The Ski Area
Avoriaz is a station on the main circuit of one of the largest skiing areas in the world, Les Portes du Soleil, named after a pass between France and Switzerland. Portes du Soleil include the French resorts Abondance, Avoriaz, Châtel, La Chapelle d'Abondance, Les Gets, Montriond, Morzine-Avoriaz, St Jean d'Aulps and the Swiss resorts Champéry, Morgins, Torgon, Val-d'Illiez - Les Crosets - Champoussin. The total lift capacity is close to 250 000 persons/h making it one of the two largest linked lift networks in the world alongside Les Trois Vallees.
The Avoriaz part of the skiing area consists of about 130 km of piste. The Avoriaz pistes are divided in 4 sectors, Lindaret, Haut-Forts, Fornet and Super Morzine, the latter being mainly a connection to Morzine. Lindaret is a beautiful valley with a number of red and blue runs plus a single black. In the Lindaret valley one finds The Stash - a conceptual snow park developed by Burton and based on ecological principles. The Fornet area is a large bowl with basically skiing everywhere between huge rocks and crevasses. From one of the ridges around the Fornet bowl you can test the famous La Chavanette - also known as The Swiss Wall, one of the steepest pistes in Europe. Haut-Forts is the most demanding area with a number of black runs starting at 2 400 and ending at 1 100 m.
With over 7.5m of average snow-fall per year Portes du Soleil offer wonderful skiing conditions. The area is especially well suited for free-skiing and for trekking. There are vast areas of forest skiing. You can also ski around between the different resorts using the ski lifts.
Avoriaz is also a pioneer in snowboarding and today hosts some of the best snow parks. Read more about Portes du Soleil.
QUICK FACTS
- 283 pistes : 27 black, 104 red, 119 blue, 33 green
- 197 ski lifts
- 650 km of pistes
- 10 snow parks
- 90 restaurants close to the pistes
