Courchevel Snow Report: 24th January 2012

A bit grey & murky for a change

featured in Snow Report Author Alan Furniss, Updated 24 October 2014

It was a bit grey today with gentle snow falling this morning and although it was above freezing the strong wind made it feel much colder than it really was. As Courchevel’s brand new chairlift (Plantrey) broke down this morning before it even got going, I got the Forêt gondola out of Le Praz. I think people must have been smaller, 39 years ago when this gondola was built. Each of the egg-shaped bubbles is supposed to hold 4 people but to be honest it struggles with 3 and is only really comfortable with 2. Nevertheless it does the job and is very long and carries you almost to the top of Loze above 1850. I’m sure it must be next on the list for replacement if only because it’s coming up to its 40th Birthday next year!

I would guess that this week and next are extreme low season as no schools in Europe are on holiday and the Russian Christmas festivities are over. I discovered this arrival of low season yesterday when I stood at the bus-stop for a long time at the normal time that the ski bus comes along, only to discover they move to a less regular low season schedule from 23rd January to February 3rd.

As the weather wasn’t especially nice I took a gentle meander around Courchevel just to see what was going on. The Altiport, being in possession of the only piece of level ground for miles around (the top end of the runway), was being prepared for the BMW Snow Polo Masters from Thursday this week to Sunday. As one of my colleagues recently wrote “Teams from all over the world compete in this unusual but exciting sport. Highly skilled and very fast the game is played on the snow covered pitch by the Altiport. Expect Champagne, foie gras, lots of fur and supporters called Bongo and Miffy. Courchevel and Polo – a perfect fit”. Quite… I couldn’t have put it better myself.

The lack of sun made it feel really cold and I was envious as I looked across the valley to La Plagne where for some reason the sun was shining brightly. If you buy a one week plus ski pass in the 3 Valleys you will see on the receipt a capital ‘K’ and a capital ‘P’ printed on there for what appears to be no good reason. If you drive round to La Plagne (Paradiski) or to Val d’Isère (Espace Killy) and present your 3 Valleys receipt (not the lift pass itself) the ticket office will give you a free day pass and cross out the ‘P’ or the ‘K’ depending on which one you’ve chosen.

It’s well worth doing it with someone who knows where to go though as you can waste a lot of a day by staring at lift maps and trying to figure out where you are.

With any luck, we should see a little more blue sky and sunshine on Wednesday and Thursday then Friday, as if we need it, we’re due another dump of snow.