Morzine Snow Report: 21st January 2013

We parked the car and headed for the Crusaz chairlift, next to the Pleny bubble lift (which is due to be replaced with an express gondola next winter!). The sunshine warmed our faces as we sat on the chair lift, past the first stop (used mainly for night skiing) and upwards. We then hopped onto the Mouilles chair lift and arrived at the top, close to where the bubble lift arrives. This was about where I discovered I needed my edges sharpening! We took the red run down, and through a little tunnel to the Pre-Favre chair lift. I couldn’t stop on this run, but it was still fun, just rather hard snow. After this we took the Têtes lift up towards the Pointe de Nyon. The Chamossiere Express chair lift took us right to the top to some beautiful panoramic views. Skiing back down on the red piste, (avoiding the very moguled black piste) we continued onto the blue run right down almost back to Morzine center. We had lunch in the restaurant at the top of the Pleney bubble, and if you’re in a hurry, there’s a snack bar as well as the main restaurant that serves crepes and sandwiches.

After lunch I headed towards Avoriaz. Still being fairly new to Les Portes du Soleil, I actually managed to get myself a little lost round Avoriaz town, trying to get back to the Chatel ski area. I traveled via Super-Morzine, and really enjoyed the slightly more gentle slopes on this side of the hill. There is nothing more difficult than a blue piste between Super-Morzine and Avoriaz so it was a fairly relaxing trip. I skied round the Avoriaz area for a little time, and then right back down to the bottom of Les Prodains cable car. At the top was where I managed to loose my bearings slightly! I took the Plateau chairlift instead of riding down to the chairlift marked on my piste mas as Tou- (Avoriaz is written over the rest of the name, so I’m guessing it will look the same on yours too!). One of the friendly pisteurs pointed me in the right direction though, and I knew where I was when I got to the top of Tou-, and into the Lindarets bowl. From here, getting to Chatel is really easy; take the Chaux Fleure chair lift up and ski down to the bottom, over the ridge. Welcome to Chatel.

Although Chatel is one of the few areas of Les Portes du Soleil that isn’t particularly well linked in itself, there are lifts at the very top, and very bottom of town, and nothing in-between, there is a fairly regular bus service that connects you from top to bottom, so you can ski a loop from Avoriaz, into Switzerland, back into France via Chatel, and then back to Avoriaz, you just have to watch your time.

The weather forecast for this week is a little mixed. A little snow fell last night up high and the freezing level is set to drop to six hundred meters. On Monday we’re due snow showers and sunshine in the morning followed by light snow in the afternoon, with showers continuing into the night. The freezing level is between 700-850 metres during the day, making for some cooler temperatures (around minus 15 at mid level including wind chill) during the day, but overnight it’s going to get cold with the freezing level dropping to zero. Tuesday is set to be sunny, with little wind but still cool temperatures before the snow makes a light return on Wednesday and Thursday with the temperatures continuing to stay fairly low. The freezing level will come back up during the week though, but never far above a thousand meters. Friday is set to be sunny and cold, but as anyone who knows the weather here will agree too, it can all still change. I hope we get a little more snow!

On that note, enjoy the sunshine, and brave the colder snowy weather. It looks like it’s going to be a pretty good week's skiing here in the Portes du Soleil!

Bon ski!