© Giles Towler
© Giles Towler
© Giles Towler
Sunshine for the end of the week in Morzine
After heavy storms, the sun returned to Morzine for the last few days
The week started with most of the area closed. The high winds and stormy weather shut the whole of the Super Morzine side and the only areas that were open on Monday were Pleney and Nyon. Visibility was poor and there was heavy rainfall all the way up to the higher slopes on that side.
Despite the rainfall, the conditions on the pistes were far from terrible. On Monday the slopes were slushy with the feel of springtime snow (just without the sunshine you’d expect).
On Tuesday, more of the mountain opened up with everywhere except Fornet running. Fornet did open later in the day and had the best snow. On the higher slopes around Fornet and Arare, there was some fresh snow - approximately ten centimetres. As it had rained then snowed, there was a layer of crust just below the surface. For most of the day, the freezing level was at 2500 metres, which is slightly higher than the highest peaks in the Portes du Soleil, although it did drop during the day. The off-piste wasn’t particularly good but conditions on piste were still good. There are some areas which are filling up with moguls, particularly on some of the runs on the Arare and around Lindarets.
The worst snow cover is on some of the lower runs coming back to Pleney from Nyon, although it is still surprisingly good considering the heavy rainfall. Whilst the condition of the snow is not perfect at the moment, there is still plenty of snow. Except for the lowest slopes, there are still no real bare patches and no rocks coming through.
The snow can be icy first thing in the morning before softening up as the afternoon sun warms it up. Icy patches remain throughout the day in the more shaded areas - in the trees of Lindarets, for example. The sunnier slopes generally have softer, more manageable snow - Mt Chery gets the sun for most of the day and conditions there are good, with quiet slopes. The same is also true of Super Chatel and Torgon.
On Mt Chery, work has continued to get the snowpark set and it is now open and ready for action. There is also a small park on the Nyon Plateau (complete with air bag) as well as the Chapelle Park, which has a number of different sized jumps as well as rails and boxes, and the Super Chatel park, both of which have been open for the past few weeks. The Avoriaz halfpipe is also open - both the full-sized halfpipe and the smaller beginners pipe.
The snow cover at the top of the mountain is still good, with over 3.5 metres at the top of the mountain and 2 metres at the lower altitudes. All the runs on the Pleney are now open and, on the Nyon side, only one black run is closed. A number of black runs in Les Gets are also closed, although the rest of the area is open.
The Arare also has a number of black runs that are still not open but, other than that, almost the whole of that side of the mountain is open, as well as the links to the other areas such as Les Crosets and Morgins over in Switzerland.
There is more sun forecast for this weekend, with maybe a bit of fresh snow on Friday, and there is currently heavy snowfall forecast for the second half of next week. Following the stormy weather of the past few weeks, it’s a welcome change to see a bit of sunshine although a top-up of snow will certainly be welcome as well by the end of next week.
The avalanche risk, which had risen to 5 out of 5 at the start of the week, has now dropped to 2 out of 5. There’s not much off-piste to be had at the moment, so it is a good idea to wait till the next snowfall and then see what the avalanche risk is.
