Absolute Alps Holidays Ski Blog

This winter Snowjet have introduced a new flight to Sion airport in Switzerland.
The service from London Stansted on Saturdays & Sundays throughout the winter could be great time saver, as we all know the Swiss like to be efficient and the small airport at Sion should ensure quick baggage reclaim & check-in. Transfer times to Chatel should be about 1 hour.

This weekend saw the first snowfall of the winter in Chatel village, only a few centimetres which didn’t stay for very long. It’s still covering all the slopes above the village but not quite time to get the skis out yet.
But definately a reminder that there’s not long to go to finish off any jobs on the garden & outside the chalet. Time to pack the garden furniture away.
The village now has a soundtrack of cow bells ringing, as all the cows have been moved down to the fields around the village before heading indoors for the winter.

Last weekend saw the first cold spell hit the Alps since last winter, we had a dusting of snow on the tops of the mountains although it was very wet and miserable down in the village. I had to scrap the ice off the car this morning and we lit the first fire in the chalet for a quite a few months.
After the constantly hot summer we had it was a bit of a shock to feel the cold again.

So about this time last year I spent quite a bit of time researching what weather was being forecast for the coming winter.
The general consensus seemed to be an OK winter, although not a single source said anything about being consistently very cold with regular big snow falls, so it was a very pleasant surprise when last winter turned out to be one of the best winters in the Alps for over 10 to 20 years, depending on who you spoke to.

Then in spring this year the MetOffice came out and predicted a Barbecue summer in the UK, not sure if this was just an attempt to cheer people up and ease the financial crisis but it spectacularly failed to materialise, although it was the hottest and sunniest Wimbledon for years.

The MetOffice have just said the early indications are for another average winter.

But I’m thinking all these predictions seem to be fairly rubbish !

I can tell you that we had a superb hot summer in the Alps, so maybe the MetOffice just got there map upside down or something when they did the prediction in spring. Plus we’ve had a record number of spiders in the chalet this summer and as we all know this has got to be a good sign for the snowy winter to come.

Fingers crossed.