Fantastic skiing under blue skies

This means for those skiers who have booked to stay in resort they get really, really quiet slopes. It is literally like they have been reserved just for you!

This week temperatures have been falling just around sub zero which has also made for fantastic skiing conditions on great corduroy pistes. We know that the big question on everyone’s lips at the moment though is s.n.o.w. Well, we will be straight with you, there has been no fresh snow and there in nothing showing on the forecast. We have in fact heard from local weather-watchers that they do not expect fresh snow until mid-January eek. We will just have to wait and see...

In the meantime though there is plenty of piste to ski in the Three Valleys with 131 slopes available, the snow depth at 3200m is 135cm and at 2300m there’s a snow depth of 60cm. The snow canons have once again been working hard to open areas lower down in resort. We will need to check the stats this weekend to see if there are any new additions to the ski area. With Christmas guests arriving this weekend and throughout the week, it is likely there will be a few more areas to add to the domain to cope with the higher volume of people in resort.

We were asked this week whether beginner ski lessons would be cancelled due to lack of snow, please be reassured that there is more than enough snow to go around! The only issue if you are staying in lower resorts could be that beginner level ski groups may need to head up to higher sections of the slopes on the ski lifts, sooner than they may have done, had beginner areas had better snow cover. The canons are working hard though so there should also be a nice area for little ones to practice that pizza/chips technique. The behind the scenes piste team across the Three Valleys really do need a pat on the back for the new investment in snow canons, planning and action taken to make sure they can provide the 3Vallees ‘snow guarantee’. The ski area available in the Three Valleys this winter is a definite improvement on similar conditions at this time last year.

These types of weeks can be a great opportunity to really make your ski holiday a bit different. So instead of whizzing around the slopes trying to get as many miles under your skis and aiming for your fastest speed recorded on ski tracks, why not try something new. If you are a skier, try snowboarding or vice versa, you do not need 600km of piste to give that one a go - or if you do, you have taken to it really, really well! With friends or family if you all opt into the challenge as a group it will also provide a good giggle or two and we are not going to lie most probably a bruised behind.

If you want to tick something new off your bucketlist try ice diving which is now available in Val Thorens. Launched last year, you head to Lac de Lou at the bottom of Val Thorens and get to try out the experience, it's certainly not a normal day out and you’ll have a good tale to tell afterwards. You could also try flying high above the resort either on a parapente or take a helicopter trip which are really easy to arrange in resort and will provide something you will be sure to remember from your ski trip.

The Three Valleys really does have lots to offer and each week we are going to try and share a few small tips with you of things that perhaps you might not know are on offer, starting with the ‘easy rider’ routes in Les Menuires. If you are fed up as a beginner having other skiers coming too close and you are struggling to find your confidence then look out for the Easy Rider routes. These are beginner-friendly zones marked with pink signs, try La Montagnette which runs down to the Croisette and ski at your own pace to build up your technique.

Secondly, if you need to sort out in your group who is actually the fastest skier then head to the ‘Mini KL’ in Les Menuires where you can measure your speed on the speed skiing run. You can find the start point at the top of the Paturages piste accessed via the Sunny Express chairlift or the Les Buryeres 2 gondola.

We hope anyone arriving in resort this weekend should have a trouble free journey with Christmas traffic being spread out across this week with accommodation offering different arrival days. Also the one benefit (we think there is only one) of having no fresh snow is that the roads are perfectly clear. Have a safe trip and a good ski weekend.

When she's not reporting for us, Gemma runs My Mountain Boutique.