Avoriaz Snow Report: 23rd March 2011

100% blue skies today with highs of around +15 degrees made for some perfect spring skiing in the Portes du Soleil. We headed to the Pleney telecabine before checking the conditions out in and around Nyon and Chamoissiere. We got to watch a ski race on Piste H and the Le Stade reds as we ascended in the telecabine, if the snow was good enough for racing so then it would surely be good enough for us.

We didn’t get going first thing but it’s not wise to hang around too late in the day, the best conditions are in the morning lasting until early afternoon at which point it is best to call into a restaurant for a long lunch or a beer or both, you’ll be certainly thirsty enough for the latter.

The belvedere lift took us above the Nyon plateau where the ski schools are based dropping us at the far end near the highly recommended Vaffieur restaurant. From here we headed for the blue Ganges run to the Grand Pre. The snow was already slushy by 11am but running quickly, not sticky at all. There was the odd patch of ground breaking through the snow but very obvious and easily avoidable, it did not significantly reduce the area available to ski on.

The Troncs lift accesses the Nyon ski area via a wide blue run. Once at the bottom we headed to the TS de la Pointe which takes you to the high point of this side of the Portes du Soleil at 2019m. You get the benefit of a great view over to the Dents du Midi and Dents Blanche mountains, very spectacular. We opted for the red run down from Nyon, well there is only one choice higher up, the red only giving way to the black Aigle Noir lower down. It didn’t look in great condition so we stuck with the nicely pisted red.

We decided to move on to Chamoissiere, as with Nyon this area is accessed from the Grand Pre using the TS des Tetes chair lift followed by the new this year Express Chamoissiere. Normally there is a choice of red and black runs off the top but only the black was available today.

This did not prove to be a problem as the black was in really great conditions. Normally it is a huge mogul field but the piste bashers have been smoothing things out of late to help preserve the piste. The snow was best here and we opted for repeated runs alternating between long fast turns and short slower turns. The snow was not supportive enough to really crank over the turns, it would give way beneath your turn but it made it all the more fun to get onto the limit and slowly feel the edge grip fade as we pushed harder – typical spring conditions.

After running out of sweat we decided to head for a beer and a chill returning to the Vaffieur restaurant and the chairs outside in the sun. It was great to chill and have a drink in the sun after a nice little ski out.

It’ll be more of the same weather wise for the next couple of days with Saturday/Sunday seeing a new disturbance passing through bringing with it some snow.

Bon Ski!

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