We have snow now, how much? Is it any good? When will there be more?
You will have seen many pictures promoting the snowfall this week. What is the reality?
After a very stormy week in the Alps the situation on the ground in the French Alps has transformed from green, grey and brown to a lot of white stuff. There have been many pictures from resorts and tour operators confirming that it snowed to encourage bookings. You klnow that some of these pictures can be selective so I thought I would dig around the reports and the webcams to see what we can expect when resorts start opening lifts this week, next week and beyond.
Meteo France are reporting the snow depths for off piste areas in Haute Tarentaise on Saturday 23rd November. This is a massive improvement on a week ago and is very encouraging. But we also know it was very very windy in the storm. So the snow will have been pushed around by the wind. Here is their report.
Skiing limit: in the meadows, you can ski from 1400 m, but to ensure and have a sufficiently comfortable underlay, you must reach 1700 / 1800 m. Above 2200 m, it is worth aiming for accumulations, the storm having strongly stripped or reduced the mantle directly exposed to the wind.
Snow cover: The snow that moistened on the surface on Saturday up to 1800 m in the southeast is crusted in the morning, then wet. Otherwise, in the morning, we can count on 5 to 15 cm of powder depending on the altitudes, resting on hard ice below 2200/2300 m and on a snow more or less densified by the dense wind above. Over the hours, the steep southern slopes will in turn become wet at all levels. Note that the ridges, rumps and faces exposed to the stormy wind from the night of Thursday to Friday are bare in favor of the windy areas.
We know from experience that following windy weather the snow ends up in gullies and pockets. It also can be the case that the snow accumulations are better at altitudes that are below the tree line or well sheltered. A brief look at the Val d’Isere webcams today at 1100 would confirm this.
Whereas if we look at these webcams taken in La Daille and on the snowfront, we can see better snow cover. Partly due to snowmaking but also good snow showing on building roofs
I have also picked up these pictures today. These show that there is great snow in places and offer considerable encouragement. These are from John Yates Smith at YSE and Andreas Bjorklund of Alpine Experience. Andreas clearly went out for some ski touring today and found some good lines.
When will there be any more snow?
The forecast shows some warming during the next week with the snow rain limit going up to 2000m or ev en 2200m. There is an indication of light precipitation above 2000m on Tuesday and Thursday. But in general much more settled weather. The next snow after that looks to be 4th or 5th December at the earliest.
I did notice Tignes has already opened some lifts like the Funi and Tichot. Val is promising to open on Saturday. See the photos below from Tignes webcams
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