a couple of people walking across the piste

Spring skiing conditions across Alpe d'Huez ski area

Head to the higher slopes for the best skiing

featured in Snow report Author Rob Wood, Alpe d'Huez Reporter Updated 2 January 2018

There's no getting away from the fact that we are now into April and with that comes the undeniable Spring conditions that we are now experiencing here in Alpe d’Huez. But fear not there's still plenty of great runs to be had, you just need to head up high, particularly as the day goes on.

As has been the case for a week or so now the best of conditions in resort are to be found at around 2,700 metres and above, so get yourself up to the top of DMC or up to Marmotte2 at least, as the conditions up there are still great. There's plenty of runs to be found up at these lift stations, with a bit everything to suit all tastes and abilities.

The Sarenne is still fully open and in good condition, and the Tunnel although still open is now marked as “Bon skieurs uniquement” (good skiers only), but that's fairly normal for this point in the season, it is very mogully on the tunnel.

For the past week or so it's been unusually cloudy and grey here in resort, with only the odd day of sunshine, which really is unusual for resort at this time of year. This has been mainly due to a large area of low pressure that has been lingering over the whole of the Alps for the last week or so. Barometric pressure currently stands at around 1006mb, which has been the main cause for the cloudy conditions. Pressure is set to rise from Wednesday onwards up to around 1016mb and with this increase should come some clearer skies and sunnier weather.

Temperatures look set to remain at around -2degC in the mornings rising up to +8degC in resort (1,850 metres) for the next few days – although the Mercury has been pushing up to around +11degC over in Villard Reculas (1,500 metres) and Oz (1,350 metres) in the afternoons of late, which has obviously led to softer conditions on the lower slopes.

The high pressure looks set to push the Mercury up to around +10degC in the 7 to 10 day forecast, and with it plenty of sunshine, although there is still some snow in the forecast. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday we may get some snow, with the potential for around 30cm of snow up at 3,300 metres over the weekend. With a freeze point of around 2,000 metres, this snow will fall most of the way down to resort level at 1,850 metres.

Snow cover currently stands at:

PicBlanc (3300metres) – 275cm
Resort (1850metres) – 109cm
Auris signal (2176metres) – 30cm
Villard Reculas village (1500metres) – 20cm
Oz village (1350metres) – 30cm
Montfrais (1650metres) – 63cm
Dome des Rousses (2800metres) – 135cm

Avalanche risk has risen to 3 (considerable) as the temperatures have crept up, so be aware of warning signs and piste closures up on the hill – if in doubt seek the advice of the mountain rescue guys (in the black and orange outfits).

The Grande Domaine ski area is still being served by 61 lifts (out of 74) and there are still 111 pistes open (out of 134) Of these pistes 41 are green, 35 blue, 28 red and 7 are black. Alpe d’Huez itself has 27 lifts and 59 pistes open (out of 35 and 68 respectively).

The lower slopes of the DMC and Les Bergers are definitely getting that bit softer, especially in the afternoons, and off to the sides of some of the lower slopes around resort it's starting to get a bit patchy, but conditions on the pistes are still, on the whole, really good.

Sunrise this morning was at 7.10am and sunset at 8.09pm – so there's plenty of daylight after skiing.