Val d'Isere Snow Report: 31st December 2011

The snow has just kept on falling since the last ‘dump alert’, and it’s coming down heavily too! It looks like New Year's day is going to be pretty amazing too, with fresh snow, and (hopefully) clear skies predicted. What more could we ask for? The wind's supposed to stay down, and it shouldn’t be that cold either. Let’s hope the forecast isn’t too good to be true.

Today’s conditions were pretty amazing, even in the falling snow. We skied in Le Fornet in Val d’Isere in waist deep fresh powder this morning. The higher lifts were closed at this time, but for anyone who’s into them, the tree runs are out of this world!

On the note of off-piste skiing, there was a pretty big avalanche today, in an area known as White Rabbit, between Laisinant and Le Fornet in Val d’Isere. The road was closed for around an hour and a half, but as far as we are aware no one was injured in the slide. The snow is fantastic but it really is dangerous out there. A transceiver, probe, shovel, and the knowledge on how to use them are a must right now. A metre past the piste markers, and you are considered as skiing off-piste, normal insurance won’t cover you and the bill for a rescue can be enormous. So, please do make sure you have all the gear if you are intending to heading off piste. (Recco devices in your jacket just don’t cut it – pisteurs have to send for the equipment to search for them, and that usually takes a fair bit of time).

Over in Tignes and conditions are similar, the number of pistes open due to the avalanche risk was lower than we would like, but it is better to be safe than sorry. All the high slopes were closed, along with the runs down to Tignes Les Brevieres, and the Val d’Isere -Tignes links were shut too. The avalanche risk is a four out of five today.

Unfortunately I couldn’t ski over to Tignes today, due to the links being closed, but everyone says the conditions are the same there as they are in Val d’Isere. There were a few more slopes open in Val d’Isere and, of course, we have the Le Fornet and La Daille trees for powder days, but then Tignes has some amazing skiing too.

Its New Year's day tomorrow, so Happy New Year everyone. If you’re here, enjoy the snow and stay safe, and if you’re not, I hope to see you on the slopes soon!

Bonne Annee!!!