Consecutive bluebird days are temporarily on hold, but for how long?

Each part of the season has it’s own characteristics, good and bad and adopting a different strategy to make the most of the conditions is always wise.

As you may have noticed by following these reports or other forecasts, our climate is changing and producing slightly irrational, unexpected weather conditions.

March, traditionally brings us glorious sunshine with lighter mornings and evenings but the snow can suffer considerably by the early afternoon. The last 9 days have been just like that, but with snow conditions remaining skiable longer.

The difference this year has been that the spring snow (slightly icy in the morning and horribly slushy in the afternoon) has been more like January snow (lushious and near perfect for most of the day). It is only now (16th March), that the conditions are starting to deteriorate lower down the mountain. The cold nights have allowed snow cannons to operate and the snow to remain extremely good for a lot longer into the day.

Today is the first overcast day, and last night we received a few centimetres of fresh snow up the hill. We’re expecting a return of the glorious sunny days towards the end of the week, then more unsettled sun/snow showers over the weekend, to reset the levels!

My tips for the next week would be to aim high. Temperatures remain well below zero all day and unless the piste experiences full power sunshine throughout the day, the snow will still be great into the mid afternoon. If you plan to venture into Meribel or beyond, do that earlier rather than later!

One of the real joys of this time of year is experiencing light, early mornings - not always something that comes naturally on a ski holiday; but if you can possibly face it, taking a walk around 7am will really set you up for the day and give you an unparalleled, uplifting feeling. The air is SO good, the sun catching the mountain tips is something to behold, and there’ll be very few other people about (perhaps just other Courchnet followers?!) The mountains have so much more than sliding down on planks, don’t miss out!