Intermediate Circuit to Les Gets
Starting point: Top of the Pleney cable car.
Approx time: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: You can ski, but want an intermediate circuit on day 2.
Note: Most of the pistes mentioned below are blue runs, with one red.
To start: At the top of the Pleney, turn right towards the Belvedere chairlift. Take the blue run ‘La Chardon’ located just underneath the Nabor chairlift and next to the restaurant Le Petit Ours. You will then come out on the ‘Bruyere’ run. This is a lovely blue run down to the bottom of Les Gets. Take the Chavanne Express chairlift and at the top take the blue run ‘La Violette’. This should have your legs warmed up nicely.
Once at the bottom of the bowl as we like to call it, take the ‘Grains d’or express’ – a very fast 6-man chairlift. At the top go down the run ‘Renardiere’ and keep left onto the ‘Melezes’. We love this run and always do it a few times – it’s great for carving down since it’s lovely and wide. It’s a real Rodriguez family favourite!
Now take the Perrieres Express chairlift. At the top go down the very unique blue run ‘Les Vorosses’. At the bottom there is a privately-owned draglift called ‘TK de la Turche’, very unique in the area. The well known restaurant, La Paika, is on this run and is an amazing place for lunch, but would have to be reserved in advance; 04 50 92 85 22. We like to do this circuit a few times before going back down into Les Gets.
Once at the top of the draglift TK de la Turche, take the blue run, ‘La Renardiere’ back down to the bottom of the bowl where you have a number of chairlifts of your choice. We advise you to take the Ranfolly Express chairlift, where you get the best view from the whole area. You can see down to Lake Geneva as well as Mont Blanc.
A suggestion: Do the two runs off this chairlift. One veers off to the left, and one to the right, two very different runs which both bring you back down to the bowl. At the bottom, in the bowl, take the Rosta Chairlift to have lunch at La Rossettaz. This is Thierry’s cousin’s restaurant! It’s worth it just to hear them shouting out the name’s of the pizza once its ready!
Once at the top, you have a choice of a blue, black or red to get back down to the bottom, so depending on how your legs feel, take your pick! To return to Morzine, take the Nauchets Express. Here you have two choices.
Option 1. At the Nauchets Express, take the ‘Gentiane / Bruyere’ run back down – keep right to go under the draglift TK Mouille du Roi.
Thierry’s Top tip: As soon as you get to the little hill, knees bent, arms forward in a strong schuss so you don’t have to walk at the end. At the end of this run, keep right and head down to the TS Folliets chairlift. Once at the top here you are at the Vaffieu Restaurant: Tel: +33 (0) 4 50 79 09 43. Great place for an après ski or a meal, snack. If it’s a lunch stop, then make sure you book. The Vaffieu is an ideal place to meet up with non-skiers as they can walk to the top, after taking the Pleney cable car.
Option 2: At the Nauchets Express take the route back via Nyon. Take the red run the ‘Belle Mouille’ or ‘Les Chevrelles’ back down to the Troncs Express. Once at the top of this chairlift continue down the blue run ‘Paquerages’ and pick up the red run ‘le Chamois’ at the bottom which will bring you out at Des Fys Chairlift. Here you can head back to Morzine via le retour des Nants (an easy green if your legs are aching) or you can head back up the Des Fys chairlift to head back to the Pleney. Once at the top of the Pleney, you can either choose the red’s from the top or go down the blue ‘Piste B’ to finish either at the chalet back garden, or the bottom of the Pleney.If you are unfamiliar with the Morzine ski area you can download a piste map here.
