2 Alpes Snow Report: 19th March 2012

For most of our UK visitors, arriving by flight and transfer, Alpe d’Huez is really the only practical option if you want to take avantage of the Grande Galaxie permission included with the six-day pass. Serre Chevalier is just about accessible by public transport, but you’d spend a lot of time faffing about with buses for a fairly short ski day, so probably not worth the effort.

Alpe d’Huez, on the other hand, is dead easy, especially if you go for the helicopter transfer option bookable at the main ticket office in 2Alpes. At 70€ a head it’s not the cheapest way of doing things, but certainly the quickest and most spectacular. The chopper takes you from Cretes in the morning and drops you at the Altiport, a mere whisker from the pistes, and repeats the whole thing in reverse at the end of the afternoon, getting you back to your chalet in time for tea and cake.

For the skier on a tighter budget, the local Transisere bus company runs a direct coach service every Wednesday and Thursday, leaving resort first thing in the morning and getting you back by about 6pm, which probably means everyone else will have scoffed the tea and cakes by the time you get home. It won’t clean you out of all your holiday spending money though, at a mere 11€ for the return trip.

Self drivers can take the option of heading across the valley to Auris en Oisans, linked to the main Alpe d’Huez ski area by a scary chair which takes you down one side of a steep valley and back up the other before depositing you at the Marmottes chair for quick access into the lift system. This has the advantage of being a much shorter drive than going all the way round to Alpe d’Huez proper, and it’s a whole lot easier to find a parking space as well.

The main way into the lift system is via the Grandes Rousses telecabin, which gives you access to the linked villages of Oz and Vaujany, as well as the Pic Blanc cabin to resort’s highest point and the start of the Sarenne, known for being Europe’s longest black run. Though if we’re being honest, large sections of it are a bit red, but let’s not nitpick.

Alpe d’Huez isn’t known as the Ile au Soleil for nothing, and visitors used to 2Alpes temperatures are well advised to shed a layer. At this late stage of the season this can mean very icy conditions in the mornings followed by afternoon piste porridge, so my advice would be not to waste good ski time on lunch but make best use of the window of opportunity between about 10:30 and 14:30 when conditions are soft and skiable. You can always retire to a sunny terrace for beers and a plate of chips at the end of the afternoon.

Overnight snowfall had left plenty of fresh snow all over the ski area today, and while conditions were a bit wet on the lower slopes, there was plenty of powder on the upper runs, both on and off piste. Visibility was a tad variable thanks to residual cloud rolling around, but generally not bad. The snow was melting already as soon as the sun got to it though, so you need to get out there and make the most of it while it lasts. With any luck we’ll have a few more of these spring snowfalls, and they’ll keep both resorts going with good cover and excellent spring skiing until we all have to knock it on the head at the end of April.