Les Deux Alpes - Interseason and summer 2009

youspurs1, thanks! Ioda is in my VERY bad books today having kept me awake most of the night. This after coming in at 22.30 and not settling down for an hour - grrrrr The alarm clock was set for 5.30, but I ended up getting up at 5.00 anyway. Hopefully tonight will be better. The falling down thing is funny isn't it? I think we're getting near the end of the vole season, I expect it'll be lizzard season before long. (and I don't mean the snowhead)

Warm and sunny with a few clouds around today. The snow wasn't too bad and there wasn't more than a breath of wind on the glacier. The higher runs were hard early but softening when we stopped atjust before 11.00. The French Geantistes were training next to the Dome - very fast. Not bad all in all, but a lot of snow has disappeared since last saturday. Still OK on the glacier of course. Pic of the Toura area taken from the Jandri express on the way down - sorry about the marks on the window.

It was much colder today and due to the extreme melt/refreeze yesterday and last night the snow was rock hard early on, but did get softer of course later on. I showed Fastman around and introduced him to lots of people.

I've taken a pic today of the centre of town with all the bright banners and tents for the Mondial du VTT. It finishes tomorrow, but I shall certainly recommend that all the summer campers wander round tomorrow afternoon.

What a day to start the summer camp with! Fresh snow - about 10cms all over the glacier and the snow line down at 2,400m, although that was a dusting which melted back very quickly during the morning. We started off a bit late, but hardly anyone had made tracks on Signal to the warm up was a fair bit of fresh snow. After we did the split and the first day video, we went our separate ways, but I just had to take my guys onto the bottom of l'Echines - first to traverse in peace, and then to have a run down the last bit int he fresh while it was still there.

There was a fair bit of sun, but it was cold and a bit windy to start with, although the wind did drop a fair bit later in the morning. It was quite cold though, but winter clothes sorted that out. Light cloud drifted around all morning making for some truly spectacular views from time to time. Pic looking over towards the Dome from the run down from the top of the Signal chair to the Signal/Roche Mantel run.

WOW! WOW! WOW!

Fabulous today! Really nice snow, warmer than yesterday - wall to wall sunshine, and the wind dropped a fair bit as well! Not only that but we were all on time and started skiing only 5 mins after we were supposed to - a record! Nothing more to say really, pic looking up towards the super pipe from the restaurant terrace. Anyone who doesn't love this must not love skiing!

Butterfly, Yes - sad isn't it? Today very very warm. There was a light breeze but the snow on the lower slopes did soften up quite early in the day, but apparently the highest slope (La Lauze) was still in very good condiion right at the end of the day. We skied down the Dome - well the racetrack at the side of the piste at getting on for 12.30 and the snow was wonderful - soft and silky, but virgin snow in between where the courses had been set. It's really just a matter of keeping your wits about you and watching and then you still get the best snow. General pic looking over to the Dome and L'Echines late on. L'Echines is starting to go and will be getting well dodgy if the promised warm temps stick around.

Another lovely and very warm day today. There was a bit of breeze on the glacier to keep us from roasting, and the snow, which was really nice hard corduroy first thing, softened up fairly quickly. OTOH that meant that most of the racers went down early, leaving the mountain much quieter and with great spots where they'd taken out their poles.

Pic from the top of the funicular looking over at the Ecrins, with the Barre des Ecrins as the big mountain with snow on it.

sorry I didn't post on Friday, but I was a tad busy with the end of the summer camp week one. Anyway I didn't go up yesterday but Fast man said it was OK. This morning it was very warm and the snow softened up early and got softer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but obviously is not quite what we expect in June. On the other hand it's lovely and warm so therefore a great holiday week weather-wise.
Pic of Signal and the bottom of L'Echines showing the deterioration - hopefully it'll turn cold and snow and reverse this before too long.

today has again been hot and sunny. the snow had re-frozen last night, but softened up about 09.00. At this point the Signal became hectic with loads of peeps who'd started at 9. Fortunately we'd started at 08.00 so had already got a fair bit of work in. Later we found very nice snow to the side of the super pipe where they'd taken down the racecourses early and then finished off down the French team training piste on the Dome (see pic). It's very hard to see our tracks there, although they were visible to the eye.

Swirly, Yes - 3 holes between the two big rocks. It's gone now.

today was again incredibly hot and sunny. The snow re-froze well overnight, but again softened up quickly and relatively early. After our break we went up to the Lauze where the snow was still good for the rest of the morning. Pic of La Meije poking up over the Dome de la Lauze.

the extremely hot weather is continuing, and of course it's great - but .... The melt is about 3 weeks ahead of schedule, so it's not much good for the snow. It is nice for us though.

Here's a pic of looking down the Signal (while it's still open) this morning.

Actually it was slightly cooler today thanks to a light breeze and a bit more cloud around than recently. It would seem as though the weather might be changing. The snow was soft quite early on Signal and I took the photo to show you the damage at the bottom of the Dome. However we skied the Dome at 12.30 and it was great. I'm not at all sure how long Signal will last though, and mostly we're thinking not more than another week, if that. Of course this doesn't affect the higher (main) runs, but it's still a shame to lose it so early.

I didn't go up in the end yesterday as I just felt too tired, and it does take a fair bit of energy to do the trip! However, with Saturday being a relatively quiet day I was keen to get to it. There was a fair bit of high cloud around, but as you can see that cleared for the pic! The snow was really nice right up to the end, just a little soft spring snow on top, with the exception of the final bit which you can see from the photo is showing signs of wear compared to Wednesday.

I'll carry on going up 2-3 times a week for the telemarking (see report on BZK) and may try to go earlier next time and do Signal which is looking quite OK still. Unfortunately today is the beginning of the return to warmer temps which is NOT required! It's been really good last week - cool enough for the snow, but warm enough to be very pleasant in the village. I wish it could stay like that.

Still, it's given us another week of better snow, so we can't complain. More next time.