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Morzine Snow Report: 26th December 2011

Sunshine & blue skies

featured in Snow report Author Phil Smith, Updated

Well a very Merry Christmas was had by all here in Morzine. Hope it was good for you. If you are in resort and were up the mountain yesterday then it must have been, the snow was fantastic.

After all the snow we’ve been having it was great to see some blue skies for Christmas day. The temperatures have remained cold, around 0 yesterday and +2 today, which means the snow stays nice and cold, dry and light – superb.

We did a number of runs on the Bleue d’Árare, my favourite blue; very long, steep in places and very wide – room for everyone. The snow was fantastic, lots of fresh albeit chopped up powder off to the edges of the piste. On piste a nice chalky soft layer into which you could really turn hard, loads of edge grip. That kept us happy for a number of laps before we decided to move on to pastures new.

The sector Chavanette above Avoriaz is brilliant, sporting a number of reds and blues to suit most skiers and two Snowzones, Canyon du Schott and Marmotte. Basically the Snowzones are patrolled off piste areas, great for getting your toes into the off piste world in relative safety. A number of days after the last fresh snow it was all tracked out and soft mini moguls of chopped up snow abounded. It was really good fun to bounce in and out off. We managed a few little drops here and there into soft snow and the odd turn in patches of untracked snow.

Being Christmas day it quickly became time for a celebratory drink. We headed to Chez Flow in the Place du Telepherique, situated to your left as you ski down to the Stade, Intrets and Tour chair lifts. They have a nice gazebo outside, a great place to hang out and watch the world ski by.

After drinks we had a quick run into the Secteur Hauts Forts, home to most of the black runs in the area. We tried the Combe du Machon, steep and full of moguls! The snow was good though, that nice chalky grippy layer helping us out once more. And that was the end of that as it was turkey time.

To work all that turkey off I had a little ski around the Pleney area today. A couple of runs down piste B until the ski schools came out and things got a little busy. I moved on to Piste H and then lower down the Stade leading you right to the foot of the Pleney. Things are a lot steeper here but good fun and the piste is wide.

I’d been watching the ski club race training on Piste B earlier; perfect technique, very impressive. The racers were only young but the aggression and speed they were skiing at was proper no fear stuff. I tried for something similar down the Stade but I am pretty sure I did not quite pull it off with the same aplomb!

The outlook for the next few days is for more blue skies and relatively low temperatures - that’ll keep the snow nice. There may be a break in the weather Thursday, more snow maybe?

Bon Ski

Location

Map of the surrounding area