Val d'Isere Snow Report: 22nd December 2011

Winter Solstice. It's almost Christmas!

featured in Snow report Author Debbie Priestley, Val d'Isere Reporter Updated 24 October 2014

The snow has finally ceased falling, and we even saw a little bit of blue sky yesterday. In the morning though, it was a different story.

It was almost as if a thick fog was hanging above Val d’Isere, and you didn’t seem to be able to get above it. The visibility was incredibly poor, but the snow was good and we were determined to enjoy the mountain. The light that did appear high in the clouds was electrifying, and made it look like you were inside the golden vaults of some enormous cathedral. The people I ride with all enjoy a bit of off-piste riding, and this morning we did just that. We entered the hallowed halls of the Le Fornet forest once again, and had just as much fun as last time. The snow was perhaps a little heavier, but we were still able to make our own tracks.

As the morning progressed patches of blue began to appear in the sky, and as midday approached we left Fornet and headed towards the Bellevard section of Val d’Isere. The cloud cover had been restored to an impenetrable mass and we doubted we would see the blue sky again today. Amazingly though, we had finally managed to break out of the top of it. The top of Bellevard was basking in sunshine, with the band of cloud sitting just below. Tignes was the same, although they had the sun earlier than us. Tignes les Brevieres was inaccessible due to the lift back but, apart from that, almost everything was open.

Winter Solstice is special for me, because I’m almost always working over Christmas and New Year, so I make sure I make the most of the day. By the end of it, it did seem as if the snow gods were finally smiling at us again.

Tomorrow is looking very cold and clear again. The forecast is for it to be very mild and you should watch out for heavy snow slides. So take care, especially if you are off piste. The festive period last winter was tinged with sadness and it would really be nice if that didn’t happen again!

The weather forecast for tomorrow is for more snow the day after! The snow should go down as far as five hundred metres and then it should clear high up, but the 'high up' they’re talking about is above two thousand five hundred metres so it might only be at the extreme top of the mountain. After that and I’m almost scared to write it, Christmas day is supposed to be sunny, as are the next couple of days after it. You never know, we might get lucky!