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Morzine Snow Report: 24th December 2011

Just a little more fresh snow

featured in Snow report Author Phil Smith, Updated

It is most definitely going to be a white Christmas this year, after the constant snow we have had for nearly a week how could it not be. But the big day itself will not be seeing any new snowfall instead we’ll have to enjoy 100% blue skies, that should make for a Merry Christmas!

Today we had a nice little ski over to the Linga area of the Portes du Soleil. It’s one of my favourite areas full of rich terrain. By that I mean loads of natural bowls, canyons, drop offs etc. to hit in the very easy to access off piste. The pistes themselves are none too shabby either with lots of big wide reds and blues to hit. My favourite being the Le Linga red all the way down into Villapeyron, it’s a proper leg shaker if you take it in one hit!

The snow today was fantastic again. We must have had another 20cm overnight which made a reasonable effort at filling all the tracks in – brilliant! The pistes all had a nice thick coating and the off piste deeper with fresh snow again. Admittedly we had to be a little cautious hitting the off piste as the lumps and bumps under the fresh snow were not all quite covered by the new layer of snow.

We found the snow on the top half of the Le Linga red to be a little better than the bottom half so we did a number of laps using the L’Écho Alpin express chair. Alternating between off to the edges of the piste and piste riding, there was something for everyone.

It was time for a little break and we went to the La Leiche restaurant, for skiers it is right about one third of the way down the Le Linga red. There is a brilliant open fire to sit round and warm up a little. We only had coffees but I can vouch for the food here also.

Heading home we took in the Les Combes and the Les Rennes reds, although some of us did opt for some more off to the edges of the piste! Everyone got some great turns in. The brand spanking new super-fast express chair Rochassons had us up to the Col du Bassachaux in no time. It really was a weak point returning from Linga to Linderets on the old two person chair. It’s great to see the Portes du Soleil investing heavily in new infrastructure.

Rather fortuitously the sun came out just as we got to the top of the Col, throwing some much improved visibility into the mix. To take advantage we headed to the left of the lift line and got some great turns in amongst the little fur trees at the top of the run. However, we came to an abrupt halt a third of the way down as a large chunk of the snowpack had slid a good three metres leaving a metre drop to barely covered grass – a miniature grand canyon. It illustrates rather nicely the dangers off piste, not least if we had come this way with less visibility that we had experienced earlier in the day. Basically we’d have dropped into a big hole!

I’ll certainly be out and about skiing on Christmas day, enjoying all that blue sky and fresh snow. Have fun, merry Christmas!

Bon Ski

Location

Map of the surrounding area