© Giles Towler
The sun is out in Morzine
More crazy weather in Morzine but now the sun is out
The past week has seen even more rainfall in town, even more snow up the mountain and finally some sunshine to end the week.
Last weekend, Mt Chery closed for winter. This was a shame as the conditions on the mountain were still excellent and more snow has fallen since. Super Morzine is now scheduled to close this coming weekend and, likewise, conditions up there are very good at the moment. Pleney and Nyon are closing on the 15th, with Avoriaz closing on the 22nd.
Some of the most extreme weather we’ve seen this season came on Wednesday, and that’s saying something considering the entire resort was closed due to high winds at one point in January! Wednesday started off with beautiful sunshine. However, at the bottom of Super Morzine, there was a warning that the lifts could be closed as a storm was expected. This warning was repeated at every lift on the way over to Lindarets. Looking around at the sky from the top of the Chapelle Park it was obvious that a storm was indeed on the way. Huge storm clouds were closing in. By the afternoon the lifts were all closed. Heavy rain began to fall in town followed by a brief period of hail. There was even some thunder and lightning. This would have been the main reason for the closure - the risk of lightning hitting a lift isn’t worth taking.
Thursday was also very overcast. However, it was worth making the effort to get up the mountain. Whilst there had been rain in town, there had been yet more fresh snow higher up. Visibility wasn’t great - especially heading further up into the clouds - but it’s certainly good news that the pistes got snow instead of rain. There were light flurries of snow at around midday on Super Morzine which fell as rain in town.
The avalanche risk at the moment is 4 out of 5 as the snowpack is very unstable. One sign of this is the news that a huge avalanche has caused significant damage to a pylon on the Mossettes lift on the French side. This has meant that the lift has had to close for the rest of the season. The damage is currently being assessed and, hopefully, the lift will be up and running by summer as it’s a fairly important link over to the bike runs in Champery and Crosets.
For anyone wishing to ski over to that side, there are still options. The easiest is going via Fornet. From here guests can either go down the Swiss Wall ( skiing or taking the chair down) or coming partially down on the Mossettes side then taking the drag lift up. It might seem like more effort but it’s all fairly simple. The high avalanche risk does, however, mean that any significant off-piste is not advisable.
The link to Morgins is now closed. This means that, in theory, the PDS circuit is no longer possible. It might be possible to come down the closed run - there’s been so much snow this winter that it might be OK - but skiers ignore the closed signs at their own risk! The rest of Morgins is scheduled to close this weekend.
The snow is mostly still in very good condition. The final part of the runs down to Pleney is the only area where the warm weather and rain can really be seen to have had a significant impact but it’s still perfectly skiable. The snow at the moment on the pistes is slushy and can be somewhat slow. Make sure your skis and snowboards are waxed so that you don’t get stuck!
At the moment, it looks as though the coming week will see a mixture of sunshine and some clouds. Hopefully, there will be more sun than clouds. There is currently some light snowfall predicted for Tuesday morning with more snow coming later in the week, around Thursday. This is once again likely to fall as rain in town but the highest slopes should benefit from some fresh snow.
After such an incredible winter it looks as though the season will end without the need to use snow cannons to cover up any bare patches.
