© benlee667
More rain in Morzine for half term
Wet skiing this week in Morzine but it's still skiing!
Last week started off very promisingly in Morzine but, by the end of the week, things had taken a turn for the worse.
There was fresh snowfall over the weekend. 20cm of fresh snow had settled on the slopes by Sunday, meaning that there was some powder on Monday morning. Although not a huge amount, it made for a fun couple of days as people escaped the crowds by heading off-piste.
It also meant that conditions on the piste were great, so all the families who had just arrived for half term had a much better skiing experience than they might have had for the past couple of years. This snowfall was followed by some sunny but very cold days. People took advantage of the good weather and excellent snow conditions to explore further afield, with plenty of people heading over to Mt Chery and Nyon. So, while still busy, the slopes and the queues were not as busy as they could have been. Tuesday and Wednesday had the best weather of the week and there was plenty of snow.
However, things changed rapidly by Thursday. The temperature went up and the clouds came in. Heavy rain began to fall all over the mountain, with the freezing level going all the way up to 2500m at some points (the highest slope in Avoriaz is 2400m). At times during the day, there was snowfall on some of the higher pistes, but not a significant amount, with far more rain than snow. The snow that did fall on the top of Mt Chery and up in Avoriaz was, for the most part, more sleet than snow. Anyone who headed up the mountain on Thursday would've experienced extremely wet conditions.
The snow conditions deteriorated throughout the day on Thursday, with the pistes becoming very slushy. There were also patches of ice around ready to catch unaware skiers out. The poor weather meant that a lot of the pistes were very quiet, which is very unusual for this time of year, but Lindarets was still crowded, with people deciding to stick to the trees and not venture too far away. For many of the families out for the week, the poor weather probably meant a good excuse to have a rest day but there were still lots of skiers in the busiest areas.
There is more precipitation forecast for the next couple of days, and the big question at the moment is where the freezing level will be. All the forecasts that are generally the most accurate are predicting that the freezing level will start off at 1900m, which obviously means that most of the resort will get rain, but the freezing level will then drop to around 1500m, and maybe even lower. There should be some fresh snow to be found somewhere on the mountain at the start of next week at least. While there should be some sunny spells over the weekend the weather is expected to remain cloudy for most of the day.
There has not been much wind, meaning that the entire resort has been open and the avalanche risk is currently 3/5. With the current poor visibility most people are heading for the trees, but avoiding the crowds of Lindarets is a good idea for now.
Despite the heavy rainfall making things slow and slushy on the pistes, there is still plenty of snow. The lower slopes still have a base of about 2m and over 3.5m at the summit. Next week will be another busy week as the school holidays continue, but snow conditions should get better by the start of the week.
