Morzine - Out Here In The Perimeter

Kevin told me yesterday that he needed to practice his skiing this morning, so we arranged for a 10 O'clock rendezvous in (gasp) Morzine, for skiing. Having written previously about how it is one of my least favourite places, perhaps this would be the ideal chance to find something positive to say for a change.
It was raining on arrival, so that immediately put a dampener on things, pun intended. Kevin rocked up moments later wearing comfy boots and street clothes seeming surprised that I would even consider skiing in the rain, he has definitely been in France too long.

So I went for a few solo circuits, with the possibility that Kevin might join me to ski together later. Sat in the gondola with Pippa and Jemima, clad in their chic pink outfits that probably cost more than my skibike, I learned a great deal about how the other half live. Giles had committed the social faux pas of driving here from Chelsea in a Hyundai, I mean everyone knows it has to be a Range Rover, Jemima says that Imogen thinks that the new Evoque rocks! Poor Giles, I guess tonight won't be his lucky night after all. So what other pearls of wisdom did I glean from their conversation? Apparently if a man goes bald before he's thirty, he will never have a full head of grey hair, I don't know how I will manage to carry on burdened with this gold mine of fatuous information.

Feeling near suicidal, I went for a couple of runs down the face, it was horrid in the rain, but at least the snow was soft and I totally failed to top myself. I am really getting to grips with this late season "water ski stance", I could see the E.S.F. instructors shaking their heads and trying to cover the eyes of their young students, lest they learn bad habits from the nasty "Rosbif" on comically short skis. Vivre la difference I say and if you don't like it, just let me ride my skibike you stiffs.

I asked the lift attendant about skibike access and he seemed shocked at my audacity and simply barked "Nyon" at me. At first I thought he meant "Non" meaning no, but Nyon is a cable car located on the extreme edge of the Morzine domain. I am surprised that things have changed so much here, neighbouring Les Gets has never allowed skibikes but I was skibiking here in Morzine only a few years ago and using all the mountain (see Breakin' the Law).

Morzine - was skibike friendly back in 2011

I decided to ski over towards this "Nyon" area, experience a bit more of Morzine's pistes en route and get confirmation from the horse's mouth. The Vallee de la Manche is only a few Kilometres away from Morzine's; baubles, bling and gaudy displays of disposable income, but it immediately feels like the natural, rougher side of the Alps that I love so much. Jim Morrison's line "Out here in the perimeter there are no stars, out here we are stone(d) immaculate" springs to mind.
There's no charges for parking here, in fact there's not much of anything; save a few apartments, some camper vans painted to look like an Australian's nightmare and the lift station. A pair of mono skiers emerged from the gloom, wow I think I might have discovered the ancestral homeland of my tribe of ski weirdos, freaks and deviants.

Here on the outer limits, maintained firmly at arms length from the civilised folk, it seems there is a bit of a free-zone where anything goes. The regulations allowed me to use this one cable car and the single red and blue graded piste beneath, but that was my limit. OK, if that's the game, how could I spice things up a bit? It was tedious hanging around for five or ten minutes between one uplift and the next. But if I legged it out of the top station, could I make it down before the lower cable car began its ascent? On the first run, it was way ahead of me, on the second I saw it leave from the end of the piste, the next time I was almost by the station entrance and on the final run I made it, still huffing and puffing, the doors closed and I was off for my final victory lap of honour.

Later as I emptied the melt water out of my boots and packed away the last of my sodden gear, a young chap on telemark skis slewed noisily to a halt at the bottom of the same piste. He unclipped briskly and strode over to a waiting quad bike, placing the skis on the fuel tank he then sat on top of them, fired it up and rode off. Morzine, you naughty girl, perhaps there's hope for you yet.

Avoriaz - Mutt & Jeff

If I had been playing slow driver bingo I would have won the prize this morning. No sooner had I overtaken the nervous learner biting her bottom lip, than I found myself behind the petrol tanker and having left that in my wake; some old codger wearing a straw hat pulled out in front of me in a decrepit Peugeot. For some inexplicable reason, as I went to overtake he began to veer towards the left side of the road.
Consequently, although I thought I had left plenty of time, I was late for my rendezvous with Kevin Dawson.

My destination was Avoriaz, about the most distant of the French resorts from Geneva that I would still consider to be local. My last visit was over a year ago, since then they have installed a high speed "bubble" gondola from the Les Prodains car park to the bottom of Avoriaz village. This has negated the bottle neck that used to occur and turned what had been a nightmare 45 minute uplift into a joyous 5 minute transfer.

Luckily skibikers are easy to spot and Kevin found me easily amongst the crowds, today was only day two of  skibiking for him and the conditions on the higher runs were very tough. On such hard snow you have to carve or fall on your derrière. He did very well for a novice and seems fearless, apparently 39 years of skiing helps.

Skibikers are easy to spot

I should add at this point that Kevin is profoundly deaf, when I ride I can hear the difference in the sound the skis make depending upon the type of snow, I can really appreciate how it must be a challenge if you would have to rely on just the feel through the handlebars and appearance of the snow to judge the surface.

We headed for the sunnier and lower slopes which made for less challenging and more enjoyable riding, I have never spent that much time on this side of Avoriaz and I would like to investigate this area further as I prefer glade runs to moonscapes any day of the week.

The low level side of Avoriaz - worth further investigation

Soon it was time for lunch and we went to one of the self catering apartments where Kevin is staying with his family. I have often wondered what they are like inside, I certainly know they're not a cheap option. As is to be expected they are compact, bijou would be the term the brochure would use. This is the norm for French slope side accommodation, but it wasn't claustrophobic feeling and the view from the balcony is to die for.  The interior décor mixed natural finished wood, concrete and stone to create a pleasing balance between cosy and chalet chic.

Avoriaz apartments - the view from the balcony is to die for

During our ride Kevin and I had communicated mostly with hand gestures, during lunch we scribbled notes on paper and passed them back and forth across the dinner table like naughty schoolboys. After lunch we returned to some of the higher runs, which had softened up greatly, but still had the odd icy patch lurking in the shadows to test your balance.

I particularly enjoyed the last run down to the car park at Les Prodains, it is narrow and steep in places and is quite a challenge in itself. The vertical drop alone is equal to the total elevation of some other resorts. It was great to meet Kevin and great to be back in Avoriaz, one of the best skibike friendly resorts in the French Alps.

Skibike Swiss Rolls - Col De La Faucille

Carl and I left Leysin this morning and headed back towards Geneva, as his flight home wasn't to be till the evening we took a leisurely drive towards Geneva and stopped off at my favourite local test track; the Col de la Faucille in the Jura mountains. Carl thought it was not dissimilar to parts of Northern California, with the mix of dense pine forest and rocky crags.

In spite of the warm conditions, the snow was in good condition and still plentiful, this confirms much I have said about the Jura mountains. The slopes are almost exclusively North facing and the local micro climate creates clouds even when everywhere else is in full sun. This can make them a dreary place in winter, but definitely works well to preserve the snow so late in the season, especially when you consider their low altitude.

Carl Day - life is always more interesting when he is around

We moved from piste to piste, the relative absence of other snow users allowing us to make giant slalom style turns and head down the piste at breakneck speed with impunity.

After the lifts closed, we shared a beer in the warm late afternoon sun. I shall miss Carl, life is always more interesting when he is around, although one has to pay the price in fresh bumps and bruises.

A change in weather is forecast for the weekend, some places may see 50 cm of fresh snow, but before it arrives I first need to ride with Kevin Dawson in Avoriaz.

SkiBike Swiss Rolls - Hot Lapping

Today we stopped gallivanting and returned to the familiar slopes of Leysin. We have been enjoying the riding so much that we haven't taken many photos or videos. Today we set about redressing the imbalance and I donned SnowBlades to act as camera mule for Carl's GoPro set up.

We started early so that I would be able to ski in something still vaguely resembling snow, yet not too hard for Carl to find an edge. Even by 11 o'clock in the morning it was proving to be a challenge on some South facing runs. I had to adopt what could be best described as a water skier stance; riding down the fall line on just the tails of the tiny 85cm skis to avoid the tips sinking into the mire.

Riding down the fall line on the tails of the tiny 85cm skis

We got some great footage, which will hopefully be released over the next couple of months to entertain you during the dry season.

Leysin might be quite a small resort, but it is perfectly formed. The runs, though limited, are a joy to ride, even in such late season conditions. Earlier in the year there were so many pockets and hollows to explore off-piste and all easily accessible from a chair-lift. There is a rail link from the resort to Geneva airport and the cost of transfer very reasonable compared to the usual shuttle prices.

Accommodation can be found for French prices and the same can be said for the lift pass, we even found a couple of simple eateries that were close to UK prices. However if you have an unquenchable thirst for fine wines and grandiose dining, then yes, Switzerland will eat a big hole in your savings.

Tomorrow Carl and I will head back towards Geneva, possibly taking in one of the ski stations of the Jura mountains en route.

Skibike Swiss Rolls - The Powder Hounds

Our first port of call was, Glacier 3000, it is about 30 minutes up the road from Leysin and offers the highest skiing and most challenging runs in the area. The website claimed there was powder to be found, I had my doubts but we decided it was worth a go.

We bought lift passes that covered the neighbouring areas that fall under the Gstaad Mountain Rides banner. There's nothing like kicking off your day with a gentle warm up, but for us the first run was the steep and icy black graded pistes heading off the back of the glacier. The hard snow made this tricky run even harder, but we must be getting better because we both made it down without incident. There appears to be a natural order which dictates that Carl will always be the first to the bottom regardless of the angle of inclination of surface and it has the potential to be a blisteringly quick run in these conditions.

We had hoped to enjoy the off piste bowls to either side of the run, but it too was hard, icy and bumpy. I was prepared to give it another go, but Carl wasn't inspired by the technical challenge "Too many turns" was his terse assessment of the situation.

We headed back down to the car for an early lunch then followed the road towards Gstaad, following the true spirit of the blog we were off to explore were we could skibike in the area and if possible, plant the freestyle skibike flag on another mountain.
We had spotted an interesting looking area called Rougemont and stopped there first, it was a ghost town, the few locals we could find told me that it closed at the weekend. This was a shame as it did indeed have some interesting looking topography and I shall ear mark this area for investigation next season. I was also shown which areas were still open for business, so without out further ado we piled back into the car and headed off.

Heading in the appropriate direction I spotted a slope with skiers and what appeared to be a little bubble gondola. We found the base station, parked up on what appeared to be a surface made from pallets gradually sinking into the mire and set about skibike re-assembly. I can do this in about 3 minutes, but for Carl's skibike with 8 mounting screws to fit, it takes a bit longer.

Carl loves building his skibike - not

Approaching the gondola it turned out to be a mini-chairlift with a cover over the top, no sooner had I gone through the gate than the attendant came rushing out and stopped me. He seemed furious that I would have the audacity to use his lift and grudgingly pointed out where such dastardly inventions as a skibike could be used.

There was no way that Carl wanted to disassemble his skibike yet again, so we found a way to cram it into my tiny sub-compact car and drove off with the hatchback open. In search of the correct uplift, we didn't find the exact lift, but did manage to find the gondola station at Zweisimmen. There weren't any issues with our skibikes, in fact the gondola had hooks you could hang your skibike from.
The down side turned out to be that we were only allowed to go as high as the middle station which serves the mixed use piste where sledges, Yooners and just about anything else goes. It's an easy piste, the only challenge was keeping on the tiny ribbon of snow that remained.

Zweisimmen gondola - skibikes go outside

In order to see what delights the top station could offer, I switched over to blades and headed to the top. The look on the lift operators face when he came over to turf me out at middle station was priceless. From the top station there is a selection of red and blue runs down, nothing as challenging as our early morning black run warm up, but "rules is rules".

Zweisimmen top station - red and blue runs

What a crazy day, jumping in and out of the car, things on the verge of falling apart, no real plan, just two skibike fanatics bouncing along the rural roads of Switzerland frantically in search of a lift that will take us to a pocket of soft snow.
You don't get laughs like this on a package holiday.

Skibike Swiss Rolls - Some Like It Hot

No sooner was I back in Geneva before I had to make a quick turnaround and head straight back out. This time it was to meet up with Carl Day and enjoy a few days riding in the Swiss Vaud. Arriving ahead of me on Sunday night, he had already set up a base camp at the Grand Chalet Hotel, in the breathtakingly pretty village of Leysin.

Carl and Mark - a quick skibike photo opportunity

My arrival was somewhat tardy, but we still managed to get in a good few runs on the slushy snow, in what are close to summer time temperatures. The snow has changed so much since I was last here just a few weeks ago, at this rate the resort may close quite soon.

The Swiss Vaud at sunset

To make the most of it, we're going to head over to Glacier 3000 tomorrow in order to seek out some better snow and try the steep runs available there.

Les Trois Vallees Skibike Safari - A Bit "Brad Pit" In Places

Today John Andree re-joined myself and Thierry to have a final skibike session, I think we have a new skibike addict and I am his "pusherman". As we roamed around the three valleys, riding in the bright sun I had plenty of time to gather my thoughts on this area.

We have a new skibike addict and I am his "pusherman"

Almost two decades ago I turned my back on the Three Valleys and never expected to return; but return I did. So what conclusions would I draw from the experience?
At the moment there is still a bewildering lack of agreement between the many lift companies. As far as I am aware, this means that skibikes with a seat cannot be used on the chairlifts in; Meribel, Mottaret, Les Menuires, St. Martin de Belleville and Val Thorens. This isn't such a big issue, as there are so many gondolas to choose from. However, it does remove some key interlinks between the sectors and therefore removes the three valley's key selling point, its vast range of mountain to mountain cruising runs.

Meribel, was a big disappointment; much like its slopes, the town has a thoroughly skied out feeling to it and with everything permanently ramped up to 150%, all ambience has been stripped away too. This isn't "Supermarket Skibiking", it's a whole level higher, let's call it "Out Of Town Hypermarket Skibiking". Furthermore, I don't think the high prices justify the product on offer. For one week in Meribel, you could have two in Austria or three in Bulgaria. Yes, it's part of a huge domain, but if that means virtually unridable snow, when the neighbouring resorts have it aplenty, the only conclusion is to avoid it at all costs.

The big surprise was to find Courchevel so skibike friendly, this is something I would never have expected. It has always been a playground for Millionaires, these days they are as likely to speak Russian as English or French. So it is not the sort of place where you would expect us dirty skibikers to be welcomed and allowed to use the lift infrastructure without hassle.
Providing you are able to afford the lift ticket you can access all of this playboy's garden and potentially rub shoulders with the stars. Although pricey, it is not bad value when you consider the varied selection of runs both on and off-piste, all in great condition with plentiful snow and little or no crowding for chairlifts or gondolas.

My recommendation would be to stay in the delightfully unpretentious town of Brides les Bains and use its gondola, or drive up to La Praz or La Tania and stick to that side of the domain.
You can save some money by buying a ticket for just the Courchevel area alone and enjoy riding away from the crowds, on slopes that won't be better suited to ice skates. Who knows you might even spot George Clooney or Scarlet Johansen whilst you're there.

Courchevel - a playground for Millionaires

On a final note, if there are any Millionaires reading this who need a personal skibike coach, driver and drinking buddy (with PowerPoint experience), please use the contact form, my rates will be very reasonable and modest four star accommodation will be perfectly adequate.