Wet and White in La Plagne

Our trusty weather forecast failed us in the best way possible promising us blue skies but instead delivering snow that is still falling thickly now. The timing couldn’t be better though, with us having stretched out our last influx of snow to its absolute limits.

The pisteurs had been doing an excellent job covering and recovering the runs with the same snow that fell over three weeks ago mixed in with a liberal helping of the artificial stuff, but there is only so much they can do and it has to be said that the cracks were starting to show. A couple of runs were turning icy and a couple more were turning into gravel pits that it pained you to grate your equipment over, but no more! This week the runs are getting a good old freshen up and we’ve more snow on the way later in the week.

It does have to be said that the world isn’t perfect, even in the alps, and unfortunately along with this snow fall came a rise  in temperatures which would have gone great with the blue skies, but alas not so well with the snow. It’s turned our snowfall rather more wet than we would like it to be, times are not so hard that it’s turned all the way to rain but it is somewhat on the slushy side, the sort that melts as soon as landing on you and can quickly soak through a buff or jacket. Any one heading out there for a full day might want to take some steps to stay dry, if you’ve got time to re-waterproof your gear before heading out it’s not a bad shout and it’s definitely worth packing a spare buff and gloves so you can switch out your soggy ones at lunchtime.

The best cure for soggy snow however is just to get up high and stay there, as tempting as it is to revisit the lower villages now that the snow has revamped them, the higher you go the better the freezing conditions and the more likely you are to find the white stuff holding its own against the inevitable melt.

That being said you shouldn’t need any of this advice in the next few days because our (sometimes) trusty forecast is predicting those blue skies again on Wednesday and Thursday, but bear it in mind later in the week, because if the snow returns as predicted on Friday, the temperature will be lower but the freezing level will still only be lurking just under 2000m. Hopefully by then the glacier will be reopened and we can all just head up top to enjoy fluffy snow fall at the top of the mountain.

The glacier may be closed currently due to the weather – it’s an unfortunate feature of the glacier that any kind of snow fall or wind seems to put it out of action for a day or two, but we must trust that the powers that be in La Plagne are doing what they can to open it whenever it’s safe to do so. In the meantime 73% of resort is currently open with the majority of closed runs being the un-pisted blacks which have suffered the most from the lack of snow in the past few weeks, hopefully the new snow will see them reopened this week.

Whatever the weather I do hope you’re getting out there and enjoying yourself, because it may be wet and it may be white and the light may be as flat as the tunnel run but we have reached the end of January and I’m sure you know what that means! All new year’s resolutions have been well and truly broken. Also that February half term is fast approaching and bringing with it crowds and ski schools which will take over our mountain.

So make the most of the quite times this week and next and do your best to stay high and dry when the snow falls!