© Rob Wood
Most pistes remain open in Alpe d'Huez
Fantastic spring skiing
It was another fairly mixed bag of weather this week, with some really strong winds causing many lift closures on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but thankfully by Thursday the winds had dropped right off. It was a rare snow-free week at resort level, but there was a tiny bit up on the higher slopes. The temperatures took an upward turn on Thursday and Friday was a proper wall-to-wall sunshine spring day up on the hill.
This coming week may again be a bit breezy at times and again some lift closures, particularly up high, are likely. We may get some light snowfall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when the temperatures look set to drop to below zero again, especially higher up. In total around 25cm of snow may fall on the higher slopes, not massive but great at such a late stage in the season.
The warmer temperatures have definitely started to give it more of a spring feel on the pistes as the snow takes on a softer slushier feel. With rising temperatures and a still impressive snowpack depth the avalanche risk stands at 3/5 across the whole of the ski area – so as always take care up on the hill.
The Easter holiday period has brought with it plenty of British families, but nothing like the peaks that we experienced in February half term, and I expect this week to that bit quieter than last, as some of the schools back in the UK return.
After a week of unsettled weather but with little snow fall, cover on-piste currently stands super-impressively for mid-April at:
| Alpe d’Huez resort 1850m | 233cm |
| Pic Blanc 3300m | 436cm |
| Auris village 1650m | 85cm |
| Auris Signal 2176m | 154cm |
| Villard Reculas 1500m | 73cm |
| Vaujany 1250m | 110cm |
| Oz-en Oisans 1350m | 120cm |
| Montfrais 1650m | 170cm |
| Dome des Rousses 2800m | 270cm |
After the snow free week off piste snow cover now stands at:
| Elevation | North | South |
| 2500m | 400cm | 350cm |
| 2000m | 240cm | 200cm |
| 1500m | 120cm | 40cm |
| 1000m | 0cm | 0cm |
The snow free week means it’s getting a bit tracked out off-piste, but considering we are well into April now, it’s still in great condition. It goes without saying at this late stage of the season that the best of the off-piste conditions are higher up (2800m +) and North facing – generally between the Dome des Rousses and Pic Blanc and towards Clavans.
As we enter the last two weeks of the season we continue to have the wonderful luxury of pretty much every piste still being open, even the lower runs through the Maronne Forest (like Farcis, Fuma and Col) over in Auris, down at around 1500m– and their condition on the whole for April is pretty good.
Today we still had 64 lifts in operation (out of 69 = 93%) and these were serving some 102 pistes (out of 103 = 99%). Of these 102 open pistes - 27 are green, 31 are blue, 28 are red and 16 are black. So as has been the case all winter there really is something for all abilities and tastes, which is great as we enter the final couple of weeks of this incredible season.
The always popular Sarenne black run is in good condition on the whole but the bottom section down in the gorge is starting to wear a bit now, as its quite low and with rising temperatures and a bit of rain, this has taken its toll on the lower flatter bit. If you are tackling the Sarenne, best get at it nice and early.
The infamous Tunnel black run up at the top of the Pic Blanc remains super-mogully and is marked as “bon skiers uniquement” – good skiers only, and this really is the case on this notoriously mogully and steep piste. This caveat has been in place pretty much all season. This run really is brutal, and the warning is there for a very good reason.
Although we are now into April there continues to be 100% of the cross country ski trails open, with 39km of lovely groomed trails open and they really are in great condition for such a late stage in the season, but like the main pistes they do get softer as the day goes on. In addition to these XC trails there are still 36km of walking trails open.
As we are now well into April the days really are stretching out now with sunrise this morning at 0703am and sunset at 2010pm – so we had a whooping 13hours 07minutes of daylight today to enjoy all that Alpe d’Huez has to offer.
