Blue skies and great snow in Val d'Isere

It warmed up a little on Saturday so I took my group to the Fornet, as it had been two weeks since my last visit. Much of the Fornet sector is north-facing or exposed to the wind, so it’s not the place to be when it’s -18C. I’ve given it a miss during the cold snap, but it was great to be back up there again. It snowed 20cm to 30cm of light fluffy snow without wind on Saturday night, and we enjoyed a stunning day on Sunday skiing the Fontaine Froide three times, then a fantastic Epaule du Charvet, followed by a fabulous Tour du Charvet with just enough light, and then we finished with two great runs in the Super L in extremely flat light. It was perhaps the best flat-light day of the season, and really great skiing. (Even with the new snow the avalanche risk was rated at 3/5, as compared to the 4/5 rating the day before.

The sun returned on Monday, and my colleague Andreas and I had perhaps the best day of the season. It was what I call a ‘maximum-turn’ morning of the highest quality, with knee-deep powder that was exceptionally light. We warmed-up in great snow off the Verte before skiing a fantastic Campanules into Tignes. Next up was a ten minute boot up into the Chardonnet, which just doesn’t get any better. We then skied the Sache and in 38-years I’ve never skied it in deeper or lighter snow, and our clients were absolutely purring. From there we skied a funky Familial to finish off a truly brilliant morning.

There were several avalanches on Monday and it was fortunate that no one was killed. It’s sad these days to witness the lack of respect shown by both skiers and boarders who think that they can put on a helmet and an airbag and go wherever they want, no matter what the avalanche risk. Some of the lines that were skied the first day after a snowfall are frightening, and a serious accident is just around the corner. There have been quite a few avalanche deaths around the Alps so far this winter, but we’ve been very lucky here in the L’Espace Killy. Last week we had 39 people rescued from the Gorge du Malpasset, and this week the pisteurs have been busy searching for people in avalanches. Tuesday was another sunny day but with the powder-frenzy on Monday there wasn’t too much left to ski.

My team this week aren’t the strongest of walkers so I needed to sniff around to find some great snow without too much of an effort, but I’ll need to skin now as anything that is easily accessible has been absolutely trashed. On Wednesday I took my team for a double-skin, the first walk being only 10-minutes, while the second was 40-minutes, and we accessed some stunning snow, and just as importantly, we accessed solitude. With the resort being tracked-out it is impossible to find clean untracked snow without some sort of effort, and we were rewarded with some great skiing. (With the temperature rising during the day the avalanche risk was 3/5, rising to 4/5 on sunny slopes in the afternoon. It turned out that two more people were rescued from the Gorge du Malpasset on Wednesday afternoon, so it’s obvious they didn’t read last week’s snow report.

We had high cloud cover on Thursday and the skiing was much more difficult, but it did start snowing lightly around 14:30 in the afternoon. I don’t think it will snow enough to warrant a dump alert but 5cm to 10cm of snow would definitely freshen things up a little. The risk dropped to 2/5, moving to 3/5 on Thursday after a warm day yesterday followed by a cold night, which had a stabilising effect on the snow pack. This season has been absolutely wonderful both on and off-piste, and we’ve had a fraction of the snow we had last winter. You don’t need a lot of snow to have great skiing, just regular top-ups and good quality. Because we’ve also had a lot of sunshine, the piste skiing this season has been outstanding. Last season was really difficult with the resort being closed down for about eight days, and we had many days were the lifts didn’t open until 10:30 or later, which was really frustrating when you show up ready to go at 09:00. With there being so much snow we didn’t have a lot of sunshine, and skiing in flat light all the time was very fatiguing, but it was a winter wonderland last season, and a privilege to see so much snow. However, I am seriously enjoying this season to date.

After a month of -10C to -18C temperatures, the cold snap seems to be over and the sun suddenly has some power behind it. The sun is starting to affect the steep southern expositions, and what was cold winter powder a few days ago suddenly has a slight sun-crust. Besides the mountain being tracked out or wind-affected were are now entering the time of the season where the sun becomes a major factor in the quality of the snow off-piste, and it won’t be long before it starts to affect the piste skiing as well. But for the moment the piste skiing remains outstanding.

The pavements need a weekly mention, and I saw a man slip and land quite heavily on Tuesday evening, and his was fortunate enough to not have broken his wrist. Whatever you do don’t carry a child on your shoulders, because it’s a long way down and the pavements are extremely icy. It looks like we may see 30cm of snow on Sunday, and another 10cm or so on Monday, then the rest of next week is forecast to be on and off sunshine, so we should be in for another fantastic week of skiing. Have a great time and look out for another update next Friday.