Wild weather in La Plagne

A ridiculous amount of snow fell Friday into Saturday and even lower level towns like Moutiers and Bourg were reporting 50cm early morning. During the day, the freezing level slowly lifted from valley level to well above 2000m. On the roads, tailbacks were forming in the valleys. The severe weather had been predicted but I think even the emergency services were surprised by its relentlessness. By Saturday afternoon, there was gridlock on the main N90 with many cars simply turning back as access to the stations along the Isère valley became virtually impossible. Susceptible roads like those up to Val Thorens and Tignes were soon closed but, even here, there was bedlam on the main routes into resort and down through Aime, Moutiers etc.

Plan Neige was implemented by the local services to help stranded passengers. This contingency measure (last used on the same day, three years ago) sees local gyms and town halls given over as accommodation with locals handing out food, drinks and blankets to tourists caught in the chaos.

In resort, the main runs remained closed all day with constant avalanche blasting to try and make the area safe. The tows that did operate (mainly nursery tows at lower levels) didn’t open until after 11:00 but even they were closed again by 15:00. The roads into La Plagne remained deathly quiet all day. Indeed, only a trickle of cars arrived through the night, most between 02:00 and 03:00. The passengers that did make it repeatedly reported hellish journey times of 12 hours or more, while many more were stranded overnight at airports and in shelters.

By Sunday, the weather had eased and we woke to a day of brilliant sunshine. However, by then, the snow was either sticky and heavy (where temperatures had stayed above freezing) or sheet ice where it had dropped below zero. The snow softened during the day and crowds increased as the day wore on. As we drew closer to Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) the clouds began to thicken again but the main celebrations passed off without issue. It started snowing heavily again around 03:00 and continued through the night.

On Monday (New Year's Day), we woke to yet more fresh snow but slowly the clouds began to dissipate to gift us the most stunning three hours or so. While most people were still in bed fighting off hangovers, we made it up the deserted mountain. Days like this don’t come often - a massive playground of the freshest snow, reserved pretty much just to ourselves. The glacier remained obstinately closed (it’s barely been open this season) but the higher mountain areas of Roche de Mio, Les Verdons and Grande Rochette are caked in a huge, deep, wide cover. Conditions are genuinely off the scale. Again, around 16:00 on Monday, another blizzard blew in which brought yet more snow overnight.

Yesterday saw a mainly cloudy day with limited lift openings (mostly the lower resorts of Montalbert and Montchavin). It snowed again yesterday but really, given the season so far, a day without snow would seem weird!

Today, the resort is on lockdown in anticipation of an “Événement météorologique exceptionnel”. The wind has been building all morning and is expected to peak anywhere between 100km/h and 150km/h this afternoon with heavy blizzards expected through today, tonight and into tomorrow. Few lifts are open in resort just now. This new storm, Storm Eleanor, is set to unleash a massive dump across the whole of the Savoie – predicted to bring anywhere between 1-1.5m of snow over the next 24 hours.