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Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

Alpe d'Huez enjoys lots of sunshine and warm temperatures

featured in Snow report Author Rob Wood, Alpe d'Huez Reporter Updated

Over the past few days, spring has well and truly arrived here in Alpe d’Huez with rising daytime temperatures and lots of sunshine as well. This has been widely due to the continued area of high pressure that has been in position over most of central Europe for the past 10 days or so. Barometric pressure currently stands at pretty high 1028mb and this looks set to remain like this for the next few days.

There are a couple of weak weather fronts due to arrive here towards the end of the weekend/early next week which, although unlikely, may bring a little bit of snow with them. The last reportable snow here was on 7th March but that was at the end of a snowy run of around 5 days with in excess of 100cm of snow falling up at 3300 metres in that period.

Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

It was a bit windy earlier today (Thursday) with gusts getting up to around 30km/h but, thankfully, it didn’t lead to any lift disruption. The winds look set to ease off over the next couple of days. This wind did take the edge off what otherwise would have been a really warm day.

Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

Today, as it has been for the past week or so, was lovely and sunny and temperatures in resort have regularly been getting up to around +10ºC in the afternoons. Indeed, temperatures this afternoon down in Bourg d’Oisans at the bottom of the mountain reached 20ºC and, out of the wind at the lower end of resort, the mercury reached 14ºC. These temperatures do take their toll on the snow as the days’ wear on, though. The current freeze level is up around 2700 metres and temperatures up at the top of Pic Blanc have been ranging between -4ºC in the mornings and +1ºC in the afternoons.

Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

The conditions on the slopes are, as you would expect, very spring-like now given the warm temperatures. So the best conditions are to be found on the higher slopes, with the pistes from Marmottes3 and the Pic Blanc in particularly good condition, or on the north facing pistes at altitude, as has been the case all the season. The Sarenne black run is in great condition and it is only the very bottom section that tends to get a bit softer as the day wears on.

Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

The lower slopes around resort are on the whole a bit crusty first thing in morning until they warm up a bit around 10:30 and then, as the days go on, they tend to get a bit slushy at the very lowest of elevations. This said, they are still in good condition and I personally think the slight trade-off in piste condition for skiing in lovely sunshine and warm temperatures is well worth it. Conditions between around 10:30 and 14:30 are truly cracking at the moment.

Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

On north-facing areas, snow currently extends down to around 1200 metres, whereas on the sun facing south areas its around 1600 metres. Avalanche risk is between 1 (Low) and 2 (Moderate) across the Grande Domaine ski area. However, with rising temperatures affecting the stability of, in particular, south facing slopes and in light of recent events in the Austrian Tyrol, always be careful both on and off piste. If you have any queries simply ask the nearest SATASKI liftie, ski instructor or mountain rescue guys (black and orange outfits).

Spring has sprung in Alpe d'Huez

Snow cover on piste currently stands at:

  • Alpe d’Huez: 1850m – 130cm
  • Pic Blanc: 3300m – 240cm
  • Auris village: 1650m – 40cm
  • Auris signal: 2176m – 100cm
  • Villard Reculas: 1500m – 50cm
  • Vaujany: 1250m – 10cm
  • Oz station: 1350m – 45cm
  • Montfrais: 1650m – 65cm
  • Dome des Rousses: 2800m – 95cm

Off piste depths currently stand at:

  • 2500m North facing – 230cm
  • 2500m South facing – 130cm
  • 1500m North facing – 60cm
  • 1500m South facing – 0cm

There are currently 64 lifts in operation in the Grande Domaine ski area (out of 69) and these are serving 110 pistes (out of 116). These pistes are:

  • Green – 40 (out of 40)
  • Blue – 29 (out of 29)
  • Red – 29 (out of 31)
  • Black – 12 (out of 16)
Le Spot Restaurant Review, Alpe d'Huez

There are 40km of cross country ski trails open (out of 50km) and, if you haven’t tried it before, it really is a wonderful way to see the mountain particularly in the glorious sunshine and warm temperatures. In addition to the cross trails, there are 39km of walking trails open (out of 41km) and these too are truly glorious in the spring weather.

It’s getting to that long lunch in a deck chair time of year now, which is great, and my personal favourites of Le Spot (in between Marmottes1 and the DMC – off the right-hand side) and the restaurant at the Lac Besson (up to the left of the DMC mid-station) are great for this. Whilst the huge deck at La Folie Douce takes some beating in the afternoon sunshine and the party gets going there around 14:30 every afternoon. The days are getting really long here now as well. as today we saw sunrise at 06:45 and sunset at 18:45 – finally the short days are behind us.

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