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Lots of fresh snow over the weekend in La Plagne

A powder weekend sadly rained away by today

featured in Snow report Author Anita Gait, La Plagne Reporter Updated

The snow we were predicted this weekend came in style on Saturday evening and fell with force all through the night until we woke up to a snowy snowy world on Sunday morning. The snow fell in proper large flakes of dry floaty snow which made for the absolute best kind of champagne powder and turned the entire mountain into a soft and fluffy playground for anyone lucky enough to get out there on Sunday morning.

For those of us stuck indoors it was absolute torture to watch skiers out there having the time of their lives on pistes covered in a foot of fresh powder. The Olympic Stade slope in Plagne Centre was especially tough to look at, the skiers were flying down there waist deep in powder laying fresh tracks over every inch of it in less than an hour.

The thought that kept me going through that morning was that it was still snowing heavily so when I eventually could get out at least there’d still be some fresh stuff left for me! Alas it was not to be, by lunch time the temperature had risen and the snow had turned to rain. Within a few hours all the freshly fallen fluffy snow was waterlogged or washed away and my powder dreams gone with it, sigh.

Up high the snow managed to stay snow, above 2500m or so, but lower than that it did the pistes no good at all. Monday saw very heavy waterlogged snow and patches where the water had frozen overnight into sheet ice, not only on the pistes but on the roads and walkways of La Plagne also making them somewhat tricky to navigate especially in ski boots. Luckily Tuesday dawned warm and clear and the sunshine warmed up the pistes to just the right side of slushy, the ice was gone by mid-morning and left the high to mid-level pistes soft and easy to ride.

After lunch the lower runs and the south facing Champagny side progressed to the wrong side of slushy and become somewhat puddle strewn but they hadn’t disintegrated all together so were still worth a trip, be aware though that any really wet patches will once again freeze solid overnight leaving those runs super icy first thing in the morning.

The off piste snow has not weathered the rain quite so well as the pistes and has set over most of the mountain into crusty mounds of heavy icy snow, but fear not, more fresh snow is on its way, in fact it looks like we’re in for a good dump of the stuff. The snow should begin Tuesday night and around 30cm is predicted to fall over night and through Wednesday. Thursday and Friday should be clearer followed by more snow at the weekend. The temperature is set to drop from Wednesday onwards ensuring that the snow falls as snow and not rain, here’s hoping that stay’s true and we’ve seen the last of the rain for a while.

In other news the mountain is getting steadily busier now, we’ve reached that time of year, February and with it comes the joy that is half term! The dates of the half term weeks are staggered through France, Belgium and across the UK ensuring that we get half term crowds for the best part of a month. Prepare yourselves for busier runs, longer lift queues and so very many ski schools on the mountains. If you hate the crowds as much as I do remember to get out first thing in the morning 9-10am and at lunch time 12-2pm when the mountain is much quieter.

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