© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
Four seasons in one week in Alpe d'Huez
A very mixed week here in resort
Sunshine, snow, rain and wind – no it’s not a typical English summer's day, it’s the New Year in Alpe d’Huez!
To say the weather has been unsettled this week would be an understatement, we literally have had every condition possible up on the slopes over the past few days. The inclement weather has in the main been due to the weather patterns that have accompanied storms Dylan and Eleanor across the Atlantic – storms that wreaked widespread disruption to the UK and Northern Europe in general.
Saturday 30th saw torrential rain all day in resort and indeed up to an elevation of around 2700 metres. This did, unfortunately, have an adverse effect on the snow conditions. However, it was soon rectified by some nice fresh snowfall on New Years’ Eve into New Year's day and then again on the evening of Jan 1st into Jan 2nd. Around 25cm fell both evenings and this largely rectified the damage done by Saturday's horrendous rainfall. We had a bit more snow on Wednesday night into Thursday morning when around 15cm fell in resort with a bit more up at higher elevations.
New Year's day was a glorious day for those who managed to make it up the hill. Sunshine and powder snow, a great way to welcome in 2018. It’s snowed pretty much every day for the past 2 weeks at some point.
Winds have been high all week here and gusts of 150km/h were recorded on Wednesday afternoon, which led to the closure of the mountain with only one run in resort remaining open. The RifNel beginner's slope was the only survivor but, given the winds, resort had no option but to close everything.
On the bright side on-piste snow cover now stands at:
- Alpe d’Huez resort (1850m): 160cm
- Pic Blanc (3300m): 180cm
- Auris station (1650m): 90cm
- Auris Signal (2176m): 120cm
- Villard Reculas (1500m): 85cm
Meanwhile, off-piste depths currently stand at:
- 2500m: North-facing - 230cm; south-facing - 200cm
- 2000m: North-facing - 170cm; south-facing - 150cm
- 1500m: North-facing - 100cm; south-facing - 80cm
- 1000m: North-facing - 40cm; south-facing - 20cm
The snow limit currently lies at around 700 metres in Bourg d’Oisans, at the bottom of the mountain, so every slope with the Grande Domaine ski area has plenty of good snow cover. Alpe d'Huez has started to get a bit quieter over the past few days as the festive period draws to a close. New Year's day saw a steady stream of cars and coaches making their way down the hill out of resort and that trend has continued as the return of schools across Europe approaches or many are already back in. Lift queues are noticeably shorter now.
There are currently 33 lifts in operation, though this has been fluctuating due to weather and wind. These lifts are currently serving 66 pistes, of which 22 are green, 20 are blue, 16 are red and 8 are black. As with the lifts, the number of pistes open has been largely dependent on the work of Sata Ski in securing the whole area given this week’s tricky conditions and in particular due to a fluctuating freeze height (anything between 1000 metres and 3000 metres over the past few days) which has obviously increased avalanche risk.
Avalanche risk today stands at 4 out 5, so care should be taken up on the slopes. Pistes are closed for a reason, don’t be a hero! Barring Saturday 30th December when the pistes were quite heavy, conditions remain really good.
Thankfully it does look like the weather will settle down over the weekend and we can all take advantage of the great snow cover and fantastic conditions that are prevalent across the whole of the ski area.
Bon ski!
