Ok, tell me all about the Portes du Soleil please

I've just booked for two of us to spend five nights (four full days and, hopefully two half-days) at Chatel in the Portes du Soleil next month :D

We're middle-aged intermediate skiers looking for ski cruising between resorts, with a good lunch spots en route, rather than adrenaline and challenge.

Any recommendations and descriptions of routes/runs/mountain and village restaurants would be very welcome - it's our first time in that area, so would like to minimise the amount of time spent hanging around looking at piste maps.

Thank you!

skifun wrote:I've just booked for two of us to spend five nights (four full days and, hopefully two half-days) at Chatel in the Portes du Soleil next month :D

We're middle-aged intermediate skiers looking for ski cruising between resorts, with a good lunch spots en route, rather than adrenaline and challenge.

Any recommendations and descriptions of routes/runs/mountain and village restaurants would be very welcome - it's our first time in that area, so would like to minimise the amount of time spent hanging around looking at piste maps.

Thank you!

I'm off to Chatel on the 14th Jan ... I'll post a report on my return :thumbup:

Excellent, thank you - have a great time!

skifun wrote:Excellent, thank you - have a great time!

Yep I certainly will 8)

I've more experience of the other side of the PdS - Avoriaz, Morzine and Les Gets. We skied across to the Chatel side a couple of times though and loved it; this year we almost booked Chatel but went to Courchevel instead. Overall PdS has a great linked infrasructure and, to my mind (and belly) the best on-mountain eating and drinking in France or Switzerland. If you get over as far as the Nyon sector in Les Gets/Morzine (not lift-linked, unfortunately) then there is the incomparable cote de boeuf at Chez Nannon.

Enjoy!

Spent a lot of time in the PdS including a season in Morzine.

Area as a whole is fantastic, very varied.

Obviously you are based over on the Swiss side meaning the only access to the Morzine / Les Gets is by crossing through Morzine on the little train. Some lovely tree line runs this side and Nyon is good fun but there is plenty for you to do Chatel / Avoriaz side to save you heading that far.

Chatel is great fun and there are some great cruisy blues and reds on that side when you can spend the days.

YUu should over Linga and then Lindarets and theres some great runs around Lindarets bowl. From there you can head down through Avoriaz, through the town and head over to the Fornet bowl - really recommend this.

Really recommend the area - there are plenty of nice lunch stops around Plane Dranse!

Enjoy

Thanks for your replies. We'll have a car with us, so I would think we'll be able to drive to Les Gets if we do want to ski over that side - although the Swiss and Chatel sectors look like they'll have enough to keep us busy.

I've just been looking at a YouTube video of someone ski-ing the Swiss Wall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcR-dxTlb1s&feature=related

It's definitely not one we'll be attempting!

Can i asked who you booked with?
I am looking at the pds for a few days, struggling to find a decent company and a decent price.

thanks