The Alpine-Property Blog

Lee Massey and Gareth Jefferies from Alpine Property feature in this igloo building tutorial!

Over a metre of recent snow at 1500m, strong winds and a day of Foehn (so strong, warm wind) meant high avalanche danger in our region so we decided to leave the tops to another day. In fact looking at the hurricane blowing off the summits we would never have got to a “top”.

We headed up to the vicinity of the Terres Maudites underneath the Tete de Bostan (but not too close!).

I wanted to explore a new route, actually it didn’t turn out to be a new route. It wasn’t a route at all. The terrain was too tree covered which meant loads of bottomless snow, tree wells and awkward route choices!

Note the shovel in hand. We had to skin and dig at the same time, not something I have had to do before! Caspar had a very hard time, he fell into a couple of the tree wells and was not impressed with his lot. The shovel was used again to dig him out.

The decent was scenic, though of course there are no pictures. The snow had been well worked by the wind which added to the interest! We managed to find a short pitch of great powder near the bottom. The last half hour was spent on a transceiver refresher.

Click the map above so you know where to avoid!

Trip participants, Nick (www.urbanfit.co.uk, for it was him that took the photos), Ian, Chris and Caspar the dog.

Mt Chery had between 20 and 50cm of fresh powder after the last couple of day’s snowfalls. The snow had obviously come down on quite a wind because some aspects were completely scoured. Thanks to the snow fence and trees on the red piste on the north side of Mt Chery it was in great nick. From the carpark at 1433m to the summit at 1826m not a rock was touched!

A little circuit that took in the Col de Coux above Morzine The temperature inversion was stuck at about 1800m which made for some atmospheric pictures.

This was a route researched by Steve Norris (MD of Alpine Property) linking the Col de Coux to the Chalets d’Auguille below the Pointe de Fornet.

A GPS download and stats for the trip available at mtbguru.com and pictures on Flickr.

October 30th 2008. 20cm down at 1000m and 40ish up at 1700m. I missed out on this in favour of a family trip back to the UK. Not bad for October!

It didn’t last long though!

Spreading the good news in Utrecht

The Alpine Property team decamped to Utrecht for the weekend. It was the Dutch “Second Home” exhibition. 350 exhibitors from all over the world swamped by 10,000 visitors over the 3 days. I must remember to take my bicycle next time.

So using the new video presentation have a look at Fleur d’Aulps 5.

Les Fleurs D’Aulps is situated between the popular village of St Jean D’Aulps and the ski station of La Grande Terche. The property is a 5 minute drive from the ski lift at La Grande Terche and on the ski bus route. The location is also close to Morzine, with easy access to the main Portes de Soleil ski area being a 15 minute drive away. It is an approximate one and a half hour drive from Geneva airport.

No. 5, Les Fleurs D’Aulps is a 5 bedroom chalet with garage and a good sized garden with jacuzzi with extensive views over St Jean D’Aulps and beyond. The property was constructed in 1994 and is of wood and concrete.

The chalet has an approximate floor area of 150m² and consists of:

Ground floor: Garage, entrance, living room, dining area, equipped kitchen, WC.

First floor: Three double bedrooms, bunk room, single bedroom, 2 bathrooms (one with two sinks, shower and WC), two balconies.

The heating is electric and there is a wood burner in the living room. The property is connected to mains drains.

Les Chalets de la Tannerie is a small high-end development built by one of the best developers in the Alps with over 50 years’ experience. The quality of interiors and exteriors is second to none, with a high degree of personalisation. Each owner will have a wide choice of fittings and materials from the best quality. more

Surf over to Morznet.com and see LIVE views from their network of webcams around the Morzine area.

Got a spare £37 k ? Realli-Ski, a small team of engineers in rural Kent who manufacture an innovative ski and snowboard simulator that replicates the sensation and physical effort of moving over snow, are now offering their invention to private buyers, billing it as, “the ultimate money-no-object ski gadget.”