It is difficult to say when the weather is best

Posted by dumbwaiterfgds on June 10th, 2021

　　Let's take it that you are going to the Alps, like the vast majority of British skiers. We'll assume you're going to Val d'Isre, because it is the classic high-altitude resort with a vast ski area and enough lifts to keep queueing to a minimum, even on the busiest day of the season. And more Brits ski in Val d'Isre than in the whole of the USA and Canada together.

　　It is difficult to say when the weather is best. Bad weather in a ski resort is seriously bad. But if you have the right clothes, you can have huge fun skiing in even the worst weather, and after the storm there's the added advantage of powder snow.

　　The coldest period is between mid-December and mid-February, but that is also when the higher ski resorts are actually above the cloud layer and tend to have more sunny days. Val d'Isre locals used to reckon that a six-day holiday would have on average two days of snow, two grey days, and two perfect postcard days. Nowadays, the split seems more like one snowy day, two grey ones and three for the album. Has global warming had an effect? Judging by when the dam near Val d'Isre freezes over, no, it's as cold now as ever. But there is certainly more sun and less snow across the Alps now than thirty years ago, which is another reason one has to ski somewhere high like Val d'Isre.

　　Whenever you come, it could snow every day, or there could be endless sunshine. Bring clothes and equipment for every eventuality, from fleecy cagoules to quality sun-block, and you won't be caught out.

　　So when are you most certain to have good snow?

　　Good snow means enough to cover the rocks, without slush or ice. High in the Alps, fresh snow is likely at any time from late November until early May, but fresh snow is not essential. Most people enjoy skiing more on firm, squeaky winter snow that has been groomed and re-groomed than in powder, which is great for a few hours, Stretcher Elevators Manufacturers but then turns the pistes into ploughed fields for a day or two.

　　At the very start of the season, the snow usually won't have much to lie on, except rocks and grass. It may be a bit thin. However, the sun is low, the days are short, the nights are cold, and there are very few people skiing. The lower slopes might not yet be as good as they will be, but up high you can easily have some of the best skiing of your life before the Christmas holidays.

　　By Christmas enough snow has normally fallen for the whole ski area to be in excellent condition. It is surprisingly uncrowded: people feel duty-bound to spend Christmas at home, en famille, rather than enjoying themselves!

　　You wouldn't go at New Year if you could choose. But if that's the only time you have off work or your family can ski together, that's when you have to go. The downsides are that it is both the most expensive and the busiest week of the year, so you're paying more for less than at any other time. You're subsidising the lucky blighters who'll be skiing the same slopes practically alone a fortnight later. But that's life. Your time will come. For the moment you're stuck with New Year, and in the right resort it is great.

　　During peak weeks even Val d'Isre's village feels crowded. There can be up to about 19,000 skiers in the resort. But high-speed lifts whisk them all astonishingly quickly up the mountains, where they spread painlessly across the huge number of long, wide runs.

　　There's another good thing about New Year and the other school holiday periods: the skiers are mostly families. Now families may be a pain in the neck when you're stuck behind one in a ski shop, or next to one in a restaurant. But they are good news on the slopes. Mum and Dad can't wait to be shot of the kids to go and calm their nerves with a second breakfast of caffeine or alcohol, so they bung the beasts in ski school. And ski school classes go slowly and predictably down the mountain. They may be hard to pass, but at least they're not going to take you out from above. One twenty-stone British snowplougher divebombing down from a big lunch can inflict more collateral damage than the USAF, and neutralise a whole piste. Children don't do that.