day in Morzine and the other in Avoriaz. Had a run at the Swiss Wall and with endless powder possibilities headed down to Les Crosets and stayed there rather than the busier and tracked Avoriaz.

Visibility came and went lower down in the middle of the week but it was clear higher up. Beautiful on piste conditions afterwards until Thursday when it was getting icy in the morning and spring like in the afternoon.

The size of the Portes Du Soleil is simply mind boggling - and I've been to a few french mega resorts before. Lift system is also outstanding and I have to say worth every penny of the lift pass price.

I liked the real town feel of Morzine against the higher purpose built resorts, and as a result its cheaper and far more picturesque than Tignes etc. Nightlife wasn't too bad either,

Busy because of French half term but we quickly learned to head out to quieter parts or the Swiss side where it was ride straight onto every lift.

All in all I'll definitely be back.