© nrouillot
© Giles Towler
© joeiscoollike
© hatfield_07
Cold & cloudy days in Morzine
After a nice and sunny few days the cloud has well and truly settled over Morzine and the temperature has dropped
For the past couple of days, cloud cover has been so thick that visibility has been almost zero. At the start of Wednesday morning, there were clear skies at the highest points of Avoriaz, with a thick covering of cloud lower down, but the cloud continued to come in and soon even the highest peaks were cloaked. Skiing quickly became a disorientating experience.
At the moment it is probably safest to stick to the slopes you know best, as even the piste markers are hard to spot and it’s easy to stray off the side of the piste by accident. It is also slightly easier to make out where you are going in the trees - the areas around the Pleney and Super Morzine, for example. In Avoriaz, people are gravitating towards Lindarets due to the improved visibility in the trees, meaning that the area is extremely crowded at the moment. It’s possible to avoid the crowds by going to the slopes of Arare and Fornet but the downside is the extremely bad visibility.
The temperature at the moment is around -5ºC lower down the mountain and -10ºC at the top, meaning that it is extremely cold on the higher peaks, so it is important to wrap up warm. The cold temperatures also mean that the snow has become quite solid with some icy patches around. Trying to get down the icy moguls on the black run on Mt Chery with no visibility is not a pleasant experience at the moment. However, the groomed snow on piste is actually in fairly good condition. It is hard packed but generally not too icy. The off-piste is where things are not so good. The chopped up powder at the sides of the piste has frozen so that it is quite solid at the moment, and there really isn’t much point going off-piste at the moment.
There has been very little snowfall to accompany the cloud, approximately 5 centimetres in the past couple of days. The last significant snowfall was around 20 to 30 centimetres a week ago. The current forecast is for a light dusting of snow over the next couple of days and for temperatures to remain low. On the plus side, there are no high winds at the moment and it is far too cold for it to rain, as it did at points in January. Some forecasts are suggesting that there could be more than just a dusting on Sunday with a decent amount of snow falling. The long-term forecast is also predicting a good amount of snowfall for the middle of next week, although the temperature is also set to rise slightly. This could mean rain in Morzine towards the end of next week, although it should be snow on most of the slopes.
Currently, almost the entire area is open, with 261 out of 281 pistes open and one hundred and 95 out of 203 lifts open throughout the Portes du Soleil. On Mt Chery, the Pointe Chairlift which provides easy access to the top of the mountain and the quiet pistes on the back has reopened faster than expected following repairs.
With the busy school holiday period almost upon us the parks are a good place to escape the crowds if freestyle is your thing. The Chapelle park, the Nyon park, the Super Chatel park and the Mt Chery park are all currently open as well as the two half pipes in Avoriaz. However, whilst some people are hitting the jumps at the moment, it really is impossible to see where the takeoff is!
At the moment, it looks as though there might be some sunshine on Friday before the weather closes in again. It may clear again briefly on Tuesday, so make the most of any sunshine and use the opportunity to actually see where you are going and what the mountains look like as it may be the only opportunity you get!
