Morzine History of Skiing
Morzine is a traditional working farming village located in the Haute-Savoie region of the Rhône-Alpes France. Nowadays the resort offers Winter activities of skiing, paragliding, horse trekking, swimming, ice skating and much more.
The Morzine history you may not know…
- In 1090 Monks arrived and took control of St Jean d’Aulp, it was then granted independence from them in 1531.
- Slate mines were formed around the 1800’s and cut deep into the cliff face, the slates were then split into sheets to form rectangular-sized tiles and transported by cart to markets in Thonon, Thônes and Taninges.
- The Ski Club of Morzine was formed back in 1910.
- The first tourist hotel ‘The Grand Hotel’ opened in 1925, it was owned by François Baud who went on to build one of the first ski jumps behind his hotel and employed Austrian ski instructors.
- The first ski lift in France was installed on the Pleney slopes in 1934.
- Jean Vuarnet from Morzine, won the Winter Olympics in 1960 and later became the director in charge of transforming Avoriaz into a ski resort and helped form the collaboration of Champery and Les Crosets in Switzerland and forms Portes du Soleil ski area which today has over 650km of ski slopes.
- 1973 saw the first ‘Fantastic Film Festival’ at Avoriaz.
- The Skiing World Cup was held in Morzine & Avoriaz in 1974.
Book Ski Lessons now with the Easy-Learning Ski School: Morzine, Les Gets, Avoriaz and Meribel
