Morzine Snow Report: 2nd February 2012
Best day of the season. Hopefully more of the same
And so it goes on, another couple of blinding ski days under the beat! Yesterday was one of the best days I have had over here and it was certainly the pick of the season so far. Today was not too shabby either.
Snow earlier in the week and poor visibility meant a lot of untracked fresh snow to go play in yesterday. Today the fresh tracks were a little harder to find but we managed. The wonders of new fresh snow are not confined to off piste powder hounds, those who get most of their fun on piste will have had a brilliant day today.
That’s how we started our day, warming up on the piste or more precisely trying to un-seize the legs from yesterday's ski extravaganza. There were lots of perfect corduroy pisted runs early on in the Avoriaz/ Hauts Forts secteur. The super cold temperatures keep the snow really dry but firm with not a hint of icy snow anywhere. With no freeze thaw to contend with it’s a none issue. When it’s this cold (-8 highs today) even the pressure from all the skiers does not seem to be causing the snow to deteriorate. A few super high speed runs and we were ready to go and find some deep soft snow.
Initially we tried some of the couloirs that drop into Les Crosets from the Grand Conche ridge line. Unfortunately for us they had all seen a lot of skiing yesterday, the snow was scraped into big mogul style lumps. It was still ok to ski but we were not quite getting the highs of yesterday’s champagne powder.
In the end we resorted to hiking a peak to bag some fresh turns. It’s the only real option a couple of days after the last snow has fallen. We did find those turns and it was all well worth it. The snow was as light and powdery as yesterday. Best thing to do to maximise the snow is get a guide. If there are a few of you going then it’s not so expensive and it really is money well spent. Buying into the local knowledge and having someone there to keep you relatively safe.
As I was saying earlier, yesterday was the pick of this season and it is up there with some of my best days in the time I have been here. The cloud did not look too promising at first but we headed for the Grand Mossettes which stood above the cloud. On the lift up we could see the cloud pouring over the Grand Conche ridge, like dry ice overflowing its container.
Whilst Les Crosets and many of the valleys around seemed to be trapping a layer of cloud we in the Linderets valley were predominantly in sunshine. This restricted the range of play but there is still a multitude of lines to do in this valley.
Always go for the easiest access lines first and then move on to more inaccessible lines later as things get progressively more tracked. That left us blasting down the Frontaliere Snowcross zone first and on each repeat run getting a little further and further from the main line. It’s not often I have experienced snow so light here in the PDS. With each turn plumes were shooting upwards for us to turn back through.
We pretty much hung around this valley all day, predominantly using the Express Mossettes chair to regain all the altitude lost blasting through knee deep powder. It’s the first time I have felt like I would have preferred a bigger dimensioned ski. I know 101mm underfoot is not excessive these days but today was a day for more!
The outlook is for the really cold weather to continue, plummeting to -20 this coming Sunday! Friday and Saturday are going to be nice and sunny but clearly the sun is not going to have much of an impact on the Siberian temperatures.
Bon Ski
