It’s not often that you get a glimpse behind the scenes where the Portes du Soleil ski lift companies are concerned, but that’s exactly what we at Source have managed to do! We’ve just caught up with Fred Richard from the Télépherique du Pleney and wider Morzine ski area. The Pleney runs a lot of its own initiatives (as well as coordinating with Les Gets and the rest of the PDS) and following the brand new Pleney télépherique a few years ago, staff have spent lots of time carefully collecting feedback. Everyone at the Pleney is making lots of effort to improve their services and make the lifts and the trails the best they can be. Here’s a quick rundown.
Improved Loyalty Scheme
If you’ve skied in Morzine before you may know the resort runs a loyalty scheme, and you’ll be happy to know that now, instead of points being saved up on a physical pass, your points will automatically be added to an online account. No more having to save your lift pass for as long as you can! It’s also possible to create a family account so you can collect points from your kids’ passes and keep them all in the same place. 200 points equals a half-day pass so it’s totally worth keeping track of them!
Image: Sylvain Cochard
Better Bike Trails
Morzine will be hosting the French Downhill Mountain Bike Championships this summer. For the event, and for the local riders and holidaymakers, lots of effort is being put into Morzine’s bike park trails, including the construction of a new trail especially for the event. Fred informed us that the long-term plan is to evolve and improve the Pleney bike park and they’ve employed someone this summer to help do just that. Alongside the existing team (of two to four members) there will now be a two-person dedicated Bike Patrol team whose job is to maintain and develop the trails, respond to accidents, and oversee the safety of the bike park. They will also be prepping and planning improvements to the trails that start being put into place for next summer – we’ll have some more details on this very soon!
Working with Local Businesses
Also on the bike front, Morzine has been working closely with Santa Cruz Bicycles, who set up their European headquarters in town at the end of last summer. Pleney may not have the biggest trail maintenance team in the PDS, but just last week Santa Cruz and Pleney collaborated to set up a dig night, giving local businesses and riders the chance to come down and spend an evening digging and shaping to make sure the trails were up to scratch for opening weekend. ‘We authorised, organised and supervised this track work, after Santa Cruz had the initiative,’ Fred explained, and the results are fantastic. It’s been great to see so many local businesses and individuals working together to achieve a common goal, and there’s even talk of organising more dig nights over the course of the summer. Stay tuned for details.
Image: Sylvain Cochard
Lifts Open Longer for Pass’Portes
Finally, Pleney has announced it will be opening early throughout the weekend of Pass’portes du Soleil, one of the biggest mountain bike events of the summer. Alongside having a temporary ticket office at the Pass’Portes exhibition in the centre of Morzine, Pleney will be open from 7:30am to avoid queues and allow keen bikers to get going. The télépherique will also be open until 6:00pm to allow anyone staying in Les Gets to get back over easily. The lift pass office will be open from 8:00am until 5:00pm.
We’ll be keeping you up to date with all the goings on in Morzine, Les Gets and Avoriaz over the summer so stay tuned for updates! You can also follow the Pleney on Facebook and Instagram or check out their website.
