Great snow cover, lots of runs open & more sun in the forecast

The wind looks set to stay for the next day-or-so, but should drop off by Saturday/Sunday which will make it feel a bit warmer and thankfully the wind switched from Northerly to Southerly, which has made it feel less cold. 

Barometric pressure currently stands at 1028mb and looks set to stay at around 1030mb for the next 5 to 7 days – which will mean a continuation of the settled conditions. A widening in the isobars over the weekend should see winds dropping to a hardly noticeable 4mph, which will help keep temperatures up a bit. At the moment temperatures up at 3300 metres have been -15degC in the mornings, rising to -7degC in the afternoons, while at resort level its around -4degC in the mornings and 0degC in the afternoons. These temperatures should get up to around +4/5degC in the afternoons in resort by Monday of next week.

With high pressure dominating there’s no snow in the forecast for the next 5 to 7 days and it looks like being largely sunny, although the long term forecast suggests we could get snow the weekend after next. 

The settled weather hasn’t produced any snow fall, with the last reported snow fall on Saturday 14th January, but this was a huge dump (around 80cm up at 3300 metres).

Snow cover currently stands at:

• PicBlanc (3300 metres) – 160cm
• Resort (1850 metres) – 70cm
• Auris village (1600 metres) 50cm
• Auris Signal (2100 metres) – 85cm
• Villard Reculas village (1500 metres) – 50cm

After the recent snowfall off-piste snow depths are:

• 2500 metres – North facing = 100cm/South 60cm
• 1500 metres – North facing = 30cm/South 10cm
• Snow cover down to 1000 metres (well below resort and all pistes level)

The recent snow has enabled loads more runs to open over the last 7 days-or-so.

Currently there are 44 (out of 49) lifts open in the whole of the ski area – of which 26 (out of 28) are in Alpe d’Huez itself. The Rifnel Express lift was out of action from Wednesday last week until Tuesday, but is back open and operational now. These lifts are serving a season high of 60 pistes (out of 89) of which 40 (out of 56) are in Alpe d’Huez itself – there are 13 pistes open in Auris-en-Oisans (across the “scare chair”) and 7 open in Villard Reculas.

Of these pistes:

• Green – 25 (out of 34)
• Blues – 16 (18)
• Red – 13 (23)
• Black – (14)

Both the snowparks (here in Alpe d’Huez and the smaller one in Vaujany) remain closed at the moment, but should open shortly (as February approaches) and the newly opened Marcel's Farm ski area, which has a small but great fun snow park area, is open and is in lovely condition.

As has been the case for most of the season here the Sarenne black run is in great condition, although the bottom section has been really cold in the low temperatures. The Tunnel black run up at the top of the PicBlanc is open but is marked “for very good skiers only” – its super-mogully and very steep, so these warnings should be borne in mind. Across the ski area all of the pistes are in really great condition after the recent snowfall.

As resort starts to get a bit busier as we approach February it’s worth remembering it’s always a bit quieter across the “scare chair”, over in Auris-en-Oisans.

Avalanche risk currently stands at 2 (moderate) at most elevations, but is does rise to 3 (considerable) up at the highest of elevations around 3000 metres+.

There are currently 24km of Nordic trails (out of 43km), whilst there is 3km of walking trails up to the Lac Besson – which is a genuinely lovely walk.