© Rob Wood
Changeable weather conditions in Alpe d'Huez
Some nice snowfall last week but a rise in temperature brings a bit of unwanted rain at resort level
The “Beast from the East” is long gone now and, over the past couple of days, temperatures have risen significantly with the arrival of a warm front from the Mediterranean. This brought with it some moisture filled clouds which has unfortunately led to some light rain at lower elevations.
These clouds, rain, and all-around poor weather led to some poor conditions today at higher elevations. Rain fell on Sunday until lunchtime up to a height of around 2000 metres, above which the pistes thankfully received a light dusting of snow rather than the wet stuff. After lunchtime, thankfully, the rain turned to snow across the whole area, albeit light, before fizzling out mid-afternoon.
A lowering freeze height, from 2000 metres to around 1400 metres by the end of Monday, should ensure that the precipitation forecast for Monday and Thursday falls as snow on all the slopes.
Last Thursday saw one of the best days of the season, or any season for that matter, with glorious sunshine, a bit of fresh snow from the previous two nights and warmer temperatures. Spring skiing at its very best!
Last week was the last of the French school holidays. In what continues to be a bumper season, it was surprisingly busy, especially with young families. It has been a long time since have seen so many “snakes” of little ones whizzing around the slopes in formation, a really good sign for the future of resort! Lift queues around ski school time were particularly long but all the French schools have now finished their “winter” (half-term) holiday and the resort is much quieter today.
As you would expect after the recent snowfall, rainfall and rise in temperatures, the avalanche risk has risen over the past few days. It currently stands at 3 out of 5 across the whole of the ski area – so take care up on the hill in the current conditions.
After last week's reasonable snowfall, on-piste snow cover still stands, impressively for March, at:
- Alpe d’Huez resort (1850m) - 220cm
- Pic Blanc (3300m) - 383cm
- Auris village (1650m) - 125cm
- Auris Signal (2176m) - 129cm
- Villard Reculas (1500m) - 108cm
- Vaujany (1250m) - 110cm
- Oz-en Oisans (1350m) - 110cm
- Montfrais (1650m) - 150cm
- Dome des Rousses (2800m) - 250cm
Off piste snow cover now stands at:
- 2500m: north- 380cm, south - 320cm
- 2000m: north - 240cm, south - 200cm
- 1500m: north -145cm, south - 90cm
- 1000m: north - 25cm, south - 20cm
Thanks to the recent snowfall over the past week or so, off-piste conditions up high are now much improved and have a lovely soft top as opposed to the crunchy icy top surface that had been the case for the past couple of weeks. However, obviously, avalanche risk has risen. The recent rain at lower elevations has made the lower areas a bit slushy and, with a likely drop in temperature, these areas will inevitably “crust” a bit. Snow cover still extends all the way down to around 900 metres so every slope within the Grande Domaine ski area has plenty of snow cover. Thanks to recent snowfall, the slopes really are in fabulous condition as has been the case all season.
On Sunday, we had 66 lifts in operation (out of 69) and these were serving some 102 pistes (out of 103) with the only exception being red run Stade Montfrais, over in Vaujany, that was being used by the local ski club (as is often the case). Of these 102 pistes, 27 are green, 31 are blue, 27 are red and 17 are black. So there continues to be something for everybody with plenty of choice at all elevations, as has been the case all season thanks to the great snow cover.
There continues to be 100% of the cross-country ski trails open, with 39km of lovely groomed trails available and they really are in great condition. In addition to these XC trails, there are 36km of walking trails open. Unfortunately, the recent rain hasn’t helped and has turned these a little bit heavy as most are below an elevation of 2000 metres but, thankfully, the damage is only minor and will be put right by the snow in the week.
As spring fast approaches, the days continue to stretch here now. With sunrise at 06:56 and sunset at 18:35, we had 11 hours and 39 minutes of daylight on Sunday.
Resort has been buzzing this weekend after Friday's long-awaited confirmation that it will host the first-ever Tomorrowland Winter festival. Tomorrowland is basically Europe’s version of Glastonbury and it’s heading here in March 2019!
