Val Thorens Snow Report: 7th March 2013

Monday seems a long time ago now as it brought blue skies and sunshine. The day was beautiful but windy and chilly at the top of Val Thorens at around 3,200m. The downside to the day was that there were huge queues in Val Thorens which threw all timings out for the day and meant not as much boarding was done as was hoped. Still, it was a great day with coffee in the sunshine and a picnic stop in Orelle taking in the stunning views. Despite the busy lift queues the runs over in Orelle were fabulously quiet - a welcome relief.

Tuesday came with bad news. There were warnings at the lift stations advising to keep in your own valley if possible but links were still available if you wanted to risk it. Unfortunately my guests did not read the information boards and headed straight down to Meribel. I could not believe what I was met with on arrival when I went to meet them. The queues were unbelievable. Both the Saulire and Tougnete lifts were closed which meant congestion everywhere as people desperately tried to get up onto the mountain. The resort is really busy at the moment anyway so with limited access up to the piste, it just created chaos. The general plan was to have a coffee and see if it died down. The coffee led to lunch and then we went back to see what we were met with. By this point lifts had opened up but I thought we had better stay safe and head back to our valley should there be any later closures. I was perhaps a little too cautious as some of my guests reported in the evening that they did make it further afield and back again safely. We did however enjoy some nice quiet runs back on home ground and a beautiful sunset, which was a nice finish to the day.

I thought that we would attempt the previous day's planned itinery on Wednesday but were again met with a few challenges. Meribel was closed totally for the Val Thorens side of the valley. This time access was roped off with barriers to prevent adventuring elsewhere. It seemed a pretty average day weather wise but once you hit a certain level the winds on the lifts heading up to around 2,500m were horrendous. Only the lower lifts were generally open and links to Les Menuires were available which gave scope for escaping resort. The wind meant the loose snow was being whipped up leaving lots of very icy sections. As there was only a very limited ski area available the lifts that were open were packed which again meant not as much skiing was achieved as first hoped. We did make the most of the day and again just added in a few more coffee, lunch and beer stops than normal! The changing weather did make for some dramatic views with lots of interesting cloud cover and formations. The sun did manage to sneak through just in time for lunch and for our final run home of the day. Despite the winds we did stop on the way home to capture the view and enjoy a quick pass around of the hip flask which provided some well needed warmth!

All in all, a pretty frustrating couple of days so fingers crossed for calmer weather over the next week or so. The forecast does indicate better conditions but high winds are due again towards the end of next week with a mixture of light snow and sunshine. We will just have to wait and see.

So as not to end on too much of a negative note, I think an appropriate way to look at is a quote printed on a young guest's t-shirt recently; “a bad day on the mountain beats a good day at school”.

I have to agree.