Avoriaz

Navigation

Introduction

Avoriaz is easily one of the top French snowboard resorts and is seen by many as the snowboard capital of Europe. The management have been very positive in promoting snowboarding here since day one. For instance, Avoriaz was one of the first areas to have a snowboard-only section, including a pipe, a park-and-ride area and its own lift. Furthermore, the resort has been producing a snowboarder’s passport, covering all aspects of Avoriaz, for a number of years.

153km of piste in Avoriaz links up with Les Portes du Soleil, a group of resorts straddling the French/Swiss border, creating one of the largest circuits in Europe with some major off-piste to shred. The terrain on offer in Avoriaz is more than amazing and will suit every level and style of rider: trees, big cliff drops, powder bowls and easy, wide flats - it’s all here. And as everybody gets the odd off day and fancies doing something other than riding, Avoriaz puts on a choice of services that are normally found only in US resorts: quad-bike riding, snowmobiling and climbing are all an alternative buzz.
Lindaret is accessible for any level and offers fun runs off piste when there is fresh snow. Mossets bowls in Avoriaz is another fun adventure for intermediates and up. When there is new snow this is unbeatable. There are also some mellow spots for building jumps around this area.
Overall this mountain is worth exploring, with a few tips and pointers in the right direction you can find a little bit of everything. And if there is no new snow you can head to the park and jib all day instead. If this isn’t enough, Chamonix is one and a half hours drive away and Flaine, Les Cluzas, Samoens and Morillion are all just a short drive.

Dan Wakeham

British Olympic Superpiper

Avoriaz is a winter wonderland and if someone asked me where would be good to take the family I would say there; no cars in the village just horse sleighs.

However to do it on a budget you are best off staying in Morzine which is the lower village, accessible by lifts. The Portes du Soleil is a huge area and it has just about every type of terrain that you could expect. Avoriaz and Les Croset are the best places to ride parks. Les Croset is just across in the next valley but on the Swiss side.

Apparently you should carry your passport when crossing the border but I have never been stopped while on my snowboard, I always thought that this would be the best way to smuggle drugs across the border, you can fit a lot of dope in a rucksack and since you can but weed cheaply and easily in Switzerland you could make yourself a lot of cash (this isn’t how I fund my season!)

All around the Portes du Soleil you can find steeps and tree runs. in Morgins you don’t really get to much traffic (just local weekend warriors) so you can find powder weeks after snowfall.

New for season

05/06: 5 million euros spent on a new 6-seater chairlift, 'The Fornet'
04/05: new Zore 4-seater chairlift. Zore and Tétras runs improved, new training area and an extension of Gazex; the avalanche triggering system.
Portes du Solei area has an additional 3 new 6-seater chairlifts.

Resort Statistics

Resort Type: Alpine
Winter: Dec to April
Summer: None

Lifts

Total Lifts: 37
Cable cars: 1
Gondolas: 2
Chair lifts: 18
Drag lifts: 16
Max people per hour: 47,000
Board Leashes required: Yes

Mountain

Total pistes/trails: 50
Total ride area: 95miles (153km)
Longest run: 3miles (5km)

Top lift: 2466m
Vertical drop: 1466m
First lift: 1000m

Piste suitability

Green runs: 54%
Red runs: 33%
Black runs: 13%

Lift Passes

Lift Passes: Day pass to snowboard park area: 15.7 euros
Full day pass: 30.5 euros (Saturday 19 euros)
Day pass to Ports du Soleil area: 36euro,
6 days: 176 euros
Lift times:8.30am to 4.00pm