Ski Information
Where is Morzine?
Morzine is situated in an area called the Portes Du Soleil (Doors to the Sun) This is a pretty apt name, as the sun shines quite a lot here and temperatures are never really lower than -10 in Jan and can get up to 6°C in March/April.
The scenery is visually stunning as you have the omni-present Mont Blanc in the far distance, ringed by the mountains leading over to Switzerland. From the 3 highest peaks of Nyon, Chamoissiere and Ranfolly you can gawp for ages at the majesty of the Alps.
Things to do in Morzine
There are many things to do in Morzine when not skiing or boarding. I have included a small list below but there are plenty more if you can find the time!
Shopping
Cheese Factory, Chocolate, Cow Bells, Ski Gear, souvenirs
Bars/Restaurants
The famous Buddha Bar! (now named the Tibetan Bar)
Cosy little slopeside cafes
Classic Savoyard and French cuisine from foie gras, frogs legs (yum, really!) and escargot to fondue, tartiflette and raclette.
There's even a fabulous place selling the best fish and chips this side of the English Channel! (Mama's of Morzine)
Sports Centre
Gym, sauna etc, Ice Hockey on Saturday and Wednesday nights - local team
Organised Activities
Grand Odessey Husky Racing
Horse and Cart around town
James Bond style Skiidooing
Dog Sledging with huskies
Snowshoeing
Cross country skiing
Paraponting
Skating rink
Mountain bike on snow
Icediving
Helicopter rides
Ski Joering (having a horse pull you along on skis!)
Relaxation
There's a local Spa, Jacuzzi and sauna (although Chalet Perrier has a Sauna)
Indulge Beauty Morzine will come to the chalet and she can provide;
Massage, Hot Stone Massage, Body treatments, Facials, Manicures, Pedicures, Waxing and lots more!
And even a couple of hairdressers in town!
Unlike some of the more purpose built resorts, Morzine is a real thriving town and as a result, is extremely pretty.
It benefits from a high number of owner run independent chalets. These are often of a high standard and made from the local wood.
What are the people like?
Morzinoise don't consider themselves fully French, the term is Savoyard. If you have taken a dislike to French people in the past, please discount it when thinking of travelling here. The people here are very helpful, friendly and happy to communicate in English. The local restaurants are used to non-French speakers and the shop owners will help you out as much as possible. Added to that, there is a large English speaking seasonaire population, so you are bound to hear an English speaking voice pretty regularly.
Pistes and facilites
From Morzine, you have access to 650km of pistes, stretching across two countries (France/Switzerland). The full area is called the Portes du Soleil, and it's the largest ski area in Europe. There are an outstanding selection of blues and reds, as well as some challenging blacks and off-pisting if you know where to look. One of the top hardest runs in the world is on your doorstep (The Swiss Wall) as well as the world famous Burton Stash (snowboarder heaven) If jumps are your thing, there are 7 parks within easy reach.
Indeed this wonderful ski area is famed for having plenty for everyone - any level, any style, any personal terrain favourites, you'll find it here, in part due to the sheers scale of the ski area. For the adventurous solo skier there's 14 separate resorts all joined together for you to explore, and with a ski area that big you'll find plenty of skiing at all levels. There's certainly far too much for us to talk about on this one page, so we've created a collection of pages each about a different part of the Portes du Soleil Ski Area.
- Skiing Morzine
- Skiing Avoriaz
- Skiing Les Gets
- Skiing on Mont Chery
- Avoriaz for Park Junkies - Freestyle Heaven....
Eating and drinking on the mountain
On the mountain there's a great range of places to eat, and the portions are huge! Sometimes it is worth asking if someone will share! Either that or we roll you down the mountain on the way home!
Some of the best places are Grand Ourson on Mont Chery (run by a Cornish family and has the most epic views!), Pointe de Nyon (has a lovely large terrace for sunny days) and Petit Lindarets in the little goat village south of Avoriaz central. Very quaint. The restaurant at the top of the Swiss Wall is also worth a visit, even if only to gawp down the wall and surrender to a hot chocolate instead. The scenery is amazing, on sunny days they have sun loungers with duvets and the cutest family of boxer dogs who are really friendly and love a game.
Added to that, the practically infinite number of Vin Chaud and Hot Chocolate stops available, as well as more snacky-type food, you are spoilt for choice!
Morzine/Les Gets benefits from many tree lined runs, so when it is cold you can shelter a bit! They are also very pretty to ski through, you feel quite connected to nature! Up in Avoriaz and into Switzerland you are much more closely connected with the sheer rock faces and steep mountainous inclines. An excellent cross section.
Morzine is one of the best places in Europe for freestyle snowboarders & skiers
Try a local area with 5 different snow parks, the Burton Stash forest park, a super pipe, touring pro competitions with giant quater pipe, local competitions, giant air bag....
Firstly though some geography. If you are thinking of freestyling then you should be thinking Avoriaz. Often infact you'll hear the term "Morzine-Avoriaz", as there are two villages very close to each other that share the same ski area. If you want to ski & snowboard in Avoriaz then you can stay in either village, though we would of course recommend Morzine as the better option!
Parks - let's go through your options in the local area:
The Big Park
Firstly there's the big jump park. This is really, really big. A great place to sit and watch the top riders do their thing. It's commonplace to see people doing double flips without blinking an eye here.
The Big Rail Park
Attached to the big park is a monster rail park for those looking to hone what would need to be already very impressive skills. There's all sorts of shapes of rails - though all are serious undertakings, there are other places to start your rail riding career.
An Extra Half Pipe
Sometimes they'll also build a smaller half pipe near the exit from the big park, this is a great place to learn pipe riding at your own time and pace.
The Baby Park
Onto what's known as the baby park. This has three lines of jumps. The smaller ones are quite reasonable, but the medium and large ones are pretty sizable indeed (I've seen people pull corked double front flips off these jumps). So you should take "baby" park with a pinch of salt, all that means is it's smaller than the big park! There's also a few boxes that are a nice entry to rail riding, a good place to cut your teeth. The smallest line of jumps though are perfect for trying your very first jump.
The Air Bag
For lots of the season the air bag is running, that's next to the baby park. We've a hill, a ramp, then a giant air bag for you to land on. Perfect for trying all sorts of crazy flips and twists, even if you've no idea what you are doing! There's a charge for this, last winter that was 10 euros for an hour and well worth that for some incredible photo shots (you might want to photoshop out the airbag afterwards...)
The... mini park?
There's another tiny park in Avoriaz for people to do their very first jumps in true peace and quiet. I've never heard an official name for it, so I think MiniPark's quite apt. There's no one here who knows anything about jumping, so if you are type who likes to experiment on your own without anyone watching then why not start here?
The Burton Stash
Burton Snowboards decided they wanted to come to Europe and build their own forest park. The picked Avoriaz as the place to build this. It's a park running through a forest all made of wood. So if you'd like to use tree trunks as touching posts or maybe snowboard over a park bench then come and give it a go - it's a great run through the forest and there's lots of objects at all sorts of levels so you don't need to be a pro to enjoy yourself here.
Hidden throughout the same forest there's also a collection of wooden rails, great fun for the brave & those that can find them...
The Superpipe
A superpipe is simply a big halfpipe. The superpipe in Avoriaz tend to be quite quiet and you can go as high or low up the walls as you like, so it's something that can be attempted without the need to be a pro first. Get the right time of day and you can lap round and round with the pipe to yourself, a queue here is very rare indeed.
Jibbing Central
Finally it should be said that Avoriaz is a great place for jibbing (skiing & snowboarding on the normal pistes, but doing all sorts of jumps and tricks on whatever lumps & bumps you can find). The reason it's so good? Well, because there's so many people here doing it. That means lots of eyes to find all sorts of new lines and hits and also they get nicely carved in for a good run in and a clear marker of the lines to take. A personal favorite for this is the run from The ridge behind Avoriaz village down into Les Lindarets valley, always makes me smile.
And then there's the rest of the Portes Du Soleil
Morzine-Avoriaz is just one part of the Portes du Soleil, which is the name of the full ski area. This is made up fo 14 joined ski resorts. What I've listed above is just in Avoriaz. Every other joined resort has at least one park as well, so add that all together and you've more parks than you've fingers and toes combined to count them on.
Avoriaz Webcams
People forget when you book a holiday in Morzine you are in fact, booking a holiday in Morzine-Avoriaz. With a village height of 1800m Avoriaz has a great snow record right through to mid-April and is the only way to take a trip into Switzerland skiing for the day. Morzine town is in the valley below, with 2 big lifts to whisk you up the mountainside. Ths gives you the best of both worlds - a charming & lively ski resort to stay in, and great high altitude skiing one lift ride away. This webcam is of the skiing in Avoriaz.
Morzine Webcams
These webcams of Morzine Ski Resort show a view over the village itself along with a view of the main Pleney slopes as they come down into Morzine village itself.
Avoriaz Snow Forecast (Village Height)
Morzine - Les Gets Snow Forecast
We've given you two different forecasts here. They often say different things, mountain weather can be fickle and really only 2 or 3 days ahead is accurate in our experience. Look out for the different altitudes for the forecasts. The first one is at village height, the second one is part way up the skiing, so is more representitive of the conditions on the slopes. Finally you might want to ignore the current observations, that's for the nearest weather station which is 25kms away and over a kilometre lower!Morzine Village Height
Morzine Mid-Station
Would you like your lift passes waiting for you when you arrive?
In that case please jsut let us know what you would like and we'll get it all arranged for you. You can also get the lift passes directly from the lift pass office, the prices are the same either way.
The Portes Du Soleil offers a wider range of Ski passes
New 5-hour 'lie in' ski pass (Portes du Soleil: €37 / Avoriaz: €30): total freedom because the skier decides what time to start skiing.
Children's pass: don't forget, throughout the season in the Portes du Soleil, the children's pass applies up to the age of 15 inclusive, while in most other resorts the age limit is 12!
Free Kids pass: At Christmas, children under 12 get a free ski pass with every adult pass purchased at the time of booking accommodation.
Junior pass for 16 to 19-year-olds: 10% off the different ski pass prices, making the 6-day Portes du Soleil ski pass €196.
This offer can be combined with the family pass offer, which reduces the price of the Junior 6-day Portes du Soleil ski pass to just €175.
Family pass: Minimum of 4 people in the same family: father, mother and unmarried dependants (not 3 generations) buying ski passes of the same duration (single transaction, passes valid for 6 to 30 days): 10% off the public price. Minimum 4 people.
PRICES - DOMAINE DES PORTES DU SOLEIL / Until March 30, 2012
This is the full area option. We'd recommend this for decent intermediates and above. You can also get lift passes just for Avoriaz or for the Morzine - Les Gets area. If you are a beginner please do get in touch as a Morzine - Les Gets area pass would be plenty and a cheaper option for you.
| Duration | Adult | Child | Young | Senior |
| 5 hours | 37.00 | 28.00 | 33.00 | 33.00 |
| 1 day | 43.00 | 32.00 | 39.00 | 39.00 |
| 1 day and 1/2 | 73.00 | 55.00 | 66.00 | 66.00 |
| 2 days | 82.00 | 62.00 | 74.00 | 74.00 |
| 3 days | 117.00 | 88.00 | 105.00 | 105.00 |
| 4 days | 151.00 | 113.00 | 136.00 | 136.00 |
| 5 days | 182.00 | 137.00 | 164.00 | 164.00 |
| 5 x 5 hours | 185.00 | 140.00 | 165.00 | 165.00 |
| 5 x 1 day | 215.00 | 160.00 | 195.00 | 195.00 |
| 6 days | 216.00 | 162.00 | 194.00 | 194.00 |
| 7 days | 243.00 | 182.00 | 219.00 | 219.00 |
| 8 days | 268.00 | 201.00 | 241.00 | 241.00 |
| 9 days | 292.00 | 219.00 | 263.00 | 263.00 |
| 9 days not consecutive | 329.00 | 247.00 | 296.00 | 296.00 |
| 10 days | 313.00 | 235.00 | 282.00 | 282.00 |
| 11 days | 332.00 | 249.00 | 299.00 | 299.00 |
| 12 days | 12 days | 263.00 | 315.00 | 315.00 |
| 13 days | 368.00 | 276.00 | 331.00 | 331.00 |
| 14 days | 384.00 | 288.00 | 346.00 | 346.00 |
| 15 days | 399.00 | 299.00 | 359.00 | 359.00 |
| 20 days | 462.00 | 347.00 | 416.00 | 416.00 |
| 30 days | 553.00 | 415.00 | 498.00 | 498.00 |
| Season | 800.00 | 600.00 | 720.00 | 720.00 |
| SA Indigène * | 632.00 | 474.00 | 569.00 | 569.00 |
Child : less than 5 years : free
Under 16 years : child tariff (compulsory identity card from 12 years onwards).
Senior : 64 years and over.
(1) only on saturday afternoon and on sunday.
SA Local : 1.People living in Haiute-Savoie . 2 People having a second home in the Portes du Soleil french resorts.
Let us help arrange everything
We would be more than happy to help arrange your ski and snowboard lessons. Please just get in touch & let us know what you are looking for!
Ski & Snowboard Lesson Prices
ESF - Ecole du Ski Francais
Pros
Very cheap - a 15 hour beginners course and lift pass 246€ for skiers, €265 for boarders. Levels 1-4 group lessons are 144€ Private lessons 44€ per hour
Availability very good - can often book a private the night before.
Cons
Private lessons generally over lunchtime
Larger groups (9 off peak, 12 peak weeks)
BASS - British Alpine Ski School
Various shorter courses from £179 (225€) - 6-9 hours from basic beginner through to improving on reds.
http://www.britishskischool.com/morzine/courses.htm
Pros
All native English speaking instructors.
Short courses- eg 2 hours on Mon/Wed/Frid - allows you to ski with the group alternate days.
Very small groups - 6 people
Cons
Limited availability especially in peak weeks
No lift pass included.
Easy2Ride
Offer group lessons or private lessons and a private lesson works out at around 130 euros per two hour session. Group lessons are priced at 250 euros for 6 x half days in peak season or 210 euros in the low season weeks and they focus on smaller sized groups (max 8) in order for people to experience some 1:1 attention from the instructor.
Group Lessons - Skiers or snowboarders (maximum 8 pupils)
5 days - 12.5hrs or 6 days - 15hrs
Morning : 9.30-12.00 or Afternoon : 14.30-17.00
+ 6 day Morzine Les Gets hands-free ski pass (10% discount) starting Sunday or Monday
5 days - Morning 354 €
5 days - Afternoon 314 €
Beginners Group Lessons - Skiers or snowboarders (maximum 6 pupils)
Group Lessons (maximum 6 pupils)
5 days - 12.5hrs or 6 days - 15hrs
Morning : 9.30-12.00 or Afternoon : 14.30-17.00
+ 6 day Morzine Les Gets hands-free ski pass (10% discount) starting Sunday or Monday
5 days - Morning 364 €
5 days - Afternoon 324 €
6 days - Morning 374 €
6 days - Afternoon 334 €
Their website is at www.easy2ride.fr
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