Snow outlook for Easter in the french alps

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for the likelihood of reasonable
skiing in the French Alps this Easter? Am particualrly thinking of Les Arcs
in the last week of March. Reasonable conditions on the lower slopes for the
younger children?

Mike Croom

Mike Croom wrote:
Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for the likelihood of reasonable
skiing in the French Alps this Easter? Am particualrly thinking of Les Arcs
in the last week of March. Reasonable conditions on the lower slopes for the
younger children?

Mike Croom



I am off to Les Arcs for, what I thought was Easter at the begining of
April. According to my calendar Easter Sunday is 8/4/7.

We have skied there for the last couple Easters (much later than this
year) and the conditions have been OK - much better in fact than
Christmas. Of course we cannot forecast what it will be like this year,
but as a best guess I would say; expect typical spring conditions - hard
in teh morning going to very soft in the afternoon. Last Easter it was a
bit sparse going down to Valandry, but Arc 1600 was OK and we managed
one trip all the way down to Villaroger before the thaw took that bit of
snow away. There could, of course, be heavy snow fall, or rain on the
lower slopes. It is after all 6 weeks a away and a lot can happen in the
meantime.


Take lots of very high factor sun cream. For the young children invest
in good waterproof gloves if they haven't skied much before and even
consider spares for the afternoon. Last year I got soaked to the skin
learning to snowboard in about 1m depth of very soft snow (lots of slush
found its way into my trousers!).

There is no reason not to take the children up high - to the Col de
Chal, for example, and explore the ice grotto. Be flexible and if the
conditions are poor go down to Bourg and go swimming. Enjoy it, it is a
holiday.

John

On Feb 20, 11:37 pm, "Mike Croom" wrote:
Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for the likelihood of reasonable
skiing in the French Alps this Easter? Am particualrly thinking of Les Arcs
in the last week of March. Reasonable conditions on the lower slopes for the
younger children?

Mike Croom

Season does not end until end of April so end of March is by no means
late season. Really think you'll be pretty safe in Les Arcs for that
week. If not the resort may just as well sell all their lifts and
start a yoga business.
Depends where you are staying, Peisey Vallandry, Arcs1600, Arcs1800,
Arcs1950 but they have snow cannons on the lower slopes so kiddies
should be fine too.
If you haven't booked your accommodation, have a look at
http://www.skicollection.co.uk/default.cfm/loadindex.58
PS. I read that Meteo France were forecastin cold conditions for March
but would not believe any of these long range forecasts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XS
Peak Retreats http://www.peakretreats.co.uk
Ski Collection http://www.skicollection.co.uk

On Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:37:45 GMT, "Mike Croom"
wrote:

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for the likelihood of reasonable
skiing in the French Alps this Easter? Am particualrly thinking of Les Arcs
in the last week of March.

Last week in March is not Easter this year.

hth.

--
Champ

I just got back from Les Arcs. Because of the altitude, it is fairing better
than many places. We had a beautiful 6 days of clear blue sky, no wind and
silly temperatures. On Thursday, it was 0 degrees at 3200m on top of the
Aguille Rouge!!

At 1600metres, the snow was good at the beginning of the week, but soft by
the end. Lower down, the slopes were suffering. Les Coches/Montchavin were
sheet ice in places by the end of the week and not recommended for rookies.
I would take the family up higher if these conditions persist. The Arc 2000
area was very nice, with plenty of easy stuff for relative beginners.

I skied the Aguille Rouge down into Villaroger on friday morning, and the
bottom was only just do-able, with a bit of mud jumping. Only queue was for
the top gondola which was 25 minutes. It took 3 times longer to get the 5
lifts up to the top from Villaroger than to get down again! Considering the
fact that it was 1/2 term, Villaroger was deserted!

After our 6 days of clear blue skies, we woke up on departure morning to a
blizzard! Not sure to what extent it will help but it seemed to be snowing
above about 1200m.

We bumped into people from quite a few other resorts who had come over to
find better snow. We seemed to have timed things just right this trip, with
snows the week before and excellent weather for 6 days. Friends in Chamonix
(going mid-week/mid-week) had lost 3 days at the last contact!

I think my prayer-mat's worn out now, so the only advice would be to buy
your own!! ;-)

John


"Mike Croom" wrote in message
. uk...
Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom for the likelihood of reasonable
skiing in the French Alps this Easter? Am particualrly thinking of Les
Arcs in the last week of March. Reasonable conditions on the lower slopes
for the younger children?

Mike Croom

Thanks all - as we get closer there seems to be more snow daily in Les
arcs
You get nervous when UK has its warmest winter since 1865 - and this
skiing lark does not come cheap for a big family

Sorry to trouble people about the date of Easter - have been a parent
too long and Easter means "the Easter holidays" to me

Great to have the up to the minute report from Les Arcs itself - we
reckon the runs down to 1600 are often icy - am a big 1650 fan

Mike

wrote in message
ups.com...
| Thanks all - as we get closer there seems to be more snow daily in Les
| arcs
| You get nervous when UK has its warmest winter since 1865 - and this
| skiing lark does not come cheap for a big family
|
| Sorry to trouble people about the date of Easter - have been a parent
| too long and Easter means "the Easter holidays" to me
|
| Great to have the up to the minute report from Les Arcs itself - we
| reckon the runs down to 1600 are often icy - am a big 1650 fan

I update the Les Arcs webcams pretty much daily on
http://mysnowsports.com - depending on visibility (right now, can't see
a thing).

Temperatures are up and down, but there's been plenty of snow, and more
to come today as well with a snowline around 1600m. Changeable weather
up until Sunday, the snowline creeping up a little Tues/Wed then
expected to drop to around 900m on Thursday, with a high pressure moving
in for the weekend on Friday - sunny, warm through to at least Sunday.

Longer range - don't tend to take a whole lot of notice of these
forecasts, but I did hear something similar about colder weather around
the end of the month.

(Mid-March last year was when we had to house several thousand people in
Bourg in gyms/church halls etc overnight, because of the snow blocking
the roads up to Arc 1950, Tignes, and Val!)

Pete