Morzine Snow Report: 28th February 2012

We had a relatively early start to the day getting on Super Morzine around 9:30. If you are planning to do something similar it’s well worth getting going for first lifts – we figured we could buy time as we know the route. However it is easy to follow your way around with lots of signposts, all you need to know is the next destination village.

I was unsure how busy the slopes would be, given it is still half term for many of the French, including the Parisians. Things proved to be relatively quiet, in comparison to the last few weeks at least, with only relatively minor queues to contend with here and there. I use the queue at the bottom of the Proclou accessing Avoriaz from Super Morzine as a barometer. If things are ok here then they should be ok everywhere. That was certainly true of today.

Our first real turns were down the blue Prolays into Linderets and it gave us feeling for the conditions on the first half of our Portes du Soleil lap. Boiler plate hard ice in many places, I unfortunately have to report. As ever you can always find some softer turns where all the scraped off snow lands but it is worth being very cautious with speed in these conditions to avoid any loss of control and ensuing collisions.

The first half of the circuit is a well-worn path for us. Basically, take a direct route to the bottom of Linga from Linderets passing through Plaine Dranse and Les Combes. Really nice red run skiing.

From the village of Villapeyron catch the very frequent bus link into Châtel and take the Super Châtel lift. The secteur Super Chatel has some really good skiing and if you move fast then you can get to do a few repeat runs here and there. We opted to keep moving as we were running out of time and getting stuck in the wrong valley after the lifts close makes for an expensive taxi ride home.

Head for Morclan and you get a choice of red or black to drop down to the button lifts Chalet Neuf. These drop you at the Portes du Culet and leave you with a very pleasant ski into Morgins. The view from the Super Châtel secteur is simply stunning. You get the usual mountains such as the Dents du Midi but the aspect really shows them off at their best.

Super Châtel marks the half-way point of the basic circuit (there are variations and add ons). It also signalled a change in the ski conditions. Long gone was the icy hard pack of the journey to Linga. Now we had a new sun-facing aspect and really nice spring ski conditions to enjoy. I really like busting through the soft snow, particularly when it starts to get bumped up from passing traffic. These were predominantly the conditions for the journey from Morgins through Champoussin to Les Crosets.

Once in Les Crosets we decided it was safe to stop for a break. I never think it’s a good idea to stop for lunch before here. A quick coffee stop maybe but as I was saying previously it’s not good to hang around so far from home. Once in Les Crosets it’s a little more relaxed as you are only one lift from the French side of resort.

A popular add on is to drop down into Champery from the Pointe de Ripaille to the Grand Paradis lift. I’m not really a big fan as it’s a long shallow road at the end, certainly not conducive to snowboarding. I think it’s best to drop back into either the Linderets Valley or Secteur Chavanette above Avoriaz and find somewhere for a celebratory beer!

Bon Ski