Meribel Snow Report: 19th January 2015

Around 30cm of snow fell on the summits on Saturday and at least 20cm in the resort. The sun made a return on Sunday, making this the best day of the season so far, with gorgeous, groomed slopes, powder snow off-piste and blue skies all day long. After a rather disappointing December and early January, this recent dump of snow was even more welcome than usual and there were a lot of very happy faces on the slopes.

Thanks to this latest snow, more slopes have opened up. Only a few pistes remain closed in the Méribel valley: Hulotte, Combe laitelait, the two slopes below the resort, Villages and Raffort, and the blacks Bosses, Tétras, and Grande Rosières (see exactly which pistes and lifts are open here). The snow parks are gradually opening too and all but one of the cross-country runs are open as well. Overall, apart from the snow pack being thinner than usual, the ski area is pretty much back to normal conditions.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and we enjoyed soaring around the groomed runs around 3 Marches between Méribel and les Menuires. Pramint was our first run of the day, an easy red which makes an ideal warm up run. This had the bonus of being groomed on one side and ungroomed on the other, which kept both piste skiers and powder skiers happy. The only disadvantage of this run is you have to return on the St Martin 2 chairlift, one of the coldest chairlifts I know. I am delighted to hear there are plans to upgrade this to a chairlift with a pull-down weather shield – having painfully endured arctic conditions on this chairlift so many times, I’d be quite happy to contribute to the cost.

Pistes like 3 Marches, Becca and Mouflon all had lovely, cold, fluffy and squeaky snow on them, the sort called ‘hero snow’ as it makes you feel you are skiing like one.

As it was a cold day, we took as many bubble lifts as possible and our route home from Les Menuires was via the Roc des 3 Marches 1 bubble then the Roc des 3 Marches 2 chairlift. I notice that these two confusingly named lifts are now called Roc 1 and Roc 2 – what a good idea.

Two other very good ideas I have noticed on the slopes this year are as follows:

1) The “Chemain tranquille/Easy Way” route through Mottaret avoiding the busy Martre run. I personally loathe the blue Martre run, as it is invariably horribly icy or tiresomely slushy and usually crowded too. If you want to avoid it, do try the newly re-graded “Easy Way” down. Just above Mottaret, the Martre divides into two, the main run down to the right and a narrow, flattish path to the left. Take this left path, continue across the red Fouine run and carry on towards Le Hameau at the top of Mottaret. You’ll see a wooden sign on your left confirming you are on the right path. Follow this path all the way down into Mottaret centre to avoid all the traffic and tricky snow on the main piste. “Un grand Merci” to lift company S3V for this improved alternative route.

2) The Security Patrol. I bumped into S3V’s charming and helpful mobile security patrollers on the slopes the other day and had a little chat about their work. They patrol Mottaret’s slopes with distinctive green banners fluttering behind them, rather like guardian angels on skis. They gently suggest to skiers who have stopped in dangerous places, like in the middle of the run or below the brow of a hill, that it would be safer to wait at the side of the piste. They warn those who ski too fast that they should slow down. And if they witness an accident where the guilty party skis off and leaves an injured skier behind, they are the avenging angels who will catch the perpetrator and hand them over to the police. S3V was the first lift company in France to introduce these mobile security patrols in Mottaret and Courchevel and their idea has been copied in other resorts. Here’s yet another example of our ski area being ahead of all the rest.

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Read more 3 Valleys Snow Reports from Val Thorens & Courchevel.