Chapelle d'Abondance

Today we finished the Portes du Soleil.  That is to say that, finally, we have now skied all of the resorts that make up the giant mega-resort.  The last resort was Chapelle d'Abondance and the reason we hadn't skied it before is because it's only linked by bus from the Torgon area and is thus very difficult to get to from where we are.

Instead of skiing there via Plaine Dranse and taking busses we drove there, giving us more time to explore the area itself.

What a pleasant surprise we got.  It's actually an extremely pretty resort.  It's very heavily treed.  There was almost nobody there and all the runs are easy cruisers giving great views of the Vallee d'Abondance.  If you want an easy day's skiing for the whole family or beginners, this is probably the ideal area.  Having said that, while it's definitely worth a visit, Natalie skied the entire resort in less than an hour, including traveling what must be one of the longest draglifts in the world.  The fact that it's so small and so far away from the rest of the Portes du Soleil, i suspect, probably limits this resort to a locals-only area - which is not a bad thing.

We stopped for lunch on a rock in the middle of a red piste and watched the world, what little there was of it in this quietly underpopulated resort, go by.  It was so warm i was down to a t shirt in another desperate attempt to rid myself of my ski tan.

 

It was such a warm day i was skiing sans helmet and gloves, feeling the wind in my increasingly unruly hair.