Backs&Blacks@ChaletMargaritka

Chalet Margaritka’s final guests of the Winter arrived in early April and over Easter. The weather was good, pistes relatively quiet and the skiing just fantastic. Infact, it just kept snowing all Winter – even in April, after most international skiers had disappeared the weather cooled and the snow returned. It has even kept on snowing after Avoriaz closed on 22nd April – every day you can see snow half way down the Super Morzine mountain which is visible from the chalet.

Lots of repeat guests came to the chalet this month. It is one of the best things about running a small ski business. Every year you simply say ”hello” to old friends.

Mid and late Feb we had many repeat guests arriving at the chalet. It is one of the best things about running a small ski business, it’s like greeting old friends each Winter. They did bring some of their own friends with them and other new guests arrived as well. And luckily the temperatures got warmer – making the skiing just fantastic!!

Sophie and Erin visited Chalet Margaritka over New Year with their parents Mick and Louise who had stayed at the chalet last year with friends. They had never ski’d before. Look at the video to see what can be possible due to modern equipment, a bit of desire and application on behalf of the new skiers and just a little guidance for a few days over a long weekend………

We thank John (and Claire) for these wonderful photographs. No words, the pictures simply tell the story of the natural beauty the area offers and what we at Chalet Margaritka are all about and why we are here!

Thankyou John – Simply wonderful (Do give up the day job!). Please come again…….

Matthew Wood and his friends came to Chalet Margaritka the last weekend in March. Matthew, Kevin and John had all ski’d a fair bit and Martin was as adventurous as the rest of them. (Alas, Andy lost his skiing mojo a tad but we do hope he will get it back; whilst Kevin rediscovered his with a vengeance). Moguls, tours, blacks, off piste the guys really did like a challenge and they really did have a sense of adventure! They didn’t even mind (too much) when we had to walk 500 metres (uphill) along a ridge on the way back from Morgins because they had finally shut the chair upto Pointe de L’Au above Les Crosets due to lack of snow. Yes, we had to walk along the ridge in order to connect with the route down to Les Crosets and home to Avoriaz -check out the video above to get a better flavour of what I’m talking about. There were one or two other places where we needed to take our skis off as well but all in all we did some great skiing across the weekend - Take a look at the pictures below!!

Snowfalls at the end of February/ early March meant great skiing was available. At the chalet we were inundated with repeat guests during this month. This was really pleasant because it makes the atmosphere in the chalet excellent. It’s like having old friends coming back to visit and ski with us. Some even wanted to re-visit old routes and mountain restaurants – my guiding couldn’t have been that bad after all or alternatively, they were just foolish.

Strange weather patterns descended on the Western French Alps this year making most of February feel like late March. Morzine-Avoriaz worked overtime (at nights) enabling the pistes to stay in excellent condition. Infact, if anything conditions improved from late January since the milder temperatures softened the hard packed pistes. Our guests really enjoyed these Spring like conditions. Alas, there was not much Off Piste to be found for the Tsar and I.

Winter 2011 arrived and Chalet Margaritka had plenty of take up for it’s highly personalised, ski weekends and short breaks. The early snow following the cold pattern of Northern Europe including Britain – coldest December (2010) on record – WAS GOOD!!