2 Alpes Snow Report: 15th January 2012

Not that I’ve given up on the boarding (as if – I’d never hear the end of it), but you know what it’s like when you’re constantly obesessing over a problem – it can pay to let it lie for a day or two and come back to it fresh. I’ll let you all know how that one goes in due course.

Hauling a ton of ski gear up to resort and round to the ticket office was a lot less painful than anticipated (clearly fitter than I thought – I still get into the baseline slimfit jeans as well, which was a pleasant post-festive season surprise yesterday morning). Packing tip: if you want to cart a pair of ski boots about resort and still have room for luxury odds and ends like your lunch, you need at least a 30l rucksack.

I finished work at 1:30pm, a civilised hour which allows you to get up the hill while everyone is still in the restaurants having lunch, and actually gives you time for a bit of a warm up plus a fair amount of skiing at optimum capacity, rather than just about getting your legs used to the idea before you have to push off home again. Don’t you hate the way a triviality like paid work gets in the way of all the more important things in life? The whole arrangement is just so inefficient – when I’m in charge things will be much better organised.

At the top of the Diable telecabin I headed off to the SuperDiable chair, intending to make for glacier level with all speed, but was foiled by the fact that the chair was closed. In previous seasons this would have presented me with a choice between skiing down the Diable and getting in the eggs again, or hiking back up past the lift station again to the top of Cretes. But thanks to the whizzy new Petits Cretes extension I was able just to scoot past and head down directly to the Cretes chair at the bottom. Just as well too, because we bumped into the SuperD lifty later on and found that the electricians tried in vain all afternoon to find out why the chair wasn’t cooperating. Glad I didn’t hang about and wait.

I really couldn’t be bothered with all that taking skis off in order to get in the Telepherique business, so I went back up on the chair from the bottom of Cretes and headed to the top via Bellecombes1, Bellecombes chair and the Telesiege des Glaciers. Bit long winded, but but I really cannot be wossnamed to take my skis off and walk about. Have you ever tried carrying a pair of Tigersharks while walking on loose snow in ski boots? Tip: don’t bother, it’s rubbish. (Yes, I am a lazy bint. Bovvered, frankly.)

Snow conditions all over were loose powdery stuff over a hardpack base, except for the routes less travelled (eg Bellecombe runs, Glacier3), which were just plain hardpack. There’s nothing up there which could be called icy, and everything is grippy enough, but I was glad to be skiing rather than boarding. This is partly because I am a feeble pansy who panics evey time the snow is less than absolutely perfect, and partly because the Tigersharks eat those conditions for breakfast. Which is why I bought them (at huge expense) in the first place. ‘Superior Edge Hold’ they say on the sidewall, and boy do they do what it says on the tin.

Conditions late in the afternoon end up being varied, with passing traffic kicking up the snow into loose moguls and hard scratchy patches. This can be quite fun, but if you like it soft and even (yes, fellow pansy boarders, I’m looking at you), I’d recommend getting out there early to make the best of it, then eating a late lunch, possibly at the Toura, which serves omelettes the size of single duvets. We’re off to test this theory tomorrow morning (though as eurozone inhabitants on the verge of economic meltdown we might do fried egg sanger before leaving the house rather than fork out for lunch), so I’ll let you know how successful it was at a later date. Meanwhile, if anyone has any tips on overcoming mental blocks vis a vis slightly harder than perfect snow, please feel free to post them.