There are 4 main Parks in the Portes Du Soleil, the Arare Park in Avoriaz, La Chapelle in Super Morzine, Les Crosets Superpark in Les Crosets!

ARARE PARK
The main park in Avoriaz is the Arare Park; it’s just off to the left after riding the Lac du Bleu drag lift. If you’re staying in Morzine then this is probably going to be your first port of call. Because of where it is situated it doesn’t get much sun and so landings can be fairly hard and you’re not often going to be lavished with warm t-shirt days. They usually have a section of rails including two or so straight rails along with 3 or 4 kinked. They also have a C rail which is better situated this year in the mid section.

The kickers are generally shaped well and there are all sizes ranging from beginners up to a 15m monster.

Arare Park in Feb 03

They do have a pipe which is usually in good condition although not as well kept at the super pipe which is built right in the centre of Avoriaz. If you ride the pipe then you can’t get the dedicated park drag lift back up to the top and have to get the Lac du Bleu drag lift which is a bit of a hassle.

There is a good site where you can get up-to-date information on what’s happening in the park at Current Setup of Avoriaz Park or Snowparkavoriaz.com

LA CHAPELLE
If you’re not up to much of a standard then you’ll probably want to find your ground in the smaller park, we used to call it the baby park, as all the jumps and rails are fairly small and short. That’s not to say we didn’t use it. It’s a great place to go if you’re heading out for a season and want to find your feet. When I was out there then there was only a couple of decent sized kickers, with a spine and a couple of rails but I think this has improved of late. You should expect a good number of jumps, some being small for beginners and some larger for intermediate type boarders. When I was there they had a great box which was a right laugh for trying 180 on 180 off boardslides etc.

La Chapelle Park in Super Morzine

There is a tow which you can use although the park is right beside the place where beginners get their lessons so when there are lessons on expect a small queue and a load of annoying little French kids. This place gets loads of sun and is on the way home if you’ve been over in Avoriaz, so it’s great if you fancy hitting a couple of rails on the way home. Never say it’s your last run though!

LES CROSETS
The best park out there for kickers is definitely Les Crosets, if you’re staying in Morzine then its miles away but well worth the trip (to get to Les Crosets from Avoriaz/Morzine you need to head to Les Lindarettes and then get the chairlift which goes to the Pointe Du Mossettes. You then head down the other side of the mountain and will eventually be able to see the park slightly to the right on the mountain/hill facing you. If you head for the restaurants etc then you’ll be right beside it. You then just have to get the tow or the chairlift up and then once off that turn left at the top of the park).

Les Crosets Rainbow Rail

At the peak of the season expect there to be around 10 to 15 kickers of various sizes. The biggest being 25m, only used by the pros. Respect to anyone that hits it. When I was there it was lacking in rails, the Avoriaz Arare is the place for them. However the shapers at Les Crosets are probably the best and it’s generally more maintained. There isn’t a specific tow just for the park, you have to use the chairlift or the poma lift and then ride down for a couple of hundred metres before turning left, its blind obvious as you can watch all the riders while you’re on the lift up. They do have a small pipe but when I was there is wasn’t in the best nick and not being a super pipe made it a lot harder than the Avoriaz Super Pipe reason being there is a longer transition and wider flat section in the middle of the pipe giving you more time to recover/prepare for the next hit.

Have a look at this website for some more information about Les Crosets Superpark