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3 Valleys Snow Report: 19th March 2015

The latest news & snow conditions in the 3 Valleys ski area

featured in Snow report Author Gemma Hunt, Val Thorens Reporter Updated

Well what a glorious week it has turned out to be! We have had sun, sun and more sun. Which has make for great conditions for the World Cup Ski finals. Whilst not in the Belleville valley it is just a quick trip over to Meribel to catch all the action.

What I truly love about these events as a spectator is that you can get so close to the course, there’s no tickets and no faff. It really is quite unbelievable that you can ski alongside the course as the professionals fly past. It’s like being able to play football on the adjoining pitch at the World Cup!

To be able to access the top of the course from the Belleville side of the valley you just head to St Martin and down the piste towards Jerusalem then onto Choucas. As you get closer you can’t miss the course and there is then a new route barriered-off which you can follow all the way down to Meribel. I started quite high up and found it quite disconcerting to be watching a huge sporting event in silence. As I got closer to the racecourse barrier however I found what I was looking for, huge support groups with the obligatory mountain sporting cow bell! This actually turned out to be really handy as it was a good indicator when the skier was approaching. The noise of the racer as they fly past is really something else, the best I can try to put into words is a silent whoosh! As they do allow you so close to the racecourse barrier the downside is the track is quite challenging to ski. It did provide inter-race amusement watching people trying to ski down. The joy at the moment is that there are so many really good race skiers who have come to watch the event so seeing them on the piste and down this particular section really showed everyone how it was done.

Aside from racing this week the skiing is still pretty good. It does take some tactical planning as on the very first lift you do find temperatures are lower and some pistes can be icy. You need to plan your day to hit the better pistes once the sun has warmed it up a little but not too late so that you are in deep slush. I would say 10.30am-1.30am is about spot on. I did make an error yesterday in a mad rush to get back after staying at the lunch spot too long, by heading down a black mogul run into Les Menuires which had turned into slush moguls, quite a challenge.

Conditions at the moment also check whether your ski kit is actually as waterproof as it says it is! Talking about wet snow and dry snow sounds ridiculous but it is wetter at the moment and gloves etc. take some drying off in the sunshine. It’s also a lot heavier and harder on the legs. I’m finding I’ve also fallen over more this week than the whole rest of the season, so just take care. Apparently the medical centre is busy, busy.

The forecast is indicating that there is more snow on the way next week. We will have to wait and see if it arrives. If the forecast is correct then we should have snow Saturday/Sunday and Wednesday/Thursday. It would be a great top-up to get the resort through to the end of the season in just a few weeks time. We’ll see…

Location

Map of the surrounding area