The Merinet.Com Meribel Snow Report

Ski lesson in Orelle

As we whizzed down a perfectly groomed Allamands run yesterday, with blue sky above us and nobody else on the slope, my skiing partner exclaimed “this is billionaire skiing!”. You may remember a few years ago an Asian businessman tried to buy the right to have a piste to himself in Courchevel – fierce local opposition and the resultant bad publicity meant his bid failed. However, during this, extremely quiet, first week of the season, anybody can enjoy that sort of “private piste” feeling, all for the cost of a (35% reduced) Three Valley lift pass. In the quieter parts of the Three Valleys you can literally enjoy having a slope all to yourself, and we have been enjoying great skiing this week on empty pistes.

Our snow depth is not particularly impressive so far this season (with the exception of Val Thorens where there is 80cm in the resort). The lower slopes have modest snow cover and the snow is mainly cannon-produced and so tends to be a bit hard. On the higher slopes, however, there is fantastic skiing to be found. We’ve been skiing mainly in the high areas around Val Thorens and Orelle and have enjoyed lovely conditions. Best of all, because there are so few people on the slopes, you can let your skis fly and make great swooping turns across the whole width of the piste without worrying about collisions. Bliss.

In Orelle (the "fourth valley") the Rosael chairlift has been renovated over the summer. This is a great improvement over the old, rather slow chairlift, and the passage through the gap in the ridge back towards VT has also been reshaped so you no longer need to pole uphill. (This is just one of four new chairlifts installed in the Three Valleys this winter – you can find out more about all the improvements by clicking on the link below to our news pages.) If you haven’t yet discovered Orelle, it’s worth making a special trip to enjoy its sunny, wide pistes and spectacular views.

Something else I recommend is continuing to take lessons, whatever level of skier you are. Yesterday I joined a lesson with BASI trained, ESF instructor Martin Hemsley, and had one of those lightbulb moments, when suddenly I realised what I’d been doing wrong and my skis started doing what I wanted them to. Skiing is a sport where you can carry on improving and I think you get far more out of it the more you progress.

Additional lift openings for the coming week have been announced. In Méribel the Saulire, Tougnète 1 & 2, Rhodos, Golf, Altiport draglift and Altiport chairlift are due to open on Saturday. In Mottaret the Combes
chairlift and Roc de Tougne draglifts will open. Click here
to see the full list of Three Valley lift openings for next week. Full Three Valley lift opening is expected for the following weekend, starting Saturday 19 December.

Did you know you can now keep in touch with all the news from your favourite resort through Twitter? If you would like to receive these snow reports and our news stories as Tweets, simply sign up via the Twitter logo on our home page. Our weekly Video Snow Reports are also now being updated weekly - this year in glorious widescreen version, so you will see more of the glorious scenery and less of me.

To find out all about the new developments in the Trois Vallées ski area do visit our News page.

Don't forget you can find out what events are on during the coming season with our What's On Calendar.

[1] Generally described in more detail in the resort avalanche bullettin (e.g. altitude, aspect, type of terrain etc.)
[2] Additional load:

• High: e.g. group of skiers, piste machine, avalanche blasting
• Low: e.g. skier, walker
• Steep slopes: Slopes with an incline of more than about 30°
• Steep extreme slopes: Particularly unfavourable in terms of the incline, terrain profile, proximity to ridge, smoothness of underlying ground surface.

This is an indication of status at time of writing. Please check latest situation at the lift stations before setting out.