(Pic © Portes du Soleil – Sylvain Cochard)
CNN asked some of the world’s top skiers, snowboarders and winter sports journalists to name their favourite ski run, and most popular was The Stash in Avoriaz, in the Portes do Soleil on the French / Swiss border.
Described as, “part-tree run and part-terrain park” by the resort, The Stash is an ungroomed area in the middle of the forest that caters for a mixture of freeride and freestyle skiers and boarders.
Wooden elements on the run, which was partially designed by Jake Burton, founder of the famed snowboard brand, include a wall for vertical sliding, logs and tree trunk obstacles, wooden tables for sliding on, jumps from paths and rocks, trees bent like rainbows, snow shock-absorbers, wooden toboggans, ramps and other natural obstacles. Along with providing a lot of fun the aim is to, “…provide messages of environmental protection.”
“My favourite run in the world is The Stash,” says Becky Menday, a member of Great Britain’s Freestyle Snowboard Team, “It takes you through the trees and has fantastic natural wooden features for you to session all the way through it.”
All in all the stash contains around 80 natural obstacles with numerous routes through possible suited to different ability levels.
The panel chosen by CNN who opted for the Stash included Andrew Weibrecht, Olympic medalist and U.S. ski team member; John Stifter, editor at U.S. ski bible Powder magazine; Mike Douglas, the godfather of free-skiing and creator of the world’s first twin-tip ski and Nicola Iseard, editor of Fall Line magazine.
