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Val Thorens Snow Report: 17th April 2015

A mixed week for the weather & snow conditions

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

This week has shown the mountains in their absolute spring skiing’s finest! If you were staying in the lower resorts of St Martin and Les Menuires you would have been able to enjoy a great days skiing and then slip into your shorts and flip flops for après, it’s been boiling hot!

Up in Val Thorens whilst also warm, it is colder at the top and thus maintaining great snow conditions. I was surprised mid-week when I headed up Cime Caron to 3200m that it was really quite windy and chilly, I was regretting dumping my base layer that morning! I had numb hands after a quick photo stop and made a rapid exit down.

A slight breeze/wind had blown off the top layer of loose snow and left an icey piste underneath, particularly on the top of the rollers which were catching most of the wind. There were lots of bemused skiers at the edges trying to work out how to get down - ‘hoon it’ was the best tactic I found! Once you hit the mid-station the snow then turned more slushy. A real mix of conditions.

Val Thorens though is still fully covered and looking pretty, pretty good for April. As the temperatures are so much warmer as you decrease in altitude it is reflected in the piste conditions. The drag lift in St Martin managed to hold on until the middle of the week and then had to call it a day. Apparently if you skied down on one ski, it was still possible! The sunnier facing slopes in Les Menuires without snow canon assistance have also ended for this season but the majority still open. Whilst all lifts and pistes are still open in Val Thorens, good work!

It has been a bit of a ski school dodge this week with French holidays. From what I’ve seen, if you’ve got tiny skiers then now is a good time to try it out as the slush creates automatic brakes! I saw a very brave little one, who was skiing with superhero cape, do an amazing splits and face plant maneuver who came up laughing!

The weather has now taken a turn and is looking pretty grim for the weekend. There is some light snow forecast up in Val Thorens with rain lower down. The sun then returns again at the beginning of next week. With UK holidays now definitely out of the way and with a lot of seasonnaires already leaving resort, I think you are skiing this week you will pretty much have the place to yourself, enjoy.

Location

Map of the surrounding area