Morzine Snow Report: 4th February 2013

Whilst the wind was still fairly high and it was cold high up, the snow was out of this world. We headed straight for the snow-cross area in Avoriaz - this is marked pink on your Avoriaz piste map - to some un-pisted black runs. With this being a marked piste, it was tracked quickly but our first run down there was exactly what the doctor ordered. We headed right down to Les Prodains to get the lift back up to Avoriaz.

When you arrive in the Prodains area, according to your piste map, there are two ways straight back up, a regular cable car and a high speed one. In reality, the 3S (high speed cable car) Prodains Express is still not finished, and it doesn’t look like it is going to be any time soon. The bottom lift station still looks like a building site, there’s nothing visible on the cables, and they don’t even look tight yet. To be completely honest, it doesn’t look like this lift is going to be finished this season. I'd loved to be proved wrong and we'll keep you posted with all the latest developments in any case.

As I was with a big group of snowboarders, we headed towards The Stash after Prodains. For anyone that doesn’t know, this is a huge snow park made out of wood! It’s pretty funky, and there are some huge ‘rails’ in this area. It’s well worth a visit, even just to gape in awe. The Stash is located under the TSD Prolays chair lift and is marked on all piste maps with it’s logo. A little snow topped mountain!

All in all it was a great day, and looking at the weather forecast, we’ve got a few more is store over the next few days.

There’s more snow due on Monday! Only light snow, but all day, with the sun only peeking out in the afternoon. No snow is due overnight but yet more is expected on Tuesday. There are some particularly high wind speeds forecast at the top in Avoriaz on Tuesday afternoon though, so it’s going to be cold. It’s going to dump again that night (heavy snow forecast) followed by lighter snow showers on Wednesday during the day. This should be a good day to ride! Pull out those flat light lenses and hit the slopes because there’s going to be some serious freshies in Les Portes du Soleil. After that it's more light snow on Thursday and Friday morning, with a brief clear spell on Friday afternoon. All in all we're due almost half a meter of fresh snow this week!!! It is set to be cold though, so really do wrap up warm, with wind chill includes, it is going to get as cold as minus twenty five during the day towards the latter half of the week, and minus twenty nine at night. Tomorrow afternoon and evening should be the warmest points of the week, so if you feel the cold then, you’re going to need those extra layers towards the end of the week.

So more snow, and after the snow this weekend, I’m going to end on a slight warning. I had to drive up to Avoriaz on Saturday and I was horrified to see how many people were stuck. If you are driving out here, unless you have four snow tyres on a four wheel drive, make sure you have snow chains, and make sure you know how to use them - check out our video guide if not! It was amazing how many people couldn’t get them on. I got out of my truck and helped out two cars full of Dutch lads half way up the hill as they were having such difficulties getting their chains on. Once you’ve done it once it’s fairly easy as well.

They are there for your own safety, and if last week's transfer day was anything to go by, you might not make it into resort without them!

Stay safe out there, it’s going to get cold!

Bon ski!