Alpe d'Huez Snow Report: 23rd December 2015

As has been the predominant weather pattern for the past few weeks, a huge area of high pressure sits over the whole Southern Alpine region.

The current area of high pressure (1032mb) encompasses an area from the Azores to East across to Greece in the West and from central France in the North down to North Africa in the South, such is its predominance that seems almost immovable at the moment. The whole El Niño effect can't be under-estimated currently.

Temperatures again in resort are at a warm 7 & 8°C and up on the hill are holding at around 0°C, and with negligible winds (2-3mph) the weather really is glorious at the moment. Monday this week saw the first cloudy day for several weeks, but the sunshine soon returned on Tuesday. The last notable snowfall was 5th December and unfortunately the forecast for the next week doesn't appear to bring any snow with it.

There are currently 35 pistes open in the Grande Domaine ski area being served by 44 lifts. The majority of these, 24 pistes and 24 lifts, are in Alpe d’huez itself.

60cm of snow currently covers the upper slopes with 25cm covering the lower slopes.

These slopes really are in great condition considering the somewhat limited snow depth and Spring like temperatures, and once again big credit needs to be paid to the pisteurs at Sataski who are working incredibly hard to maintain the piste conditions.

The Sarenne black run is fully open and is still currently accessed from the Marmotte3 lift system, as the PicBlanc lift is only open to walkers/pedestrians at the moment. The Sarenne is in great condition and with thanks to the snow cannons the previously icy patches in the valley have now pretty much all gone.

This weekend saw the opening of the Dome Des Rousses section (above DMC2700m & Vaujany) and whilst not overly massive in respect of size this really helps with the overall flow of that area of the Grande Domaine and really helps to link things together.

With only 2 black runs currently open (Sarenne and Clocher de Macle – both accessed from Marmottes) the majority of the pistes open are greens and blues.

Given the current Spring like temperatures the best of conditions are to definitely to be had in the mornings. And as has been the case so far this season, the best of conditions on the lower slopes are to be found on the DMC2700m back down to resort, where snow cover and condition is far superior to their Les Bergers counterparts.

There are currently 4 lifts serving the Auris sectuer, including the “scare chair” bringing skiers back up from the bottom of the Sarenne, but no pistes are open in Auris at the moment and these lifts are serving to move people from Auris over to the skiable area of Alpe d’Huez.

With the whole of Europe now on Christmas school holidays the resort is much busier, but the addition of extra lifts is helping to keep queues down, in particular the Les Jeux 6 man chair lift adjacent to the DMC lift helps at this potentially busy area, however the lifts are definitely that bit busier.

With more pistes opening so more restaurants are open and this weekend my personal favourite LeSpot opened. Located in between Les Bergers and the DMC it is easily accessed and whilst only small, it really is a cracking “spot” for lunch (no pun intended!!!), great soups, panini’s and fantastic NasiGoring (Indonesian fried rice).