It’s been a top season this year, with the fantastic start in December & January then lots of Sun in February and now whats turning out to be a snowy March. With temperatures dropping low again and lots of snow fallen in the last few weeks plus a significant fall predicted in a couple of days its turning out to be a great end to the season.
Lots of powder has been had this year, and its looking to be great skiing well into April.
Last month turned out to be a superb month on the slopes, excellent snow conditions, lots of sun, a few good dumps of snow too. The mountain has a fantastic base of snow now, and the off-piste has a great covering too.
February has got off to a great start too, its snowing very heavily today and set to continue all night.
The title says it all, the skiing has been simply excellent from the very beginning of the season. My only excuse for not updating this blog more often is I’ve been skiing too much and not spending any days in the office.
Christmas and New Year weeks were sunny with blue skies and excellent pistes, since then we’ve had a few dumps to freshen it all up mixed in with sunny days to enjoy the mountains. Its been pretty much perfect !
We’ve had lots more snow over the last week and a lot more forecast for the next few days.
With the lifts at Pre La Joux running this weekend there was plenty of powder to play in on Saturday, and lots of falling over today in the poor visabilty due to the big lumps of snow falling. It was the type of day were you get off at the top of the lift looking a bit like a snowman with all the snow you’ve collected on the way up.
Next weekend the whole ski area should be opening up with the links across to Avoriaz too. Time to get a wax on the skis I think !
The snowfall we’ve had in the last week has been reported to be a best start to the winter season for over 30 years. With many resorts opening a few lifts this weekend for people to get their skis out earlier in the year then most can remember.
Chatel itself received a staggering 85cm on the top slopes which is more then almost all the other resorts in the French Alps including all the big names further South.
Yesterday I headed to Les Croset one of the 4 ‘Portes du Soleil’ resorts which where open. It was a beautiful sunny day, blue skies with not a cloud in sight and with knee deep soft powder conditions it was a very enjoyable day.
Looking forward to next weekend when Chatel opens its lifts, with possibly even more snow forecast before that.
Well we woke up this morning to find a good covering of snow over the village and the forecast for the cold spell to continue for the next week at least.
Hopefully this is a good sign for the season ahead - on a technical note the North Atlantic Oscillation & developing La Niña weather patterns are running opposite to the way they did last season which should ensure a repeat of last years poor snowfall is unlikely. So the people in the know are saying.
Hope you all had a good summer, it’s been a pretty wet over here, but a fair amount of sun mixed in too. The village has been full of very muddy mountain bikers for the last few months.
As for next season we’re very pleased to announce we’ll be operating two catered chalets, Chalet Fleur D’Oranger has been fully refurbished this summer and will compliment Chalet Les Trois Canards in comfort and service. Both boasting real log fires and outdoor jacuzzis.
There are no major developements to report in the Portes du Soleil this summer, but last seasons upgrades worked very well. The upgraded Les Combes lift give the pistes from the top of Linga towards Pre La Joux a welcome facelift, and the upgrade to the Chaux Fleurie chair from Les Lindarets to Chatel along with the piste overhaul & new snow cannon totally removed the old bottleneck making the pistes a lot more fun especially in poor snow conditions.
The long talked about ski link from Super-Chatel to Linga looks all set to go ahead next summer, which would allow people to ski all the way back to Chatel at the end of the day.
We’re starting to get booked up for next season especailly now everyones returning from their summer holidays, so its time to get organised and book your ski trip too.
Well the last guests have left now, and we have moved back into the chalet. It’s been an excellent first season, despite the lack of snow early on it came good in the end and there’s still snow around even though its roasting hot now.
We were totally sold out this year and have already sold quite a few weeks of next season.
We’ve got a busy few months now working on landscaping around the chalet, and planting the borders up.
Have a good summer and keep checking back to see how we’re getting along.
Thanks,
Adam & Kei-Lu
Spring is definatly here, we’ve had blue skies and hot sun for the last few weeks. But with all the snow we had throughout February and March the pistes are still brillant white, there are hardly any nasty brown patches of any note and almost all the pistes are open. I’ve been out almost every morning recently for 2-3 hours top skiing on excellent condition pistes. The top of the mountain is staying good til after lunch, and then move on to the North facing slopes for the best skiing. The last run down to car park can be a little heavy going by the end of day but considering its the middle of April you can’t really complain.
All in all its a great end to the season.
As predicted the week before last was a corker we had blue skies and sun all week, the pistes were it top condition for cruising around.
Then with the change of clients last Sunday we had a change in the weather, no sun but loads of snow all week with waist deep powder to be had by Thursday.
Here we are again another Sunday another change, the sun is out again and forecast to stay out all week.
It’s turning out to be a great end of the season, looking forward to enjoying these last few weeks.