The Edge Chalet Company - Morzine

The Season Starts Here!

2009-12-18T11:13:00.003+01:00

So tomorrow is the first day of our second season, the chalet is clean and the hot tub warming up as we speak! And we've also arranged for a snowfall today to make sure the pistes are in tip-top condition for our first guests tomorrow!

The Boy Done Good !!

2009-09-21T10:40:00.002+02:00

After months of training Chris finally completed his first triathlon in 2h45. Not bad heh? Sounds like he's become addicted so look out next year for even faster times !! Was hoping to have some pix of the actual race by now, but they're not posted yet - so in the meantime, here's one of him training at the Lido.

The Dirty Bikers

2009-07-13T11:45:00.010+02:00

Had a great (if eventful) few days at the end of June with 8 guys from Wales who were here for the Pass'Portes (hmmm, there's only 7 in the pic....)

Less than 1 hour into their first run and Chris went over the handlebars culminating in several stitches in his face. Day 2 saw Danny go over the handlebars and he ended up with a broken finger which required plastering !

You are not coming in the chalet in that state !! Put the hose on them Robin !

summer kicks off

2009-07-13T10:55:00.004+02:00

A pic of the very charming and fit Russ and Oscar to show you. They were here to compete in the CycloSportive on the weekend of June 20/21. I was mightily impressed when I discovered Russ came in 45th !! (out of a field of over 300) and Oscar was not far behind. 150kms up and down hills finishing at the lake - some people took nearly 11 hours to complete the course but our Russ came in at 6h20 - just 1hr behind the winner. However, he promises to be back next year to improve on this time !! I look forward to it guys !!

End of.....

2009-05-27T18:03:00.006+02:00

Thought a couple of pix of the last day ought to be posted - particularly Chris in yet another fetching scarf - de rigeur now me thinks !! Susie had us all kitted out in something outrageous as we headed off to Chez Flo's for lunch. A jolly time was had by all, then we had to get down the mountain..... nuff said !! So the season is over - did that happen in the blink of an eye ? or did it feel like a lifetime ?? No time for philosophical questions at the moment though as it's full steam ahead to the summer season. Susie's gone back to Oz (but promises to be back for next winter, thank goodness !!) and Chris is back at the day job in the City. So here I am discovering that under all that snow was a tonne of mud !! (and I said I wouldn't garden again.....) and looking forward to the more gentle pace of B&B throughout the summer.
Thanks go to everyone who helped make our first season so successful, for all your support and kind words of encouragement - and a reminder that many of you said you'd be back to check out the mountains without snow !!

New Year

2009-02-16T17:47:00.003+01:00

Been a bit of a while since the last blog update, but here's a quick photo that one of our guests over new year just forwarded on - thanks Mark!

Everyone round the table for NY:

And of course your hosts; Susie & me (complete with fetching scarf):

Snow snow snow!

2009-01-18T18:17:00.002+01:00

It's been a while since the epic snowfalls of December, but looks like the weather is back. Some pretty heavy snow came in today, and they shut a lot of the mountain due to high winds. Lots more snow to come by the look of it!

Hot Tub

2009-01-18T18:14:00.002+01:00

Finally, a photo of the hot tub in action. A toasty 40 degrees this evening.

Eye Candy

2009-01-18T17:51:00.007+01:00

These are just a few photos from the last few weeks that I took on the mountain. We've had some amazing weather, so there are some good photos sitting on my phone that I thought I should make use of.

We've had lots of cloud inversions recently. Laurent the paragliding guy we use says it's because of the temperature of Lake Geneva at the moment. Looks good though. This is looking down from Chatel towards the chalet.

Not sure how clearly this comes out, but there was a big ski race on in Les Crosets on Saturday. I think you can just make out the finishing gate & crowds on here.

Les Crosets park, le superpak.ch. Those jumps are HUGE.

Alan in the foreground. This is Les Crosets too.

And one more of Les Crosets, with John admiring the view.

Guiding Mishap

2009-01-18T17:40:00.003+01:00

Last week, a friend of mine came to stay in the chalet for the weekend. Half way through the day, we decided to do the loop of the Portes du Soleil. The risk with the loop is that you end up in the wrong resort when the lifts close. We came very close to ending up in the wrong resort when the lifts closed. We had to take a very hairy drag lift at one point... unfortunately Jon didn't make it quite to the top. In the interests of speed, he hiked the last few hundred metres - hard work! So I not only took a photo of it, but now I'm putting it on the internet. Jon, hiking a drag lift in Chatel because I timed it wrong. Oops....

This is a photo from earlier on in the day. The Portes du Soleil is purdy. This was in Champoussin.

Dinner in style

2009-01-18T17:32:00.002+01:00

Just so you know, just because we're behind closed doors in the kitchen doesn't mean we're any less glamourous. High heels - staple footwear at chalet Beatrice.

Parapente

2009-01-18T17:22:00.006+01:00

Ksenia (who stayed with us over new year) got some great photos from a parapente trip she did with Laurent... Thanks to her for these pics:

And Morzine from the air:

Apres

2009-01-18T17:18:00.003+01:00

Still catching up on the blogosphere... this was after the first day out with the guys who stayed with us over new year. There is a bar at the bottom of the slope at Ardent next to the bus stop. It'd be rude not to really.

Left to right, Ksenia, Mark and myself.

20th December - First Guests!

2009-01-08T15:00:00.006+01:00

So, Christmas week and the first guests! We had a deliberately quiet week here, but I think it went pretty well. The conditions couldn't really have been any better, loads of fresh snow just before they arrived & then brilliant sunshine all week!

This is a photo of Nick, officially our first guest at the foot of the Wall (steepest run in the resort). On the guiding day he was keen to go there pretty much first thing - bold.

This is a picture of everyone round the table for dinner.

15th December - We Move In

2009-01-08T14:53:00.002+01:00

We didn't actually get any photos of this, but the 15th December was the day we moved in. The place was an absolute tip, basically all built and finished, but with zero cleaning work looked like a tip. First night in the chalet was a pretty special moment.

The next two days, we had the cleaners in. I had argued that we could do the cleaning ourselves & saved a few quid. I'm so glad I was voted down on that one... it took 2-3 guys 2 days to get the place looking presentable, with all the proper industrial gear. It did look sparkling when they were done.

The two days after that we spent putting the furniture in. The chalet has three floors and a basement. I must have run up & down those stairs 50 times a day with various bits of sofas, tables, TVs etc etc. I think my legs are now made of steel and all my jeans seem to have slightly more of a hipster cut to them now than they used to.

First Day Up the Mountain

2009-01-08T14:40:00.006+01:00

12th December - my first day up the mountain, and it was amazing. Tons of fresh snow and hardly anyone around... brilliant. I was kind of planning to take it a bit easy, not kill the legs too much as can be easy to do on day one of a ski holiday (or season...). However, Ryan & I ultimately decided that a 45 min hike up along the ridge between Avoriaz and Chatel was the way to get the best snow. It turns out that we were right - so right that we got back down and then did the hike again! Not quite the physical easing into the season I had in mind...

This is a photo of the top of the hike looking out over Chatel. This link is to a gallery of the pics from that day that I put up on the main website. Happy days.

Disruption to service...

2009-01-08T14:39:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the lack of activity on here for the last month... turns out that starting a ski chalet keeps you quite busy... Anyway, I'm going to post a load of stuff from the best December (snow conditions-wise) in a decade now...

Les Gets lifts open!

2008-11-26T14:46:00.002+01:00

Just for the weekend, but none-the-less three weeks before the advertised opening week for the resort! Shame I'm in London at the moment really...

Apparently Avoriaz are holding off to consolidate the snow cover before letting people loose on their slopes. Given the cold temperatures, they are probably getting the snow cannon work in to build up the base on the pistes too.

More snow - and the season is getting close!

2008-11-24T15:36:00.001+01:00

Well, it's been a while since the last update, so I've got a few pics here. First of all, the chalet is just about ready, and it looks amazing. The heating is on apparently, which I think the guys still working there are appreciating - it's freezing outside at the moment! Here's how she's looking at the moment. We've just had more snow, and there is less building debris around the place now, so as soon as the sun comes out we should get a lot more pics up. Also we should be able to get some interior shots up too, that's looking almost respectable too now.

So the other news is the fantastic snow - good coverage right down into town, which is great news. It's nice and cold, so this should be a great base to build on for some excellent conditions ealy on in (and hopefully the lenght of!) the season! This is how Avoriaz is looking today:

Chris

Snow!

2008-10-04T10:33:00.001+02:00

It's snowing! It's not quite settling as far down as the chalet, but it is falling as snow there! You can check out the Avoriaz webcam here, it's looking fantastic for this time of year. We're really over-excited about it, hopefully it means we're in for another amazing season in the Alps! I'm quite a fan of the blustery storm clouds too, I reckon it means there's a lot more snow up there!

The Hot Tub! (Maybe)

2008-09-20T13:50:00.000+02:00

It's here! Which is good, gives us ample time to make sure and double sure that it does indeed work before the season gets running... It might be the sauna though, we're unsure at the moment. Doesn't look like a sauna to me though...

Latest Pics

2008-09-06T18:01:00.001+02:00

It's been a bit of a while since the last post, so this is just a quick one with a recent photo.

If it looks like a duck....

2008-08-10T15:51:00.001+02:00

So it's starting to look a lot more like a chalet - woop!

The Kitchen

2008-07-26T16:26:00.000+02:00

... is now essentially there, we're up to the top floor & just about all of the concrete work is now done. Good work, building chaps.

And this is the view from the kitchen back up the valley towards Ardent & Lindarets.

Our nosey neighbours...

2008-07-05T16:55:00.000+02:00

checking on on the building work. Guess he doesn't have access to the website or this blog.

Can you tell me how to get....

2008-06-27T15:46:00.001+02:00

I'm a fan of this cement truck, it looks like it's just come from Sesame Street or been on a peace march or something. You see, we spare no expense to get all the best things for our chalet...

www.TheEdgeMorzine.com!

2008-06-24T16:02:00.000+02:00

And we're up! Finally it's there. It is also an ongoing work, reckon it should bulk up a lot by the time we get to December, but it is there. And very pretty...

There are load of pictures up there in the gallery, so I might post the progress reports here a bit less frequently. But then again, for me this is basically the most exciting thing that ever happened, so I might just post everything here too. We'll see how it works out.

Right now, I've only sent the link to people for proofreading. Already a couple of ugly punctuation and grammatical errors have come to light, so I might leave it a day or two before sending it out to everyone I ever met....

The Next Level

2008-06-24T15:54:00.000+02:00

Just another quick pic of the progress... seem to have a lot of the ground floor there now...

Admin Update

2008-06-15T19:50:00.000+02:00

So I just got back to London. I've been over in France for the last few days, mainly to see our accountants. We just signed all the papers etc to incorporate the operating company (SARL), there's a lot of paperwork in France.... so in a few days we're all set up! Then the bank just needs to open the company account, and we can start taking money - happy days. So get booking soon, chaps. I've got to head back over sometime in the next few weeks for a "training session" on bookkeeping and other associated technicalities. I'm going to be doing French and UK tax returns every year for the rest of my life. Urgh.

We also had Lindsay's leaving do, she's heading up to Morzine this week to oversee the building work. It was a black tie do with Pimm's in the garden followed by a massive (5 course? I lost count...) meal. Really nice. And loads of presents. She now has the full chef outfit, including hat. Just gotta work on that Swedish accent now...

They seem pretty quick at this...

2008-06-15T19:40:00.001+02:00

So here's the latest photo, the building work seems to be going pretty quick, in fact I think they're slightly ahead of schedule, which is pretty cool. They must have done this before. Lindsay will be in Morzine as of Tuesday next week (probably), so everything looks like it's going pretty swimmingly so far as far as construction is concerned. Wicked.

The Ditch!

2008-05-30T16:03:00.001+02:00

The digger obviously did its work, and now we have a ditch to put the chalet in - sweet! Looking forward to the photos that actually have some chalet in them though....

And so it begins...

2008-05-22T16:47:00.000+02:00

So finally after the years building up to this, finally the diggers are in & construction is under way! This is a quick photo of day 1 on site. Exciting stuff!