Well this week's weather has been a mixed bag and constantly changing landscape. Who’d be a weather forecaster? Every time we have checked the reports, forecasts and predictions they have changed. Maybe a crystal ball would be more accurate!
We do need some more snow please! Once again the piste bashers have been doing a top rate job in keeping the pistes well maintained, but it is starting to feel quite icy out there, especially in the shady areas and on the lower runs. Due to the mild temperatures it has felt like spring skiing, icy until around 11am, great until about 2pm and then slushy in the afternoons on the lower slopes. There’s a bit of mud creeping onto the lower pistes and some areas are starting to look a little more brown than white with some gravely patches poking through.
Looking ahead, where we thought we had snow forecast, this now appears to be rain below around 2000 metres. However it does look like temperatures are going to drop, the freezing level will fall and currently there is the chance of snow showers on Friday evening above 1800 metres and on Sunday around 4cms of snow coming down to 700 metres, due to a cold front from the north. Maybe too far ahead to be accurate, but at the moment we can see light snow forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday next week too, above 1500 metres. The uncertainty is due to being between two air masses from Friday, meaning any small shift can create significant change.
In Chamonix, yet another week sees a surge of school holiday makers here in the mountains. Despite the overflowing hotels, restaurants and bars, the slopes seem a little quieter. In fact, lift queues are a little shorter than those seen in February's previous weeks, probably as the UK holidays are over and we are in the last week of the French holidays.
Great photo above captured by Franziska in Brevent Flegere
