© Caroline Sayer
© Caroline Sayer
© Caroline Sayer
© Caroline Sayer
© Caroline Sayer
© Caroline Sayer
Yet more snow for the start of the French holidays in Meribel
Here’s how to find the quietest slopes
I’d like to share with you a couple of statistics showing just how much snow Méribel has had this winter. According to town hall figures, Mottaret has received 4m (13 feet) of cumulated snow since the start of the season. Clearing snow from the valley’s roads and pavements cost the town hall 950,000 euros in December and January – the average is 865,000 for the entire winter. What an exceptional winter we’re enjoying (though the snow clearing teams may be enjoying it rather less…)!
The quantity of snow has been amazing this season and the quality has been pretty great too. Currently, most of the runs are in fantastic shape and just some areas are becoming hard and scraped as the day goes by. The areas which are becoming a bit polished and hard are generally the main runs back into the resort at the end of the day and the busiest and steepest runs. The easier, gentler run, which get regularly groomed and topped up with fresh cannon snow, are still wonderful.
It’s worth noting the sides of the piste now have lovely, chalky, grippy snow, so if you find yourself going sideways, it’s worth hopping to the other side of the piste poles to find much softer and easier conditions. Some fresh snow fell on Saturday and Sunday and more is expected in the early part of this week, which should help the pistes stand up to the heavy half-term traffic.
If, like me, you don’t enjoy a last run into the resort on hard snow surrounded by lots of other skiers, note there are lesser-used alternative routes back into the resort. For example, rather than taking the busy blue Lièvre into the Chaudanne at the end of your day, I recommend taking the start of green Perdrix and then heading down the red Combe Laitelait. I took this run yesterday and the snow was gloriously grippy the entire length and I was the only skier on it. The same applies to the busy Martre piste into Mottaret – see my previous video report for the ways to avoid this run.
From the Saulire side of the valley, the most tranquil route into Méribel is Chardonneret, Blanchot and Foret (or Lapin to Méribel Village). These runs are gentler, less busy and a whole lot more relaxing than the main runs down into Méribel at the end of the day.
Off-piste, you need a local guide to find good, powdery fresh snow. However, the well-skied routes currently offer easy and lovely conditions. I recently tried the thoroughly-skied route under Cote Brune chairlift and found it fantastic, chalky snow on modest-sized moguls.
As the next four weeks of school holidays will be busy, here are a few more insiders’ tips to avoid any queues and find the quietest slopes:
- Beat the queues. Start at 09:00 sharp to get ahead.
- Legally queue jump. Take the “single skier” lanes at Mont Vallon and Pas du Lac gondolas.
- Join ski school classes or take a private instructor for lift queue priority.
- Find the very best snow: listen to Radio Méribel (R’Méribel) in the mornings. The daily piste report recommends a ‘piste du jour’, a lesser-known run with particularly good snow groomed to wedding cake smoothness overnight.
- If you are an expert skier, hunt out the black runs, as few people attempt them.
- Ski on the ‘wrong’ side of the valley, if you don’t mind skiing in the shade, stick to the Tougnète side of the valley in the afternoon when most people have headed to the sunny slopes on the opposite, Saulire side.
- Get off-piste with an instructor or high mountain guide. The local Bureau des Guides offers group off-piste outings for just 105 euros per person, a fantastic way for experienced off-piste skiers to get away from the crowds.