2 Alpes Snow Report: 14th December 2011
Flat snowboard on test
Tuesday’s promised window of sunshine duly arrived, but lasted from dawn to about 10 am, which was frankly a bit chocolate teapot when the lifts open at 09:15.
We didn’t actually make first lifts, despite the best of intentions, but we weren’t far short of it, and were hopeful that the light might stay reasonable for long enough to do a few runs and put this newfangled flat snowboard device through its paces.
Given the fact that the weather was clearly rolling in we probably shouldn’t have stopped to have a nosey at a mysterious lump of concrete next to the piste, but we did, until we realised that it must be the footing for the top pylon of the new Diable six-man chair scheduled for next season. It looks like the chair will land slightly uphill of the current lift station, meaning skiers heading for the Cretes won’t have to walk.
No luck whatsoever with the light; the first run down the Bosse des Cretes wasn’t too bad, but by the time we piled out of the Telepherique at 2600m the light was flat as a pancake and it was virtually impossible to see what was underfoot. I never find these conditions easy, and it was made worse by the relatively thin snow cover, which has left us with all sorts of lumps and holes we weren’t expecting. This won’t make a lot of difference to the casual visitor, but when you’re relying on the fact that you know the piste and exactly what it does, the unfamiliar terrain can give you a few nasty surprises.
Cloud was rolling in over the Muzelle to the south, the top of the hill was already looking foggy, and the Telesiege des Glaciers wasn’t running (presumably it was only open over the weekend, when all of Grenoble’s skiers piled into resort to take advantage of the sunshine), so we headed down towards the bottom of the Bellecombe sector. The snow cover down here is still on the thin side, especially on the beginner section under the Sautet chair, which is still narrower than usual and flanked by two nasty-looking gullies at the bottom. We’re forecast lots more snow from now until after the weekend, so with any luck that should give us a bit more cover and fill in the holes.
We headed on down the track to Cretes in search of better light (which we didn’t find), and tested the board’s ‘catch-free’ claim to the limit – there were at least two occasions on which I should have splatted badly and was quite surprised to find myself still upright and not lying stunned in the snow.
The light lower down was deteriorating steadily and the snow on the main part of Cretes is still a little thin and patchy, so after a bit more messing about we called it a day and headed back down in the Diable and off to Carrel Sports to order – tadaaah! – my spiffing new K2 Fling with strangely flat shape, soft bendy properties and twin setup. Giving me no excuse not to be riding switch by the end of the season.
Today we’re back to more snow, which looks like being the case for at least the rest of the week. Good news for all of us there, and fingers crossed we’ll have enough cover to take the sort of peak season traffic we hope to see over Christmas and New Year. It would be nice to see the runs down to resort open as well but, at the moment, it’s clear from the tracks on the Diable that there really isn’t enough snow quite yet. This could change if the weather does as promised and it gets cold enough to run the guns – here’s hoping.
The summer snowpark on the glacier closed today and the winter park at Toura is predicted to open as scheduled on Saturday, along with both boarder cross tracks (easy one on the left and humungous nut-job one on the right, under the Toura and Lac Noir chairs). Looking at the plan, they seem to have added a beginner bit with a few park features at the bottom of Lac Noir2. But when we were up there at the weekend they hadn’t started work on any of it, so it was hard to tell what’s going to be where.
Tomorrow is a rescheduled training visit to La Grave, so far not cancelled despite filthy weather forecast, and at the weekend the season starts in earnest, which means hordes of people mobbing the ticket offices, new cashiers approaching nervous breakdown, the rest of us trying to find a pen that works and supervisors running about like headless chickens. Bring it on!
