Unfortunately there’s been very little fresh snow in France for more than a month now, with a few exceptions on the very Eastern border of the country in Val Cenis and further south at resorts like Isola 2000 which got 20-40m in the days before Christmas. Elsewhere it was a few centimetres at best.
Ça vous dit d'aller faire un tour avec Leo Taillefer ?
Posted by Val d'Isère on Thursday, 8 December 2016
This lack of fresh snow is bad news for freeriders who have no powder to bounce through and sadly, although things are starting to look, possibly, more changeable early in the New Year, there’s no definite sign as yet of a big change in the weather.
Some mainstream media are publishing ‘No Snow In The Alps!’ horror stories as a result, but in most cases, thankfully, that’s not the case.
The good news is that at high altitude ski areas – and many of the big French ski areas are amongst Europe’s highest – significant snowfall in November and generally cold weather since means there is at least a big base on pistes, especially on higher slopes, so with some making and grooming, most resorts are in good shape. In fact the best they’ve been for late December in three winters …although the past two did see big snowfalls finally arrive just about now, tough so far that’s not happening in 16-17.
Val d’Isere is among resorts publishing images and video (above) in an attempt to show that the skiing there is actually pretty good.
[En direct] Ceux qui sont à Val Thorens cette semaine ont l'air de bien profiter ! Qui est parmi nous ? ☀– [Live] Those who are in Val Thorens this week seem to enjoy it! Who is here? ☀
Posted by Val Thorens on Tuesday, 27 December 2016
There’s a big variety in snow cover. High resorts like Montgenevre and Val Thorens (pictured top and video above) have 2m of snow lying and are operating almost all runs and lifts, but lower centres like Les Gets and Morzine are not having a great time of it so far and report 0-20cm of cover.
