Val Thorens Snow Report : 24th December 2012

The French celebrate on the 24^th so the resort today is especially festive: Father Christmases were on the slopes; there are carols in the town centre; chic Parisians are rushing to the boulangerie to buy their chocolate logs; a chilly mass is to be celebrated tonight at the ice-rink.

Having said that, it felt more like Easter on the mountain today as the temperature is abnormally high for December. We spent most of the day taking off layers and marvelling at how nice it feels to be toasty warm on chairlifts. We even drank our mid-morning hot chocolate in the sunshine, while applying a second layer of sunscreen. While this warmth is very pleasant, it’s not so good for the snowpack.

Conditions on piste are still excellent high up, but the lowest slopes are now hard and icy. The off-piste snow still looks fabulous, but as soon as you venture off the groomed runs you hit an unpleasant crispy layer of snow and very soon decide to return to the pistes before it trips you over.

Today we enjoyed a magical morning making the most of the wonderful snow on the high runs off la Saulire. Méribel-dwellers have always enjoyed an unfair advantage over Courchevelites as our lifts take us to the top of Saulire quicker than theirs. Now that the new Saulire Express takes only 12 minutes, we have even longer to rip up the Courchevel powder and empty groomed slopes before Courchevel skiers can get there.

My favourite first run of the day in Courchevel is always Saulire. (Confusingly, everybody here refers to it as Combe or the Bowl but has now officially been shorted from Combe Saulire to just Saulire). Whatever you call it, this is still one of the classic runs in the 3 Valleys and it is at its very best first thing in the morning when the corduroy is virgin and you have the whole thing to yourself. This run alone was worth getting up early for. Next we skied Creux, another lovely piste when it’s empty, and worth skiing early in the morning before it turns into the M25. All the 3 Valley lifts are now open and it’s worth searching out the runs which have only just been made accessible as they often have the nicest, untouched snow on them. Roches grises was one such run, with the most perfect snow on it that I can remember.

One of the pleasures of skiing in Courchevel 1850 is people-watching: the rich, the beautiful and the fashionable are always to be found here. We noticed current bling fashion for trophy ski wives is tight, shiny ski clothing with a lavish fur collar and – best of all – heaps of crystals. If you want to embrace the look, Sport Boutique in Méribel centre has a lovely line in Swarofski crystal-encrusted jackets, starting at around €1,500….

Father Christmas is expected to bring us an even better Christmas gift – some proper winter temperatures and piles more powder are forecast from the 25^th onwards.

Merry and snowy Christmas to you from a snowy and Christmassy Méribel.