The snow arrives & the half term holidays too

I had hoped we had one more week before the crowds descended and though that’s still true for the British, it seems elsewhere in Europe the holidays are in full swing and families have made their way to resort. The change was noticeable from first lifts on Monday, resort had much more of buzz to it and the crowds gathering at the ski school meeting points couldn’t be ignored. By 10am the queues at all the central chairlifts were pretty epic and the race was on to get to quieter edges of the piste map.

Luckily before the crowds came, the snow did, so the sting of waiting in a lift queue this week will be somewhat soothed by the runs being amazing once you get to them and if you were lucky enough to get out over the weekend you would have had the best of it all. Saturdays are always the quietest day of the week but this one was also one of the most beautiful snow days of the season. The pistes had been groomed Friday night and then a foot of fresh snow had fallen leaving us with the most beautiful of all things – powder pistes! That is marked runs that ride like smooth and dreamy off piste snow.

The mountain was quiet and the lifts opened in a staggered formation throughout the day so that if you were paying attention you could get first tracks down each area of the mountain as and when it opened. I started my day cruising through fresh stuff all the way down to Montalbert where the snow had fallen thick and true all the way down to the village. Later I hit up Colorado just as the Capella opened up, as I was doing that I saw the Verdon Nord chair start moving and so belted over to there to get fresh tracks all the way down the Champagny side. Powder days don’t come for free though, I contended with some very chilly, very strong winds in the afternoon, some dodgy visibility throughout the day and I had some serious back leg burn by the end but my god was it worth it. Here’s hoping the weekend to come is as good.

In the meantime to enjoy this week and avoid the crowds as much as possible you’re going to want to get out at ‘off peak’ times, that is 9-10am 12-2pm and 3-5pm when the mountain is noticeably quieter. Also pay attention to where the ski school hot spots are and avoid if you can. For instance all the Plagne Centre ski schools converge on the Bergerie chairlift dead on 10am, so you do not want to be there when they are!

Mainly though, you just want to focus on the snow conditions not the crowds, when you feel yourself lamenting the busy pistes just take a look at the forecast and cheer yourself up with the thought of snow, snow and more snow all week long, we’re due another full day of snow on Wednesday with 9cm falling at centre and then snow showers scattered throughout the rest of the week. So no matter how much ski traffic there is through the day the pisteurs are going to be able to work their magic overnight and we’re going to have beautiful runs all week.

Whilst out and about keep watch for changes around resort, keep one eye on the fabled new Envers chairlift! Due to open in December and then in February, the new chairlift is still yet to run (although it does now have its chairs on and was even spotted moving the other day) hopefully La Plagne will get that open this week and cut down the massive half term congestion forming at the La Roche chair. Also keep checking on the Funslope as it’s yet to be completely finished, and wait with bated breath for them to open Mont de la Guerre run aka ‘best run in La Plagne’ (this is the week for it I can feel it).

Fingers crossed for all that and I hope you have a great week crowd dodging and powder riding!