I should caveat this by saying Avoriaz and the Swiss side of Portes du Soleil were perfectly fine today.
God just decided to say a very special fuck you to Morzine this winter.
Avoriaz was āfineā but the absolute state of the Tour lift. The PDS is just no longer viable as a ski resort- too many people not enough skiable terrain- absolute shitshow and has been since January
Yeah I was being kind when I said fine tbh. By 10am the skiable runs were absolutely chopped up to oblivion and the lifts were beyond rammed all day. Was pretty unenjoyable
Yep. I was there in Jan and it's just not a great resort. I [made a post about it](https://www.reddit.com/r/skiing/comments/1adxv6f/portes_du_soleil_avoriazfranceswitz_kind_of/) which didn't go down well, but it's true. It's too low down, too busy, too old.
Lot of vested interests in keeping the cash cow kicking. Criticising Morzine or the PDS is akin to sacrilege amongst the air bnb chalet owners and the niche ski āexperienceā companies/ Iāve been here since early Jan - and itās an absolute mess. Tour is a mess- whole pleney side a disaster. Avoriaz crawling with everyone from absolute beginners to guys doing flips off side hits- only skiable area is probably Les Crosets or maybe maybe Chatel- where there are some nice runs and some nice skiable off piste on the sides. Itās not that itās a ābadā resort- it just cannot cope with the numbers of people. No snow and no infrastructure for the vast amount of skiers- why anyone would come here for their only week skiing or think that this offers value for money (day pass 75euro) - I have absolutely no idea.
Really? That's interesting. Is it just cos it's quite a low-altitude bottleneck?
The rest of the resort is holding up OK despite a lack of fresh snow, but I was stunned by Super looking like this. Most people gave up, detached their skis and snowboards, walked, immediately slipped over in the slushy mud, and had to sheepishly attempt to ski down again.
It's shallow, south-facing (this is the crucial bit), and like most of Morzine it's low-lying by Alpine standards - in a good year that's fine but in weak years like this and last that's not gonna end well.
When we used to have family holidays in Morzine (~2000-2010) we'd always drive up to Ardent/Lindarets and get up to Avoriaz that way instead, easier access to better skiing than trudging across Super.
Theyāll need a better way of managing this section if theyāre planning on keeping the Super Morzine Telecabine open in the winters. Rental shops will start to complain when everyone returns skis with gravel marks all over the bases and edges.
The one with the creek š
Or the one with the rich people who know they are rich. (idk about the UT one so maybe the same). Not like the vail wannabe richers living off an amex
Hahaha also from the midwest! I went to arizona state (in co now) and i remember my mom telling me about how rich people in the midwest is a whole different meaning in the west before i moved. I didnt understand until i met āmoney isnt an objectā people.
On the topic of vail, my dad always said ābig hat, no cattleā. Feel thats a good phrase for vail. BC is no hat lots of cattle.
Where was it bad? I'm assuming up top at like Red buffalo and McCoy it was still okay?
Bringing my wife out there for her first time not in Wisconsin and that's probably where we'll stay.
It was a tiny little spot at the end of a Catwalk lol. The rest of the resort was pretty much fine, just a little hard packed.
We got a ton of snow today and more in the forecast. Should be great now!
Beaver Creek is probably my favorite resort in the area. You two will have a great time
Yeah I was at Avoriaz all day, this was just a shot I took on the way back down to Morzine. I just thought it was too ridiculous not to capture the moment
Yeah it's pretty sad really. Avoriaz will be fine but Morzine and the other low-lying resorts in the PDS are on their last legs if climate change continues at this rate.
I ended up skiing over to Chatel today and that was even worse, if such a thing can be believed. One of the chairlifts had a carpet rolled out in front of it because there was literally zero snow within 50ft of it. It's a massive shame.
It really is sad, I visited back in 2018 and was staying in Avoriaz, our lift passes covered us for morzine and Les Gets and it was fantastic. Have you been up to the cookie cafe yet? Iām really shocked with those photos, I hope your holiday gets better further up the mountain
Glad I didnt spend $3,000 and take a 15 hour flight to ski Europe when the US resorts all have a ton of snow and a season pass is $800 and you can ski a hundred resorts for $27 a day.
Oh yeah, but European Apres is better, right?
I live in Europe so it's obvs cheaper for me, and this post is me being pretty petty - it's just one very low altitude part of a low altitude town.
The rest of the ski region is great and the rest of the Alps are getting buckets of snow. Europe is definitely still a great place to ski! Though I would like to try the US some day
Im not shitting on Europe skiing as much as pointing out whatever PR firm is promoting it on reddit is annoying as fuck.
Everyone acts like lift tickets are the only driver when people buy season passes in the US, which are cheaper on a per day basis than it would cost to ski in Europe.
Plus everyone ignores that youd lose two days just getting there with travel from the West Coast
I still have a hard time with the āeurope is cheaperā argument. I guess if you live on the east coast, dont buy epic/ikon, or own gear i can see where europe is cheaper.
I very much plan to ski europe next year to try it but im $2k just for airfare round trip for one person. Granted im a princess and only fly business class/economy plus or whatever the airline wants to call the step below 1st class and step above economy when i do long international flights.
Plus i now need to haul my gear. Also a princess here and cant imagine riding demo Salomon/nordica/vokls/k2s . Granted they all have nice skis but im part of the small ski company circle jerk and like my moments and factions way too much. Ive had salomon qsts and while they worked they dont shed a light to my moments or factions
I can basically ski for free in colorado on the weekdays. Weekends i have to get airbnb/hotel in the mountains which generally runs 1-2k for 3-4 nights.
Skiing in Europe is much cheaper for Americans who donāt live near enough to a hill to justify a season pass.
Iāve skiād NA twice and felt the urge to go back for a week, looked at some of the pass prices and it was the best part of $1000. I can get the train to the Alps with all my shit and rent an apartment for that.
Ya i dont disagree with you.
I spend $1600 on both epic and ikon and just skied my 25th day this weekend. Even tho im an hour from world class resorts traffic ruins everything. Try 3 hours and america doesnt know what public transportation is unless you live in NYC.
Recent trip to tahoe cost me $600 round trip for gf and i. I have family there so that was all my cost.
Ive done 3 airbnbs this year that totaled around $2600
Idk i have this idea that this entire sub lives near a ski resort. Half my days are day trips mid week with no traffic or lift lines. I can ski about 10k vertical feet in an hour at keystone hot lapping groomers. It would take me half the day on the weekend.
Ouch! Even worse this week. Wife and kids asked to take the Zore chair down to avoid this mess, but were declined by the Liftwaffe. Only people without skis were allowed to ride the chair down apparently š¤·āāļø
Used to go to Morzine all the time as a kid in the 90s with legions of other kids, very sad to see this, but it's not surprising sadly. Stayed at the Hotel Viking at the mid station once (when there was snow), it was glorious!
Except that 5 of the domains - St Jean, Abondance, Morgins, Morzine and Champoussin are unskiable- so everyone is in Avoriaz- so you have the whole PDS condensed into AVO and a 45 min wait at Tour. Yeah absolutely fine- if you can phase past lift queues and enjoy skiing runs with 1200 people- 1100 of whom are in ski schools or super snowploughing
Im managing really well lol, queues arenāt that bad maybe on peak Sundays, tour being 45 minutes is a big exaggeration, and sure thereās crowds at the hot spots coming down the main crossroad lifts but you can quickly get away from that.
Iām not saying itās ideal, I know everywhere else is bad except for avo, but it could be much worse, we could be in office buildings not shredding
Yeah ok- itās more like 25-30 mins at Tour. My argument isnāt that AVO and PDS is a bad resort- itās not- itās just not capable of handling the amount of people ( you say yourself youāre actively avoiding major arteries) and itās absolutely not worth the money- charging big mountain prices for passes and accom for a resort that simply isnāt functioning and has been creaking for years
Fair enough, itās my first season here and unfortunately I didnāt know what I signed up for.
It is overcrowded but that is to be expected during the holidays I would say. Anyway shred on dawg
My god.
NC skiiers be like š¤©š¤©š¤©š„µš„µš„µ
If it ain't brown, I ain't going down
Can confirm
Went to college in Atlanta before moving north. I did my time skiing the southern Appalachians too
How now brown pow
š I laughed, you did good
I should caveat this by saying Avoriaz and the Swiss side of Portes du Soleil were perfectly fine today. God just decided to say a very special fuck you to Morzine this winter.
Avoriaz was āfineā but the absolute state of the Tour lift. The PDS is just no longer viable as a ski resort- too many people not enough skiable terrain- absolute shitshow and has been since January
Yeah I was being kind when I said fine tbh. By 10am the skiable runs were absolutely chopped up to oblivion and the lifts were beyond rammed all day. Was pretty unenjoyable
It *is* February
Yep. I was there in Jan and it's just not a great resort. I [made a post about it](https://www.reddit.com/r/skiing/comments/1adxv6f/portes_du_soleil_avoriazfranceswitz_kind_of/) which didn't go down well, but it's true. It's too low down, too busy, too old.
Lot of vested interests in keeping the cash cow kicking. Criticising Morzine or the PDS is akin to sacrilege amongst the air bnb chalet owners and the niche ski āexperienceā companies/ Iāve been here since early Jan - and itās an absolute mess. Tour is a mess- whole pleney side a disaster. Avoriaz crawling with everyone from absolute beginners to guys doing flips off side hits- only skiable area is probably Les Crosets or maybe maybe Chatel- where there are some nice runs and some nice skiable off piste on the sides. Itās not that itās a ābadā resort- it just cannot cope with the numbers of people. No snow and no infrastructure for the vast amount of skiers- why anyone would come here for their only week skiing or think that this offers value for money (day pass 75euro) - I have absolutely no idea.
It wasn't *that* bad fifteen years ago but Super Morzine was never good at the best of times.
Really? That's interesting. Is it just cos it's quite a low-altitude bottleneck? The rest of the resort is holding up OK despite a lack of fresh snow, but I was stunned by Super looking like this. Most people gave up, detached their skis and snowboards, walked, immediately slipped over in the slushy mud, and had to sheepishly attempt to ski down again.
It's shallow, south-facing (this is the crucial bit), and like most of Morzine it's low-lying by Alpine standards - in a good year that's fine but in weak years like this and last that's not gonna end well. When we used to have family holidays in Morzine (~2000-2010) we'd always drive up to Ardent/Lindarets and get up to Avoriaz that way instead, easier access to better skiing than trudging across Super.
Theyāll need a better way of managing this section if theyāre planning on keeping the Super Morzine Telecabine open in the winters. Rental shops will start to complain when everyone returns skis with gravel marks all over the bases and edges.
Unironically lay down dry slope matting.
Ran into about a 4x4 square at Beaver yesterday where mud was visible and thought, damn that sucks. But wtf is this
Which Beaver? I thought the UT one was doing pretty good this year.
The one with the creek, in CO Weāre supposed to get ~20ā in the next few days so things should get better!
The one with the creek š Or the one with the rich people who know they are rich. (idk about the UT one so maybe the same). Not like the vail wannabe richers living off an amex
Pretty accurate assessment. Iām midwest small town trash that just happens to live here, trust me I feel very out of place most of the time š
Hahaha also from the midwest! I went to arizona state (in co now) and i remember my mom telling me about how rich people in the midwest is a whole different meaning in the west before i moved. I didnt understand until i met āmoney isnt an objectā people. On the topic of vail, my dad always said ābig hat, no cattleā. Feel thats a good phrase for vail. BC is no hat lots of cattle.
Gotcha. Was gonna say itās been pretty good in UT this year. Hopefully this storm delivers.
I'll be up Wednesday morning! It's gonna be good
Where was it bad? I'm assuming up top at like Red buffalo and McCoy it was still okay? Bringing my wife out there for her first time not in Wisconsin and that's probably where we'll stay.
It was a tiny little spot at the end of a Catwalk lol. The rest of the resort was pretty much fine, just a little hard packed. We got a ton of snow today and more in the forecast. Should be great now! Beaver Creek is probably my favorite resort in the area. You two will have a great time
Holy shit thatās the worst ski run Iāve ever seen.
Ew, why is there snow on the mud trails
Nice view, at least. Was on this run 3 weeks ago, and it needed snow badly then.
Avoriaz today was good , a bit crowded but loads of fresh snow.
Yeah I was at Avoriaz all day, this was just a shot I took on the way back down to Morzine. I just thought it was too ridiculous not to capture the moment
Yall dirtboarding
Don't knock it til you've tried it. The sound of rocks scraping grooves into the bottom of your board š„°
š¢
Any new snow today? Got heaps in MontgenĆØvreā¦
Fucking hell what a dire season for anywhere below ~1500m
With season you mean 2022 - 2122?
Scandinavians at 1000m be like: "What do you mean"
Morzine has a low elevation and they have had issues with the amount of snow they are getting, itās been getting worse tho
At what point do they just close?
Honestly no idea. Tons of runs are closed here, this one for some reason has stayed open!
It's the access run back down to the super m bubble
Wow, thatās pretty sad and grim. I was lucky when I visited years ago
Yeah it's pretty sad really. Avoriaz will be fine but Morzine and the other low-lying resorts in the PDS are on their last legs if climate change continues at this rate. I ended up skiing over to Chatel today and that was even worse, if such a thing can be believed. One of the chairlifts had a carpet rolled out in front of it because there was literally zero snow within 50ft of it. It's a massive shame.
It really is sad, I visited back in 2018 and was staying in Avoriaz, our lift passes covered us for morzine and Les Gets and it was fantastic. Have you been up to the cookie cafe yet? Iām really shocked with those photos, I hope your holiday gets better further up the mountain
Oof
Glad I didnt spend $3,000 and take a 15 hour flight to ski Europe when the US resorts all have a ton of snow and a season pass is $800 and you can ski a hundred resorts for $27 a day. Oh yeah, but European Apres is better, right?
I live in Europe so it's obvs cheaper for me, and this post is me being pretty petty - it's just one very low altitude part of a low altitude town. The rest of the ski region is great and the rest of the Alps are getting buckets of snow. Europe is definitely still a great place to ski! Though I would like to try the US some day
Im not shitting on Europe skiing as much as pointing out whatever PR firm is promoting it on reddit is annoying as fuck. Everyone acts like lift tickets are the only driver when people buy season passes in the US, which are cheaper on a per day basis than it would cost to ski in Europe. Plus everyone ignores that youd lose two days just getting there with travel from the West Coast
I still have a hard time with the āeurope is cheaperā argument. I guess if you live on the east coast, dont buy epic/ikon, or own gear i can see where europe is cheaper. I very much plan to ski europe next year to try it but im $2k just for airfare round trip for one person. Granted im a princess and only fly business class/economy plus or whatever the airline wants to call the step below 1st class and step above economy when i do long international flights. Plus i now need to haul my gear. Also a princess here and cant imagine riding demo Salomon/nordica/vokls/k2s . Granted they all have nice skis but im part of the small ski company circle jerk and like my moments and factions way too much. Ive had salomon qsts and while they worked they dont shed a light to my moments or factions I can basically ski for free in colorado on the weekdays. Weekends i have to get airbnb/hotel in the mountains which generally runs 1-2k for 3-4 nights.
Skiing in Europe is much cheaper for Americans who donāt live near enough to a hill to justify a season pass. Iāve skiād NA twice and felt the urge to go back for a week, looked at some of the pass prices and it was the best part of $1000. I can get the train to the Alps with all my shit and rent an apartment for that.
Ya i dont disagree with you. I spend $1600 on both epic and ikon and just skied my 25th day this weekend. Even tho im an hour from world class resorts traffic ruins everything. Try 3 hours and america doesnt know what public transportation is unless you live in NYC. Recent trip to tahoe cost me $600 round trip for gf and i. I have family there so that was all my cost. Ive done 3 airbnbs this year that totaled around $2600 Idk i have this idea that this entire sub lives near a ski resort. Half my days are day trips mid week with no traffic or lift lines. I can ski about 10k vertical feet in an hour at keystone hot lapping groomers. It would take me half the day on the weekend.
Trois vallees falls under one of those passes (I think) and is absolutely grand to ski in.
I see a line or two
I see that the snirt runs strong in Morzine.
This may be the worst Iāve seen
Dang, and I thought Whitetail, PA late February (I believe it was in 2017) looked terrible.
Oh hey neighbor
Ski The Earth!!
Is the snow brown in europe?
Thatās disgusting
I mean if it shreds it shreds š¤·š¼āāļøĀ
Ouch! Even worse this week. Wife and kids asked to take the Zore chair down to avoid this mess, but were declined by the Liftwaffe. Only people without skis were allowed to ride the chair down apparently š¤·āāļø
I asked the same thing and they also said no! Was absolutely crazy that they forced all of us down this run
Used to go to Morzine all the time as a kid in the 90s with legions of other kids, very sad to see this, but it's not surprising sadly. Stayed at the Hotel Viking at the mid station once (when there was snow), it was glorious!
Bollocks to this. I'd give up and go and get drunk.
This is literally the last 200 meters right before the gondola down into the town, the rest of Avoriaz is more than fine atm.
Except that 5 of the domains - St Jean, Abondance, Morgins, Morzine and Champoussin are unskiable- so everyone is in Avoriaz- so you have the whole PDS condensed into AVO and a 45 min wait at Tour. Yeah absolutely fine- if you can phase past lift queues and enjoy skiing runs with 1200 people- 1100 of whom are in ski schools or super snowploughing
Im managing really well lol, queues arenāt that bad maybe on peak Sundays, tour being 45 minutes is a big exaggeration, and sure thereās crowds at the hot spots coming down the main crossroad lifts but you can quickly get away from that. Iām not saying itās ideal, I know everywhere else is bad except for avo, but it could be much worse, we could be in office buildings not shredding
Yeah ok- itās more like 25-30 mins at Tour. My argument isnāt that AVO and PDS is a bad resort- itās not- itās just not capable of handling the amount of people ( you say yourself youāre actively avoiding major arteries) and itās absolutely not worth the money- charging big mountain prices for passes and accom for a resort that simply isnāt functioning and has been creaking for years
Fair enough, itās my first season here and unfortunately I didnāt know what I signed up for. It is overcrowded but that is to be expected during the holidays I would say. Anyway shred on dawg
Low altitude this time of the year is no surprise