Morzine Snow Report: 16th February 2012

We were waiting for the Verare lift out of the Prodains valley to open at 8:45. It was a great feeling to get on the lift first! The run down from the top of the Verare to the Grand Combe chair is the Gouilles Rouges. It is only short, or at least the section we did is, but it’s a great little warm up. The run had been pisted overnight and then another 10cm of snow had fallen on top of it – perfect. It felt amazing to rip into it at top speed, spraying snow up with each turn.

The Grand Combe télésiège had us to the top of the Secteur Hauts Forts very quickly. Now we had warmed up it was time to see what the rest of the hill had to offer. Our first run was the Combe Du Machon black, not technically off piste but it’s a big open bowl that is never pisted so it’s close enough. We dropped in near the piste markers and got some superb untracked snow.

We could not get back to the top of the hill quickly enough. This time we opted to ski the lift line directly under the Combe télésiège. There is nothing too technical here, a little narrower at the top perhaps, quickly opening into a big open pitch. Again the snow was superb, mostly deep enough to fill in any previous tracks and bumps from yesterday’s skiing.

Things were a lot milder today but not so much that the snow became heavy at all. Even lower down towards the bottom of the Verare lift the snow still felt nice and light. I think I have acclimatised over the last few weeks of intense cold, anything around 0 degrees feels positively mild.

To follow the lift line run we had just completed we headed into the Crozats bowl, a huge patrolled but un-pisted ski area to skiers left of the Coupe du Monde. As before, we got some superb lines into the bowl before cutting back onto the bottom part of the Coupe du Monde to enable us to get back to the Grand Combe chair. This is a modern express chair so if you are keen to get some mileage under your belt and lots of laps, it’s the quickest way of doing it.

Our last couple of runs were into the Crozats bowl again but this time getting much further afield into the proper off piste. The wide open bowl gives way to tighter tree lined runs before you emerge at the bottom of Prodains. The Verare chair takes you back to the Combe again but it is old and slow. At this point we were more than happy to have a longer rest between runs; the legs, body and mind were fading a little.

The lifts were quiet today as were the pistes which is great given it’s half term week. It helps to be in a more advanced ski area - there are only blacks and the one red to choose from around here. If that’s your thing then you can get a quieter ski in this Secteur over the next couple of peak weeks.

Lots of sunshine on the cards tomorrow, the temperatures will be quite mild at +3 degrees. Saturday is similar and Sunday will bring some more snow if the forecast holds.

Bon Ski