What a difference some snow makes

Fresh snow has finally arrived in La Plagne

featured in Snow report Author Anita Gait, La Plagne Reporter Updated 6 January 2017

The snow came! It really came; it started late Tuesday night and fell steadily throughout the night into Wednesday morning. We were only predicted a couple of centimetres and, looking at the coverage on roads and cars, it seemed that was all we got, just a light dusting, nothing to get excited about. But, if you were out on the mountain yesterday or today, you’d notice a much bigger change than a few centimetres could effect.

More snow must have fallen up high and, coupled again with the extensive use of snow cannons, the mountain is a much snowier place today. More runs are open, brown and grassy off-piste areas are now painted white and I even found myself stood in a tiny patch of what could only be described as powder! A very tiny patch, but powder none the less!

The Petite Rochette run is back open from the top of the Grande Rochette to Bellecote and all evidence that it was completely snow free only 2 days ago has gone. The path is well covered and soft and affords stunning views over to the Champagny side of the mountain which, with this sudden influx of snow, has suddenly become the place to be.

Most of us have been avoiding Champagny so far this year as, since it's the sunny side of the mountain, its snow didn’t hold up as well as that on the north facing slopes. Most people have also been choosing extra snow depth over sunshine in the past few weeks. Today, with this new snow painting, the south side is just as white as the north and people are swarming to check out the Champagny pistes, some for the first time this season. All the runs on that side of the map are nice and long and afford beautiful scenery. It’s mostly blues open there today but, if you fancy a little red run, hit up Rossa Bas off the Borseliers chair. Also definitely check out Levasset from the Roche de Mio all the way down to the Verdon Sud, it’s one of my favourite runs in resort and long enough to be a real leg warmer.

The other reason for heading to Champagny is the temperature. With this new snowfall came a sharp drop in temperature and it's a cold, cold place out on that mountain today. Temperatures in Plagne Centre on Thursday reached -10 degrees without even considering the wind chill, and it was certainly pretty windy up top. On days like that you want all the extra warmth you can and, by skiing over on the south-facing slopes of Champagny, you can not only keep you out of the wind but gain a temperature rise of up to 5 degrees.

Once you’ve had your fill of the sunny south slopes, maybe take this opportunity to revisit the lower reaches of the map. The temperature drop lowered the freezing level to 1000 metres, meaning that places such as La Roche and runs into Montalbert and Montchavin have been able to benefit from a little snow cannon action of their own. The snow pack will be hard down there but it’s not supposed to stay this cold for long, so make the most of the low runs while you can.

Temperatures are due to rise back to the far more civil -4/-5 mark over the weekend before dropping sharply again, just in time for another sprinkling of snow heading our way on Tuesday. Again, only a centimetre or two is forecast but we’ll take what we can get and, if we all keep praying to the snow gods and doing our daily snow dances (if you’re not doing them already start now!), we can hopefully see those few centimetres grow into something more hefty. It’s a week into 2017 and I haven’t ridden powder once! Come on La Plagne, send us some more snow!