On Thursday, we got another overcast day with seriously flat light. Moreover, conditions at lower elevation on Morzine and Les Gets were getting a bit crunchy in spots, so my American host, pub owner Colin, took the afternoon off to show me around Mont Chéry, which is right in the town of Les Gets, but not interconnected to the larger circuit. It's a 5 to 10-minute walk across the village or a two-minute ride on the Petit Train to get there, but that small "inconvenience" keeps crowds down, even during peak periods.
Back on Le Petit Train:
Sorry Charlie, it's France -- no public transport during lunch
With 2,100 verts and virtually no flats, Chéry has a nice consistent pitch. Other than a gondola to mid-mountain, all of the lifts are fixed-grip chairs or platter pulls. Many people from the other side of the pond (especially the Brits) get annoyed when their uphill transport isn't the high-speed variety, so that also helps keeps skier numbers down and conditions were noticeably better than on the other side of the valley.
Mont Chéry on far right:
Colin calls Chéry the "Burke Mountain (VT) of the Portes du Soleil" and it's a pretty accurate description, although it has more varied and steeper terrain than Burke, including a couple avy zones that had recently claimed someone.
We went straight to the mountain's north side, where the snow was beautifully soft and chalky, a huge difference from across the village. Colin went tele for the day, on which he's as strong a skier as on an alpine:
After a couple hours, we stopped for a quick lunch: a brie sandwich with hard cider from Brittany:
From the top of Mont Chéry's backside, you can see just across the valley the top of Flaine, i.e. Le Grand Massif, and his personal favorite Praz de Lys. It would be within the realm of possibility to throw up a lift between Mont Chéry and Praz de Lys; however, environmentalists have successfully fought an interconnect:
Back on Le Petit Train:
Sorry Charlie, it's France -- no public transport during lunch
With 2,100 verts and virtually no flats, Chéry has a nice consistent pitch. Other than a gondola to mid-mountain, all of the lifts are fixed-grip chairs or platter pulls. Many people from the other side of the pond (especially the Brits) get annoyed when their uphill transport isn't the high-speed variety, so that also helps keeps skier numbers down and conditions were noticeably better than on the other side of the valley.
Mont Chéry on far right:
Colin calls Chéry the "Burke Mountain (VT) of the Portes du Soleil" and it's a pretty accurate description, although it has more varied and steeper terrain than Burke, including a couple avy zones that had recently claimed someone.
We went straight to the mountain's north side, where the snow was beautifully soft and chalky, a huge difference from across the village. Colin went tele for the day, on which he's as strong a skier as on an alpine:
After a couple hours, we stopped for a quick lunch: a brie sandwich with hard cider from Brittany:
From the top of Mont Chéry's backside, you can see just across the valley the top of Flaine, i.e. Le Grand Massif, and his personal favorite Praz de Lys. It would be within the realm of possibility to throw up a lift between Mont Chéry and Praz de Lys; however, environmentalists have successfully fought an interconnect:
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