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Published: April 21st 2009
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Portes du Soleil
What an amazing region With the ski season right in the thick of things, we were finally heading off to try our hand at skiing.
Eight of us had committed to a week of skiing and snowboarding in the French and Swiss Alps. For most of us this was our first attempts at the sport - given all of us were Aussies or Kiwi's I guess that's not too much of a stretch.
We flew into Geneva, Switzerland and picked up our cars and headed towards the Portes Du Soleil region a couple of hours away. This region is dubbed 'the Gates of the Sun' - a massive ski area (apparently the worlds largest) which is formed from a chain of villages strung along the French-Swiss border. It has some 650km of downhill slopes (catering for all skill levels) and cross-country trails crisscrossing it all. And all 209 ski lifts are covered by a single ski pass. The possibilities were endless.
It helped that we had two people in our party who had been here previously - so they knew the area and they had a contact for a chatel which we had rented for the week.
The drive up to
La Chapelle
Training area for the girls skiing our Chalet was interesting. As we climbed into the mountains on the Swiss side of the border, we were met with quite a snowstorm which made driving interesting. This culminated in us having an issue with one of the cars as we reached the village of Morgins when the car kept spinning out and we couldn't get it up the hilly section of road in the centre of town (all because the car in front stopped and we lost traction). Trick is to do a hill start in second gear to get traction on the ice. So after a bit of help from locals we got the second car going again and made it to our chalet just outside of La Chappelle.
We arrived to a fantastic chalet with amazing views and three stories of brilliant French Alpine architecture. We had so much room and were perfectly situated. And it was so cheap.
We woke the next day to a mountain of snow and the most picturesque region. What a region - the mountains and villages are just spectacular. And best of all there is not that many tourists - apparently this is more popular with the locals
which you do notice.
The morning of the first day we all rugged up and made our way to collect our ski gear and passes. This was to be followed by a few hours of lessons. Jac and I were to learn how to snowboard and headed to the area know as Pre la Joux, while the rest of the girls headed off to La Chapelle to have their ski lessons. Unfortunately our snowboard instructor never showed up, (lot of swearing and irate messages left on his phone) but the Pre la Joux area has lots of ski schools and we managed to line up private lessons for cheaper than what we were going to pay - so all in all not too bad. Learning to snowboard wasn't too bad - helped that I knew how to surf and wakeboard, but still a few differences in the style, and some bad habits didn't always help. Nevertheless by the end of the first day we were feeling pretty good about snowboarding. The girls learning to ski also went well and enjoyed their lessons and skiing.
Our whole week we had amazing thick snow to ski on. Most areas were
covered in fresh deep powder at all times.
Day two saw us all refining our skills at skiing (girls had more lessons) and snowboarding. I was feeling pretty good on the snowboard and started to push myself faster and harder. Yet just my luck on that second morning I came zipping down the steepest training section and right at the bottom on an area used by several ski runs, I hit an icy section where my board didn't hold the edge. So the board came out from under me and I came down very hard on my butt. Wow what pain (I was to find out when I got back to London that I had effectively broken my butt - cracking my coxic). But I was not going to let that stop me - there was no way in hell I was going to sit this week out after all the anticipation of coming here. So I persisted all week and rarely fell over for the rest of the week - and if I did I made a point of falling on my face instead.
Day three was bad weather - so we all decided to rest our
sore muscles (and my sore butt).
Day four we all decided to go as a group and worked our way around the runs in La Chapelle. The weather was fantastic - thick fresh snow and sunshine. There was a mix of green (easy), blue (intermediate), and red (difficult) runs. We spent the day improving our skills and worked our way from green to blue runs. The blue runs up the back of this ski area were amazing - definitely the most fun I had. There was no one up there and they were great as you worked your way through the forests.
The rest of the week we spent starting our days from the Pre la Joux area - this interconnects with other regions in the back country. It was so much fun. I had even worked my way up to the red runs. No way I was giving the black (expert) runs a go - but happily watched Leigh in our group who was at that level of skiing. We had great weather all week and the best snow. A real treat was working our way into the back country and across to the Swiss Alps -
we then snowboarded and ski'd our way back across the border into France. Also got to see the rescue guys in action several times - including having the rescue helicopter land right near me as it came in to pick up an injured skier in the back country - was blinded for a second as you went through the blow back.
Each night we were there consisted of hot showers, lots of drinks and great food. We ate out a couple of nights and had some amazing traditional meals. And the wine was so cheap and tasty.
So all in all one of the best times I have ever had. I can see the appeal of the ski trip. And even though we are heading home to OZ soon for good - we can see ourselves starting to head over to NZ for ski holidays. I've been told after experiencing amazing skiing conditions in the French and Swiss Alps, we will find Australia's ski regions very hard to compare. But you work with what you've got - and NZ isn't that far away.
Till next time. Enjoy the photos.
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