Skiing Today in Courchevel. Proof there is some snow…

Skied today! Drove to le Praz then buses up to 1850. Verdons, Vizelle, Saulire and Marmottes lifts open so able to ski Saulire, Verdons and Creux.

Looking unlikely that La Tania lift will open on Saturday so buses will be on to take skiers to Le Praz where Le lPraz bubble will be working.

Nothing open in Meribel or Mottaret yet but hopefully there may be a Mottaret to Val Thorens link on Saturday.

Snow clouds rolling in – we hope!

Willie and Liz

Latest Weather Outlook and Snow Prospects

[Update 10am 9 Dec]
As we hoped, La Tania looking all white again this morning… Only a covering but we’re getting there!

[Original Post]
Although much colder the snow forecasts are still varying in their predicted amounts and apart from the odd shower over the weekend there was nothing significant. Snow has started to come down tonight and the webcam of Meribel above shows a dusting in the town square.

Higher up it’s looking like some snow is coming down at the Bouc Blanc restaurant above La Tania.

Watching fronts come across France and then fragment off or spin Eastwards can be very frustrating and best bets after tonight are now on Snow on Saturday with some low pressure developing too – still fingers crossed at the moment though.

The good news is that Courchevel will open tomorrow (Tue 9 Dec) with Verdons, Saulire and Vizelle open and more lifts & runs as sons as they can with cannons focusing on main pistes – they will aim to get a link over from La Tania to 1850 for example, although downloading via gondola could be necessary at the end of the day but weekend real snow may help.

Hopefully we can all wake up to a whiter tomorrow so at least it looks a whole lot better!

Snow Cannons Firing Up At Last…

The colder weather has finally started to arrive and it’s set to get much colder over the next few days and through next week.

Good to see the snow cannons back on today (even if this one is at the top of Saulire this morning) – expect more and more of them over the next week as pistes are built regardless of any real stuff coming down.

With several dedicated snow making reservoirs interconnected by underground pipes and pump systems and over 2,000 high pressure cannons plus over 80 Piste Grooming machines (worth over €200k each), The 3 Valleys has some of the most efficient snow making capability in the world.

The weekend snow amount looks like it’s being downgraded to a certain degree on many professional forecasts although there are good signs for larger precipitation from the middle of the week so we’re still positive here! Most weather geeks agree it’s impossible to predict the amount of snow coming down as a snow depth anyway – how heavy it falls, the size of flakes, the air / water content and how long the snow fall will actually last, plus effects of wind, temperature, pressure and altitude variations all make it very much a guesstimate. Light, Moderate and Heavy are probably better indications!

[Update 16:00 Thu 4 Dec] Latest model runs are now showing moderate snow through Saturday and then the system coming across on Monday now holding up with the possibility of heavy snow from Monday afternoon. The Wednesday / Thursday system spinning off to the East.

The only thing for sure is, it’s weather…

Weather Outlook Update For La Tania 02 Dec 2014

Lots of concern over lack of snow cover low down with 11 days to go before La Tania opens for Winter 2015. The readily available webcams, wide ranges of forecasts and constant social media commentaries all add to this rather than help really.

It has looked a lot worse that this in the past – 4 years ago absolutely no snow on Saulire and then it came big time only days before Courchevel opening. At least Saulire still looks very skiable down to the mid-station but only a track of old snow cannon patches lie below that.

After the Courchevel free preview day on 22 November (and a fantastic opening day in Val Thorens – more here) warm weather has prevented snow cannons from running low down and the preparation of pistes that can take place whether there’s real snow about or not.

Forecasts remain rather all over the place as to predicted snow over the next few days and Courchevel have announced that they are putting back they’re opening from Sat 6 Dec to “The Beginning of Next Week” – this probably due to the fact that just about all forecasts are agreeing that cold weather will return from Friday so snow cannons can be in full effect from then.

Rest assured that the pisteurs of Courchevel are as good as anywhere in the world when it comes to piste preparation and managing limited snow resources using the most modern equipment available.

Each line on the above graph is a separate forecasting model – the top lines being temperature (the red line being the 30 year average) and the bottom lines precipitation. So definitely looking cooler from Friday with the outlook staying cold.

A weather system coming down from the North will hopefully bring a decent amount of snow from Monday – but all a bit too far out for definite predictions yet. See the forecasted movement below

Definitely looking a lot more positive than the end of last week however – so fingers crossed…

Spot of cloud low down today, but cold & snow on the way…