Garmin^® celebrates a successful winter season and rewards the fastest, highest and furthest travelled in the Alps. More Mountain Morzine, one of Garmins hand selected Alpine test centres for the new Garmin Foretrex GPS, are thrilled to announce two of the three winners as their own!

Garmin^® the global leader in satellite navigation celebrated its first and successful winter season in snowsports by announcing the 3 champion skiers and snowboarders from the Alpine Garmin Test Centres that travelled the fastest, highest and furthest. It turns out that 2 of the 3 winners stayed with us here at More Mountain in our luxury chalets in Morzine this winter.

Throughout the Winter 09/10 season, over 5,000 guests swooshed through the doors of Garmin Test Centre Chalets across the Alps and snapped at the opportunity to trial the Foretrex 401 GPS devices, as sported last season by BBC Ski Sunday’s Graham Bell.

The practical wrist-worn device provided thousands of trialists with immediate speed, height and distance feedback, as well as extensive navigational capacity. More than simply enhancing the users’ slope-time, at the end of the day trialists uploaded their daily tracklogs to Garmin Snow Club for automatic entry into the season’s league table and chance to win a week’s winter holiday and Garmin devices. After 5 months, and well over 10,000 tracked miles, Garmin can reveal the Test Centre Champions for Winter 09/10:

How Fast? – Jonathan Brothers, 75.1mph – More Mountain Chalets, Morzine

*A week’s winter holiday for two at More Mountain, plus a Foretrex 401 device*

How High? – Andy Fisher, 10,585m (vertical descent) – Pleisure Holidays, Courchevel

*A Foretrex 401 and Dakota 20 device*

How Far? – Ben Lakin, 45.07miles – More Mountain Chalets, Morzine

*A Foretrex 401 device*

“In our first year of presenting the brand to the snowsports market, we have been overwhelmed with the response” said Chris Merrell, Garmin’s Marketing Manager. “We knew that the Foretrex 401 filled a gap in the market, but for demand to increase 10-fold on last year has taken even us by surprise. We now intend to push on into Winter 10/11 taking the learning’s gained from our excellent Test Centres and ambassadors Graham Bell and Ed Leigh to further increase the benefits that Garmin brings to snowsports.”

Both Garmin devices are available at all Snow + Rock and Ellis Brigham stores nationwide.

Foretrex^® 401 – SRP £199.99

Dakota^TM 20 – SRP £279.99

For a chance to win a FREE HOLIDAY or Garmin GPS next season, book your stay at More Mountain and join the winning team from this year!

We believe if you choose self catering, it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on home comforts. Apartment Central features 2 luxury bedrooms with modern bathrooms, large balconies, spacious lounge area, fully equipped kitchen diner and loads of mod cons.

We have just added a load of new photos to the site so you can see the apartment in its full glory! Central Morzine just got stylish… to see more images please click here for more info Apartment Central Photos

Garmin^® the global leader in satellite navigation deliver the new must-have item for the slopes as it announces a series of GPS devices and a range of activities geared toward the snowsports enthusiast.

The wrist-worn Foretrex^® 401 is set to provide millions of recreational skiers and snowboarders with the fundamental statistics that they have long craved; how high, how far and how fast did we go today? Of course, this sophisticated, waterproof device is packed with extensive capabilities for the more inquisitive, but its simplicity makes it possible for everybody to get more from their time on the slopes.

Garmin has joined forces with More Mountain as a specialist chalet operator in the Alps to form an official Garmin Test Centre, offering More Mountain guests the opportunity to test-drive the latest GPS technology. At the end of the day, guests simply upload the day’s data, or ‘tracklog’, at Garmin Connect to review their movements and statistics including highest speed, total descent, total ascent, maximum elevation, total distance and much, much more.

To foster the competitive spirit that will no doubt arise, Garmin has created a season’s league table at www.garminsnowclub.co.uk to champion the persons that travel the fastest, the furthest, and the greatest descent. The victorious not only secure bragging rights for the year, but are then in with a chance of winning a week’s winter holiday at More Mountain so get riding!

Well as you know we have just launched Apartment Central which is our new luxury self catered apartment in Morzine. The good news is, we have decided to offer free airport transfers to and from Geneva as part of the price for a weekly stay for up to 6 people for any bookings made before 20th December!*

So, for example, you choose one of our weeks in January priced at only €1600 Euros and you can stay in More Mountain style and luxury for less than €270 Euros per person. Now that’s what we call bloody great value for money right in the centre of Morzine!

Plus we have also added a Nintendo Wii to the chalet seeing as we can’t be there every night to entertain you!

Happy days…. Self Catering just got even better with More Mountain Morzine!

The 97th Tour de France runs from Saturday July 3rd to Sunday July 25th 2010. This year, the Tour de France will cover a total distance of 3,600 kilometres and Morzine Avoriaz will play a big part in the route. History speaks for itself…Morzine Avoriaz and the Tour have enjoyed a solid alliance since 1975 – this will be the Tour’s twenty fourth visit to the resort, and will include a rest day to boot!

Morzine is confirmed as official stopover and rest day on 11th & 12th July 2010.

Click here for confirmation of More Mountains Tour De France Weekend Special Deals

The route is one of the hilliest in years. Starting in Rotterdam the route takes the riders down through Belgium before crossing back over in to Reims in France and then into Morzine for the first of two stopovers en route to the final destination of Paris Champs-Élysées on Sunday 25th July.

The stages in Morzine Avoriaz will run from the Jura Mountains to the Alps… From Saturday 10th July the pack will encounter some steep challenges and on Sunday 11th it will be the first real contact with high mountain peaks where they will arrive in Morzine Avoriaz. Rarely climbed – twice only – the Ramaz pass sits at an alt. of 1615m, 40km from the high 1800 altitude finish in Avoriaz, which was last visited by the Tour sixteen years ago.

At the end of the 1970s, Avoriaz, the high-altitude ski resort that is part of the town of Morzine, specialised in hosting hill climb time-trials at 1,800 metres altitude. In 1985 Lucho Herrera was the first to reach the “Gateway to the Sun” in a stage similar to the one planned for this year’s riders.

With four climbs on the programme, this will be the major alpine stage, following the first rest day in Morzine village. The stage will start in Haute-Savoie then, after a climb to the Colombière mountain pass, cross the border into Savoie and the Aravis pass, followed by the Saisies pass. The final and most gruelling challenge will be the Madeleine pass that lies thirty kilometres from the finish in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

To see the official route click here!

Sam and Jon have designed a luxury city style 2 bedroom pad within staggering distance of Bar Robinson, Dixie Bar and new top quality take away “Mamas” aswell as the local supermarket. Its perfect for those of you in smaller groups wanting to be in the centre of town close to all the action. Prices start from just €1300 Euros for the week for up to 6 people sharing.

Apartment Central Morzine

We believe if you choose self catering, it doesn’t mean you have to compromise on home comforts. Apartment Central features 2 luxury bedrooms with modern bathrooms, large balconies, spacious lounge area, fully equipped kitchen diner and loads of mod cons.

The stylish and sexy modern interior comes with all the usual More Mountain extras like flatscreen TV, Free WifI, SkyTV, DVD Player, Bose iPod Dock, luxury Egyptian cotton bed linen and L’Occitane Toiletries.

The Apartment features a large lounge area with squidgy velvet corner sofa, which converts into a good quality sofa bed, 2 armchairs, plenty of space for 6 people, loads of storage and underfloor heating throughout to keep you cosy and warm on those winter evenings.

You can kick back and watch your favourite TV channels as we have SkyTV or listen to your iPod on the Bose sound system. Large floor to ceiling windows slide open onto wrap around balconies which lead to a huge terrace, great for enjoying a glass of vino whilst you watch the sun set!

The kitchen diner comes fully equipped with seating for 6 people around a sociable oak dining table. Appliances include dishwasher, integrated fridge freezer and oven with gas hob, kettle and toaster and plenty of workspace.

Click Here for more details Apartment Central Morzine

Morzine and the Portes Du Soleil both have an enviable snow record. Their proximity to Mont Blanc and Lac Leman always creates a mini micro-climate which means that the area gets significant snowfall from the start of December through to when the lifts close in late April.

Because most of the lower slopes are soft grassy cow grazing pasture land, depths of 10-20cms are often all that is required to open the snowpistes, compared with higher altitude resorts where a metre or so is needed to cover the large gnarly rocks.

Those in the know have long since discovered that the Northern French Alps have some of the best and consistent snow conditions to be found anywhere across Europe. Over the last few seasons, the Portes du Soleil has had fantastic conditions while at the same time the higher and so called “snow sure” resorts in the south of France have been sorely lacking in snow.

The following article, which I read just this morning thoroughly sums up why some people often miss out on the great snow conditions of Morzine and Portes Du Soliel because they feel “it is too low…”

Thanks to the guys at All Mountain Holidays for providing this Portes Du Soliel Snow Article for an informative and very interesting read…

See you for some crazy Powder this season…Ride on!

Samee xx