La Plagne Snow Report: 23rd December 2015
Dreaming of a white Christmas
It seem as though my dreams of a massive snow season have hit a delay. We’re starting slow this year, that’s not to say it’s not going to happen at all, it’s still early days, but alas it does not seem to be going to happen in time for Christmas. We are days away from the most important snow day of the year and I’m afraid things are looking patchy to say the least.
Considering we’ve had no significant snow fall since that first big dump a month ago it’s actually impressive how well that snow has stuck around. A combination of low temperatures and well maintained slopes has worked wonders to keep the snow sticking but it’s all started to go a bit wrong this week.
Temperatures took an upturn in the last few days and we had more than our fair share of blue skies and sunshine which set the snow melting and trickling away. The nights did stay below freezing which was helped until Sunday came along and brought the dreaded R-Word with it.
The day started with thick clouds and we all got excited at the prospect of unexpected snow but alas when it fell below altitudes of 2500m it fell as rain (which is quite frankly our least favourite form of precipitation) and left everything a little more bare and a little more soggy than before. As a result we are once again looking a little more farm land than snow globe and it’s very hard to believe that Santa is on his way.
The less than perfect conditions are keeping the fair weather skiers indoors which is giving us one of the quietest Christmas weeks we’ve seen for a while, a fact which is a positive for anyone out there on the mountain but not so much the businesses of La Plagne who must be feeling the pinch of an underpopulated festive season.
Which is a shame because though conditions might not be stellar there are still a surprising amount of pistes open, those choosing to stay home instead are definitely missing out. With the judicious and constant use of snow cannons La Plagne has managed to open it’s lower villages as planned this week including the Vanoise Express link to Les Arc allowing guests to explore the Paradiski area. Also open this week is Montalbert where skiers can experience the brand shiny new Montalbert 10 man bubble lift which makes returning from that direction much less of a long winded process than in previous seasons and will do great things to open up that corner of the piste map.
It’s when visiting these lower villages that you realise what a great job the resort are doing, the snow line of the resort peters out around 1,600m and yet one can still ski down to the Montalbert lift at 1,350m on purely artificially made and manually manoeuvred snow.
The same goes for reaching the Vanoise and any skiing done on the Champagny side of the mountain which is south facing and has a way higher snow line than the north facing slopes of La Plagne. However if marvelling at the wonders of manmade snow is not your thing then you need to head up high and stay high. Go up the Roche de Mio or onto the glacier where Sundays rain did actually fall as a scattering of snow and freshened up the top slopes a little.
Do go and enjoy that scattering of fresh snow because it may be all we’re due for the rest of the week. My usual trusty snow forecast is giving us nothing but blue skies and warm temperatures, a slight dip to below freezing Wednesday night but other than that nothing to indicate a White Christmas is coming.
Not happy with this information I went searching for better and found a much more optimistic forecast on J2Ski which is predicting us cloudy skies as of Friday Saturday and – get this – moderate snow on Monday - Tuesday!!! So I’m putting all my faith in that forecast and I think if we’re all good boys and girls and collectively beg Santa for it he might see his way clear to bringing that snow forward a day or two and giving us the White Christmas we all so very much deserve!
