Alpe d'Huez Snow Report: 27th January 2016

An area of high pressure (1032mb) is continuing to provide lovely settled weather in resort as it has done for around the past 2weeks. The current area of high pressure extends from the Iberian peninsula to the West across to Turkey and Greece in the East, and judging by the synoptic charts this looks set to stay in place for the rest of this week, with the likelihood of a further area of high pressure pushing in from the Azores at the weekend (1038mb) – so weather looks really settled with plenty more sunshine in the forecast for the next 7 to 10 days.

Fortunately the high winds associated with Storm Jonas, the storm system that wreaked havoc across the USA last week, have missed us here in the Alps as when it tracked across the Atlantic. Luckily it headed north and made its way towards Scandinavia, travelling over the UK as it went along.

(Back in the UK Storm Jonas has bought flooding and widespread torrential rain – it has also bought with it large Atlantic storm swells which have led to great surf conditions in Cornwall, friends of mine surfing in Cornwall at the weekend tell me of 35’ waves at North Fistral Beach, Newquay – with the infamous “Cribber” wave in full swing.)

Temperatures here in resort have remained at a fairly steady 0degC up at the PicBlanc (3,330 metres) and around 5 to 7degC in resort (1,850 metres) in the afternoons, over in Vaujany at 1,250 metres the mercury has risen to around 10degC over the last couple of afternoons, and it's been truly glorious over there.

Snow cover remains at a whopping 2 metres up on the upper slopes (3,330 metres), with around 1 metre on the lower slopes of Alpe d’Huez (1,850 metres).

The last reportable snow fall was on Friday/Saturday (15th/16th Jan) and since then conditions have been truly fantastic. The avalanche risk is back down to 2 – moderate.

We now have 110 pistes open and 65 lifts serving the whole Grande Domaine ski area – of these 41 are green, 33 blue, 26 red and 10 are black. Alpe d’Huez itself has 52 pistes open being served by 28 lifts. So the whole of the area really is in full swing and is in fantastic condition at the moment. There are now also 40km of cross country ski trails open and 27km of walking trails – so again there really is something for everybody whether you be a skier, boarder, Nordic fan or a walker.

The Sarenne remains in fantastic condition for its whole 16km and isn't generally that busy at the moment.

This morning (Wednesday) saw the temporary closure of the Tunnel black run up at the top of the PicBlanc, nothing more than a temporary blip though.

With the fantastic sunny conditions that we have been experiencing the South Facing slopes from Marmottes3 back to resort, down past La Folie Douce, have been a real pleasure this week – great snow and lovely sunshine- what more could you ask for!?

The weekend saw the opening of La Fare black run over in Vaujany, which is a great way to get down to the fabulous village of Vaujany, really worth a visit if you haven't been over that before.

The Small snowpark over in Mont Frais (Vaujany) remains closed at the minute,however the bigger snow park in Alpe d’Huez is open and offers plenty of rails and kickers, it is situated by on the bottom section of the DMC at the top end of town.

The days are gradually getting that bit longer now as well with sunrise today at 08:02 and sunset this evening at 17:36 – hallelujah!!!