© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
Bitterly cold temperatures ensure great snow in Alpe d'Huez
Cold snap brings back wintry conditions
After a sunny Saturday and sunny start to the day today, cloud built up a bit as the day went on and we may get a light dusting of snow tonight (Sunday). The past few days have seen temperatures as low -20ºC up at the top of the Pic Blanc at 3300m and daytime “highs” in resort at 1850m have struggled to get up to around -8ºC. These bitingly cold temperatures have ensured that the great snow cover remains in tip-top condition as the busy holiday period approaches.
We had around 20cm of snow at the end of last week and this provided a nice powdery top-up just in time for the weekend. The weather looks pretty settled for next few days and you can check out our latest detailed weather forecast for more details of the weather for the week ahead.
After rising up 3/5 on Thursday the avalanche risk has now thankfully returned down to 2/5 across the whole of the Grand Domain ski area, even at the very highest of elevations – which is obviously good news. However, if you have any doubts when you are up on the hill just ask the nearest SATASKI liftie (the black and orange outfits) or ESF ski instructor (red outfits) as I always say, don’t be a hero!
On-piste snow cover now stands at:
| Alpe d’Huez resort 1850m | 201cm |
| Pic Blanc 3300m | 320cm |
| Auris village 1650m | 201cm |
| Auris Signal 2176m | 201cm |
| Villard Reculas 1500m | 201cm |
| Vaujany 1250m | 70cm |
| Oz-en Oisans 1350m | 90cm |
| Montfrais 1650m | 120cm |
| Dome des Rousses 2800m | 200cm |
Off-piste cover now stands at:
| Elevation | North | South |
| 2500m | 300cm | 290cm |
| 2000m | 215cm | 170cm |
| 1500m | 100cm | 60cm |
Snow cover extends all the way down to around 900m – well below even the very lowest of slopes in the Grand Domain ski area (around 1450m).
As we approach the super-busy holiday period here in Alpe d'Huez this weekend we had a season-high number of lifts and pistes open, which is obviously helping to keep lift queues down and will continue to help when the half-term holidays (winter holiday as it’s referred to in France) start next weekend, Saturday 10th February.
We had 66/68 lifts open and 29/30 of these were in Alpe d’Huez itself, with only one small drag lift stopping it from being a full house here. These lifts were serving a season-high number of pistes, 101/103. The other lift not operating this weekend was the drag lift, TK Col, over in Auris and this is due to open next weekend to coincide with the half-term holidays. Of these 101 pistes - 26 are green, 31 are blue, 28 are red and 16 are black. So there continues to be something for everybody with plenty of choice at all elevations.
A few of the black runs remain as recommended for “bon skieurs uniquement” – good skiers only, in the main because of their mogully terrain. These are Balcons, Balme, Chateau Noir, and tunnel here in Alpe d’Huez and Fuma over in Auris on the way down to Maronne. These recommendations should be borne in mind, so please pay attention to the warnings.
The snow park here in resort is open and in great condition as is the smaller one, snow park Myrtilles, over in Vaujany.
We continue to have 100% of the cross-country ski trails open, with 39km of lovely groomed trails open. In addition, there are 36km of walking trails open.
The days continue to lengthen here in resort as Spring approaches, sunrise this morning was 07:55 and with sunset at 17:43, we get 9 hours and 48 minutes of daylight today, personally I love this stretch in the day and long gone are the early dark evenings of deep winter.
