Châtel, FR 01/28/14

Today went completely bluebird, which worked out well as this was the first time I got to see a larger part of this mind-blowing ski region, which is composed of 12 different sectors. Although I've titled today's TR "Châtel" because that's where we spent the most time, we also skied in Avoriaz on the French side and Les Crosets and Champery in Switzerland.

As mentioned in my previous trip reports, I spent the first two days in the Les Gets and Morzine sectors; however, my local host today was Colin, an American who worked on the snowmaking crew at Stowe for six years during the late 90s/early 00s, met a French woman there, and they eventually married, relocated to this region, and operate a popular Irish pub/micro brewery in the center of Les Gets -- yes, it's called Irish Pub and yes, you feel like you've been teleported to the UK there. I went last night and caught the first set of a great French Rolling Stones tribute band and had two pints of their fantastic porter. Too bad they don't bottle it as I'd certainly buy a couple cases.

Colin's no-nonsense northeastern skiing upbringing informed all of today. His idea of ski paradise was Spruce at Stowe before the high-speed lift and base village went in and, oh yeah, he's not a fan of the European habit of decadent 90- to 120-minute lunches (similar to the one I had yesterday). Instead, we spent all of today finding:

a) soft leftovers alongside the trails:


or

b) wide open expanses of lightly tracked powder with no one anywhere in the vicinity: for lack of a better term, meadow skipping. Any ungroomed snow, even when it was blasted by the sun, stayed incredibly soft due to the cold temps:









Per Colin's terms, there was no fancy-pants lunch. Instead, our 12-minute midday break consisted of this:



Around 3 pm, we had to cross the border back into France, past the "Swiss Wall" -- an 1,100-vert moguled "Outer Limits"-type run (it's in the far distance to the right of the lift):





We finished the day with a 4,100-vertical-foot run in the Avoriaz sector. Here's part of it:
http://vimeo.com/85282873

Looks fantastic!

It is wild how many lines are left untouched after the storm.

Video embedded:

Nice!

I've only skied Austria, but is the mayhem getting on the lifts prevalent everywhere?

saweeeet!!!!

Oh man you're killing me. That looks so nice enjoy it .

The place looks great. Keep the reports coming.

skimore wrote

I've only skied Austria, but is the mayhem getting on the lifts prevalent everywhere?

As far as I know, inexplicably, none of the Alps ski countries have implemented the lift corral idea from the States; however, when you go during a non-peak period (avoid February and the first week of March), it's a non-issue. Lifts have been ski-on the entire time.

The only time I ran into a queue (three minutes) was at an end-of-the-day choke point yesterday and everyone was well behaved.

Nice Pics!!  Now we know where all the snow is this season.

Marcski wrote

Nice Pics!!  Now we know where all the snow is this season.

Anecdotally I've seen good conditions in Europe when conditions were good in the Eastern US. I assumed it was based on the "Greenland Block."

This year does buck that.

Any insight from our weather geeks?

I wouldn't want to hang out with those socialists with Wilmington opening up any day now.

Harvey wrote

Marcski wrote

Nice Pics!!  Now we know where all the snow is this season.

Anecdotally I've seen good conditions in Europe when conditions were good in the Eastern US. I assumed it was based on the "Greenland Block."

This year does buck that.

Any insight from our weather geeks?

Last year we couldn't buy a Greenland Block, but Europe had record snow...
The Alps are a  enigma when it comes to snow and forecasting..

Marcski wrote

Now we know where all the snow is this season.

Actually, this season has not spectacular for them. On a lift, a couple locals told me that last year was their killer with 400+ inches, but I'll have to verify that. As Jason mentioned, weather forecasting and reliable snow totals are a strange beast in the Alps.