A blue and white kind of day in the 3 Valleys

Following this though the blue sky has returned and looks like it is here to stay for the foreseeable future, well until Wednesday anyway.

I have just got back from an awesome Friday afternoon riding around the slopes. When you are racing round in every other aspect of your day to day life it is great some times to just take your time on the slopes and enjoy the cruisey blues and greens, take in the views and with snow under your board and sun on your cheeks, what do we have to complain about?

Val Thorens as always at this time of year seems to be busier than other areas, with people heading to the VT valley for the high altitude snow. Normally by mid March we see (especially in the afternoons) huge slush moguls, however I was pleasantly surprised this afternoon to be riding still really well groomed pistes that had not been chopped up. Temperatures are remaining on the cooler side with a nice fresh breeze making it near perfect conditions.

An indication of how good conditions are at the moment is by my partners mum heading out on the slopes this afternoon determined to crack skiing after giving it up 30 years ago. Having lived in the Alps for over 15 years now, temptation never has called until today. Kindly the pictures of the ‘pizza’ and ‘chips’ lesson on the magic carpet have been held back. As an aside, it was interesting to note that the Italian instructors teach ‘pizza’ and ‘spaghetti’ (obviously!)

The slopes were beautifully quiet over in La Masse this afternoon as this tends to be an area people head to first thing for the sun. Later in the season however all areas are still catching the late afternoon sun making it a really pleasant time to head out. I did intend to do the exact opposite and join the ‘first tracks’ group at La Masse this morning however I did not make the booking in time, which is by 2pm on Thursday. If you have not come across this before, it is definitely worth looking out for if you are staying in Les Menuires. The ‘first tracks’ ticket provides breakfast at around 8am and you get to ski from La Masse before the lifts open, such a treat, especially when conditions are as good as they are at the moment. It will stay on my ‘to do’ list for this season and hopefully I can get it ticked off soon.

It looks like this weekend is going to be glorious once again with temperatures not dropping below -3, however later next week it looks like temperatures will descend to -11 which is good news to preserve conditions for the Easter break coming up.