Les Deux Alpes - winter 2005-06

A snowHead

bh1, 09.00 - 17.00 in the main with one or two exceptions. Cretes chairlifts are till 17.15 and some of the pomas in the village start at 08.45. Lutins poma runs 08.30 - 18.00 for access to both ends of the resort, and has night skiing too. Very sunny again today - horrid forecast for next week - just the week we really want good weather for! Evil or Very Mad

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Just back from Les2Alpes - superb snow for the time of year, right into the village. Lovely spring snow off piste, squeaky snow from 2600 up all day. Anyone who can find a last minute bargain will not be disappointed! easiski, Mrs.N. wasn't to be persuaded about a lesson - very frustrating, but thanks for the offer.

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

Martin Nicholas, I was full anyway through the week .. (first come, first served!) Shock

Glad you had a good time though, shame about the Mrs.

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Warm and rather miserable day. Cloudy with the odd lighter patch but no real sun, and lots of flat light. Snowing up top but also windy and generally horrid. Heavy snow and lower temps forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday, so we might yet get some more powder in. Lower slopes still skiable and OK at 17.00, but pretty heavy off piste near the bottom. On piste absolutely disgusting! Shock

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easiski, you should have seen today's kids' slalom at Méribel at 1400m following temps above zero all night - the salt didn't take at all, absolutely horrible to race in, loads of crashes...

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PG, Yuk - why do they always have these late races at Meribel? I really don't understand it at all!!! Shocked

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easiski, GS tomorrow with rain and zero visibility forecast early, then snow. Cloudy tonight so the stadium won't refreeze and then the fresh snow will fall on slush when temps eventually drop a little. Then temps to plummet to 0 isotherm at 300m tomorrow late pm/night Shocked

. No wonder the forecasters are having a tough time of it at the moment, the weather's all over the place.

After all it is free

PG, I take it hannah's racing? Good luck if she is. sounds horrid. We're having snow today and tomorrow getting cold this pm... Sad

Too late in the season for all this - lets have some sun and no more snow please! (Sorry to be conrotversial). Shocked

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Absolutely foul day today. Windy, foggy and snowing buckets! Visibility was very poor (very flat light) and the fog came and went so a defiitely vertigous day! However there was about 15cms of fresh on the Cretes (2,100m) this pm and skied the hot shot kids down the Y in about 20 - 25 cms where it hadn't been tracked which was most of it. We went into the trees (very close together) in the middle, and had lots of fun in drift up to and above my knees. About 5 cms on top of my car outside! Shocked

All the little flowers that were starting to come up with die now. Crying or Very sad

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Well a very odd day - started like yesterday, then the sun came out but it was all closed about 2,100m (not even the Cretes lifts running this morning) due to apalling high winds. Quite ghastly. Anyway, we go the job done, but I missed the powder on the face first thing, and by the time I got to it with my "wizz kidz" (around 15.30) it was heavy, heavy cut up crud and windpack. Godd for their lesson, but not a lot of fun on my Fischers. Oh, BTW my precious Zags started to delaminate, so I'm waiting for a new pair from the factory - not here yet, but the shop's lent me a pair of their freestyle skis to try out! Very Happy

Last thing in thick trees to the side of the Grande Pente and very deep heavy snow was highly entertaining. We were accompanied by a dad (skis well and does lots of off piste), who couldn't believe a) where I took his kidz and b) that they could deal so well!!! Laughing

Should be easier tomorrow!!! High winds still forecast - desparate to take all to LG on Thurs.....

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getting a bit icy lower down today and then slushy. My wizz kidz tried the Fleche and one got bronze _ I was proud and the little g*t was disappointed! Shocked

Hopefully going to LG tomorrow pm, will let you all know.

easiski, have a good day, forecast looks better for tomorrow. Am beginning to see why the local ski instructors are fed up with so much snow and muck, so late in the season. But loads of primroses lower down, there'll be some cows before long. Hang in there!

You know it makes sense.

pam w, primroses are my favourite flower. I'll look forward to seeing some when I drive over to the bash. I don't think there are any out on the way back from LG though - still too high and cold. I did have a little dandelion or something similar out beneath my balcony last week - but it's not there after this lot of snow + really shilly tonight!

I have a pair of Movement Demon Flames to try tomorrow - we'll see what all the fuss is about! Toofy Grin

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easiski, those little yellow flowers which appear everywhere (there'll be more, don't worry about the dead ones...) were featured in "Alpes" magazine, last May. They are "tussilage", Latin Tussilago farfara. Used for treating coughs. Also, so the magazine said, the leaves, which appear after the flowers and are effective against respiratory tract problems and asthma, were used hitherto as a tobacco substitute in Sweden and Great Britain. Maybe I could persuade my son to use them to roll his own, instead of the noxious mix he uses at present? I was wondering about Movement skis, several available in end of season sales here. Be interesting to hear how you find them.

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easiski,

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snowbunny, they'll have to go some to beat the Zags - they're much heavier for a start, but we'll see. Just a shame that Zag haven't yet sent my new skis....

pam w, Pity they've all dies then -- a client last week gave me a terrible cough! Shocked

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Strange day - very high winds at the top and bnothing open beyond 3200, so no LG today - hoping for tomorrow. Temperature rose during the day and was pretty warm low down, back to major slush at 17.00. No powder as wind has had it all ... Wait and see and hope the wind dies tomorrow.

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It snowed a bit in the night above about 1800m, so there was a 5cms covering all over - a little bit deeper where it had drifted. First thing was fab, we did lots of skiing and found some nice pitches around Les Gours walls and mostly firm under the new snow. BIZZ. Later it got pretty warm (well it was so warm last night that I cracked open my balcony door all night) - and the Cretes became hot and stuffy. I took Dave Burt down the Grande Pente at the end of his lesson, where the snow was a bit sticky, but basically OK. He seemed to enjoy it after the initial shock wore off!! Very Happy

All in all a nice day, no complaints. Bit busy of course being Easter, but no major queues.

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Beautiful spring day again today. Warm with no wind. Very Happy

v Snow at 2,600 and above perfect, bit damp below this moring with some hard patches where it's heavily skied. got slushy and too hot on the Cretes this afternoon, but is now a very pleasant evening. Very Happy

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Dave Burt, Very Happy

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Cooler day today, with mostly cloudy weather, so the snow stayed hard later. It's definitely getting very hard in certain places now until the sun softens it. However, it's not real ice yet, so we'll see. Still perfect snow on the glacier and very good at 2,600 (did Lac Noir and really nice). Lower not so much fun but good edging practise, and cretes and village slopes very spongy later in the day. Having said that I was teaching on the viking in the town till after 4, and I can't remember when that was last comfortable (if heavy) for the 3rd week of April. Very Happy

Extremely warm today - hot even! Shock

Beautiful on the glacier with perfect winter snow, and nice snow all the way to 2,600m at lunchtime. Spring soft on south facing pistes and a bit sticky winter on the others. Cretes and village very hot and heavy snow, but you can still see there's about 75cms at the bottom of the Viking baby lifts. Puddles coming in places, but much better than usual. I reckon it's still possible to ski all the face runs, but some would require a bit of careful navigation near the bottom. Thought about Grande Pente at around 14.00, but still too crispy so I took Valentin instead. Very nice at the top, but horrid from the middle down where it's much more skied.

Some leaves and buds are now appearing outside my window - yippee - springtime. I should think it hard for holiday skiers to imagine how you can get fed up with snow, but after 5 months a bit of green is a very welcome sight. Laughing

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Nice sunny day, not warm on the glacier, but no wind. Fab snow up there, but hardpack on way down to 2,600 at around 10.30-11.00. Good for practising though. Going down later it was mostly fairly slushy below 3,000m (to varying degrees of course), but I skied the Grande Pente for probably the last time this year and it was pretty nice. Lots of grassy patches and some rocks coming through now, and a fair bit of way picking at the bottom + 2/3 bits of grass skiing. However, I can't remember having it skiable at the end of the season ever before, so that's excellent (anyway it was loadsa fun)! Very Happy

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easiski,

It has been fascinating reading your reports all season. Thankyou for this insight.

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johnboy, Thank you for the kind words. Very Happy

I know the interactive map for this season (and the printed version) doesn't actually show either Grande Pente or Les Posettes which are my favourite ways down the Face. In case anyone's wondering: :Les Posettes is in between the legs of the Green Chemin des Demoiselles and Grande Pente is in between what's marked as Combe Valentin and Les Sapins (itinerary).

See many of you on Saturday at Val T, and if not, hopefully before too long. I may do another "after closure" descent here from the La Grave side the week after the EOSB.

Returned home to find (as expected) that the lower runs are looking well dodgy. the Valentin is still passable, but a bit more adventure skiing than skiing. I just saw 2 come down on our side though, and a couple of friends are interested in doing the trip via La Grave so I'll prbably go over later in the week if the weather holds. Vallee Blanche also looks descendable thanks to the cannons, race piste in the village still OK and the bottom part of Les Lutins - pity there aren't any lifts running! rolling eyes

You know it makes sense.

easiski, get your touring skis out

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

easiski,

What's it like now?

A snowHead

johnboy, It's been raining in the village for the last 2 days - snowing at altitude. It's supposed to snow down here tonight Shocked

(damn, I've just planted some seeds out). Likely to be quite a few cms of fresh above about 2,200m. The snow that fell earlier seemed to be down to around 2,500m, with a dusting down to about 2,000m overnight! All good portents for the summer season. Very Happy

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Are lifts still running Charlotte, or is it all shut down???

Desperatly trying to see if I can ski on my 40th, 15th May 2007 Very Happy

Cheers,

Greg

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

gregh, All shut, sadly. give me 30 mins and I'll post pix of today. I think Stubai might be the only place open on 15th May. Most resorts now close in inter-season; partly to save the glacier and partly because not enough peeps come to pay for the lifts and staff. You could try Cairngorm - don't how how the snow's holding up, but if you can go up the funicular ....... I've skied there on my birthday on 21st May before now!

brian

easiski, Cairngorm's last day was Sunday. Ptarmigan was still complete but not enough punters.

Nevis and Glencoe both shut on the 1st May with lots of upper runs still skiable. Same story, not enough punters.

So I wouldn't bank on skiing your 40th in Scotland, Greg.

Zermatt will be open, they've been attempting 365 day opening since last year. Cheap packages available, see here.

That's where I'm planning to spend my 40th (3/3/2010), I fancy a heli-drop on Monte Rosa snowHead

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moffatross, Wonderful pix - thanks very much, and welcome to Snowheads. Very Happy

apart from the avalanche interest, your pix show the steepness of some runs. Super Diable (for peeps who don't know) is black of course, and the Grand Couloir is a black unpisted run (not itinerary). However the run the peeps were standing on looking at the avalanche is a blue run! A good one, but blue - would deffo be red in ValT from last years' experience.

Very Happy

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Good of them to put up a closed sign on the chair lift Very Happy

After all it is free

Frosty the Snowman, You do have to cater for all sorts in this business! Laughing

Thanks Charlotte,

I have to say I'm jealous of anyone living at L2A. The mountain restaraunts were mostly 'orrible but from day 2 my brother and I skied down to town for lunch just as soon as Valentin or lower Diable opened and the food was great and good value too. You'll probably recognise this view and restauraunt but I don't recall it's name. I was also impressed that during the Easter holidays and during the week the British universities were there, the slopes were relatively empty and lift queues were next to nothing. We skied the other side of the valley too which was a bit of a suntrap so the snow was not so good there and the hills were a bit short !

Maybe I'm being unfair but I can't quite say the same for Alpe D'Huez to which we made the day coach trip there on Thursday I think. Mostly it was heaving and slushy and except for the run over the back of Pic Blanc (Sarenne I believe) it was not in the same league as L2A.

View up to Diable from village...

The main mountains from restauraunt

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I skied the Diable on my own on the morning of the first day of my second week on skis Shocked

At the time I thought it was, how shall we say, tricky but with the benefit of a couple of hundred days skiing until I saw moffatross' picture I'd convinced myself that it was probably a gentle slope but I see that it's not. Looks like quite a nice little run now.

Help!!

Les Deux Alpes - winter 2005-06

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