snowgenius is in Morzine for some New Year skiing, hoping to capitalise on some of the tremendous snow that Europe has been receiving. Unfortunately whilst the snow last week was reportedly excellent, by the time we arrived on the 31st December the temperatures were above freezing and any precipitation was falling as rain. Yesterday there was light rain in the morning, but blue skies in the afternoon. The snow condition was still excellent after the heavy falls from the week before, although the rain was making the conditions similar to spring snow – soft and slushy. With the sun out the skiing was great – nearly all the runs are open, right down to the resort base, and the snow base is deep enough to cope with the rain that had fallen. Off piste is a different story as the uncompacted snow was affected more by the wet, making conditions inconsistent and challenging.
Today we skied in Les Gets, and in the morning it was raining hard, making conditions very unpleasant. Only the hardiest and most determined skiers (usually British families) were braving the conditions! With morning temperatures around 3 degrees above freezing in the village, we headed higher to try to escape the rain, but it wasn’t until around 1600m (two chair-lifts worth of climbing) that the temperature was low enough for snow to be falling. And it was falling hard, with the limited visibility causing the closure of some of the highest lifts. After lunch, the temperature dropped to freezing in the valley and the rain turned to heavy flakes of snow. The forecast is for temperatures to drop over the course of the week, so the precipitation forecast should fall in the form of snow. Here’s hoping.
If you’re coming to the area we recommend you choose a high resort, and preferably stay mobile to chase the better conditions. If you’re coming by car, make sure you have winter tyres or snow chains – the conditions are quickly changeable at the moment.
Happy skiing, and Happy New Year from all of us at snowgenius.