Following last year's visit to Austria's Vorarlberg, I decided to head back to a francophone region on this season's trip to the Alps, so the obvious gateway airport is Geneva. In case SLC wants to see how a big-league airport handles skis and snowboards, check out this sweet luggage system. It goes 20 yards in one direction and then makes a 90-degree angle and goes another 20 yards: enough for about 80 pairs of skis at once.
After getting my rental car and making a couple wrong turns while leaving the city, I still managed to arrive in the village of Châtel (pronounced SHAH-tell) by 10:45. It's one of the larger of the villages in the massive Portes du Soleil region that I visited two years ago, but that time I stayed on the other end, in Les Gets and Morzine. Châtel is more centrally located and well connected to high-elevation Avoriaz and the south-facing Swiss sectors.
By the way, if you're wondering how big the Portes du Soleil is, check out this nifty interface designed by a British marketing company called French Ski Area Over My Town that allows you to overlay France's biggest ski regions on top of a location that you know well. It's pretty impressive how much ground they cover:
http://frenchskiareaovermytown.com/les-portes-du-soleil
I quickly headed over to the Pre-la-Joux sector, on the looker's right of the map:
Got drinks at the bar with some new acquaintances:
Ate lunch in the sun:
Booted up and skated over to the lift:
Then spent the afternoon checking out the slopes with a local who's a ski instructor during the winter and a paraglide host during the rest of the year. Nice life!
After getting pummeled by snow over the first three weeks of January, there's been an unfortunately-timed Alps-wide thaw/refreeze cycle lately that's left conditions kinda scratchy, so going off-piste was at your own risk. A special discount day also brought out crowds. Low-altitude areas like Châtel take a particular beating during these type of weather periods, but even when things aren't optimum, it's amazing to go traveling on skis over such a huge distance.
Skiing switch with Châtel down below:
Poma teleski:
In addition to being a gorgeous village, Châtel’s secret sauce is being part of the agricultural Vallée d’Abondance and reportedly boasting 30 working farms. As this sculpture demonstrates (yes, those are skis), cows are a big part of the local culture:
And it goes without saying that cheese is a real point of pride here:
So I visited nearby Fromage d'Abondance and got a quick tour of their operations:
Cowbells:
Then I got a blow-by-blow of the cheesemaking process. This is Abondance Cheese, made with raw milk.
Aging:
Soaking:
Most cows of this breed have a signature "sunglasses" effect around their eyes.
They have names and spend all but the winter months grazing on the mountains:
After getting my rental car and making a couple wrong turns while leaving the city, I still managed to arrive in the village of Châtel (pronounced SHAH-tell) by 10:45. It's one of the larger of the villages in the massive Portes du Soleil region that I visited two years ago, but that time I stayed on the other end, in Les Gets and Morzine. Châtel is more centrally located and well connected to high-elevation Avoriaz and the south-facing Swiss sectors.
By the way, if you're wondering how big the Portes du Soleil is, check out this nifty interface designed by a British marketing company called French Ski Area Over My Town that allows you to overlay France's biggest ski regions on top of a location that you know well. It's pretty impressive how much ground they cover:
http://frenchskiareaovermytown.com/les-portes-du-soleil
I quickly headed over to the Pre-la-Joux sector, on the looker's right of the map:
Got drinks at the bar with some new acquaintances:
Ate lunch in the sun:
Booted up and skated over to the lift:
Then spent the afternoon checking out the slopes with a local who's a ski instructor during the winter and a paraglide host during the rest of the year. Nice life!
After getting pummeled by snow over the first three weeks of January, there's been an unfortunately-timed Alps-wide thaw/refreeze cycle lately that's left conditions kinda scratchy, so going off-piste was at your own risk. A special discount day also brought out crowds. Low-altitude areas like Châtel take a particular beating during these type of weather periods, but even when things aren't optimum, it's amazing to go traveling on skis over such a huge distance.
Skiing switch with Châtel down below:
Poma teleski:
In addition to being a gorgeous village, Châtel’s secret sauce is being part of the agricultural Vallée d’Abondance and reportedly boasting 30 working farms. As this sculpture demonstrates (yes, those are skis), cows are a big part of the local culture:
And it goes without saying that cheese is a real point of pride here:
So I visited nearby Fromage d'Abondance and got a quick tour of their operations:
Cowbells:
Then I got a blow-by-blow of the cheesemaking process. This is Abondance Cheese, made with raw milk.
Aging:
Soaking:
Most cows of this breed have a signature "sunglasses" effect around their eyes.
They have names and spend all but the winter months grazing on the mountains:
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