Val Thorens Snow Report: 13th January 2014

The lower slopes have started to ‘transform’, metamorphosing into the sort of snow that we normally see in March and April. The lower slopes are now mostly hard and unforgiving with icy patches developing. Yesterday, I even saw some slush on the sunny Pic run. It’s not what we hope for in January. After the past two brilliant seasons, it’s a bit of a comedown to ski on less-than-perfect snow.

The higher slopes have much better snow and here you can still find very good skiing if you know where to go. The trick is to head for high slopes which receive little sun. Wherever you ski, you have to keep an eye open for stones on the pistes – they are showing through in quite a few areas now.

What about the off-piste? Well, I’ve been sticking firmly to the marked runs so far this season -Schumacher’s accident is a sobering reminder of what can happen when boulders are insufficiently covered. However, I did have a most cheering conversation yesterday with high mountain guide guide Philippe de Gelis who reassured me that there is still good snow to be found if you know where to look and are prepared to walk for it. The high ridges are wind-blown, he told me, and the low areas are a bit crusty, but the in-between areas are still good and worth skiing – but you must be careful to avoid the boulders.

Given the current mild weather and mixed snow conditions, a good area to be is in the high Val Thorens valley. Yesterday we skied from Méribel to Val Thorens and Orelle (the ‘fourth valley’) and did find good snow on almost all the run in this area. Thanks to the mild weather we were able to use chairlifts all day long without freezing – a novelty in January.

To my mind, the best route from Méribel to VT in mild weather has to be the ‘four chairs’ route: Plan de l’homme, Tougnete 2, Chatelet and Cote brune*. From the top of Cote brune you can enjoy a wonderful, wild, swooping descent down the blue run Pluviometre in VT or an equally enjoyable rollercoaster ride down Mont de la Chambre. (If you take the latter piste, don’t forget to take a left on the boulevard after the little Alpage chalet else you end up in Les Menuires by mistake.) Both these runs can be very busy in high season but in quiet early January they are deserted, allowing you the chance to carve from side to side at speed. The runs are very quiet now, and it is a joy being able to get straight onto every lift.

There are two routes into Orelle. My preferred route is via the Moutieres chairlift and queue-free Grand Fond funitel. If you take the Cime Caron route you are likely to find a queue at the lift and you are obliged to take the steep and sometimes rather gnarly Combe de rosael black run.

After the mediocre conditions on some of the lower pistes in the 3 Valleys, it was a pleasure to find the snow was very good on almost all the runs in Val Thorens and Orelle.  Piste du jour was the long red Coraia run from the high Pointe du Bouchet at 3,230m. To reach this piste used to involve two tediously slow chairlifts. This year, the first of these two, Peyron, has been replaced by a much speedier chair, considerably reducing journey time. While on this lift, proud to show off my local knowledge, I announced we were heading to the highest skiing point in the 3 Valleys. “So is it the highest skiing point in Europe?” came the reply, which stumped me and even the lift attendant didn’t know. I’ve now looked it up and find the highest ski lifts in Europe are:

• The Klein Matterhorn lift in Zermatt is the highest cable car in the world at 3820m. Above this there is also a drag lift to 3,899 metres which is only open for summer skiing.
• The next highest is the Aiguille du Midi gondola in Chamonix at 3,842m. However, this doesn’t serve any pistes, only off-piste areas, so I’m not sure this really counts.
• And if you consider Russia is really part of Europe, then Mount Elbrus, has the next highest lift at 3,800 metres.  So now we know.

While we were at the Pointe du Bouchet, we saw the new zip wire being installed. This seriously scary ride should be complete next month. I’ll bring you more news of this, and the new lifts, in the next video snow report on Wednesday.

After this slightly gloomy account of current snow conditions, I leave you with the welcome news that snow is forecast this week. Let’s hope it’s a proper dump ….

*On a colder day, you could take all gondola lifts to VT: Tougnete 1, Plattieres 1 & 3, then either Mont de la Chambre chairlift with its pulldown weather shield or Bruyeres. But then again, do you really want to ski all the way to chilly Val Thorens on a cold day?