Morzine Snow Report: 12th March 2012

The best thing to do in the spring is to get up and onto the slopes early to take advantage of the snow at its peak. You’ll get pisted smoothness and will be there to catch the snow on the turn. It’s brilliant getting those runs in during the sweet spot between the transition from icy hard pack to soft slushy snow, the sweet spot.

We were on the slopes for nine thirty, heading down the Gouilles Rouge in Avoriaz’s Hauts Forts Secteur, from the top of the Verare to the bottom of the Grand Combe. The snow was fantastic, already softening up a touch on that top centimetre of snow. Normally I like to put in a steady first run to get the legs warmed up but it felt great to let the skis run and do some big fast super G turns.

My favourite piste run in resort was next on the agenda – Bleue D’Árare. Happily the racers' piste to skiers left was open for all to use today. We dropped into that for some more high speed turns all the way to the bottom of Avoriaz. Again the snow was superb, brilliant for carving big turns.

Today’s destination was Linga, my favourite ski area. We headed down into Linderets from up above Avoriaz via the Prolays blue. Things were a little softer and more cut up down here, less able to stand the heavy traffic. It was fine though, just not quite the mint condition of the previous two runs.

The Chaux Fleurie links to the Linga/Châtel areas via Plaine Dranse. Take the Chaux-de-Rosées lift out of there and that’s you ready to drop into the Combe and Linga areas. There are a couple of reds and blues apiece, serviced by two express chairs; Combes and Cornebois. Nice big wide pistes to get stuck into and lots of off-piste close to the edges to play in. It’s a great area to hang around in with something for most people.

We did a few runs around here and then headed for the Le Linga red which drops you all the way into Villapeyron. It’s got to be the longest red run in resort. From the col at Linga it’s steep and straight down to a plateau. We got some brilliant snow here. It’s a north facing slope so the snow was nice and firm again, it had just softened enough due to the mild air temperature. We hit it pretty hard, confident in the edge grip we were getting.

The second pitch takes you down to the top of the Le Linga telecabine. Here the snow was starting to turn a little softer but you could still push hard. Further down towards the Stade du Slalom into resort things had got really soft under the skis but the snow was in no way sticky, it still run really fast. Brilliant fun all the way down. It’s a real leg burner to hit the run hard from top to bottom.

We had a couple of goes on the latter before heading for home. My advice for the spring conditions is to ski as hard and for as long as possible delaying your lunch to the last moment. Once you’ve stopped, take a long slow lunch with a few glasses of wine or a beer or three in the sun and then negotiate your way off the mountain by the shortest possible route – brilliant.

Bon Ski