Serre Chevalier 2022/2023

A snowHead

@x/7, so are you suggesting he should have done what you did in a group but on his own, given the conditions, and in his restricted time frame?

Numpty indeed, and of course having to then use the word "epic" Laughing

Conditions better for snowboards though....

A snowHead

Two groups of friends in the line at La Grave, ski patrol up there now and signs are will open according to them.

I'm hoping Yret is STILL going to be closed, as I have a plan Cool

And from here can see it's howling up on Eychauda ridge.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I was up first thing this morning, most of the upper lifts above Combes were closed like Grand Serre, Yvret and a couple of others. Super icy in parts up top and windblown, found it better through the middle sections and Luc Alphand was in great shape, enjoyed that run down! A bit of sun and wind dropping in the afternoon might help the higher sections of piste. Still some pow stashes around Cucumelle and CDB but requires going through a bit of crud and exploring to find them snowHead

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30 to 40cm of powder down to just above P1 Cool

. Sun’s out, not a lot of wind, Patou was in the best condition I’ve skied it.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Trifides next, apparently

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Trifides 2 - tracked but full of boot deep cold snow. Perfect. Still fresh tracks to be had in the lower vallons. So good today.

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@Sharkymark, sounds like a great LG day* Very Happy

As for back here in Serre, OH dropped me off in Monetier for first lifts and it was pretty obvious Yret would not be opening as there was still so much wind at altitude, and that's what I wanted.

Took Eychauda chair up and it was bonkers windy at the Col, then it was a case of manhandling the skins onto the skis for the climb up to Yret, and the most challenging part was right at the beginning where it was frozen steep corduroy totally windswept of any snow, so really crampons were the order of the day but mine were still back at the ranch as they were the last thing I thought I'd need climbing up a piste on supposedly fresh snow.

It was pretty obvious with the wind howling and climbing up in that I could see it was going to be a technical ski, and as you can see from the photos I encountered all types of snow-pack both to the sides as well as what was on top of the piste Laughing

Anyway I enjoyed it so much in a sort of masochistic way that I did it again, but this time the Col du Vent route as opposed to the Yret first time around, and the best bit was all morning it was just me up there Cool

I did look at the entrance to Montagnolle but did not think that was a good idea, as well as going through Jackson's hole as maybe too wind-loaded on the other side, but it did look good.

Anyone for shrapnel, Yret side Laughing

Col du Vent side

OH and daughter said they had a cracking ski, so much better with the colder snow. And I also found piste conditions on the Vallons also very good, even on my touring gear, and not too slushy on Le Bez into Chazelet, will probably be a totally different picture tomorrow Laughing

* Did say Classic LG day earlier, but then a Classic LG day includes a road run n'est pas ?

After all it is free

Looks awful! wink

@Weathercam, none of the road runs have been open all season sadly. However, chancel was back on the menu with an extra 40cm+ of snow on it. Here’s one of many reasons why a road descent wasn’t necessary snowHead

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@Sharkymark, great or classic, don't think it matters when you get 40cms Laughing

You back there tomorrow, or heading elsewhere that direction?

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Ridiculous to the sublime.....

First lifts CDB and two runs on a deserted Casse in perfect Manchester, top to bottom.

So good all the groups etc leave it till they go back down for lunch Toofy Grin

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Thought the pistes held up relatively well today despite the temperatures. Spent the afternoon on cruisy runs though so might be skewed by that.

Nice to get up Yret for the first time this week.

The family have gone for first lifts again this morning (have trained them well Laughing

) though don't think the Casse will be a repeat of yesterday as it was so warm in the afternoon and should imagine the corduroy will not be so forgiving first thing.

After yesterday's piste thrash; in the afternoon took the e-MTB to take a look up the Granon Road (South side of the Valley), unfortunately, the snow was too soft to ride on once I made it to the snow-line at around 2,000m, so could not do a really close inspection to see how wind affected it might be, but with these warm temps hopefully what sastrugi there might be will melt fast. But on the whole, looks good coverage up there, and still, the road is closed so a bike or hike is the only way to get to the snow, and that's a long hike!

As for today, fingers crossed for a cunning plan Cool

View across to the pistes.

You know it makes sense.

Well the plan paid off, though did turn into a bit of an adventure Laughing

Maybe could have left it a little longer or maybe the high cloud had just curtailed the cooking process, but as ever being fussy, as conditions were pretty sweet.

It's also probably four years since we've skied that route and it's quite dramatic terrain.

Good news is that there are still quite a few descents to be had there, and think it can only get better that's if we get the right weather, which is looking a little hit-and-miss to say the least!

And finished with a well earned beer in the Peyra Juana Very Happy

http://youtube.com/v/hf15kPLQmUM

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Back over to where we were yesterday, and 90 mins later and we were almost too late, but the snow was cooked to perfection and we could ski excellent spring snow all the way down to 1,900m.

The couple of Swedes with me were most impressed Cool

And our tracks from yesterday had nigh on disappeared, when that happens you know it's Spring conditions!

Later on, a group with what looked like a couple of kids was skiing the same line but going all the way down where they must have had a car somewhere on the Chambran road.

Then as we were transitioning this chough was circling low above us, and seemed pretty tame, and sure enough, came really close to me as I threw him bits of sweet.

And as we were climbing back up spotted a group of 14 chamois.

And YR forecast has 12cm snow for tomorrow but they seem to be the only site forecasting that much?

A snowHead

Should have added that yesterday, when skiing down Vallons/Cucumelle after the climb up I've never seen moguls and the resultant carnage caused by the build-up of the soft snow, which just got progressively worse as the afternoon continued.

The first wall down was really bad and then the lower section before the Pi Mai turn was horrendous for many.

As for today +5 and flat light - think I'm still going XC as it's the last day of that season here Crying or Very sad

A snowHead

Well that really had the feel of end of the season about it today, which in fact it was for the cross-country, a grim, grey day.

And that date was always scheduled and was it not because of a bad snow season, in fact we've had excellent snow cover in the valley all season, and last year think my last XC was mid end of February?

Though in this past week the snow has very quickly disappeared on the valley floor, and think it would be more frustrating if we had plenty of snow cover still, but they were no longer pisting the XC trails.

I know very few SH's will ever contemplate XC, but here in Serre Che we are blessed with some damn fine trails on our doorstep and the Swedes I was skiing with yesterday, and two lots now have places in Monetier, and they along with their friends will often XC and even do both on the same day, but there again they're accomplished XC skiers and have been doing it since they were kids, and it's just natural to them.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@davidof, beautiful

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@davidof I'm pretty sure you're wrong, my neighbour is an ESF instructor, so I'll double-check with her as she left for Queyras (St Veran) where it's still open

They've now changed all the operations here and it comes under the nordicalpesdusud.com and they've been very good at updates (see below), but they highlighted the end of the season as today a good ten days or so ago even before we had the snowfall of last week.

I was looking back at my diary and 6th April
On the way to Lautaret but road closed due to risk of avalanches from above due to afternoon heat
PB 16km Cross Country. Really felt good

6th Feb last year was my last session, 27th Feb 2021 and 29/02 2020 but then there was Covid etc

That photo is from Boussardes and that's one of our ski-tour routes when conditions are suspect , and above the treeline is where I was helied off after skiing down from that ridge, Point Etinard!

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Just sent Amelie this...

le ski de fond devait-il toujours fermer aujourd'hui ou était-ce dû au mauvais état de la piste. Je pensais que c'était toujours censé fermer aujourd'hui même si la neige était bonne?

After all it is free

So yes it was scheduled.....

Bonsoir Gavin, oui dernier jour aujourd'hui sur Serre Chevalier même si la neige était bonne....ils vont finalement normalement damer jusqu'à mercredi autour du pas de tir de Biathlon des Guibertes. Les autres sites nordiques ferment dimanche 25 mars. (Les Fonts, Nevache., Queyras....)

My point was that the 19th is quite early. The conditions don't seem great and the above two examples show much later openings.

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@davidof, no you were making the point that they would stay open if the snow was good, and I said that the date was scheduled regardless of the snow condition.

As you say they have to arrange these things so workers can arrange contracts, and there has been a lot of centralisation under NordicAlpesSud.

You do have a bit of a cheek telling me what's going on in my own back yard from 100km away , but this is SnowHeads Laughing

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Ok, boomer

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OK Troll / baratineur

In fact, in April 2018 you never even skied here, not that you actually said you did, but you sure tried to craft/BS the impression that you were, with that first photo, even I fell for it, when in fact it's taken from the Nordic Serre Che FaceBook page Laughing

As for the weather today, first day of Spring, our terrace is, and I suspect the lower pistes into the resort are lethal this morning, with the overnight rain and then a subsequent freeze which nearly saw me going base over apex.

Could be another good day for sniffing out some spring-snow slack country, but the forecast is showing some good potential all week, though think early starts now if touring up from around the Lautaret now.

And pistes, even by early afternoon could be challenging if Saturday was anything to go by!

There is a lot of precipitation in the forecasts for the end of the week onwards, so too far off to be sure, maybe best to just look out of the window for the next few days Laughing

Think so far this week it's been one of the best of the season, in that it's outrageously quiet up on the hill, and the weather is superb; though that could all change as from tomorrow, but as I said above, it really has been a case of look out of the window and decide.

Yesterday, after confirming that indeed the weather was suitable, I showed my neighbours, both instructors, one of our favourite slack-country routes which they'd never done. For Daniel it was ideal as he's getting over having a couple of stents put in last year, so we took it easy on the relatively short climb back up, after a cracking descent towards the valley floor in perfect corn.

As we started the descent there were about four pisteurs making ready Jacksons (route through some rocks) for the big Grand Prix event this Saturday, and it looks currently as if the weather is going to be alright for that.

It is quite a bonkers,crazy/fun event!
https://grandprix-serrechevalier.com/en

If you believe the forecasts, it looks like a return to winter next week, but how many times have we said that!

That said, my arms are quite tanned after three days of climbing, and my lips are subsequently very sore rolling eyes

And daughters last night yesterday, and we went to the fab L'Oree Du Bois resto in Le Bez, expensive, but the food is superbly crafted.

And a big shout out to SnowCab who are picking her up at Noon from our apartment for a transfer to Turin at €39 and her flight back was only £30 !!!

Basically she susses the feasibility of the transfer first, then finds a suitable flight, if that makes sense?

You know it makes sense.

Up skiing the pistes this morning, great conditions, but quite a short window of an hour or two between hard and slushy, normal for the time of year!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Been in the resort since Sunday, never been here before, and enjoying it. However, must say that you folks who are here all the time are very fussy about the conditions you go out in, although why wouldn't you be if it's on your doorstep? Conditions on piste are way better than we had 2 weeks ago in Morzine, so definitely not complaining!

A snowHead

@karin, ssssshhhhhh Laughing

We went to bed last night hoping that it would not be too bad in the morning, and sure enough, there was some good sunshine over us and the cloud cover was circa 3/8's, though not too good if you looked up towards Galibier / Lautaret.

Rewind to yesterday when I cycled in my Summer kit up the Granon road to the snow-line (1,920m) to suss the ski-touring potential.

And then with it not being too cloudy this morning, it was back up there, but this time with the OH, just the one dog and skis Very Happy

I counted three others in all that area going up ahead of us; we came in right of the picture which I took this ten days ago from the Bivoac resto, when there was more snow up there, but it's the sector you can clearly see when skiing up from Chantemerle/Villeneuve.

We decided on taking Beanie as I knew the snow would not be too demanding for her, and on some of the traverses I'd carry her.

The Gardiole is at the peak in the picture at 2,753, we walked with the skis for 35mins before starting to skin up away from the road, so was not too bad an approach, ending up climbing just over 800m in total, but we could ski down more or less back to the van, only having to take skis off 3x.

And the snow was pretty well perfect spring-snow, and on the climb I had to stop myself from saying this could be very good as I did not want to incur sods-law and for it to then cloud over.

You can see how much cloudier it was further up the valley.

A snowHead

Well that wasn't too bad a morning!

Yesterday the predicted rain didn't kick in till late afternoon, and the morning was way better than forecast.

And it rained all night it seemed, and as the dogs came in I heard what I thought was music, but it was rain water tinkling off the metal gutters.

This morning there was no snow on the trees that I could see, and Cucumelle webcam was not showing too much in the way of fresh snow on the tables and chairs, but below the Vallons it didn't look too bad, so we opted for first lifts.

And as it was the Grandprix seemed that they started early, so we were on the Casse de Boeuf at 08:50 and up the Gauthier at 09:05 and we skied a number of runs with around 2-5cms of snow on.

Eychauda drag opened at 09:30 and we scored a good number of runs off that before more people worked it out, and at the top was 5-10cm so better than expected.

So now we await what's in store for us tomorrow, as we could well see snow on the terrace, and there's also more snow forecast for the back end of the next week, which could well happen as we have a number of confirmed piste skiers coming out, though to be fair one of them would love to ski fresh snow but he's in rehab and just great that he can make it out here.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Webcam is panning around the terrace and the rain/sleet turned to snow about half an hour ago, but it could well be 50/50 if it will stay as snow or revert back to rain. Temps here at 1,400m currently +2.5 - dogs are not too impressed and venturing out too far.

https://stylealtitude.com/serrechevalierweathercam.html

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Yesterday was a damp squib in the valley, and at one point the weather cleared.

Then circa 19:00 started to snow, wet and heavy as temps were +2°.

But it was laying, and this morning we have a soggy 8cm.

So will be interesting to see how much we have up the hill, as can't really see at the moment.

Going for CDB 09:00 though they're still bombing.

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Think we were on the third chair up, but had the first tracks down CDB as they were snow-boarders in front of us who had to do their straps up Toofy Grin

I must admit to first-tracks red mist as I shot off trying to race some young fit Swedes to the best lines Laughing

Things settled down as we again opted for fresh snow on the piste for three or four runs, before diving off on to our usual stashes off the Crete, then as the weather started to clear a little we headed over to Vallons and did two or three under the chair before I was left on my lonesome and I then did four ridge hikes along Roche Gauthier, and by 12:30 there was still a lot of untracked to be had as apart from some UCPCA groups it was quiet.

And it was classic stealth skiing in that if you're patient and wait then you'll get a window in the cloud for much better viz, even sunshine.

Snow was getting heavy at around 2,100m and it's nigh on disappeared on our terrace at 14:00.

So a good top-up above 2,100m and decisions as to what to do tomorrow, maybe take a look up Galibier way?

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Piste conditions today were just perfect. More like January than late March.

After all it is free

In the end opted for lifts, though had a plan at the back of my mind.

Yret was closed but did think I'd skin up from Eychauda and maybe Montagnolle, but first opted for Cibouït chair to see how wind affected the snow was after yesterday's winds.

As I got off the chair there were two groups skinning to the ridge that I know is above Montagnolle, so rude not to, plus I could see how things were and maybe they were doing that for safety reasons, or could just be that was the easier way to get to Montagnolle.

I hung back and kept away from them not wanting to be too obvious, the first group transitioned quickly and put in some neat jump turns and skied down, I could then see what their objective was, and that was to then climb back up and aim for the Dome du Monetier.

The second group was more of my vintage, as they approached the descent more cautiously, I did find out that they were on their second day of a five day trip.

Once they were safely on their way on the traverse into the main bowl I skied down, and then past them as they were having a few issues with the snowpack, the guide nodded to me, hopefully in appreciation that I kept my distance etc

So I ended up with first tracks to the bottom, though I did ski more in the direction that I was heading for whilst the guide and his group took a slightly different route with some more skiing, but would result in more of a climb.

I had to break trail for a while but fortunately, I could see some other tracks, so headed for those, the only issue was that they were on narrow skis so I still had issues as the snow built up on my skis and it was not exactly light powder.

The tracks went straight up and was pretty intense though I could see where it was steeper, that there were some others with kickturns and traverses which I followed and was not so tough.

As I was going up one skier came down from well above and he was all over the place, at one point he was laying down for what seemed ages and I started to think that maybe he was carrying an injury and was waiting for me, and I almost got excited at the prospect of being able to use my InReach SOS as there was no mobile signal up there.

As I neared he got up and skied towards me, and he was fine, though the snow-pack was definitely giving him problems with his seating position which is always a bad sign of what the snow-pack might be like, as I can lay testament to Very Happy

By then I'd decided to stop at a small plateau just as another fit guy caught me up, and almost on cue a small avalanche came down as things were warming up.

The steep straight tracks carried on at what was an insane gradient and then as I was having a nag with this other guy two skiers came down very much ski-mountaineers and they were the ones that had put the tracks in, and they knew the other guy that had caught me up, and he like me had decided the snow-pack was getting neige mouillée or wet snow and that was as far as he was going though he was having to wait for his mate who was a good 20mins away.

He was nagging away to the other guy about a whole number of routes/ couloirs up around us; so just when you think you're doing stuff, there are always others who take it a whole lot further. That said, they sure could climb but their skiing was almost in my league so that at least made me feel better Laughing

In fact what with the other group who were ever so slowly making their way up as I skied down I've never seen so many people in that valley!

The young Billy-Goat / Chamois Laughing

And a shot just to show what one was having to deal with, I call it shrapnel Laughing

Some cracking terrain.

And a vid

http://youtube.com/v/uwGCardM9Vs

The main Montagnolle runout today was horrific and even before that the snow was really heavy, so I hate to think how the group would get on as they wouldn't be coming back down for at least another hour or so, and it was only getting warmer, and with tired legs at our vintage it's not good.

Missed out on this as I was skiing with LynnX, but have to say the pistes were the best I've skied in the past 2 seasons, helped by the fact that due to the strikes, the Clot Gauthier and Mea lifts were closed so we had the pistes to ourselves!

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The snow on the North faces of PSV had dried out during the night and was really good. Even the tracked out stuff was light and fun. Sadly today looks warmer.

Help!!

Serre Chevalier 2022/2023

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