Yesterday there were so many videos posted on social media like that, for sure more than plenty up the hill on the North side and powder above 2,000m.
The simple fact is that the snow-fall yesterday and again hopefully today was what you'd expect in late March April.
It's no longer winter temps with the snow hanging around on the valley roads for instance and on the South side of the valley, if it was so good they'd open the XC tracks up below us?
As for the next couple of days there is a true Retour D'Est going on, no doubt resorts further North will claim that they will benefit from this, but you only have to look at the accumulations forecast for the stations in the Queyras to see.
Unfortunately for us in Serre we'll only get the scraps, and Montgenevre does look to do much better than us from this one.
Avvieux, only 20km as the crow flies on the other side of the Izoard
And then Abries 30km further into the Queyras
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well we missed out overnight and this morning, hardly a flake in the valley
Hi Weathercam,
I need some advice on lift passes.
We want to ski the whole of Serre Chevalier (Eg Briacon, Chantemarle, Villeneuve and Monetier inclusive).
Which lift pass should I be choosing. The serre chevalier galaxy or the Monetier?
@red, when are you coming, just that if it's next week, might be worth considering the additional investment of the &Joy especially if skiing all day as we worked out over the course of a day could save you 90mins in avoiding queuing and that's worth the additional €9.
Though obviously for a family etc that adds up etc
As for the snow conditions....
I went up from Cervieres this morning and the difference was staggering, it was also different from one side of the valley to the other!
As I was driving along past Chantmerle there was snow all the trees on the South facing side to circa 1800 and nothing, where you would expect on the North facing side!
I actually rang KenX up to tell him to take a look!
I parked up at Cervieres in around 15cm of fresh, and took the emtb out of the van but was hard going, so opted to try and ride up the South road, and that was very snowy but the bike handled it well up to 1760m but was then too much, so locked bike up and started skinning to the Mur des Aittes and it had been windy up there!
I bailed once there as light was flat, and snow very wind affected, must have been 40+ up there of fresh in places.
On the way down temps were rising fast and snow was getting very heavy, which is yet again getting to be the norm, I really don't have any idea what altitude the snow would remain cold ?
The reason that is important is that with the snow melting during the day and then refreezing* at night you'll end up with a horrible crust, not much fun off-piste to ski on, and that could be on N facing slopes.
Back in Serre temps were just about hitting double figs so imagine pistes were slushy lower down, but up top should still be in good condition.
*not the same as a South facing melt/freeze in the sun which eventually will turn to Spring snow.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Hi @weathercam, yes we will be arriving in Briancon on Saturday evening. We havent booked our lift pass just yet.
After all it is free
After all it is free
@Weathercam, thanks for the updates. Still considering serre Chevalier for Easter. Was hoping to book something up this week
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Hello, I am landing in Turin on Friday to ski for 4 days. I was thinking about skiing in the Aosta Valley but I see that too much snow is expected (we don't want off-piste). Are the conditions in Serreche good these days? Are there many queues at the lifts? Thank you
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@Ichure piste conditions in Serre are very good up high. Okay low down but gets slushy towards end of the day. Weekend very few if any queues. More on weekdays, but not terrible, specially if you ski over lunch time when it's much quieter.
Note that Sunday it's meant to be snowing all day (rain in Briançon).
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
@Ichure, like @wimpytwo now knows, that weekends* currently can be quieter as Saturday is transfer day for many and then Sunday is Club Med transfer day and that makes a big difference in the Pointiallas Frejus sector.
If you can buy the &Joy add-on, this gives you priority access at the major lifts.
Fingers crossed that we'll get the snow that is forecast for Sunday.
I might go for a XC this morning, from Monetier though, as our piste is still a mixture of mud and wet snow, which goes to show how bad it is on the valley floor, but then above-average accumulations up top!
*this was not the case out of High Season as there was AirBnB etc weekend availability as owners knew they could not get weekly bookings, so made took what they could get and hence weekends were busy with people booking long weekends.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Early bird and all that....
Went Cross Country from Monetier as that's where the piste(s) start now circa 09:00, and the piste had been groomed, but was still a tad icy from the brief light overnight freeze, but I suspected it might soften up.
Beyond Le Casset it was totally different and was almost cold snow, I had to keep checking what the snow was like to the side, and I suspect in the forest might be cold snow still; the pistes were in superb condition, but I could feel it warming up as the Sweat Monster inside me was trying to escape
By the time I was back on to the Monetier loop it had really softened up on the outward leg, but the return was still excellent gliding and great for ego/technique, so I did another loop, by the time I finished temps were +8.5 and many holidaymakers were only just turning up. Though I reckon the real XC connoisseurs are going to the likes of Le Laus & Nevache.
Rochebrune (Briancon) end of the valley into the Queyras looks like weather has closed in which is the forecast, I'm going to Turin later so will see what conditions are like at Montegenevre & Via Lattea etc
Nice and empty piste
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Skinned up to Roche Gauthier from Plamplinet. Very quiet as it's not a well known ski tour (and is not marked as a ski tour in the IGN maps). We saw two people in the whole days. There were tracks in the valley, but we had to make fresh tracks for the climb. Hard work with the heavy snow. Pretty good skiing down, given the conditions. It wasn't light powder, but still good fun.
We crossed quite a few avalanches, all a day or two old. Most fresh snow avalanches, one wet snow avalanche. The snow pack felt quite stable though, nothing slid today.
The cross country ski tracks in Plamplinet were technically closed and they were not in great condition. There were still a few enthusiasts on them, but quite a bit of grassy patches on the lower sections. Hard for the snow to survive the close to 10 degrees in the valley. The new snow forecasted will be very welcome.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Decided on XC again this morning as I was a tad disappointed in my performance yesterday as alpine skiing is not too demanding and even ski-touring doesn't tick all the boxes.
Though I did think the weather was meant to be overcast and not the sunshine we currently have, if I'd known I might have gone skiing to take a look over the back!
There was a cold breeze though, and tracks were still very icy, and the cold snow I encountered yesterday had melted and refrozen.
Things were way better today and normal service was restored with a tough 14km in just over an hour, with some decent performance figures achieved so Mojo back.
Walking dogs afterwards took this photo as you will not see images like this promoted on Social Media as to what it's actually like in the valley!
That said way better further up the Valley after Monetier, and looking all around at altitude there's one hell of a lot ot of snow up there, trouble is don't know what type
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Any ski tourers interested in an 2-day avalanche course next weekend (9 and 10 March). We're two at the moment, the course needs a minimum of three to run. Syllabus as for the Ortovox academy 2-day course.
@weathercam: snow up high is different varieties of heavy (up to 3k, haven't been higher recently). Interestingly, the best skiing was on recently avalanched areas. Hard underneath, lovely soft powdery layer on top.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@wimpytwo, we'll let someone know about the course.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@wimpytwo, where's that at and how much? I'll ask our fledgling tourer if he's interested!
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Thanks both @Kenx and @Weathercam
The course is run by the Serre Chevalier mountain guides, as part of the Ortovox academy. It's €220 per person for the two-day course (Ortovox Tour and Training Basic). It can be booked in the office in Salle Les Alpes, or online. Details of the course can be accessed from this link: https://guides-serrechevalier.com/activites/ortovox/
@wimpytwo, I spoke to a local guide/instructor (my neighbour) about this and he knew of it, the program is derived or setup by ANENA
Association Nationale Etude Neige et Avalanches and evidently they provide the guide(s).
I'm almost tempted to join you, but would like to find out more details with regard to the actual skiing route finding side of things, maybe we should meet up and go and have a chat with them?
As for today, great chalky piste conditions for a couple of hours before weather closed in and was snowing up there when we left circa Noon.
Did venture off-piste but was a bit of a crust and OH didn't fancy it, especially with fresh snow on the cards, hopefully.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@weathercam sounds good, i'll message you.
Went ski touring in Le Laus near Cerviere today. More snow in that valley, and snowing lightly all day. Visibility quite reduced at col perdu + windy.
Looking forward to the powder tomorrow (even if we don't have quite as much forecast as Sestriere across the border).
The Lautaret pass been closed all day today due to wind, due to reopen tomorrow morning.
We awoke to all of 5cm on the terrace this morning, all a bit frustrating given the fact that we knew it had been seriously dumping just over the border in Italy and over into the Queyras.
That was compounded by the fact that Serre Che announced yesterday that lifts would be opening later due to avy control in the morning, and yet again we only heard the blasting well after 08:00, and then whilst making plans @KenX, said that it had been very windy in the early hours, so with that, we decided on a Les Boussardes ski-tour as opposed to going up the hill in front which believe it or not we find far less stressful.
There was only one set of tracks going up, but it was pretty obvious that they were from a ski-mo dude, as narrow skis and he more or less went straight up.
Twas quite encouraging in that there was dust on crust and previous tracks were filling in well as we climbed with the snow becoming progressively deeper and lighter.
I then clocked some chamois and half expected them to scatter but they were extremely nonchalant, just hanging around, though just as well we left Ullr at home!
One other guy came past us laying a track with slightly wider skis but still I was having to clear a couple of kgs of snow off my skis every ten or so minutes, and once you get higher you really get to appreciate how much snow there now is at above 2,000m.
And as ever it's just great to be up there with hardly anyone else around.
First 2/3rds of the descent snow was good but you could feel it getting heavier and heavier, and below 1,800m it was tad challenging to ski.
We only climbed 600m to just above the tree line, as did the others as above that conditions have still to stabilise.
But twas a good shout, and had an excellent soup in Snow, the bottom of Monetier as we met up with a friend; that's twice we've eaten in there now and the food is very good, but that might have something to do with a Swede we know who has been advising them (and occasionally cooking there) on their menu and their other resto, White at Serre Ratier. Said Swede is heavily involved in Restos and wine back in Scandi land.
Once back here, earlier snow had all vanished and temps were +11.5 and could see it was a massive slush fest of wet moguls on Le Bez and CDB; but lovely and sunny on our terrace.
So not too sure now what to go looking for snow-wise and on what type of skis, as the weather looks to be overcast for the next few days, think decisions to be made in the mornings.
It's still holidays this week, though does not look as busy, but I heard that the queue at the Bacchas was pretty horrendous earlier this morning.
Current forecast(s) now shows the next round of snow incoming for this coming weekend, and looking more like Winter hopefully, and my friend who drove to Turin late yesterday afternoon had a nightmare of a journey with heavy snow on the autoroute all the way to Susa!
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
We had a cracking day today, plenty of soft powder in between pistes and the morning runs around Chantemerle sector and over towards Briancon were excellent.
Some big moguls on the steeper runs in the afternoon but still good fun and not too busy other than the odd choke point down towards Vallons.
Had a super late lunch at La Cabane and we were very thankful for having suncream with us because it was hot and very sunny on the terrace.
After all it is free
After all it is free
@jirac18, great stuff !
There were still skiers coming down Le Bez, towards Pointless / Club Med at 17:45
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@Weathercam, we skied all the way down Bez into Villeneuve yesterday but decided not to bother with any more runs down to the valley as conditions just aren’t that great lower down. There is plenty up above Serre Ratier, off Col to Prorel and Colle de la Richelle. The runs between Serre Chevalier and Aravet were good too.
Tomorrow we plan on heading towards Monetier and Cucumelle which we haven’t done yet.
It was noticeable first thing this morning most of if not all the blue pistes had been groomed very early and anything Red and black had not. My favourite runs today were the reds down from Prorel and Ricelle in knee deep powder. Before they were too chewed up. Some of the nicest enjoyable piste skiing I’ve done in years.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@jirac18, I think they might have only had time to concentrate on the blues to piste due to it snowing overnight and into the early hours as the reds n'blacks might be closer to potential avy risk etc
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Went ski touring from Le Laus today. Our intended objective (a South face ascent and North face descent) really didn't work at all. The south facing slopes were horrible: crust on top of 40cm+ of powder underneath. After less than a 100m up we saw reason and turned around (horrible ski down).
But here is where the proper ski report starts. Went up to Col Perdu and from there to L'Arpelin. Which was amazingly good. So much so that we skied down and went straight back up to the top. Probably my most enjoyable ski tour of the season so far.
I'd post photos of beautiful tracks in 40cm of powder but don't think i have the powers on this forum.
The snow was getting heavier by the end of the day even on North facing slopes.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Had a more chilled morning meeting up with @KenX, at 10:30 taking Pointless up to then check out what the snow-pack was like.
We first dropped off the back of the Mea and were initially encouraged trying to ski a NW facing aspect, but there was a slight crust so we skied out into more SE facing and what a surprise that had an even worse crust, however we wanted to see what it was like to try to determine what more prolonged sunshine might do to it.
It was then on with the skins to climb up, taking a detour where I wanted to see what the snow-cover was like on a particular line that has in the past been good for mid afternoon spring-snow late in the season.
Once there we then changed direction to climb, if it were possible, maybe with some boot-packing to the Roche Gauthier Ridge, and was not too bad a climb, so good in fact we did it again and had two very sweet descents though always having to be aware of the best apsect to ski to avoid the dreaded crust.
We then actually couldn't be arsed with skiing back down and opted to take Pointless back down which was more relaxing
Was actually quite steep hence the kick-turns towards the ridge
Playground, which normally involves a long hike up to and around the old Balme Lift Hut from top of Vallons!
Twas a shame light went flat once we were up there, and weather did close in and we've had snow flurries this afternoon, and as I type this it certainly looks grim up the valley, and as ever forecast is for ever changing, with still an unsettled outllook.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
This morning piste conditions were about as good as they’ll ever be heading over from Chantemerle to Monetier, the runs at the top of Frejus were superb. From Vallons down to Bachus was lovely and even down to the valley at Monetier just before lunch was enjoyable. The snow was slushy and granular below Bachus but very quiet. Me and my chum were about the only two on the pistes at times.
The afternoon brought flat light after glorious sunshine in the morning. Cucumelle was fun, but there are some runs with pretty big moguls across the resort. This sadly contributed to my first fall in four years coming down from the top of Serre to Ratier. A great day and we all agreed up high was as good as it gets under the blue skies.
There was a big blizzard around 1700h but nothing to make any difference to the snow conditions.
Really enjoying Serre Chevalier so far and the snow conditions are pretty good all things considered.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Conditions remain really good here today. We skied through lunch and had some great pistes all to ourselves. Frejus sector was closed due to high wind first thing but opened later. The wind was very strong at the top of Prorel. Temperatures down to around -10 this morning and still below freezing this afternoon when the sun fully broke through.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Last evening nigh on had severe planitis, plan-anxiety and even a near feckin domestic* over what route to take today, not helped by me keep changing my mind as I read various reports about the snow-pack, combined with the strong winds of yesterday, so we knew heavy snow low down, strong possibility of crust and other assorted wind affected snow, so what were the chances of finding cold snow and where should we look?
Les Fonts and towing the OH up with the E-Mtb was one option to then ski the Le Bourget forest, but would that be heavy low down, and one report from a mate suggested that.
In the end I plucked for our old favourite, but chose to leave a lot later than usual in the hope that the crust might soften up, that resulted in bit of a feck-up in that the usual parking was full
So we left from where the snow-kiters go on the lower bend down from the Lautaret and I bumped into a dude I know who is the number one snow-kiter, but we ended up talking all about foiling
So going up I was quite optimistic and even more so later on as we arrived at the road and headed up towards the Vallons, and as usual we were able to lose all the hordes who were doing their usual, though I did count one group of 22 going up towards one of our favourite playgrounds, how dare they !
By then I already opted for cold snow and there were no real signs of any wind, so major result and a guy later in the Ferme said that they'd had no wind up there yesterday!
So a far far better than expected ski and we even had Spring snow on our descent back to the Lautaret, a line I've never skied in the all the years of touring up there!
Had the same dilemmas of where to go as @weathercam - all in search of that elusive powder. Ended up having an amazing ski tour. Brief trip report:
Made fresh tracks to Pic Blanc. Skied down the top 200m in lovely powder: first on the North face, then switching to the East Face.
Skins back on, back up to the Pic Blanc (no longer alone by now), and dropped down the North face, on superb powder all the way down to a bit below 2,400m. Ours were the only tracks in the entire valley.
Skins back on, and up to the col just west of Petit Galibier Ouest. And because we thought we still had some legs left, up to (nearly) the peak west of the col, before removing skins for the third and final time and skiing down all the way to the car. The top third on powder. About 200m on heavy snow, and the bottom two thirds on transformed spring snow (a very pleasant surprise).
All in all, 1,550m of vertical, nearly all of it making fresh tracks on both directions. And nearly all of it on good snow. Very happy with the route choices after all the route planning dilemmas (just luck - we were quite unsure where the good snow might be setting off from the car). If I could start all over this morning, I probably wouldn't have skied the East face of Pic Blanc, and instead done two laps of the North face. The NW faces were superb today: perfect powder. The E face wasn't bad, but it just wasn't as good.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Quick update….piste conditions remain excellent across the whole area. Fair bit of man made on the lower ends of the valley home runs but the ones down to Monetier were pretty good. The black down into Chantemerle is sketchy in places but if you catch it whilst it’s quiet it’s enjoyable enough albeit hard work. We sat and watched the final knockings from the bar and it was wipe out after wipe out carnage when busy.
Another top day despite my lingering man flu.
@Weathercam, Love those images you posted, can only dream of doing that! Bravo.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Few flocons now and the weather has closed in up the hill.
Know that there's quite a bit of interest in what's occurring weather-wise now for here in Serre Che as a fair number of SH's prepare to make their way here for next week's bash.
As ever forecast accumulations differ considerably depending on which forecast you look at, though temperatures are forecast to be colder than for recent snow episodes.
Based on Sods Law I'm on a course this weekend and even though it is avalanche focused we would like to be able to see what we might be dealing with above us. The guide has already prepped us that it could well be ski-touring the forest, so he thinks we're going to see some snow!
Updates as and when anything substantial is happening and the webcam over the terrace & garden will show just how much fresh there might actually be, currently it's focused on the bird table.
Once the snowfall kicks in, it will pan around the garden etc
Big fat snow hooning down now in the valley. Our last day just finished. Been great, pistes generally much harder and icy in patches this morning but that’s being picky. As piste conditions go we’ve had a great week couldn’t have asked for more.
Love the ski area, nice spot in Chantemerle. We will be back. Happy skiing to everyone else still to visit!
@jirac18, Such mixed feelings reading these posts! Delighted for those arriving tomorrow but devastated that it won’t include us! Returned from Austria end of Jan with a #humerus which ended my skiing plans for this year Love reading all about Serre Cher & hope to be back there again next year!
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Unfortunately, the snowfall fizzled out around 22:00 and it was quite stop/start, though at times, especially walking back home from the village around 20:00 twas very heavy.
But as you can see from the webcam image below, not even 10cm,(and less on my van) though should be more up the hill, but the trees I can see look like they have less snow on them up there?
Good news is that it's almost a bluebird !
And forecasts have more snow coming in around 16:00
After all it is free
After all it is free
10-15cm up on the hill and very pleasant meadow-skipping!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
And the Col du Lautaret is closed again until Sunday 10am........
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
For those seeking a nice restaurant in Chantemerle I can highly recommend La Bianca. Guilleme the owner is very charming and enthusiastic, great vibe and the food was amazing. We had our final night dinner there last night after a few drinks at The Rooftop which is also very nice indeed. We went home very full and happy.
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Poster: A snowHead
