 Poster: A snowHead
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| franga wrote: |
| Car hire prices at GVA seem to have gone down quite substantially in the last week or so - I was put off by the 3-day hire cost of an estate car at the beginning of the month when the lowest I could find was circa £350 with Enterprise. The same category car is now £197 (with Enterprise). I know there are a lot of factors at play here but perhaps the weather / snow conditions are putting last-minute bookers off? |
Very likely. Seems a fair amount of people not arriving.
The oyster sellers who had turned up outside the Carrefour in Les Gets on Weds had dropped their prices by nearly €10 a dozen by Thurs night, I guess they'd not been selling enough. I was happy with getting a dozen at €16 though!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| under a new name wrote: |
@nevis1003,
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too low and unreliable now
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?? Has it changed altitude? It was low and unreliable in early season in 1956. |
Some people think the weather has changed as opposed to the resort, I give it a wide berth now, it's unreliable all winter, just too low. Even when there is good snow it never lasts long. A green Les Gets is common.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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[quote="Chaletbeauroc"]
| nevis1003 wrote: |
| it's too low and unreliable now. |
Rubbish.[/quote
Yawn, well you do run a ski business there, so I suppose your are hardly objective.
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@nevis1003 is correct. You don't need to be clairvoyant to realise that low-lying areas like PDS will be hard hit by the future inevitable climate changes. In as little as 20 or 30 years, it is likely that only the highest resorts will be able to offer skiing in the Christmas and Easter holidays.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We arrived today and they wouldn’t sell us a ski pass for next week at the pleny, either for morzine/les gets or pds. I managed to get us a one day pass for tomorrow and then booking lessons at Esf they said they were expecting the slopes to be closed next week. Gutted as we’ve been rearranging this trip since December 2020
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Christmas always touch and go.
It all looked so promising for the start of the season…. One thing for sure, a weather change and dump of snow and things can improve very quickly. This was relevant 30 years ago, just as it is today. I remember in the 90’s the ski school i worked in was days away from running a ‘green programme’…bikes etc… then between christmas and new year the heavens opened and all was ok.
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Heading out on 13th Jan and praying for snow 
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Sat 24-12-22 22:09; edited 1 time in total
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| Lillyfait wrote: |
| We arrived today and they wouldn’t sell us a ski pass for next week at the pleny, either for morzine/les gets or pds. I managed to get us a one day pass for tomorrow and then booking lessons at Esf they said they were expecting the slopes to be closed next week. Gutted as we’ve been rearranging this trip since December 2020 |
That's terrible luck, I think we'll be catching the bus up to Avoriaz when we arrive on the 28th, hopefully they can can get some times open up there
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They wouldn’t even sell a pass for avoriaz 
The swimming pool is going to have a busy week me thinks
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| Lillyfait wrote: |
They wouldn’t even sell a pass for avoriaz
The swimming pool is going to have a busy week me thinks |
That’s such a shame … feel really sorry for you and all the other punters.
What was their rationale? Safety or lack of snow?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Lack of snow unfortunately and nothing meaningful forecast until after new year at least. Our ski instructor was very solemn. Whilst I’m sad this has ruined our holiday I feel so sorry for all the people who rely on the income. It’s such a short season anyway to have no meaningful snow until early/mid jan at the earliest is sad.
I love the town but we really need somewhere we can ski for our skiing holiday.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Lillyfait wrote: |
Lack of snow unfortunately and nothing meaningful forecast until after new year at least. Our ski instructor was very solemn. Whilst I’m sad this has ruined our holiday I feel so sorry for all the people who rely on the income. It’s such a short season anyway to have no meaningful snow until early/mid jan at the earliest is sad.
I love the town but we really need somewhere we can ski for our skiing holiday. |
Do you have a car? You could head to Courmayeur which should have some decent stuff to ski on. Or better still … Verbier.
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Nope, no car and even if we did with kids aged 5 & 7 I’m not sure anyone would class the 5 hour round trip as a holiday!
Is anyone has any recommendations for places like morzine next year I’d love to hear them.
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You know it makes sense.
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Arghhh heading to Morzine on the 27th for a holiday that has been cancelled 3 times now. Gutted doesn’t cover it!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Lillyfait wrote: |
Nope, no car and even if we did with kids aged 5 & 7 I’m not sure anyone would class the 5 hour round trip as a holiday!
Is anyone has any recommendations for places like morzine next year I’d love to hear them. |
Shame ...
When our now teenage boys where younger we went to La Tania year after year. Granted, it doesn't have the town vibe that Morzine has BUT ...
- it is 400 metres higher
- you're 2 lifts away from Courchevel / Meribel
- lovely blue run down
- car-free / safe resort with lots of lovely chalets (the Le Ski ones being our favourites)
We also took them to Saalbach, Val d'Isere and St Anton - couldn't fault any of these.
But don't strike Morzine off your list yet ... this is such an unseasonal period. It's a lovely town which you should also try and visit in summer.
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Poster: A snowHead
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All rather a shame after a promising start …
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Merry Christmas to all.
Much better weather today! Hopefully the sunshine will help the ground to dry out and allow the repair work / patching up to begin.
Morzine Source reporting that Morzine have managed to open three pistes today (Choucas, Granges, Retour des Nantes).
Avoriaz / Ardent definitely the best of the bunch with around a dozen runs open (excluding nursery slopes).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@denfinella, Yes, over here as well. Still no connection from Morgins to Crozets on the Swiss side, and the whole Chalet Neuf area is also not open, but I see that from Linga round to Avoriaz is open as well.
The Pass between Morgins and Châtel was reopened last night, after sterling work by various agencies to make it safe. Haven't been over myself, and we're staying round here today, but I'm frankly astonished that they managed to do so in such a short time.
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Currently sitting at the bottom of Brochaux having a coffee in the sun, in just my soft shell and a t-shirt. Glorious weather.
Very spring like.
We got up early to make the most of the conditions. Links are open. From Ardent heading over towards Chatel. Pistes were hit and miss. Then up and over to the Swiss side. What a difference, they are really struggling there. Headed down to Les Crossets. Back in France now and going to head over to Avoriaz.
The skiing has been a right mixture. Some lovely snow, some ice, some slush. Normally all on the same run! But it’s a lovely day, it’s not overly busy and we are skiing on Christmas Day.
Can’t knock it.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Fridge03, good to hear. It looks like there’s an outside chance of a bit of snow tomorrow night, up high at least.
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Meteo Alpes is going for a snowline of 2000m tomorrow, progressively falling to 1500-1700m. That would help Avoriaz but would cause Morzine and the other lower areas to deteriorate further. 20cm is the forecast for above 2000m.
Personally I reckon 20cm is a bit optimistic looking at the models, but I think the snowline might fall a bit lower than 1500m (though it mightn't settle on sodden ground where there is no snow).
(However I shouldn't doubt Meteo Alpes, which I've found to be the most accurate non-automated forecast for the Portes du Soleil - a bit better than Chamonix Meteo.)
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Good news. We are heading back late Tuesday so a few hours in the morning with some fresh stuff would be lovely.
The sweet spot today is about 1800m I think. Above that, it’s very hard pack. Beneath that, spring like snow.
Seeing lots of accidents today. Seen the chopper land 4 time already to take people off the mountain.
It’s busy, but not horrendously so. No real queues to speak off.
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@denfinella,
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However I shouldn't doubt Meteo Alpes, which I've found to be the most accurate non-automated forecast for the Portes du Soleil - a bit better than Chamonix Meteo
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Interesting! I must have a look.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@under a new name, it's not as specific as Chamonix Meteo since Meteo Alpes covers the entire northern French Alps, but they tend to break it down into mountain ranges e.g. Chablais or Haut Chablais for PdS, depending on how specific they are being. Then Haut Giffre / Arve / Mont Blanc / Beaufortain etc. for the surrounding regions (there's quite a lot of overlap).
They're particularly good for forecast snow amounts and for rain/snow levels, i.e. the pure weather aspect rather than the effect on skiing / off piste / avalanche levels, but you can extrapolate of course...
Their Facebook page has much more detail than their website forecast.
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GFS hinting at colder (ie more seasonal) temps in the PdS from around the 8th of January ... season reset required lower down so hopefully this will materialise ...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The latest GFS forecast predicts heavy rain falling on the 27th Dec, after that just warm air.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| nevis1003 wrote: |
| Chaletbeauroc wrote: |
| nevis1003 wrote: |
| it's too low and unreliable now. |
Rubbish. |
Yawn, well you do run a ski business there, so I suppose your are hardly objective. |
Not sure what you think that has to do with it. The fact is that with something like 300km of piste above 1800m it's anything but low, and recent years have been consistently good, so your blanket statement appears to be based on nothing at all.
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Jan 8th is far too far off for any forecast to be meaningful. In the short term it looks like we might have a few cm even at village level tomorrow night, then a few days warm again, then we'll see.
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You know it makes sense.
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@denfinella, interesting, and of course, you’re looking at projecting Cham meteo across a number of valleys, where we know “detail” can be very different.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Chaletbeauroc, well, Portes du Soleil as a whole does have a low average height compared to other major major French / Swiss ski areas. There's no way that there are 300km of slopes above 1800m. The domain's position on the "Atlantic" edge of the Alps means it is indeed prone to rain (there can't be many rainier major Alpine resorts than Morzine).
However in your defence, it also gets very heavy snowfall (I think Avoriaz has the highest snowfall for its height anywhere in the French Alps). So it can be a bit feast or famine, and conditions can change quickly. Of all the late January trips I've had to the NW Alps, - I've skied decent powder on every single one, but also had to endure rain on all but one.
@nevis1003, stop trolling.
@under a new name, yes, I've no doubt Chamonix Meteo has the edge in Chamonix itself!
Re. long term weather forecast, I'm not at all convinced by the model projections for now, particularly as forecast temperatures tend to revert towards the long term average beyond about 10 days. However there is perhaps a glimmer of hope for the 4th onwards, so I'm crossing my fingers!
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Sun 25-12-22 19:29; edited 1 time in total
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Poster: A snowHead
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Happy to report we had a great day skiing in Avoriaz today. They’ve done a great job on making the snow skiable. Not always enjoyable (thick slush, lumps and bumps) but some of the slopes were great. Only downside is that everyone from morzine and avoriaz was there! We got the first lift up and it was lovely until 11. Then came the crowds and the snow deteriorated, so if you’re going, go early!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Lillyfait, We’ll done for getting there early. We were up there too but not first lift. Still had an enjoyable few hours with the children before Christmas lunch. Can anyone report on the condition of the run down to bottom of Prodains? Looked fine from the cable car but everything does  We were thinking of taking the kids down it early-ish tomorrow. Thanks for any subjective views!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Lillyfait wrote: |
| Happy to report we had a great day skiing in Avoriaz today. They’ve done a great job on making the snow skiable. Not always enjoyable (thick slush, lumps and bumps) but some of the slopes were great. Only downside is that everyone from morzine and avoriaz was there! We got the first lift up and it was lovely until 11. Then came the crowds and the snow deteriorated, so if you’re going, go early! |
Great news … particularly given how disappointed you were last night. Hope your little ones had a great day. Nothing beats being on the mountains.
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| denfinella wrote: |
Meteo Alpes is going for a snowline of 2000m tomorrow, progressively falling to 1500-1700m. 20cm is the forecast for above 2000m.
Personally I reckon 20cm is a bit optimistic looking at the models, but I think the snowline might fall a bit lower than 1500m (though it mightn't settle on sodden ground where there is no snow). |
Updated Meteo Alpes forecast for tomorrow in Haut-Chablais (i.e. Portes du Soleil) is now:
- snowline 2000m falling to 1400-1500m
- up to 20cm above 2100m, 5-10cm above 1700m
Should be a nice refresh for Avoriaz, higher parts of Linga / Pre-la-Joux, and possibly Les Crosets / Champoussin depending on exact temperatures.
Heaviest precipitation should be after lift closing time, though you might need to go high at the end of the day to be above the snowline as the front moves in.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It wasn’t great on the run down to prodains, either they’d not bashed it or it had got very lumpy and slushy very quickly. My two didn’t particularly enjoy it, but they did it. That whole bit on the plateau was very lumpy and slushy with a lot of people skiing to apres in t shirts enjoying the sunshine!
Early is best, I think today will have been a quiet day given it was Christmas Day and a changeover, with locals staying away. I think it’ll get congested and very busy, and by midday we queued for 15 mins for Proclou today as there’s a lot of traffic on a few runs. By that point we’d had 3 hours, so we were happy ish!
I’m not sure how much longer the pistes will hold up give the weather and the traffic so our plan is early every day this week
Merry Christmas!
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Mont Chery still closed. They’re worried that one of the telecabine pylons has moved.
ESF Les Gets suggesting that Les Gets may close at the end of the week if the forecast for more rain and warm temps is accurate. Personally I can’t see it happening, they’ll be desperate to keep something open.
Meteo-Alpes is my go to forecast. Generally pretty accurate.
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I went over to Les Gets from Morzine today, briefly. Conditions are pretty poor so not worth doing long ski days, got on the mountain about 2 and done by 330. The return route to Morzine just beneath Chavannes had a grassy bit which required you to stop and walk. Further down Bruyere had a group of 3 employees shovelling snow to keep a narrow snow bridge over a small creek functional. The upside is that there were no queues and slopes not too busy. Compared to Avoriaz yesterday where the one route open down to Lindarets was even more busy than usual and I'll take the immobile dirt/stone obstacles thanks!
Piste B return to Pleney was run of the day, dodging brown patches, beginner children snaking their way behind instructors and general mayhem was a bit of a laugh.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Does anyone know if PdS lift passes have any cancellation terms attached to them? We bought area lift passes during the Black Friday sale but looking at the snow conditions we are debating whether to cut our losses and either stay at home or perhaps head to Verbier. It’d also be interesting what would happen if the lift co decided to close all lifts out of Les Gets and Morzine. I know it’s extremely unlikely but operating lifts, shovelling snow and trying to maintain linked runs is an expensive business.
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It sounds like it’s reasonable skiing up high in Avoriaz, Lindarets and Plaine Dranse - we have a mate going out to our place tomorrow and he asked a similar question - he’s decided to go for it and just ski Avoriaz. We’re in Morzine - did you say you’re staying in Les Gets? That makes the logistics more complicated if they do shut that side. The signs are that up high could get a few freshen-ups between now and new year.
We’re out on 5/1 and are definitely expecting to get some decent skiing in.
I don’t think there’s any refund on full area passes as there will be at least some of the area running (and of course as it stands they’re still running quite a lot of the lifts - just Chamossiere and Nyon closed on the Les Gets side, I think?) They even had two home runs back to Morzine open yesterday*.
Fingers crossed for you!!
* according to the PdS app they have them (and a run back to Les Gets) open today as well.
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FAQ
