A bit of a mixed week ahead, with snow and sunny spells. Rumour has it that we will have a return to winter in mid April with cold temperatues and lots of snow.
Current skiing conditions are still great with full deep coverage on most of the pistes.
Category: Snow conditions
Local snow conditions for the Portes du Soleil area
News and weather – 27.03.06
As March ends and April approaches, we have fantastic spring skiing under sunny skies. It looks like we might have a bit of a return to winter this evening with snow down to village level. That should freshen pistes up nicely before the Easter holidays.
News and weather – 13.03.06
Sun sun sun, with nearly 3 m of snow at the top of the mountain. It really doesn’t get any better than this!
News and weather – 12.03.06
Conditions are as good as they get…sunshine and huge amounts of powder. This amount of snow this late in the season is paving the way for fantastic conditions right up until the end of April. Enjoy…
News and weather – 03.03.06
A huge amount of snow on our steps this morning, and a further 1.5 m forecast over the next 24 hours. Please take care when skiing/boarding and don’t go off piste unless you know what you doing – slopes may not be safe for the next couple of days…
News and weather – 02.03.06
What a season we have had so far – the snow just keeps on coming. If the Cham meteo has got it right (and they very rarely get it wrong), we can expect over a metre of snow in the next 24 hours, followed by a couple of sunny days and then more snow next week…
News and weather – 18.02.06
A lot of snow has fallen over the last 48 hours, and it is currently causing chaos on this busy changeover weekend! As of 14.00 on Saturday, it is still snowing heavily. Hopefully the clouds will lift over the next couple of days to give some splendid skiing.
Extreme Avalanche Danger in Northern Alps – 17.02.06
We have just received the following bulletin from PisteHors.com:
If you are in the French Alps you may have noticed that the westerly wind has been gaining strength since 8pm today. This message is to warn you that the avalanche danger has been raised to Extreme for the Beaufortin and Haute-Tarentaise areas of the Savoie and is High elsewhere in the Northern Alps. The Haute-Tarentaise includes ski resorts such as la Plagne, les Arcs, Tignes and Val d’Isère. Extreme danger means that widespread natural or human triggered avalanches are certain. There are very unstable slabs on most aspects and slope angles and large destructive avalanches are possible. Some avalanches may reach communication links and buildings.
Please take care over the weekend.
The fresh snow over the last 24 hours, 50 to 70cm over 2300 meters in the Northern Alps, has brough a high to extreme avalanche risk to the mountains. The snow below 2300 meters is very water logged and wet snow slides are also to be expected – especially in known avalanche channels where slides may cross roads.
MORE…
Higher up new snow slabs will have formed, particuarly on north to east sector slopes under the influence of the southerly, veering westerly winds. This is sitting on older, unconsolidated snow which will form a weak layer and on residual slabs which may be overloaded by the new snow. The colder temperatures over the weekend should help consolidate this snow at lower altitudes but great care is required over the next few days with route choice, even on routes normally considered “safe”.
Update 23h30
The wind from the south-west has noticably strengthened since 20h00 with new snow in the Beaufortin and Haute-Tarentaise areas (this includes resorts such as la Plagne, les Arcs, Tignes and Val d’Isère). The total fresh snow in those areas may reach 1 metre by tomorrow evening in places. Meteo France has raised the avalanche alert to EXTREME (5/5). This means that widespread natural or human triggered avalanches are certain. There are extremely unstable slabs on most aspects and slope angles and large destructive avalanches possible.
Further information:
Snow and Avalanche Conditions
News and weather – 14.02.06
Extremely “interesting” weather on the horizon – bucketloads of snow on the mountain, and depending where the freezing level ends up, and how long it goes on for, perhaps a fair bit on the village as well!
News and weather – 13.02.06
Looks like a lot of snow is forecast for later on this week…keep checking back to see what actually happens…