Portes Du Soleil - Skiing

Skiing

Portes du Soleil is among the largest ski areas in the world and it takes some time to get hold of the main pistemap. All resorts have detailed maps of their respective parts of the system. There is a main circuit through most of the Swiss and some of the French resorts (Chatel-Morgins-Champussin-Les Crosets/Champery-Avoriaz-Chatel)that can be skied in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The average skier or boarder will spend most of a day doing the circuit. Apart from a short busride between liftstations in Chatel and a short walk in Morgins, the circuit can be skied without removing one's skis or board. There are places on the circuit (espcially in Morgins) where one might experience sparse snow or even have to go down by chairlift late in the season. Finally it should be noted that skiing the ciruit counterclockwise means having to either ski the famous La Chavanette also known as "Le Mur" or suffer the humiliation of taking the chairlift down. Doing the circuit means that one will have to leave out numerous tempting and testing options and bypass the two major areas not on the main circuit. One is the Torgon/Abondance area which is connected by lift to Chatel and the other is the Morzine/Les Gets area which is linked by lift to Avoriaz. Both are large and testing areas in themselves - the Morzine/Les Gets area in itself having around 150 km of marked runs.