The Portes du Soleil

The Portes du Soleil is one of the largest ski domains in the world: a vast and magical winter wonderland encompassing many of France and Switzerland's most beautiful ski resorts. It consists of 12 linked villages and offers over 650km of slopes. It has a fantastic snow record and a massive variety of pistes, offering endless skiing and boarding potential for people of all abilities.

Areas included with ski pass:

A Portes du Soleil ski pass includes all of the ski slopes in Morzine, Avoriaz, Les Gets, Abondance, Chappelle d'Abondance, Chatel, Montriond, St Jean d'Aulps, Champery, Morgins, Torgon, Val d'Illiez, Les Crosets and Champoussin.

Avoriaz

Avoriaz ski area has over 100 kilometres of pistes accessed by 17 chairlifts, 2 cable cars and 14 drag lifts. There are 7 green pistes, 26 blue pistes, 14 red pistes and 6 blacks. In addition to this you'll find some of the best snowparks in the Portes du Soleil. The altitude of the pistes ranges from 1100m - 2466m so snow coverage is typically excellent.

There are three main ways to get to Avoriaz from Morzine: from the centre of Morzine via the Super-Morzine telecabine, using the express Prodains telecabine or via the (out of town) Linderets Express.

Super-Morzine area

Despite its name, the Super-Morzine slopes form part of the Avoriaz NOT the Morzine ski area. This area offers easy (mainly blue) slopes and is great for beginners and kids. The newly improved lil Stash is a great snow-park for children and now includes picnic benches and a treetop play-area.

Avoriaz village

The slopes in the immediate vicinity of Avoriaz village are all nursery / green / easy blue slopes. It is a great place for beginners to learn, with lots of different slopes to try. The Chappelle snowpark is also in this area. It is a brilliantly well-maintained park, with jumps, rails and kickers for beginners right through to the most tallented pros.

Lindarets Bowl / Prolays / Chaux Fleurie

Lindarets is a great spot for multi-ability groups to base themselves due to the huge variety of pistes all meeting back at this central point. Numerous red and blue pistes snake down the mountain-sides and the more adventurous can also find excellent off-piste routes down through the trees.

Lindarets is home of the Burton Stash, the first giant ecological snowpark in Europe. If you haven't visited it yet, get down there!

Lindarets is also a great base on poor-visibility days since the trees help to keep the clouds at bay and the many lively restaurants spoil you for choice for places to warm-up, re-fuel and enjoy a leisurely pint.

Mossettes and around

At 2277m, Pointe de Mossette is the highest point of the Avoriaz ski area. From here you can link-across to the rest of the Portes du Soleil ski domain. Advanced skiers can challenge themselves by skiing down into Switzerland via the notorious Swiss Wall. 300m of some of the toughest moguls that Europe has to offer!

Heading from Mossettes back towards Morzine the pistes are (on the whole) above the tree-line, wide and wild. There is a fun black itinerary route under the Mossette lift and the red runs are steep and fast. The Abricotine piste offers an easier route back for beginners, but watch out for the flat sections or you will end up walking.

Arare

The slopes in the Arare sector are predoninantly blue and wide and are a good choice for intermediate skiers. This sector also hosts a fantastic snowpark, snowcross and superpipe.

Fornet

The Fornet bowl offers a heap of easy blue runs but also some excellent and imensely fun off-piste terrain. It is a huge freeride playground with a multitude of bumps, burms and drops.

Under the Hauts Forts

The black pistes and un-pisted itinerary routes under the Hauts Forts mountain range (accessed by the Grandes Combes chairlift) offer challenging skiing for advanced skiers. It's steep, it's bumpy and it's a lot of fun.

Areas included with ski pass:

An Avoriaz ski pass includes the Super-Morzine, Prodains, Avoriaz village, Lindarets, Mossettes, Arare, Fornet and Grandes Combes ski areas.

Note that an Avoriaz ski pass does NOT include the Pleney slopes in Morzine.

Morzine - Les Gets

The Morzine-Les Gets area offers a great mix of of gentle tree-lined slopes which first-time skiers and intermediates will love; plus wider, steeper slopes which are great for carving. The higher slopes around Nyon and Chamosiere offer more challenging terrain for advanced skiers and powder enthusiasts.

Pleney Area

Pleney is the area which can be accessed directly from the centre of Morzine. Many people start their day by taking the Pleney telecabine up into the heart of the Morzine ski area. There is a large nursery area (complete with covered conveyor-belt for ease of access) on the flat plateau at the top of Pleney and a range of blues and red tree-lined runs span out from here in all directions. The Penguin run under the Nabor chairlift is a great little area for kids to practice their jumps, tricks and turns and the Zouzous run is a fun route through the forest where they can spot lots of animals hidden in the trees. Our top tips for mountain restaurants on Pleney are the Vaffieu (for a delicious sit-down lunch) or La Petit Ourse (for a chilled-out snack in the sun). Sledges are available for children to play on and the owner produces an excellent vanilla Rum.

Piste B is considered the easiest route back into town for beginners and the more adventurous can test their technique on the Stade - the steepest red back down.

Nyon and Chamossiere Areas

Nyon and Chamossiere are the two highest peaks in the Morzine ski area. The highest slopes (from the mountain peaks) offer interesting and challenging runs for more advanced skiers. (The run down from Chamossiere is one of the steepest reds in whole area.) The views are incredible and on snowy days there is also some great powder to be found both on and off-piste.

Nyon Plateau offers more gentle slopes (reds and blues) and a fun little snow-park. The slopes around the plateau itself are wide and open, whilst those dropping down from the plateau are narrower routes through the trees. Kids enjoy the Choucas piste where numerous little tracks wind in and out of the forest, with jumps and bumps to play around on.

Les Gets

Les Gets is a wonderful, pretty ski area which is very family-friendly. The main Chavannes area includes lots of lovely, wide blue and red pistes which run down into Les Gets village. There is an excellent nursery area (which you can access by car FREE of charge) and lots of fun pistes for children. The Grand Cry pistes are native-american themed and kids can stop for lunch in a tipi, feed baby goats and get their face painted. The Mika pistes are a fun introducton to snow-parks and snow-cross.

Slightly further afield, the Ranfoilly / Rosta bowl offers lovely steeper, fast carving pistes and some enjoyable, bumpy blacks. All of the lifts out of the bowl serve a range of pistes (blue ,red and black) heading back into the bowl so it is a good place for mixed-ability groups to spend time together.

Mont Chery

Mt Chery is the ski area on the far side of Les Gets village. On a powder day it is quite simply wonderful. Considered a locals-secret, the pistes are much less frequently visited than the main Les Gets ski slopes and hence the snow conditions are often fabulous. There pistes are mostly reds but there are some fantastic, mogul-covered blacks off the back face. On a sunny day the views of Mt Blanc from Mt Chery are exceptional.

Areas included with ski pass:

If you purchase a Morzine-Les Gets ski pass, it will include the sectors of Pleney, Chamossiere and Nyon (in Morzine) plus the entire Les Gets and Mont Chery ski areas. The pass covers over 120 kilometres of pistes, 46 ski lifts and 66 slopes (9 black, 28 red, 29 blue, 5 green).

Note that the Super-Morzine slopes are NOT included in the Morzine-Les Gets ski pass. They are part of the Avoriaz ski domain.

The Roc d'Enfer

The Roc d'Enfer ski area in St Jean d'Aulps is wild, unspoiled and stunningly beautiful. Relatively unknown to British holiday-makers, the pistes are often quiet and peaceful even during peak times. Powder can remain un-tracked for days after a snowfall.

The main access to the ski area is via the telecabine in the Grande Terche (St Jean d'Aulps ski station). This leads you directly to a pretty plateau where the nursery slopes and beginners area, plus some lovely restaurants, are located.

The Roc d'Enfer circuit is a 20km circuit around the whole ski area. It is a must-do for any intermediate or advanced skiers.

Areas included with ski pass:

A Roc d'Enfer ski pass includes the ski slopes in Saint Jean d'Aulps and La Cheverie.

The Roc d'Enfer is part of the Portes du Soleil ski domain but it is NOT possible to ski directly to St Jean d'Aulps from Morzine, a bus service links the villages together. In our opinion it is easier to ski in either Morzine or St Jean on any given day, not to try to move between them.