Still some good skiing to be had in Val d'Isere

After a very limited freeze Thursday night we stayed at altitude and skied some lovely spring snow at the Fornet on Friday, and even managed a few powder turns. It drizzled in town Friday afternoon and evening and I expected much more fresh snow on Saturday, but with flat-light and just a few centimetres of new snow we needed to stay fairly close to the pistes. To find anything ‘clean’ underfoot we would have needed to travel quite a long way and with foggy conditions we weren’t in the mood to take the risk. It snowed Saturday afternoon and through the night and Sunday morning gave us much deeper snow allowing us a fantastic morning up around the Grande Motte in Tignes. Unfortunately we were in a fog for the most part and couldn’t take full advantage of the fresh powder, but we still savoured the colder temperatures and winter-like conditions and had some great skiing.

The piste skiing was also variable over the weekend with absolutely perfect snow up high on the Grande Motte and Pissaillas Glaciers, and some horribly sticky snow lower down on Saturday and Sunday, but after a very cold night on Saturday the lower slopes were pretty firm on Sunday.

We are now in for a period of colder weather over the next few days and with the fresh snow we should have some stunning skiing. It was -9C on the summit of the Olympique this morning and Monday’s forecast is calling for -16C at 3000 metres. These cold temperatures are quite rare for this time of the season and will do wonders for re-stabilising the snow pack as well as drying out the snow while keeping it cold. The perfect scenario would be for a little bit of light filtering through the clouds, just enough to navigate without stress but not enough to heat up the powder too much. I don’t ask for too much really! The colder temperatures will also make it much easier for the piste-bashers to groom the snow and avoid the ruts and snowballs that sometimes appear in their wake at this time of year.

The final week of the season could turn out to be fabulous and here’s what we are expecting:

• Monday- Partially sunny -7C/-1C Wind from the NW at 5 gusting to 50km/h
• Tuesday- Cloudy/light snow in PM and evening -5C/+2C Wind from the W at 5 gusting to 45km/h
• Wednesday- Partially sunny -7C/-1C Wind from the W at 5 gusting to 45km/h
• Thursday- Partially sunny -7C/+3C Wind from the W at 5km/h
• Friday- Partially sunny  -4C/+5C Wind from the SW at 5km/h

With the colder temperatures it looks as if we’ll be seeking out powder snow instead of spring snow this week, and we should have enough sunshine peeking through to have a wonderful week of skiing. Stay tuned for another, and perhaps the last update of the season on Friday. (I may do a season wrap-up when I get back to England on Monday.) And have a great finish to this most extraordinary season!

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