Snowshoeing to Avoriaz

A buddy of mine from university is staying in Morzine this week with 25(!!) of his close friends and family. From here, he, his wife and kids head off for 5 years in New Zealand! It makes our little adventure look like a trip to the shops!

Anyway, a few weeks ago he was on a boarding holiday in Andorra and managed to injure his shoulder. (Ouch!) He’s therefore sitting on the sidelines for this trip and trying to get back to fitness before heading down under.

He asked if I’d like to join him for a day snow shoeing. A great opportunity to do something different, have a good catch up, some lunch and a beer (or two)!

He picked up some ‘raquettes’ and poles for me at Intersport in Morzine and we met at the Pleney lift after he’d dropped his kids of at ski school. He’d already got a route picked out for us and we walked through town to ride the Super Morzine lift immediately followed by the Zore chairlift.

 

The loop would take us from the top of Zore along the ridgeline to Avoriaz and back closer to the top of the cliffs above Vallee des Ardoisieres. I’ve snowshoed a couple of times in the past and I ‘d forgotten how noisy the bloody things are. We clattered off along the path, shattering the tranquility of the sunlit woodland.

I had charity shopped my walking boots before we left the UK as they were hand-me-downs and ancient. I’d promised myself a new pair when the snow started to melt. With snowboarding dominating my mind, I hadn’t given walking boots a second thought and decided just to sling on my old Timberland (not walking) boots for this little excursion…

30 mins from the Zore chair I could feel a blister on each heel. By Avoriaz two more had joined them on the balls of my feet and one on my little toe. Balls! We stopped for a coffee and a bun and had a walk up the piste to overlook the Chappelle board park. I dipped into my first aid kit and discovered I had none of the mythical Compeed blister packs and just one normal plaster (Note to self: Be more vigilante restocking the first aid kit! Divvy!) I put the plaster on the weeping crater on my left heel which was shouting the loudest and we watched a few guys on the red and black jump lines before heading off on the return leg.

Here’s a little clip of the park. The dude on the black line on the right hand side nearly tears himself a new one!

There’s green, blue, red and black jump lines at Chapelle as well as a box line and a rail line. Great for incremental progression. Definitely coming back here with Nina and the kids.

We stopped at a little bar restaurant called Chalet Du Col De La Joux Verte (a bit of a mouthful and number 2 on the map above) for a beer and a very reasonable €14 steak, salad and fries. The beer eased the blister pain a little and we set of again for the Super Morzine lift.

I’d been telling Chris about our friend Naomi who does a lot of snowshoeing and how she’d said that if you run down a powder field in them you can get a bit of a bounce and glide thing going on which feels really cool. We clattered past an old French couple and smiled our “bonjours”. Chris pointed out a bit of a powder field to the left and I thought I’d give this run, bounce and glide thing a go…

5 strides into the deep (nowhere near powder!) snow, my tips dug in and I face planted full force! I put my arms in to push myself out but they just disappeared into the deep snow. It took me a few seconds to pack enough snow down for a stable press-up platform and I resurfaced to see the old couple striding past having a good chuckle. I joined in, happy to bring a little laughter to someone’s day. Unfortunately Chris didn’t get it on video.

We lost the trail (or it ended) not long after and we descended a couple of pistes to the bar/restaurant near the top of the Super Morzine for another beer and to reflect on a great walk and a perfect day for it. I was evasive in responding to Chris’s offer to meet up and do it again this week. I could feel my feet squishing around in blister juice and wasn’t sure I’d be up to much for a couple of days!