Morzine Snow Report: 10th January 2012
Blue skies, brilliant snow
As forecast, it is sunny and cold in resort today (as yesterday) and the next few days will see more sunshine and it maybe a little warmer. The sunshine is in sharp contrast to all those snow filled skies we have been experiencing of late. Contrast is good, we ditched the powder skis in favour of something a little more suitable for blasting around the pistes.
Also, for a change, we headed up the Pleney to the Morzine/ Les Gets side of the mountain. There is some brilliant skiing to be had around here both on piste and off, I just have not got into the habit so much this year.
First up we headed for Chamossiere via the Grand Pre. From the top of Pleney we took Piste G and accessed the Nyon plateau by the Pre Favre télésiège. The Le Lievre blue dropped us into the Grand Pre, after a nice little warm up ski, ready for the heights of Chamossiere. The TS des Tetes deposits you directly in front of the Chamossiere bowl although these days you have a short ski down the Blanchots red to get to the new super-fast Chamossiere chair.
Rather unfortunately the black run off the Chamossiere peak was closed, apparently due to avalanche risk. I’m not sure why as the risk was at 2 today. Maybe the piste patrol have not had chance to clear the danger from the cliffs above the Creux black. We behaved ourselves and settled for the red. It’s not really that smart an idea to duck the barriers, they are there for a good reason and although I have done it in the past it has got me into bother. I’m sure if anything more serious happened your insurance provider would not be too impressed.
The snow down the red run was in mint condition. The piste bashers had been out grooming all of the pistes we attacked today and they had made a really good job of it. The cold has kept the snow dry and firm and we were getting phenomenal edge grip. It really did inspire confidence, we were pushing harder and harder with each run.
After a couple of runs down the Arbis we continued on past the Chamossiere chair down the blue Choucas back to the Grand Pre. From here you can access the Chavannes bowl above Les Gets using the Charniaz express lift.
The bowl is a brilliant ski area, served by four chair lifts radiating out like spokes from a hub. Likewise all the runs come back to this centre point. Blacks, reds and blues means there is something for everyone and it’s easy to get your group back together. My favourite run here today was the Tulipe red off the Ranfoilly express. Wide, relatively steep in places and with a couple of class rollers in the middle to pop off – loads of fun. We had a couple of goes down here in between admiring the stunning views to Mont Blanc at the top.
It would not be a Les Gets ski day without a run or three down to the Perrier lift via the Meleze red. Again, it’s wide with a few steeper pitches, brilliant for blasting down and the express chair has you back to the top in no time. The other bonus is how quiet the run is. Nobody seems to bother with it until they are skiing home at the end of the day. It has to be said, mind you, that we did not need to search out quiet runs today as most of the slopes were deserted. I guess it’s the quietest week of the season, things will start picking up to a half term crescendo from now on.
What a brilliant day and what brilliant snow. It feels like ages since I have done any piste skiing. That was us pretty much done after lapping the Meleze but we did have time for a swift 'pat on the back' beer on the way home. L’Hotty’s at the top of the Nauchets express is a great place to stop. The sun terrace is brilliant on a day like today and the food is excellent if you are on an all day ski and need to fuel up.
Bon Ski
