Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

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No snow Sunday in Les Gets

Looking back from the Nauchets Express into the Ranfoilly bowl. Remmants of artificial snow only. But the lifts are open with the Bruyere run into the village just about open and the Violettes run to the Nauchets still passable.

Looking up the Gazelle black run on Mont Chery – not a spec of snow anywhere. Just forget Mont Chery if you are a skier. walkers and paragliders only.

Well at least Mont Blanc still has some snow – for the time been anyway. View from the Le Belvedere at 1550metres on Mont Chery. My guess is that the snow line is at around 1800metres..

Looking towards the Grand Ourse two man lift, Mont Chery. From the bubble car exit at midway. The green piste is Ourson. The piste basher looking rather forlorn surrounded by slush.

My Sunday afternoon walk up Mont Chery about a 400metre climb and 7km in 1hr 30min with a 30min Vin chaud break at Le Belverdere. I boarded the Chavannes in the morning, that’s it though, Avoriaz from now on.

Les Gets to Ardent (Avoriaz) free bus!

A gorgeous sunny day today with temperature over 10 degrees.

Les Gets has now organised a free bus direct to Ardent from outside the Mont Chery bubble car. They depart at 08.45, 10.00 and 12.00 returning at 13.15, 15.30 and 16.45 from the bubble car station at Ardent. TC Ardent is very fast so its a much quicker to get to Avoriaz and the Porte de Soleil.

I did 20.3 miles in 2hr 16min with 8mins of stops a top speed of 38.7mph according to the GPS. A great few hours although a great pity that you have to travel on a bus and also pay the high lift pass rates of Avoriaz. I managed to get my pass upgraded to the Port de Soleil area for no more than if I had done it originally so I’m pleased.

From Les Gets to Avoriaz – rain to snow

Due to the overnight rain here in Les Gets and the lack of snow. We decided to try our luck in Avoriaz which at 1800metres is 700metres above Les Gets.

Much, much better snow and obviously quite crowded, the off piste bits are still very icy but the pistes were in quite good condition. Here is our afternoon’s activities. I covered 16.6 miles, so not so bad with my left toe strap snapping on the last run home 🙁 The afternoon pass cost 24.50 Euro so quite dear.

I ventured to just above where I was walking the GR5 in September. Looking directly down at Col de Chesery and Lac Vert where I spent my second night in the Refuge de Chésery (it was just about covered in snow today.).

It was good using the new Le Balad’Aulps Bus 55 seater bus service from outside my apartment in Les Gets and Morzine town centre 1Euro each way with buses out to Morzine at 09.15, 09.45, 09.54, 11.14, 12.34, 13.05, 13.45, 13.54, 15.14, 16.10, 16.34, 18.04, 18.50 and 19.10 Returning to Les Gets from Morzine at 06.42, 08.09, 09.27, 09.30, 10.32, 10.47, 12.07, 13.00, 13.27, 13.42, 14.47, 16.07, 17.32 and 19.37 Yep the 17.32 is heaving even out of season. the buses are operational between 16th Dec. and 22 April they also travel down as far as Le Jotty and St Jean d’Aulps and Montriond

Boarding in Les Gets

The snow might be dreadful with only a handful of blue runs open but that doesn’t stop me geeking out . Here is a map of where I went boarding this afternoon, made by strapping  my GARMIN Etrex to my helmet and then importing the track log into my Memory Map.

  Overlaid is my speed profile with a red dot that shows exactly where my highest speed was obtained.  An alternative graph is the elevation profile showing that I used 3 lifts.

Will be interesting to see what happens once we get some decent snow and the red and black runs open. Interestingly I had my first  email request for a summer booking at my apartment today