Alpe d'huez, Villard Reclus, Oz, Vaujany, Auris

A snowHead

Just returned , spent 7 to 14 March in Oz.
Had a wonderfull time.Fresh snow first few days. Snowconditions are really good but lots of sun last few days. Looked like more snow when we left.
Slopes not too busy except for Sarenne and Poutran in late afternoon down to Oz.
Got to do Tunnel and Sarenne, Tunnel once in very bad viz and deep snow , but later in week with good conditions. Sarenne just too busy with lots of skiers who were actually a bit overstretched in busy conditions. One had to be heli-lifted while we were there. We also did La Fuma and it was great fun with soft snow top part. Even our kids enjoyed it. Auris area really good and lovely restaurant at bottom on ADH side.
Rented from G2 ski in Oz, very friendly and efficient service, can really recommend. Even found beloved Volkl tigersharks!
Grocery store very limited and expensive, take with what you can. We also skied to Bergers area of ADH and used supermarket there.
We stayed in Chalet des Neiges, smaller than expected from pics, good location.

A snowHead

I returned today after spending a week there starting 14th March.
There was no snowfall whilst I was there and it was very hot, average of 4c so skiing in jumper and t-shirt!

In the mornings the snow is hard packed and icy, turning to thick slush in the afternoon. The higher you go the better it gets the, base was eroding on the lower slopes. For the coming week the temperature is supposed to drop up to -9c and there was talk of a snowfall.
Sarenne was good at the start of the week but the snow disappeared towards the end, not really enjoyable as you spend most of the time trying to avoid skiing on rocks and trashing your skis, there is however a nice picnic table half way down wink

The Tunnel was good, plenty of snow there, also le dome can be interesting when icy Laughing

Sarenne, Tunnel and some of the other black runs are open/closed at random times so you have to ski around the Marmot lift area and watch the boards to see when they open to get your chance.

I found it was best to start on the leftmost of the map in the morning and work your way around to the Auris on the right hand side in the afternoon. Stopping at le tremplin(base of marmots bubble) for lunch where a plate of chips is 'only' €4.50 instead of the €6 they wanted over in vaujany.

Bad points were the chalet ski room got looted this week, apparently not the first time so I decided to sleep with my skis for the rest of the week..
A lot of chairs have green matting held down with screws to ski over, in places the matting has worn away leaving exposed screw heads which gouged my skis right through the base Evil or Very Mad

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

According to snow-forecast.com there's a good foot to fall from tomorrow until Saturday - sweet as a peach, just in time for my arrival on Sat Smile

Can't wait Smile

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a mates snowboard was stolen from a ski-room in alpe d'huez, not uncommon apparently. police were not the most helpful from what he said. Evil or Very Mad

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Mattw, rogg,
As someone who spends a lot of time in Alpe d'Huez I would be interested to know more about these thefts from ski lockers. What chalet / appartment blocks did this happen in, was it from locked lockers ? etc. Also if any one else has had similar experiences, is it getting worse ? I know in our own building we have a gardien who locks the complete ski-room at 7-30 at night and unlocks it at 7-30 in the morning, and he definitely does because I pass the ski-room on the way into our appartment. I thnk we could all do without this sort of thing messing up our holidays. I would hope that if any one was caught taking skis the justice would be summary, severe and extreme, preferably in public.

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We saw warning signs in Oz-en-oisans about ski theft being prevalent in area , very sad!

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Just returned from a week in ADH. Cloudy and cold last Sunday and Monday but the snow was great. From then on the temps rose dramatically to the point where anyything below 2200m was slushy and all you needed was a T-shirt and hoody. The freeze-thaw left the powder really crusty and barely rideable on the shallower inclines. Over the back into Villard the off-piset was amazing early on but totally pants from Weds onwards.

The 2,500 sudents from BUSC who turned up made life interesting; they weren't too much of a hassle on the piste (although it was funny listening to them on the gondola talking about champagne drinkies!!) but they kept us awake through the night as they revelled in th streets. The BUSC big air comp on Friday was okay, although the MC swearing wasn't great with kids around.

The hotel we stayed at, L'Hermitage, was great – aside from feeling dicky on the second day (a dozen guests all felt like this) - and was in a good location that meant we culd walk three minutes to the DMC or catch the bucket lift 50-metres away. Good views over the Auris area too and over into L2A.

The snow coverage was getty well patchy late on in the wek due to the strong sun, but the majority of the runs seems to have enough cover. Sarenne was closed inhe afternoons because it was just bare grass and ock in some bit half-way down. he bottom shuss to the Auris connection lift was great fun (very slushy) but good when you got your speed up - it was great seeing the look on some skier's faces when I overtook them on my board Smile

Pic Blanc had a big dump of Powder on Weds night so was amazing for the las two days. Le Tunnel made the ideal final run of the week, heading down to the Lac Blanc chair and down the line of the DMC. Never made it over to Vaujany or the majority of the Auris runs but they looked empty when we did head out that way.

Didn't hear about any thefts but we did take or gear into our rooms rather than leaving them downstairs in the locker room.

Will write a full rundown of the hol later on - safe to say, it mafde a great way to see out the season Smile

After all it is free

End of season conditions here, skiied Combe de Loup yesterday
with a bit of grass skiing to refuge & even high op routes struggling now but raining in Oz at 1350m so may end week with a bit of fresh snow at altitude.

Help!!

Alpe d'huez, Villard Reclus, Oz, Vaujany, Auris

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