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Val Thorens Snow Report: 2nd March 2015

Rock falls and a mixed bag of weather conditions this week

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

Blimey what a weekend. Well if it’s not snow causing chaos on a Saturday, it’s erm, rocks?! Friday afternoon saw in movie-esque style a huge rock fall and block the main mountain road leading up to the Belleville valley causing great difficulties for accessing/leaving resort.

The main road was closed immediately with an alternative route onto the ‘old’ road. On Friday evening the chaos started with 1hour intervals set up for traffic either ascending or descending. The result, my 5 minute journey home took an hour, this was nothing however compared to tourists trying to leave or arrive the following day.

Due to the old road being very narrow and with tight winding bends it was only suitable for light vehicles so buses/coaches were a no-go. A timetable was quickly circulated on Saturday to communicate that only traffic would be able to head down the mountain until at least mid afternoon with the reverse then in operation for the latter part of the day. What actually happened was that the team removed the rock and repaired the road to allow two-way traffic back on the main mountain road by late afternoon. As this was the first time traffic was able to ascend all day, the tailbacks caused chaos on the motorway.

What an immense effort from the resort, not only did they work rapidly to ensure access to the road opened up quickly in just over 24hrs. I understand there was also an operation in Val Thorens involving the piste bashers taking guests and their luggage into another valley to take buses/coaches, just amazing. Car sharing was encouraged to help any stranded passengers leave resort to get to their intended destination. Transfer drivers came into their own, taking as many in-the-know short cuts and back roads to avoid traffic jams. All in all, good effort Team Belleville!

So aside, from all this stones on the road malarkey I guess you want to know about the important white stuff. We had a lovely dump of snow at the end of last week and there were some great powder days to be had over the weekend if you were on the slopes that is and not in your car!  

Saturday was a particular treat, with cloud at the bottom of resort but a delight for skiers who were able to get above the cloud at around 2000m for some sun and fantastic skiing. The pistes were understandably also pretty quiet!  

Now, I’m guessing you don’t want us to beat around the bush and would prefer we tell it like it is. So, you’re probably not going to like this next bit. There are two things you don’t really ever want to see in a ski resort; grass and rain. We have the latter.

With temperatures staying at around three degrees it is not cold enough yet to change into snow. Unfortunately this is not just the case for lower resorts, with the same at around 2200m. Here’s hoping at the very top peaks, though there is snow falling, I need to fix some windscreen wipers to my goggles to find out! Also, today has seen high winds so many lifts have had to close. Not the best, but the good news is there is snow forecast on/off all week so hopefully if temperatures drop then we will have some lovely fresh powder to play around in once again. Also, on the 14 day forecast I’m seeing sun, sun and sun for next week. Spring is on its’ way I’m sure of it…

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Read more 3 Valleys Snow Reports from Meribel & Courchevel.

Location

Map of the surrounding area