Snow go, snow come

Cloud inversion over Avoriaz. It's down there somewhere!

Sunday it did snow, all day, so we ate. Monday,  we went out on the new snow, but it sadly had been rained on quite heavily, so was quite slushy making it hard and tiring to manoeuvre in, fortunately we were Gizmo sitting so had an excuse to give up for the day. Gizmo, as ever, was very cute, though a bit more woofy, but I think he just wanted to play as we both got bounced and had our ears licked! He did scare off all my cats which was not what I wanted as serious breakthroughs have been made with Groucho, if there is another cat in sight I am now allowed to stroke her which she didn’t understand at first, but now seems to think is good, there is purring and head butting back. It just makes me laugh that she really wants another cat to be about, I suppose so one of them could leap to her rescue if I tried anything horrible, as if!

This was Monday morning in Avoriaz. It had been a windy day on Sunday and this was wind sculptured snow

Abondance ski area. a bit thin at the bottom!

Tuesday we went on a driving tour to the two outlying resorts covered by our lift past, Chapelle and Abondance, one of which was a first, the other we had been to last visit. Although the website was slightly exaggerating the number of runs open we had a really nice time, the tops of the runs were mostly very good with just the mud showing through the bottoms leaving a bit to be desired. They were also quiet, though we did leave the first as the bus load of teenagers were eating their lunch. Timing.

Looking down into the Abondance valley from the top

There are some nice runs in Abondance. Pity its so difficult to get to

Wednesday again was snowy, so we stayed in and watched it fall. Yesterday we just went to our local resort and had a fantastic time on the new snow, up and down the same beautifully pisted run a few times before heading off round the circuit. On the second trip round the circuit, done to avoid the kids out for PE lessons, we stopped for a vin chaud at the remotest restaurant which was lovely, though I did then feel I was skiing on someone else’s legs! Home before the snow started again, not much here but when we went out today, wow! So with the fresh powder and blue skies we have had a great day, both vying to get the most tracks in fresh powder. I did begin to wonder whether he has just upgraded the life insurance as he kept sending me off in front, unheard of, before suggesting “down there” “over that edge” or other helpful things! Perhaps he’s not well as it was actually him who said home time as we were both very tired, but very happy.

This is the ski lift that Jackie climbed up when we walked there earlier in the year

Coming down the Abondance lift. The runs to the town weren't open

Tomorrow we are working for Cassie, but may be able to nip out in the afternoon, before the first of the French half term weeks starts and Mr. Doom and gloom thinks we’ll not even get a space in the carpark! Sunday more snow is forecast but we are out working in a new chalet, she may get a bit of a surprise when we turn up if she’s expecting two 22 year olds, but we shall see!

Bit of a story attached to this photo. It's the Col du Corbier which is a 1237m high pass between the Morzine and Chatel valleys, about 10km away from St Jean and from Abondance. It used to be a small ski resort and the owner, a builder bought it in 1998 and proceeded to build some hotels and apartments which he sold. Where that hut is and the gap in between the trees used to be a chairlift and there were several other drag lifts. Suffering from poor snow it was making a loss which the owner supplemented with house sales as he built them. After the last house was sold he closed the resort and sold the ski lifts, the chairlift now installed in our own Grand Terche ski resort at St Jean. The people who bought the properties now have 10km minimum to drive to any skiing - and on a road that can be closed when it snows.

 

Here's a view on the other side of the road showing some of the properties he built and sold

 

At the top of our St Jean d'Aulps ski resort in great snow. The chairlift is the one that used to be at the Col du Corbier

 

A view from the Follys Col on our St Jean Roc d'Enfer circuit. The main ski resort is on the little plateau at the top of that streak of snow you can see just left of centre

 

Stopping for a Vin Chaud at a little bar on the Roc d'Enfer circuit

 

Jackie skiing down the black ski run 'Rhododendrons' in Chatel today

 

Jackie cutting fresh tracks through virgin snow in Chatel today

 

The snow was so good we were seeking out all the off piste we could find

 

But we had to be a little careful, we were quite remote and Jackie stopped for a view....

 

...a close up shows that she was next to a significant drop over a cliff edge, complete with overhanging cornice. Good job the visibility was good. We won't go that way then!

 

More off piste fun. I'm sure she could have skied over the roof of that house on the left!

 

Blue sky, deep fresh powder snow and plenty of off piste. It's what perfect skiing days are made of!

Warm, sunny days

With Mike on our way to Morgins, the Dents du Midi in the background

The wind direction has changed, another high pressure system has settled over us, the skies have cleared and we’ve had warm, almost hot, sunny days. At first that’s nice, great views, good definition and great snow, but it quickly changes. From -11°C at 1100m on 18^th January rapidly increasing to +6°C (in places even into double figures) one week later it is not difficult to imagine what has happened to the snow; it’s disappeared faster than one of Paul Daniels magic tricks! Well, not quite as bad as that, but it is going in that direction.

On top of the Pointe du Nyon with Morzine town far below on R

The powder snow has consolidated into thick concrete like ice in the mornings, making off piste skiing challenging to say the least and, where the sun goes to work, making it very soft and slushy by the afternoon making it heavy to ski on, almost stopping the skis even on steep slopes – most unpleasant. From yesterday the first of many fronts that are forecast came through bringing precipitation, mainly rain to all but higher slopes and with a freezing level hovering between 1800m and 3700m it’s going to be mainly rain until possibly next Thursday. At this rate we might be putting the skis away again until more snow arrives .

Jackie and Mike with Mont Blanc in the distance

However, we have thoroughly enjoyed the conditions while they have lasted and with few people here we’ve enjoyed relatively empty slopes , no queues at ski lifts and clear sunny days. All that coincided with Mike’s visit. An old friend of ours from Solihull Mountaineering Club, he arrived on Monday evening to stay with us in our apartment for 4 nights, so we had three great days skiing with him. Over the years we have done a lot of rock climbing, skiing, ski touring and mountaineering with him, so we know him well and we all get on very well, so even living close together in a small space it was not a problem and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was while we were looking that Mike told us about his ascent of Mont Blanc. He apparently set off from the hut (arrowed) at 3:00am, got to Mont Blanc summit at 6:00am and was back at the hut by 8:00am. Fit or what!! I've put an arrow on the Aiguille du Midi as we've been climbing there

This little train takes skiers the 300m between Mont Chery and Les Gets

Our days were relatively relaxed, we weren’t up and off early, maybe getting on the first lifts around 10:00am and were generally heading down 3:30pm’ish, but between those times we were covering a lot of ground. On Tuesday we did a grand circuit, heading over into Chatel after parking the car in the Ardent car park and heading up from there. 

Couldn't resist a photo of them. Even the Spanish lad waved!

We caught the new ski lifts into Super Chatel and then headed towards Torgon to catch the magnificent views of the Dents du Midi mountains, then headed on to the Swiss resorts of Morgins, through Champossin and Les Crosets, before catching the lift back over into France and back down into the Lindarets bowl and back down to the car – a long but fabulous day on mostly good snow, only the occasional thin covered piste. Wednesday we spent the day in the Morzine, Les Gets and Mont Chery area, ticking off a few black and off piste runs, experiencing our first heavy, wetter snow. 

Mike launching himself out of the slalom starting hut

On Thursday we had a day in the Swiss resort of Les Crosets and the French resort of Avoriaz, finishing with the fabulous off piste black run of ‘Crozats Snowcross’ which goes down a huge wide, steep valley between mountains from the top to the very bottom of Avoriaz. Sadly it was not in great condition, a bit icy so, in places it was quite difficult and energy sapping. Good job we came back to big portions of cake and tea each day, followed by carb loaded meals like Tartiflete and Boeuf Bourguignon cooked by Jackie and bread and butter pudding and apple crumble and custard cooked by Brian, plus of course plenty of wine!

Halfway down the fabulous Crozats Snowcross

We were up early on Friday to see Mike off on the mini bus back to Geneva airport and, after looking at the low cloud and drizzly rain coming out of the sky we had decided to do nothing. However we had Facebook messages from Leanne and Drew saying it was Drew’s birthday and would we like to meet up for a ski. Unenthusiastic we parked the car at Ardent, went up on the lift to meet them and waited 20 minutes under the cover of the lift looking at the drizzle, thinking we would wish him happy birthday and then come down. We even met Andy Cavet, a ski instructor and brother in law of the owner of our apartment, who was waiting under cover for clients to arrive on the lift. ‘Surprised to see you today’ he said ‘if I hadn’t got clients I’d have looked out of the window and turned over in bed!’

The cloud lifting on Friday morning to reveal a beautiful day

Lunch in the sun with Leanne and Drew

In the 20 minute wait the rain virtually stopped and Leanne and Drew’s optimism grew on us and we decided to do a short circuit round to and through Avoriaz. When we reached the top of the resort the sun poked through the clouds and suddenly it looked good so we skied down into Switzerland’s Les Crosets and had some fabulous skiing in bright sunshine, stopping eventually at a piste side bar eating hot dog and chips outdoors in the sun, finishing up with a few more great runs until the cloud came in again and we headed home.  A nice birthday outing for Drew.

A kiss from Leanne for the birthday boy. In the distance and just to the right of Drews head is the notorious 'Swiss Wall' ski run. Very lumpy, very long and very intimidating!

Morzine today (Saturday)

After all the skiing with Mike and then another day with Leanne and Drew we planned a day of nothing today (Saturday), but the forecast said otherwise and when it got light the sun came out and it looked great, albeit a bit windy, so out came the skis and we were off to Nyon for a ski over there and into Les Gets. We did about 2½ hours of skiing, picking out all the best runs and, even though off piste is off the menu until more snow, the pistes are in amazingly good condition and on piste skiing is fabulous. The people who maintain and groom the pistes certainly do magic, we had 2½ hours of perfect, enjoyable skiing!

Tomorrows forecast: all change. A front is due to come through this evening and tomorrow with a large amount of precipitation and a freezing level of 1750m, rising to 2550m. That will be rain in all but the highest places, let’s hope Thursdays forecast of a lower freezing level with precipitation means snow! We’ve planning a late start with brunch and we’ve got a chicken with all the trimmings to roast for dinner and plenty of wine, we don’t care!

Look at these sequence of pictures taken from our apartment balcony at 950m altitude. This one was taken on 16th January

 

This one on 25th January

 

And this one today, 30th January. It's the snow vanishing trick!