Avoriaz Snow Report

Bike riding time in Avoriaz : 13 May 2012

Winter seems a long time ago now although by gazing up at some of the peaks the evidence of this seasons bumper snow is still lingering about. The tops are still capped with snow and there are still some big patches lying around even on the lower elevations. If you happened to be stood at the top of the Coup du Monde black run in Avoriaz you would still get a great ski run down most of the way to the bottom of the Prodains telepherique.

But for most people that time of year has passed although I have no doubt some ski tourers will still be plying their trade. For me and many others in Morzine it’s time to dust down the mountain bikes and road bikes and start turning some pedals around.

Since the end of the season the weather has been quite kind to us with many sunny warm days, particularly this last week, only intermittently disturbed by the odd wet day. We have yet to experience an inter season mountain deluge yet. This has meant some brilliant biking conditions, particularly road cycling.

Obviously the roads are predominantly clear during the winter anyway (the exception being the high passes such as the Col du Joux Plane) and it only takes a little sunshine for the roads to dry completely. In contrast many of the mountain bike trails are still covered in snow, particularly anything on north facing aspects. There are many cross country trails available down the valley towards St Jean D’Aulps but I prefer to do my pedalling on a road bike and reserve the mountain bike for more gravity oriented fun.

Prior to yesterday then I was churning out the road bike miles trying to get fit for the local road bike races this summer. The Morzine Vallee D’Aulps cycle sportive on 17 June and the two Avoriaz hill climb races – 14th July and an as yet un-confirmed date early in August. My favourite local rides involve heading down to the Vallee Verte and doing the lower cols near Vernaz; Col du Feu, Col du Jambaz etc. Another favourite route is to climb the Col du Corbier through Le Biot and drop into the Abondance Valley and then climb back over via the Grand Taillet. 
There are a number of dates where a select few mountain cols are closed to all motor traffic and open to road bikes - more info here.

For the first time this season the mountain bikes came out to play yesterday. The south facing aspects of the hill are obviously clearing of snow quickest meaning the Super Morzine side of resort is now green. We used a van to drive the 500 vertical meters or so to the top of the Super Morzine lift and then do a very short pedal to access a great descent down the face of the hill.

We had to push across a few patches of snow on the traverses to the head of the trail but once descending down we enjoyed superb dry and dusty mountain bike conditions. We descended down the retour Morzine route from the Passportes du Soleil event (29th June this year). It was great, so much so we had another few goes at it each time someone different from the group drove the van back up.

Using a van uplift is not something I’d normally make a habit of, usually we ride the 500m vertical which is a nicer (and more environmentally sound) way of doing it. But on this occasion with all that road bike mileage making my legs sore then I was happy enough to take a lift.

The lifts are open in Les Gets on the last weekend of May, for the weekend only, so we will be hitting the bike park. The Pleney opening is pencilled in from the 9th June and the full Portes du Soleil lift system from the 29th June for the opening event of the season – Passportes du Soleil.

Bon route

• Depth of last snowfall
  De 20
• Date of last snowfall
  17/12/2011
• Altitude of lower slopes
  1800m
• Depth of snow on upper slopes
  210
• Altitude of upper slopes
  2466m
• Number of pistes open
  1
• Altitude of highest temperature
  1800m
• Depth of snow on lower slopes
  180
• Latest Conditions
  Sunny spells in the morning - rainy towards the evening - increasing wind high up SKY CONDITION : early morning cloud clearing - fairly sunny thereafter, then becoming mostly cloudy during the afternoon - overcast at night. Period of sunshine close to 45%. PRECIPITATION : light shower early in the morning, then dry until the end of the afternoon - precipitation resuming towards the evening, light, becoming moderate - rain-snow limit towards 1500 m.

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