High winds, sun, snow and rain in 2 Alpes

On Friday night it started to snow with a vengeance, big white fluffy flakes falling vertically. What a mesmerising, joyful scene this was (if you weren’t on a transfer the next day!). Saturday didn’t disappoint, the snow was great and we could see for the first part of the morning until it started to snow again. This was the snowfall we had all been hearing about, it just kept coming with perhaps 20cm falling in less than an hour even below village level at the base of the mountain road.

Sadly, as predicted, temperatures also rose and the snow turned to rain during the night and continued into Monday. The snow/rain limit rose to 2400m at some points making our snowpack very humid and heavy lower down, pushing avalanche risks up to 4/5. Yesterday the resort was only able to open to the mid station as we had rain lower down but also wind higher up. The ski patrollers had their work cut out, opening up to 2600m and spending the afternoon blasting in la Fee and higher up in preparation to open today. They are planning to open to 3200m today so we are all looking forward to enjoying all that fresh snow without rain on top of it!

The pistes in the village still have plenty of snow on them but they have been rained on so became quite glassy on Sunday. This situation improves day by day as they are bashed and rebashed and today I expect them to be in great condition again.

The Le Cret area had seen a significant snowfall before the rain, 30-40cm. The pistes were heavy yesterday but will have been bashed and back to good condition this morning. We can expect them to be fairly firm this morning but softening as the sun hits them.

This area again has seen plenty of snow and some rain over the last few days. Yesterday, it was very tricky here as it was also very foggy. Today the sun is due to shine so we are looking forward to skiing some great pistes. This area will be the most dangerous for off-piste as it has seen snow, wind, and rain over the last 48 hours. As the majority of this area is above 2400m, it also still holds an Avalanche risk of 4/5. The risk has dropped to 3/5 below 2400m.

Well, we can’t wait to get into this area today but I imagine (and inside knowledge tells me) there has been plenty of snowfall up here but sadly with wind. However, there was no rain up here which is good! There will be wind slab up here on the off-piste on all aspects so again off piste needs to be carefully considered especially at the high risk of 4/5.

For the first time in a long time, we are going to see two full sunny days before the snow returns! The
isotherm will continue to rise through today into tomorrow and the heat from the sun will see the
snow warming so increasing the avalanche risk as the day goes on. The pistes will be in great
condition and the views incredible. Don’t forget to go up to the viewing point and the Belvedere
des Ecrins over the next 2 sunny days to see the magnificent views and even Mont Blanc.

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Les 2 Alpes dump alerts and snow reports are brought to you by Alex, from TipTop Ski Coaching.