 Poster: A snowHead
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Any thoughts on how well Les Carroz typically holds its snow for the first week of April?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Our experiences of late March and early April have been mixed but in essence we have found the daytime ambient temperatures too high and you get a thaw/freeze situation whereby first thing the pistes are groomed and icy, softening around 1000 ish until midday when it starts to slush and get heavy. Excellent conditions for drinking beer on a terrace but the skiing best skiing window can be relatively short but that would depend on how you like your skiing. We would not consider going after mid March.
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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?
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@Basil, Thanks for that.
Anyone disagree with Brian's assessment?
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I'm not familiar with Les Carroz in particular though I've skied quite a few times in early April. A base station of 1140m is pretty low. I've not stayed lower than 1350m. Top station 2500m not great but OK. Partly depends how extensive you want your skiing to be or how condition dependent you are. It could well be restricted skiing on both counts. Going higher gives you more guarantees if you have to book now. But if you can wait until much nearer the time you will be able to make a more informed decision.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I think it would be worth posting your query on the Grand Massif Snow Reports thread as you will find several regulars there who will be able to give a more informed opinion than I can.
I can only go on the experience we had staying in Les Carroz in the second week of April 2013 - which was an exceptional year for snow in many French resorts. The snowcover was amazing throughout the Grand massif - no bare patches..snow banked up in many places. We stayed in Les Carroz in Les Chalets de Jouvence and skied back to the door till the end of the week. We had two powder days and the runs in Les Carroz are all tree lined so were beautiful when it was snowing. There were a couple of very mild days towards the end of the week and it did get heavy going towards the end of the day as Basil said. However Flaine and Samoens are north facing so you could plan your days to ski Les Carroz/Morillon in the mornings and Samoens or Flaine in the afternoons. Our kids didn't even notice the soft snow and enjoyed skiing some completely deserted pistes in Morillon over and over again.
We started out at 9am every day and I wasn't aware of the runs being particularly icy..fairly standard spring skiing conditions. We did have one dismal rainy day but that is a risk anywhere as it was raining up to 2500m in Les Arcs for one day of our holiday last year.
In response to Layne's post, the skiing in Les Carroz was far better than the altitude would suggest. The snow at resort level in Les Carroz 2nd week of April 2013 was comparable to anywhere below 1800m in Val Cenis the week before and to Arc 1800 in the second week of April 2014. However Les Carroz is west, not north facing and I can imagine that in a bad year with mild temps/rain it would suffer. If you want to be sure of good snow depths I think you'd have to leave it till early March to book.
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And 2013 was indeed exceptional. In a more average sort of mid April I'd be looking for a bit more altitude and some different aspects. Actually the top end of Les Contamines is as good as most places at the end of the season though I'd not book it in advance.
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Several years some of the best days skiing I've had in Les Carroz/Grand Massif have been once the tourists had left after Easter but the lifts were still open.
As someone has already said the Altitude isn't the only indicator of snow levels, the local topography plays a massive part too and The Grand Massif punches above it's weight in snow depths due to this!
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