Around 15cm of fresh snow yesterday afternoon and overnight down to below St Bonn at 1100m has made things look a whole lot better this morning. Temperatures have risen though, maybe not as much as forecast but there is rain in resort this morning and temperatures remaining above freezing at resort level until Saturday – hopefully colder weather coming in and time for some consolidation of the groomed base up top and some more snowmaking can get going low down.
Still plenty of fun to be had across The 3 Valleys right now
The Pralong chair to access Biollay-Verdons link and the new Foret lift from Le Praz opened for the first time today and there will be some more hard work for pisteurs in planning to get as much open as possible for next week. The main Biollay run and Suisses look complete for example but look like they are being saved for next week.
Access from La Tania is via the La Tania Gondola and the short path to the Lanches chairlift which leads to the Col de la Loze piste towards the top of Chenus – narrow at the start but ok for say a week 2 skier.
With Lac Bleu still closed a bit of skating and poling is required to get to the top of the Bouc Blanc chair (going left at the big rock on Loze Est) leading to the red Loze piste down to 1850 – note that the last section is a little steeper, so some skiers might prefer the short walk up to the Chenus Gondola to download to 1850 from the end of the Col de la Loze piste. Easy skiing is currently available on the Jardin Alpin / Bellecote piste and on Verdons.
The route back to La Tania is via Chenus or Plantrey lifts and the blue Arolles piste down to the La Tania gondola for downloading. Fairly good cover and almost full width down this run – our week 2 skiers managed this ok on Wednesday.
We’re hearing that if the forecasted 48 hours or so dip in temperatures from Saturday night goes as planned then La Tania and Le Praz may have priority on the snow making system to attempt to open up lower runs. More on this when it gets clarified over the next day or so.
Skiing down to Méribel on both sides of the valley is now possible but some narrow and sketchy spots low down as you approach La Chaudanne area. Top of Saulire down to the Folie Douce at the Saulire Express mid-station has good cover and not many people are on it this week at least. Remarkably even the green Truite run between Mottaret and Méribel at the bottom of the valley is now scheduled to open – again some great work by snow cannons and pisteurs here.
Finally, one of the best runs for snow we discovered this week was Grand Lac down below the Granges chairlift above Les Menuires – just great snow on a fast roller coaster blue run – so good that at the bottom everyone said – “let’s do that again”!
There could be some more snow due earlier on Saturday too but snow/rain level will still be critical. Off Piste Avalanche Risk is raised up to Considerable Risk 3/5 for the first time this morning although obviously this is not advised due to the overall snow depths.
So all in all things looking better and certainly we’re lucky compared to some resorts which may not even open at all this weekend. Suddenly that money spent on lift passes looks very good value when you consider the massive investment in infrastructure across The 3 Valleys…