25th January 2010
So it was forecast to snow a lot and although it dumped and dumped down the hill we didn’t actually get that much snow in resort. We did have one good powder day, which was also a perfect sunny day so we got up early and got first lifts up the mountain. If it is a powder day, getting up for first lifts is a must. You can be guaranteed first tracks on all the obvious off piste routes and you can pick the best lines. We headed over to Chatel first thing and found some big open powder bowls and slowly tracked them out. We then headed over to the Swiss couloirs and to our surprise they were actually quite tracked. The couloirs are one of the only areas in the Portes Du Soleil that are very steep, so it makes them kind of scary and challenging, which is always loads of fun. They are in the sun all day and due to their inclined they do tend to slide. We accidently let off some little slides, one of which wiped loads of snow and Webbo down onto a cat-track.
We decided because it was such a beautiful day we would take the Valley de La Manche route home. This starts at the top of the fornet chair in Avoriaz; you take a short hike over the back of the peak and drop into a huge bowl that leads down to the village of La Valley de La Manche, a fifteen minute bus ride back to Morzine. The is an epic run to finish the day off, it is in the sun in the afternoon and on a powder day the snow is epic. It is so picturesque and feels very remote even though it is only it’s only the next valley from Avoriaz. The run takes about half an hour to get down. You end up on a cat-track which winds though the little village of Valley de La Manche down to the bus stop. It is very beautiful and quaint and at the bottom there is a gorgeous French pub where you can get a drink while you wait for the bus. The perfect run to finish off a good day skiing! 
The past few days have been very cloudy but with only a small amount of snow fall and the visibility has been pretty poor. I recently got a new pair of Smith Heiress goggles with the sensor mirror (flat light) lens. These really have been a god send over the past few days. They help so much with visibility in low light, making everything so much clearer and defined, and most importantly they look sick! Due to the poor weather we have been spending a bit of time filming some urban jibs. On our search for some rails we stumble upon a big snow tractor which we built a jump over. Then we found an abandoned house with no roof and we built a course right through the house and jump out the back door. You can have a look at the footage at www.snowfix.tv.
