© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
© Rob Wood
Sunny start to the week in Alpe d’Huez
Sun and good snow cover all around resort
On the whole, the weather has settled down now after being very inclement for the past month or so. It looks like it will remain fairly settled for the next few days, with plenty of sunshine in the forecast. Thankfully, the winds have also dropped now.
We had some lovely sunshine last week with Tuesday and Wednesday, in particular, providing us with some of the best conditions of the season so far. We had a little bit of snow on Friday when around 10 to 15cm fell and this was perfect just before the weekend. There may be some more snow on Thursday and Friday when around 40cm may fall on the higher slopes.
As has been the case all season, conditions on the slopes remain really good, mainly thanks to the great snow depths that we are experiencing. The whole of the Grande Domaine is in tip-top condition. The Sarenne black run at the top of the Pic Blanc is great, especially in the mornings, whilst the infamous Tunnel black run is super steep and mogully (as always) and really isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Thankfully after the more settled weather avalanche risk has been reduced down to 2 out of 5 on the slopes below 3000 metres and rises to 3 out of 5 on the higher slopes over 3000 metres. Today, the freeze height was at around 2500 metres and it looks set to remain steady at this height through until around Wednesday evening. Then, with the arrival of the snow, it should drop to around 750 metres ensuring nice light powdery snow here in resort on Thursday and Friday.
On-piste snow cover now stands at:
- Alpe d’Huez resort (1850m): 198cm
- Pic Blanc (3300m): 285cm
- Auris village (1650m): 106cm
- Auris Signal (2176m): 120cm
- Villard Reculas (1500m): 102cm
- Vaujany (1250m): 60cm
- Oz-en Oisans (1350m): 80cm
- Montfrais (1650m): 120cm
- Dome des Rousses (2800m): 200cm
Off-piste cover now stands at:
- 2500m: North - 315cm, south - 285cm
- 2000m: North - 215cm, south - 170cm
- 1500m: North - 115cm, south - 60cm
- 1000m: North - 5cm, south - 5cm
Today there were, 64 lifts open here (out of 68 = 94%) across the whole Grande Domaine ski area and these are serving 102 pistes (out of 107 = 95%). Of these 102 pistes, 30 are green (out of 31), 31 are blue (out of 31), 26 are red (out of 28) and 15 are black (out of 17). So as we approach the busy month of February, and largely thanks to the great snow depths, the ski area is pretty much at 100% of its capacity. Only a couple of lower drag lifts closed stopped it from being a full 100% lift operation this weekend.
100% of the cross-country ski trails are open, with 39km of perfectly groomed trails. In addition to these, there are now 36km of walking trails open (out of 37km = 97%).
Lift queues have remained nice and short this week, which is always great news and this should remain the case for the next 2 weeks before the half term holidays kick in here in France on Saturday 10th February. This years’ “rotation” sees the following sequencing: 10th to 25th February – French zone A, 17th February to 4th March – French zone C, 24th February to 11th March - French zone B.
Zone A is the area around resort (Dijon, Lyon, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand etc) which always leads to the busiest weeks in Alpe d'Huez. This year it will coincide with the UK half term (in the main 10th to 18th February) – so the first week of the holiday period will no doubt be super-busy here in resort. Historically, zones B (Marseille, Lille, Strasbourg etc) and C (Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier etc) school holiday weeks are less busy in Alpe d'Huez than those of zone A.
The days are continuing to lengthen here in resort. Sunrise this morning was 08:01 and, with sunset at 17:34, we had 9 hours and 33 minutes of daylight today. You can really notice the difference at the end of the day in particular.
Bon ski!
