Courchevel Snow Report: 26th January 2012

Today was a glorious day to be in Courchevel. Not a cloud in the sky with an air temperature below freezing but of course warm in the sunshine. It was very quiet in this lowest of the low season so the pistes were uncluttered and the queues for lifts were non existent. It’s not low season, by the way, for any other reason than families with school age children cannot go skiing at this time of year. Some of the best skiing I’ve ever had has been in January when the resort feels as though it’s been specially opened just for me and the conditions are just right…..like this year…..and then some!

I noticed on one of the electronic piste map / notice boards that the Pistes du Jour (there are always 2 each day) were Chapelets, the hidden away red run on the far left of the 3 Valleys piste map and Suisses, the black run from the top of Saulire. So, as the pisteurs had spent so much time last night making these two runs just perfect, it seemed churlish not to ski them. In fact Chapelets was so nice and also so deserted that I skied it twice.

Les Creux, which is a long red from the top of Saulire and has the benefit of facing directly into the sun in the morning, is a terrific run at this time of year, especially so with the amazing snow depths that we have at the moment meaning there are no stones, rocks or bare patches.

I went past the Casserole Restaurant at the bottom of the Signal chair at around 10am this morning. I mentioned the other day that the new owner (rumoured to be Eric Tournier, owner of the Cap Horn Restaurant) has significantly changed the menu and gone very upmarket. Well they also appear to be trying to become Courchevel 1650’s version of the Folie Douce bars in Val d’Isere & Val Thorens. I could hear the sound system from up at the Bel Air Restaurant which is, well, frankly miles away! I understand that for après ski but I’m afraid that at 10 in the morning I prefer the view and the sun as accompaniment to my morning coffee.

Towards lunchtime, I felt the need to go to somewhere that I hadn’t been to so far this season and so went down the Bellecote piste towards 1850. Just before the bridge on the right is a lovely restaurant called Bergerie with a big sundeck and a good menu….or at least there WAS a lovely restaurant called Bergerie there. The owner obviously felt that flogging the property so that someone could flatten it and build a huge chalet was much preferable to making a living out of cooking tartiflette etc every day. Gone but not forgotten.

I decided that it was a safe bet that the Rond Point Restaurant over in Meribel hadn’t been flattened so I went over there instead. It’s a lovely long sequence of blue runs from the top of Saulire which by late morning is in the sunshine. Rond Point is the après ski and lunchtime institution in Meribel located just below the middle station of the Rhodos bubble. The free Meribel ski bus stops right alongside so if you’re meeting friends for lunch who are not skiing, this is an ideal spot. I’m addicted to their ‘Bacon & Egg Rosti’ which is not very Savoyard, the Rosti bit being considered by many Swiss people to be their National dish, but nevertheless a delicious lunch when presented in this slighly Anglicised version with the bacon and eggs on top.

It’s easy to get back to Courchevel from here via the Adret chair then a short ski down to the Loze chair returning to your home valley in under 20 minutes.

Looks like snow tomorrow, continuing all through Saturday which is a bit of a bummer as I have won the privilege of Combe Saulire being privately opened for my personal use along with 20 other people on Saturday morning at 8.15am. Fingers crossed conditions aren’t too bad ‘cos I really don't want to miss this wonderful opportunity.

I’ll be back Sunday to let you know what happened.