Meribel Snow Report : 20th December 2012

What I really, really want on a day like this is an instructor to help me find the best snow and ski it better. By a stroke of luck, we had arranged to ski again with Derek from Marmalade ski school and he found us some brilliant pitches of powder and patiently waited while we repeatedly fell over and dusted ourselves off. It occurred to me later that perhaps what he really, really wanted on a day like today was to be ripping up some serious snow at high speed with his mates rather than shepherding us. If so, he never gave a hint of it.

We started with a couple of off-piste runs from the Cretes piste towards the St Martin 2 chairlift. This is an ideal area for improving your off-piste technique as there is a lovely, gentle slope with a constant gradient. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend that you try it this or any other off-piste routes without an instructor or guide - there are a few steeper areas where there is an avalanche risk as well as the usual hazards of streams, bushes and rocks. If you do ski down here, remember it’s worth returning to the Pramint piste before you descend too far towards St Martin as the snow often becomes knee-twistingly heavy if you carry on down too far.  Today, however, the snow was gorgeous and light.

After two ecstatic runs and a few wipe-outs we were in need of some rest and calories so stopped at the bottom of the St Martin 2 lift where there is a choice of two cafes. I normally stop at the friendly Corbeleys but today opted for the Chardon Bleu for a change. I rather think this may be under new management as I’ve never seen such keen and smiling service. We liked this place because the hot chocolates were properly hot; there are thoughtfully-placed hooks to hang up all your wet gloves, helmets, goggles etc and the staff couldn’t have been friendlier. (I wonder whether all those smiles will survive the strain of New Year peak season …)

After another fab run off the side of the red Mouflon piste, Derek announced it was time to do the Couloir Tournier. We all went a bit quiet at that point: Tournier is really rather steep and if you make a fool of yourself, you do it in full view of everybody on the Saulire Express lift. You probably know this chute as the Méribel Couloir, but we shall have to learn to call it by its proper name as it is now an official black run. This run is so new it doesn’t even figure on this year’s piste map. The lift company has improved the couloir with a snow fence to help trap snow on the upper part and removed a few inconvenient boulders. They are soon to install cameras on it too, so you can be filmed skiing/sliding/sobbing your way down it. Despite the improvements, it is still a gnarly, narrow and fairly steep couloir. It’s not for novices, people with vertigo or the faint hearted.

You’ll be glad to hear that we all survived the 37 degree slope and made it to the bottom with yet more enormous grins. Skiing doesn’t get better than this for me. Thank you to Derek for being incredibly patient, good humoured and giving us one of the best days on the mountain ever. Oh, if you fancy doing my job, we need a snow reporter for our Val Thorens website. Please contact sophie@skinets.com if you are interested….