Courchevel Snow Report: 21st March 2012

We now have a groomed layer of soft snow on top of a hard base which gives us excellent, fast and grippy skiing conditions. Only the lower slopes are a bit slushy at the end of the day. These wonderful conditions may not last for long as sunshine is forecast for the rest of this week and the slopes are likely to return to their previous spring-like conditions. Today was therefore a day to make the most of the excellent snow.

How can you get the most skiing and highest number of vertical metres with the least time spent in skilifts? This was the challenge we set ourselves today and the obvious answer was to ski the black and red runs on the Saulire. The Courchevel side of the Saulire not only has wonderful, challenging runs, it also has fast and queue-free lifts. We tried to ski as many pistes as we could in a couple of hours this morning and managed six.

We started with the red run Creux. Late in the season, this is a good first run of the day as it softens in the early morning sun – and isn’t worth skiing later on as it soon turns slushy. The disadvantage of Creux is that it is so popular it can feel like the M25. We planned on skiing Marmotte next, but changed our minds once we’d seen it from the chairlift as it looked and sounded scraped. Instead we headed for the black run, M. I’m not sure what M stands for. “Menacing”, perhaps? “My, that’s steep!” or possibly “Mummy, I’m frightened!” This black run is rarely groomed and it can seem pretty menacing when the moguls turn nasty. Today, however, the moguls were friendly and the snow was gorgeous.

Next came the black run Combe Pylon. Very few people find the entrance to this run, hidden off the side of M. As a result, the snow often stays good here far longer than the more popular runs. Today it was freshly groomed and deserted so we swooped down in big, fast GS turns with enormous grins on our faces. This was definitely my piste du jour.

We then skied down the red Combe Saulire which was as busy as the Champs Elysee. To my mind, this run is best done between 9.20 and 9.40am during the quiet window when Méribel skiers can access Combe but Courchevel skiers can’t. By mid-morning, however, it was filled with speeding skiers, so I hugged the piste poles at the side in an attempt to avoid being run into.

Next piste was the short, black Piste des Bosses. Don’t bother looking for this on the piste map as it isn’t on it: no I don’t know why either. As the name suggests, it is covered in bumps and due to its non-status, was entirely empty.

For last, we saved the big one: the black run Grand couloir. Courchevel is the only resort I know which looked at a couloir and decided to call it a piste. Grand couloir is never groomed so it develops some pretty scary moguls. The only really difficult part, however, is the first 100m or so along the bumpy ridge between the Méribel and Courchevel valley. This is the bit you can see from the top of the Saulire 2 gondola and Saulire cable car. If you fall off a bump to the left you will slip down the Méribel couloir: fall off a bump to the right and you’ll slip down Courchevel’s Emile Allais couloir. In other words, this black run is only to be attempted by very competent skiers. You can get a free video of your run on the Grand Couloir by registering your mobile number at the top in verticalxperience.com

Once you get beyond the daunting ridge, however, the run is much easier than it looks and it invariably has good snow. Looking back up this pistes once I’ve safely completed it always gives me a pleasurable glow of smugness.

A last note: if watching the X-games at Tignes has inspired you to try some freestyle, you may like to know there is a chance to join a freeski camp next week in Méribel. It’s open to everybody from first-timers to experienced freeskiers and there are only a few places left. Click here to see a video of last year’s camp or contact New Generation ski school for more details.