The snow keeps falling : 23rd December 2011
There may be some sunshine on the horizon...

Over the last couple of days the snow just kept falling and in the end another 30-40 cm of fresh fell before it turned to rain in resort all day today (Thursday). The rain in town came as a relief as it gave the commune chance to get to work on snow removal and helped to clear roads and pathways.

The freezing level rose, as did the temperatures, today and made the fresh snow on lower slopes heavy and wet. Thankfully up the top of the mountain it continued to snow above around 2000m or mid station.

Yesterday I went over to Savoleyres for the first time and found cover and conditions to be excellent, apart from the last bit down to Tzoumaz which was a bit icy. The Planard cat track back to Verbier is closed because of avalanche risk so to get back to Verbier you need to download back to Savoleyres and catch the bus across to the main ski area.

After opening a few days ago and then shutting the following day the Bruson sector has finally opened. Today’s high freezing level and rain will have made the snow heavy and sticky on all lower slopes, which is most of those two areas.

On the main ski area the good news today is that the free-ride run from Chassoure to Tortin has opened but the rest of the free-ride runs remain closed due to avalanche risk. These include Mont Gele, Vallon d’arbi, Creblet and Col des Mines. Up on the glacier that sector is still closed and obviously that includes the free-ride run Gentianes to Tortin. Hopefully the Glacier area will open this weekend. Fingers crossed for that. The new super duper Mayentzet lift did open today and I can’t wait to whizz up it. The main, good news is that with the opening of the Chassoure-Tortin link sliders are now able to transfer between the different parts of the 4 Vallees ski area.

The risk of avalanche remains high at 3 out of 5, which is considerable. This rain up to and around 2000m will be seeping into the snowpack and causing all sorts of problems such as providing wet layers or even freezing into icy layers. Above that, things will be more stable but slab from previous high winds and a large temperature gradient in the snowpack will spread the risk high and far.

The weather over the next few days look set to be quite mixed so expect everything to be rolling up the valley. The forecasts do agree that toward the middle to end of the weekend the sun might make an appearance so fingers crossed for snow and sunshine for the Christmas holiday period. Check out my last article on where Santa Claus is going to be over the holiday period and also where to catch a carol service. 

• Latest Conditions
  Flat light, good cover on all pistes
• Depth of snow on lower slopes
  70cm
• Altitude of last snowfall
  1500m
• Date of last snowfall
  23rd December
• Depth of last snowfall
  10-20cm
• Total number of pistes
  37
• Highest temperature
  +1
• Altitude of lower slopes
  1500m
• Depth of snow on upper slopes
  189cm
• Avalanche risk
  3
• Altitude of upper slopes
  3880m
• Number of pistes open
  19
• Altitude of highest temperature
  1500m

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