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We were promised about 30-40cm overnight on Friday (last night), but alas it turns out there’s only about 10cm this morning. Still, it’s light and fluffy so I can’t complain too much. It’s still snowing today and the forecast is for another 15-20cm by Monday night.

All pistes are in great condition, especially up on the glacier.

Here’s a tip: when people arrive in the resort they spend a few days being a bit chicken and getting to know the place, so congregate near the resorts and don’t venture out in the further territories. So if you’re looking to avoid the crowds, at the start of the week head out to the periphery, and then work your way back in towards the resort.

La Plagne has just launched its new carpooling service. If there are more than 3 of you in the car (I’m not quite sure how you prove this, mind..) you get a 16 euro discount on a day pass.

I guess this isn’t of great interest to those living in the UK, but if you’re living out here, or in a nearby resort and fancy some diversity, it’s worth remembering.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/jan/22/skiing.france

Right-o! I’m back from London and it’s as SUNNY!! as a powerfully bright hyperbole!

It doesn’t look like it’s snowed for a while, and the dominant high pressure that’s sitting over us at the moment means that it’s not going to for a few more days yet either, which is a pity.

That said the snowpack is great and the pistes are in great condition, so it would *seem* that all is good in the world. But driving up from the valley (ooh, I must do a post on the train sometime - it’s the best invention since steam) the lifts didn’t seem to be working, and there were queues at the bottom. I picked up a hitchhiking ski instructor (rather pretty, too, I thought) who explained that the buses and lifts were starting late since the operators had gone on strike for a few hours to draw attention to their low pay.

The lifts opened about 15 mins later (so I guess there was about 1h protest), so we’re back in the game. But remember they’re good people who help us all, whilst standing out in the cold all day, so be friendly with and smile at the lifties! I’d also recommend high fiving a piste basherer, because they have skills and insomnia and deserve our love.

The snow is still coming down after lightening up yesterday to let through some sun and give everyone a chance to go bounce around in the sun and fluff.

It’s forecast to continue for the rest of this week, too, so if you’re thinking of coming to the alps, now’s the time. It’s low season, the half term rush is yet to choke the pistes, your job probably sucks, and goddamn if you didn’t tell yourself that 2008 is the year for getting your priorities straight.

Everywhere is in great condition - the off piste is soft and light, and all the pistes are well covered. This current dump should give enough snow the cover those last remaining little patches of ice that so disturb the beginner which appear at the end of the day as the snow is brushed down the slope.

If you have the opportunity, I suggest getting yourself out here ASAP for a long weekend. I, alas, am going back to London for the week, so you can even use my flat if you’re fast!

Get on it!

It started snowing at about 2pm yesterday, and stopped at about 2am. Big, fluffy, glorious, white, happy-making snow. The report from the piste safety guy on the radio proudly - so very proudly, in fact - says that almost every area is open, and that most of the blasting is complete; apart from up on the glacier which will no doubt be open by the afternoon.

Forgive me for the short blog post, but as you can imagine I have to go make tracks!

After some very dodgy Föhn winds warming up the pistes, and then a few days of rain up to 2100m things were looking quite depressing.

Fortunately the weekend came to the rescue, and the snow started on Friday night, continued all of Saturday, and petered out on Saturday night, leaving a nice clear sky to bring on a bit of a chill.

Sunday has been bright sun and barely a cloud in the sky, and the snow is soft and fluffy. It’s amazing how quickly it gets tracked out these days, though.

Piste recommendations: pretty much anywhere is great and has good coverage. There’s some icy patches by the afternoon as the snow is brushed away, but nothing to worry about.

Off piste: head for the peripheries. Mont de la Guerre, off the Roche de Mio down to Les Bauches, and off the top of the Arpete down to Les Bois are all great. I suspect that off the Grand Rochette straight over down to Champagny is also lovely, but that’s more prone to sliding and with today’s avalanche risk of 4/5 exercise some caution. Oooh tell you what - I’ve not tried this this week since the g/f is here - but Cretes down to Coqs (black run, mostly unpisted) off towards Montalbert from Plagne Centre will be storming. Go give that a crack!

Well it started snowing heavily on Saturday night, giving us about 8 inches of fresh above 2000m, but the warm Föhn winds from the south, which had been bringing warm air since Friday, meant that when it fell, it fell wet and heavy.

I did a few runs yesterday taking in some off piste, but the avalanche risk has gone way up: a quick test slipped the second I cut away the back, and on the lower pistes the wet snow made it more like slow surfing.

Higher up is better, of course, but many of the high lifts were closed yesterday due to the avalanche risk.

This morning (Monday) they’ve been blasting since early. The temperature hasn’t fallen much, which means that the roads are slushy not slippery, and the falling snow occasionally turns to rain where I am at 2000m.

There’s heavy cloud so this looks set to continue for a few hours yet.  There’s sunshine forecast for tomorrow though, and a clear night tonight, so hopefully it’ll freeze up, and the pisteurs will work their nocturnal magic.

The second half of next week (10-12 January) sees La Plagne hosting the FIS Telemark World Cup, which means the racing elite are going to be in town.

It starts on the evening of the 10th in Plagne Centre with a night sprint down the slalom course, and then goes to Montchavin for the next twodays.

The competition consists of one descent in which they must demonstrate free skiing, skating, giant slalom, jumping, and a 180 turn. There are over 100 competitors from a dozen countries, all of whom are expected to complete the course in less than 90 seconds.

Source: Telemark Zone

Phil Lau, last years FIS winner and 2007 world champion will be in his town, and his brother Chris will be skiing for France.

So if you’ve a thing for firm legs and arses, I suggest you get to Montchavin in time to buy some drinks.

Well the snow we had today didn’t count for much - basically a bit of cosmetic retouching and giving the piste bashers some extra to play with.

However there’s still plenty of snow on the pistes, and even fresh tracks to be found off-piste if you know where to look: off the Bellecote glacier, off the top of Salla and down to Plan Bois, and the top of Mont de la Guerre are all good. Oh, and dropping off to the right (by the steep cliff / falling man signs…!) from the Roche de Mio.

Fingers x’d for more snow tomorrow.