Val Thorens Snow Report: 22nd December 2014

The snow quality is variable – the lower slopes are hard in places where rain wetted the snow and then froze. Conditions are much better higher up where fresh snow fell recently and there is still good skiing to be done.

In comparison with many other ski areas, Val Thorens and the 3 Valleys are doing well: almost half our runs and more than half our lifts are open and new pistes are opening each day thanks to the tireless efforts of the lift companies. For those people who are asking whether it is worth coming out to ski, the answer is yes – but, please don’t have too high expectations. This is not going to be a brilliant holiday period like the past couple of years when there was powder everywhere. Not all the pistes will be open and some are narrower than usual. This means the slopes will be very busy and the snowpack is likely to get worn with all the added traffic. And of course there is no off-piste worth speaking of.

The resort is doing everything possible to make the holiday period as good as can be. Extra entertainments and activities are being laid on; instructors have been volunteering to shovel snow onto the beginner areas; lorries are driving through resort carrying spare snow to areas where it’s needed most. In order to reduce congestion the lift company has taken the unusual step of refusing to accept ski clubs and groups from outside the resort and has asked the locals to limit their own skiing to give priority to holiday makers. Beyond sacrificing plump virgins to appease the snow gods, I’m not sure what else Val Thorens could do.

The good news is that more snow is forecast for the end of this week, with a dump predicted for Sunday. Now, that would be the nicest Christmas present possible. So, in short, it definitely is worth coming skiing to Val Thorens this Christmas, but I would suggest thinking of this as a winter holiday when you try a few new activities in addition to skiing. You may notice that today’s photos are vastly better than my usual snaps. That’s because most of them were taken not by me but by professional photographer Martin Hemsley. Martin works also as a private instructor in Méribel and I had the pleasure of skiing with him in Val Thorens the other day. His clients not only go home better skiers but often with some excellent pictures of themselves in action on the snow. He kindly took a few pictures of our group and generously passed on some advice on how to take a better skiing photograph.

To take a frontal shot of a skier like this one, Martin has the following tips:

• Choose a slope where the skier will face into the sun
• Find a backdrop against which the skier will stand out, such as blue sky, dramatic rocks or, as here, the blue shadow of a glacier
• Set your camera to the Sport Setting to give a fast shutter speed and Continuous Shooting/Multi Burst (or, as it’s sometimes called, Spray and pray).
• If it is safe to do so, get down on the ground to gain a better angle (only do this if your ski model is a good enough skier not to ski into you!)
• Wait until there are no other skiers in the shot, and remind your model to smile as he/she skis towards you
• Try to take the shot at the start of the turn – most skiers’ technique is good at the start of the turn and technical faults are more apparent the end of the turn.

Thank you to Martin for sharing some of his professional secrets.

If you are coming to Val Thorens in the next few days, I wish you an excellent holiday and a Joyeux noël!