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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow… (artificially)

Monday, 12. 18. 2006  –  Category: Snowboarding

With the cold weather finally upon us, not much real snowfall to speak of and the busy Christmas holidays to deal with, isn’t it about time we saw the snow cannons in action?

Morzine today is starting to resemble the golf course it was looking like a couple of weeks back. The snowfall was short-lived and was followed by a particularly warm fortnight by December’s standards.

With the Christmas period attracting 70%* of the total visitors to a ski resort each season, there are going to be a lot of dissapointed punters if action isn’t taken soon.

* I might have made this up. I certainly can’t find a source, so please take it with a pinch of salt.

Pressure to satisfy these punters and give off a positive impression has resulted in many ski areas openning up with poor snow cover. Here’s the summary for France (as lifted from Gone Boarding):

The temperatures fell in France this weekend and some resorts even had a dusting of snow on Sunday. The winter season in France has now really kicked off with many resorts opening over the weekend. Les Menuires (16/32cm) opened on Saturday and despite the low snow depths they have over half the lifts open giving access to hard and fast skiing across the whole mountain. Serre Chevalier (15/100cm) also opened at the weekend with 30 out of 68 lifts open. It is not possible to ski back to the resort but the upper slopes have a great depth and good on-piste conditions. La Toussuire (20/60cm) also opened over the weekend and they also have hard and fast skiing on offer, they had a slight boost today, Monday, with 3cm of new snow. Over at Val Thorens (35/50cm) they awoke to 5cm on Monday morning and it is set to continue snowing throughout the day. The upper areas at La Plagne (40/55cm) received 7cm on Monday which has refreshed them slightly. The first day of the lifts at La Rosiere (22/50cm) was improved by 5cm of fresh snow so they are now reporting good conditions on the upper slopes and lower down the pistes are packed.

There’s lots of talk around the forums about the conditions from people who have had the chance to check them first hand. It seems that Avoriaz is OK towards the top, but fairly patchy towards the end of the day, but nothing to be had in Morzine itself.

The BBC have sensed the nerves most winter sports enthuasts and ski resorts are suffering:

With millions of skiers heading to the resorts over the next week there are concerns that the open runs will be very busy and people could be put off from booking again at Christmas and the New Year, costing the multi-million pound industry heavily in lost revenue, and threatening jobs.

The article goes on to say:

The best skiing is to be found on the high resorts with glaciers: Tignes and Les Deux Alpes in France; Zermatt, Saas Fee and Verbier in Switzerland, and Obergurgl in Austria.

Indeed, I can vouch for Zermatt and neighbouring Cervinia. I hear that neck of the woods has had even more snow now. If I weren’t already booked up for Morzine next week, I’d be heading back there for sure.

So, back to my own selfish plight… Morzine, start your cannons.

Tags: Avoriaz, Cervinia, Morzine, Ski resorts, Ski Weather, Val Thorens, Zermatt