Morzine Snow Report: 10th January 2013

As a snowboarder, there are limited options when it comes to going uphill, mainly snowshoes, or a splitboard. I opted for the latter, as in my experience it is a far more pleasurable method of transport (my one and only snowshoeing experiment involved some massive blisters!).

Our first tour of the season was not a long one. We picked the relatively simple tour up to the Col de Coux. For anyone wanting to try touring this is a lovely route to choose as you can take the bus to the base of the route in Morzine and it starts on a gentle, pisted track. The path winds in to the forest as it climbs the hill. The weather was perfect, glorious sunshine, and the trees gave plenty of shade so that we weren’t melting on the tour. The melt-freeze conditions from the weekend meant that there were some icy patches, and I was very glad of my touring crampons at one or two points in the forest and further up the face. That said, the walk took us around two hours and my dog loved it. The Col de Coux brings you up behind Avoriaz, and offers some spectacular views over Les Portes du Soleil. Unfortunately the tour up was actually way more fun than the route back down, as the off-piste snow conditions are pretty much rock solid and lumpy right now. In good snow conditions though this route would be great fun. Lunch at the top offered panoramic views too!

I really enjoyed the tour up, but if you’re not into walking, you can actually get a chair lift up the other side of the hill, to about 100m from the top! But as that’s a well kept seasonaires secret, I’ll let you work that one out for yourselves!!

On the pistes on Tuesday we skied over to Torgon, a little known town in Les Portes du Soleil. The skiing was actually surprisingly good although Torgon could do with a little more snow. The pistes were great but for a snowboarder, the lifts were a little tricky. There is one four man express, a couple of romantic two man chairlifts, some pomas and very steep T-bar tows. Conche 2000 in particular is very tricky on a board, but does lead over to La Chapelle d’Abondance, where there is some great skiing to be had. In particular, some nice wide open blue runs next to the racing Stade. The lifts there are also a little more comfortable.

The weather forecast is rather exciting this week. There is finally some snow on the forecast! And not just a dusting either. Light snow is forecast tomorrow afternoon, but it’s set to get heavier overnight, with 12cm forecast at 1,730m altitude. The snow is set to continue lightly until at least Tuesday Morning. The temperatures are also set to drop. It will gradually get lower over the week, dropping as far as sea level on Monday night. Although this means we probably won’t see the sun much this week, it should make for some fantastic skiing conditions, on, and off the piste! Do be careful if you are going off piste though, make sure you have the right kit (avalanche transceiver, shovel and probe), and know how to use it. Also make sure you check the local avalanche bulletin. It is also set to be colder, so make sure you wrap up warm as skiing is no fun when you’re freezing cold.

Great places to ski this week will include both lower down regions and high up for a little powder skiing. Between the runs in the higher areas like Avoriaz should be amazingly good fun on Friday morning.

Fresh snow will be very welcome here in Les Portes du Soleil - while we have enjoyed the sunshine, some of the pistes are getting rather spare on the snow front. Fresh snow will refresh the resort, and keep all the powder hounds happy. It will also make touring more worthwhile as the runs down will be an awful lot more enjoyable!

Stay safe and enjoy the snow!

Bon ski.