Val d'Isere Snow Report: 12th February 2012

In the morning, the corduroy snow was magnificent, the slopes were grippy and running really fast. The light dusting of snow we had yesterday has really helped conditions, just giving a little bit of soft snow off the top of the base. Towards the end of the day the hard packed base snow was starting to come through. If you’re a race skier you’ll probably love this, you go super fast on it and with finely tuned race skis, grip and turning are not an issue. For the rest of us though, this smooth hard packed snow can be rather hard work. You really have to use your knees to work your edges, especially on a snowboard, and not forget how quickly you pick up speed. Stopping quickly can be next to impossible as well, making it sometimes less than fun for beginners. This is the time when you can use the download options on some of the lifts here. The Solaise Express chair lift, Fornet, Olympic and LA Daille bubbles, and the Funival train in Val d’Isere all allow you to do this. Over in Tignes the options are more limited. You have the Grande Motte funicular train, and that’s about it. There are more easier runs back into town on the Tignes side though.

The conditions today, although beautiful, were still very cold. I’ve had frost-nip on the end of my nose again recently which shows just how cold it has been here. Diesel has been regularly freezing in vehicles. Even my Toyota Hilux, with its winter pack, was struggling with the freezing temperatures, and refused to start for about three days. You can buy diesel additives in the petrol stations here to help stop the diesel freezing if you’re worried about your vehicle. The best solution is underground parking though.

The weather forecast for the next few days is somewhat varied. Temperatures should get milder (towards zero degrees) in resort on Friday, which is something we haven’t experienced in what feels like a long time. Sunshine and light snow showers looks set to be the prevailing weather conditions over this week. There is potential for a little snow on Wednesday evening, but after that we look to be due more cloudless skies. High up the freezing temperatures will remain, especially with the wind set to pick up to a high of thirty five kilometres per hour on Wednesday at high altitude. Wind chill will be especially bitter at these points. Early on in the week the average temperature, at the top of the mountain, will be around minus twenty before wind-chill, and minus thirty with it. Wednesday is the first day we should notice a rise in the temperature, and this should continue until Friday at least. Warmer temperatures will be a blessing after the conditions we’ve been experiencing of late.

Valentine’s day is almost upon us. Couples out there may be thinking chocoloates, flowers or dinner in a cosy, authentic restaurant . If you’re single and want to do something a bit different, you could always treat yourself to a trip in the Micro-lite plane that departs from just below the Bellevard restaurant at the top of the Olympic cable car in Val d’Isere. This is a two man craft (one being the pilot) which takes you on a tour of either Tignes or Val d’Isere, or the whole Espace Killy, depending on how far you want to go. It’s fairly pricey at around sixty euros for a single valley trip, or eighty euros for the whole Espace Killy, but the views are out of this world. You will have to wrap up really warm though, as it’s even colder higher up, and you will be flying at speed. To book a trip, you can just drop by the station below the Bellevarde restaurant and stop the pilot when he’s there, or his phone number is on a chalkboard at the entrance to the top of the Olympic cable car. It’s a truly fantastic trip for one, so no need to worry about taking a date!

For everyone with a Valentine, hope you have a good one, and everyone else, you never know what might happen on holiday! Anything can happen if you just believe, as they say!

Bon ski!