Excitement is building as work progresses on the new Pleney lift in Morzine. Riders Refuge brings you the latest news on this impressive project and looks at how skiers, snowboarders and mountain bikers are set to benefit.
The Pleney is Morzine’s main cable car which links Morzine to Les Gets giving access to a combined ski area of 124km of marked pistes. Our most central catered chalet, Chalet Les Pistes is located just 100m away from this pivotal ski lift giving guests immediate access to the slopes. The Pleney was originally built in 1934 but at first it was only used by people walking and taking in the view; skiing and snowboarding have come along way since then.
If you have visited the Portes Du Soleil area before, you will remember the old Pleney cable car (pictured left) with its small white 6-seater bubbles. On reaching the top, passengers were faced with a flight of metal stairs to navigate in order to reach the slopes.
The new lift which has been designed by morzinoire architect Hervé Marullaz is being built by ski lift experts, Poma. Much consideration went in to the designs to ensure that this lift would be quick and comfortable, safely transporting a high capacity of passengers for both winter and summer activities.
Once completed, the new lift will have 54 spacious 10 person cable cars that will swiftly transport up to 2800 people per hour. The original cable car had a capacity of just 1700 people per hour so this should have a marked effect on how quickly passengers reach the top. At the arrival station there are no tricky steps to negotiate with passengers now stepping out directly on to the slopes.
The bottom station will have a natural roof like the one on Morzine’s indoor swimming pool and will be planted with grass and meadow flowers. On approaching the new Pleney, visitors will see that the old imposing building has been replaced by a rounded transparent facade. It will also be wooden clad so it will look extremely beautiful, fitting in with its alpine setting.
Another welcome change, thanks to the increased space at the bottom of the Pleney, is the relocation of the ski school meeting points. This should make it much easier for guests trying to locate their instructor on their 1st morning of their holiday. The cable cars also have removable seats making it easy to accommodate mountain bikes in summer – so you will be able to session the mainline quicker than ever!
We have been out taking photos of the progress and it looks like they are on track to complete the work by 15th December. What a brilliant Christmas present this will be for Morzine!
************************* PLENEY UPDATE *************************
The excitment is building for the opening of the new Pleney cable car in the centre of Morzine and it is looking like it is on track for the beginning of the winter ski season.
The top and bottom stations are almost complete the ski lift itself has the cable and all the workings in place, the brand new bubbles have arrived and look fabulous, with just over 3 weeks to go the Pleney itself is covered in snow and there is a lot of activity around Morzine’s premier ski lift to get it completed on time.