The temperature warmed up quickly and gave us an early taste of spring conditions on the mountain turning the pistes into a soft slush wherever the snow shone.  Northerly facing pistes and shaded areas remained solid however.  Temperatures look set to stay spring like for the next few days with the freezing level hovering around 1400m with snow forecast on the upper slopes.

Friday was a fantastic day on the mountain.  Plenty of sunshine throughout the day and all the pistes throughout Morzine and Avoriaz were in great condition after the 6 inches (15cm) of new snow that arrived on Tuesday.

All the easy to reach off piste was mostly tracked out but there were still pockets of untouched powder here and there.  The hard to reach spots were hardly touched at all thanks to a couple of days of less than perfect visibility with low cloud.

Temperatures still very low and falling down to -15 deg C overnight keeping the north facing off-piste areas in amazing condition.  South facing off-piste has a layer of crusty snow on top now but still great underneath.

20cm at least has fallen in Morzine village and the freezing level is at around 500m (or perhaps even lower) giving us very dry and light powder even down at the village level.

Temperatures are forecast to stay very low for the next few days with hopefully more new snow to come !!!

According to a press release direct from the Portes du Soleil tourist office and thanks to heavy new snow since the beginning of the week, 3 stations will be open for the weekend of the 5th and 6th December 2009.

With 60cm of new snow at the summit of the Portes du Soleil domain (2460m) and 40cm at a level of 1800m, 3 stations will open for this weekend – Avoriaz, Champery and Chatel.

In Avoriaz, the Arare and Lindarets sectors will be open for Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th December.

• 5 lifts : The Prodains cable car, the chairlifts, Tour, Lac Intrets, Prolays and the drag Teleskis des Ecoles.
• 11 pistes : Bleue d’Arare, Bleue du Lac, Stade d’Arare, Vaineuve, Prolays, Stade des Lindarets, Combe à Floret, Champ de ski Plateau, Boulevard des skieurs, Mossettes et Crête des Lindarets.
• 1 day ski pass : 15 euros.

In Chatel, Pré-la-Joux will be open for Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th December.

• 2 Lifts : The chairlifts Pierre-Longue and Rochassons.
• 2 pistes : Rochassons and La Belette.
• 1 day ski pass : 15 euros.

In Champery, The Champéry– Planachaux cable car (le téléphérique de Champéry – Planachaux) and the Crosets chairlift accessing 3 pistes will be open for Saturday 5th December.

1 day ski pass : 25 CHF for an adult / 17 CHF for a child.

The opening of other lits/pistes will be weather dependant.

The official opening of the Portes du Soleil domain is set for Saturday 19th December.

Avoriaz on Wednesday 25th November at 9:00 a.m.

A generous layer of new snow has fallen in Avoriaz during the last few days covering all of the higher spots of the domain in readiness for the opening of the resort.

After a worrying brief spell of unseasonally warm weather, the cold weather has now returned.  In comparison to the same time last year, Avoriaz had already been open once for the weekend for locals to take advantage of the early snow.  Whilst not quite as early arriving this year, a good base layer is now in place and the weather looks set to stay cold for the next few days.

It is a beautiful clear blue sky today, but more flurries of snow are expected late on Thursday and a another reasonable dump expected on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Total Accumulated Snowfall 08/09 Season : 372cm

Heavy snow throughout Tuesday blessed us with yet another 40 cm of fresh powder as well as horrendous driving conditions in and around Morzine… a minor nuisance when compared with the fun to be had on the mountain.

This is turning out to be a fantastic season for snow with over 370cm having fallen already this winter.  We thought last year was good but having a look at the figures below, it seems February was pretty much a snow drought in 07/08.

Tuesdays snow was a little heavier (wetter) than the previous dump making avalance conditions a bit riskier but the vast majority of easily accessible off-piste around Morzine – Avoriaz is relatively safe once the pisteurs have done their morning avalanche tour.  The sun was out for much of the morning sending the crowds of half-term week into the fresh off-piste with many areas becoming well tracked by late afternoon.  In the afternoon, low cloud prevailed and deterred many from venturing too far from piste.   Piste conditions were fairly difficult thoughout the day today as very few of the pistes started the day freshly groomed.  Bumpy was definately the word to describe it.

Total Accumulated Snowfall 08/09 Season : 332cm

Wednesday and Thursday has brought even more snow with the official figures shown above now bringing the total accumulated snow to over 3 metres 30 cm for this season … or just under 11 foot of snow.

More reports later as this morning the sun is shining.

Total Accumulated Snowfall 08/09 Season : 303cm

Tuesday wasn’t a great day on the mountain with rain and high winds ruling much of the day. The freezing level had shot up to around 1800m bringing wet weather to some of the upper slopes and Avoriaz had chosen to close much of the resort for the entire day. Not something we’ve seen happen before.

On the plus side, the freezing level fell slowly but surely during the late afternoon and into the night whilst the precipitation continued. Today we awoke to yet another 40 – 50cm of fresh snow on the mountain (taking us above 3m of accumulated snow this season).  Cloud was variable throughout the day with light flurries of snow and some blue sky peeking through at times.

Piste bashers were still working away in the morning in some areas to help bash to keep them in tip top condition. However, there was no need to stay on the piste today. Deep and light snow had completely refreshed all of the off-piste areas and the day was spent almost entirely on powder runs, the Croset bowl, front and back sides of the satellite run, the snowcross on the Fornet, the hidden valley, the happy valley and the vast areas of off-piste in Chatel and Linga.

Having feared an overcast day dominated by flat light, it was welcome to see patches of blue sky and great visibility throughout the morning.  Powdery snow depths seemed to be well in excess of the official snowfall figures given in reports.  Pistes throughout the Portes du Soleil were in immaculte condition having been well groomed since the previous snowfalls.

Heading up from the base of Les Prodains

There were definitely fewer people on the mountain than we expected and the Fornet above Avoriaz still had masses of untracked powder.  Each run gave us knee deep light and fluffy powder keeping us well above the harder underlying crust.  Cutting through previous lines was fast and bouncy rather than a chore as it can be in heavier snow.

Unfortunately, the clouds bringing tomorrow’s stormy weather began to roll in during the early afternoon and flat light was returned.  So, not to be deterred, we headed over to the trees in Linderets just below Avoriaz.  Again, awesome snow conditions all throughout the trees and plenty of fresh lines to be had if you knew which entrances to take into the woods.

Last run of the day was the locally named Satellite run, a short hike of around 15 minutes but well worth the effort.  Very lightly tracked, stunning views and nobody around.

Les Linderets Trees

Total Accumulated Snowfall 08/09 Season : 253cm

Snow has been falling for two days in Morzine and Avoriaz with a fantastic 20cm being the official figure recorded on Sunday, the majority of which fell overnight on Saturday.  The freezing level was again lower than expected and has given us some of the lightest and driest snow of the season.  So light in fact that you could almost blow your windscreen clear of the new snow, which is impressive considering the depth of new snow being around 20cm.

Unfortunately, the cloud persisted today on the upper slopes and although it is still bringing fresh snow, visibility was quite poor.  Combined with ungroomed pistes due to the heavy snowfall overnight, it made skiing and snowboarding quite difficult for beginner to intermediate level skiers and boarders.  The poor visibility does however have an upside for all those busy working over the weekend … there’ll be plenty of fresh powder available on Monday!

With an unsettled forecast ahead, there is another staggering 50cm of new snow predicted to fall by late Wednesday with Tuesday looking extremely snowy.   Maybe a rather disappointing outlook for fair weather skiers but a dream for powder hounds.

Further reports and photos to follow tomorrow …