After a mostly subpar winter, the western Alps are getting payback, although I'm sure that they would've preferred this series of storms to have happened a couple months ago. Here was the snow report from the Weather to Ski website:
Today in the Alps: 10.10am Tuesday 7 March 2017 - Masses of new snow in many northern and western parts of the Alps
Many northern and western parts of the Alps are waking up to significant new snowfall this morning. Indeed parts of the northern French Alps (e.g. Val d’Isère, La Rosière, Chamonix, Avoriaz), as well as the extreme west of Switzerland (e.g. Les Crosets), have seen 50-70cm of new snow at altitude in the last 24 hours alone! Significant snow has also fallen in most other parts of the French and Swiss Alps, the western Italian Alps (e.g. Courmayeur) as well as the west of Austria (e.g. Lech). Over the last 5-7 days we have seen well over 1 meter of new snow at altitude in the western Alps, with 150cm in some of the above mentioned areas.
Day 3: Anzère
As everyone here knows, with Northern America's treeline both east and west being so high, we can keep skiing when visibility is limited; however, given that many ski areas here are half or sometimes completely above treeline, storm skiing is often a braille exercise until you get to the lower mountain. Monday was one of those experiences at the ski area of Anzère, which you can see clearly from the Rhone Valley floor.
Size and terrain-wise, it felt quite a bit like Snowbasin in Salt Lake. You can do 2,500-vert laps off the left and right ends; the runs in the middle were also nice and long, about 2,000 verts; there's a mid-mountain saddle as well as a lot of hike-to double-black stuff along the ridge on the looker's right. Compared to where I was on Saturday and Sunday, this was a more mainstream ski area -- with a gondola and a high-speed quad mixed with several t-bars and snowmaking on the main trails -- but still patronised predominantly by locals.
It was one of those days where the snow was coming down so hard that you had to stay inside the piste markers on the upper mountain. Going into the above-treeline ungroomed was asking for trouble because I had no idea where terrain traps were lurking. Sorry for the unexciting photos -- the skiing was nice, but visibility was often vertigo-inducing until you got to the trees.
Booting up next to the gondola:
Top of the lift:
Kids area (this was the only time I saw English the entire trip -- all signs in the region are in French and German):
Tough visibility:
Further down it was visually easier going, but the on-piste chop was getting heavy:
By early-afternoon, a foot had fallen but the dizziness had worn me down so I packed it in at 2:45. This is what Anzère looks like on a typical day. Pretty impressive actually, its big disadvantage as you get closer to spring is that the entire area faces due south.
Day 4: Vercorin
For the first of four days in the highly rated Val d'Anniviers region (as you can see in this map, they're very close together), the sun never quite came out completely and it continued snowing lightly all day; however, visibility at the locals mountain Vercorin was far better than the previous day at Anzère.
A gondola services the entire 3,200 vertical feet and then are several steep Poma lifts on the upper mountain. This is a classic compressed Alps trail map that doesn't show any of the extensive and challenging tree skiing:
I was alone and nobody was around so the pix aren't spectacular and because there were so few people, I didn't get any in-action shots. Close to three feet had fallen over the previous 36 hours (they only reported half of that). In the trees, where I stayed pretty much all day, it was knee- to thigh-deep every turn.
Base area gondola:
While in the cabin, I got talking to two local snowboarders who were raving about a tree line that literally went down the entire mountain -- "c'est malade, je vous jure!" ("it's sick, I swear!") -- so I followed them in and spent the next I don't know how long picking my way down 2,800 verts of consistently steep trees while they zoomed ahead in "no friends on powder days" mode.
Into the woods:
A pillow store:
After I recovered from that and changed out of my soaking wet shirt at the car, I headed back to the top, had lunch, then spent the afternoon nailing low-hanging fruit alongside the trails:
... or skiing in the woods within a few yards of the Pomas and then cutting back to the lift path when I hit a flat spot:
At 3:30, I crashed, double-ejected, and lost both of my skis -- took me ten minutes to find them (it's been a while since that's happened) -- which signaled that I was done for the day. In short: while I wouldn't necessarily go there to ski the cut trails, that was world-class tree skiing.
Today in the Alps: 10.10am Tuesday 7 March 2017 - Masses of new snow in many northern and western parts of the Alps
Many northern and western parts of the Alps are waking up to significant new snowfall this morning. Indeed parts of the northern French Alps (e.g. Val d’Isère, La Rosière, Chamonix, Avoriaz), as well as the extreme west of Switzerland (e.g. Les Crosets), have seen 50-70cm of new snow at altitude in the last 24 hours alone! Significant snow has also fallen in most other parts of the French and Swiss Alps, the western Italian Alps (e.g. Courmayeur) as well as the west of Austria (e.g. Lech). Over the last 5-7 days we have seen well over 1 meter of new snow at altitude in the western Alps, with 150cm in some of the above mentioned areas.
Day 3: Anzère
As everyone here knows, with Northern America's treeline both east and west being so high, we can keep skiing when visibility is limited; however, given that many ski areas here are half or sometimes completely above treeline, storm skiing is often a braille exercise until you get to the lower mountain. Monday was one of those experiences at the ski area of Anzère, which you can see clearly from the Rhone Valley floor.
Size and terrain-wise, it felt quite a bit like Snowbasin in Salt Lake. You can do 2,500-vert laps off the left and right ends; the runs in the middle were also nice and long, about 2,000 verts; there's a mid-mountain saddle as well as a lot of hike-to double-black stuff along the ridge on the looker's right. Compared to where I was on Saturday and Sunday, this was a more mainstream ski area -- with a gondola and a high-speed quad mixed with several t-bars and snowmaking on the main trails -- but still patronised predominantly by locals.
It was one of those days where the snow was coming down so hard that you had to stay inside the piste markers on the upper mountain. Going into the above-treeline ungroomed was asking for trouble because I had no idea where terrain traps were lurking. Sorry for the unexciting photos -- the skiing was nice, but visibility was often vertigo-inducing until you got to the trees.
Booting up next to the gondola:
Top of the lift:
Kids area (this was the only time I saw English the entire trip -- all signs in the region are in French and German):
Tough visibility:
Further down it was visually easier going, but the on-piste chop was getting heavy:
By early-afternoon, a foot had fallen but the dizziness had worn me down so I packed it in at 2:45. This is what Anzère looks like on a typical day. Pretty impressive actually, its big disadvantage as you get closer to spring is that the entire area faces due south.
Day 4: Vercorin
For the first of four days in the highly rated Val d'Anniviers region (as you can see in this map, they're very close together), the sun never quite came out completely and it continued snowing lightly all day; however, visibility at the locals mountain Vercorin was far better than the previous day at Anzère.
A gondola services the entire 3,200 vertical feet and then are several steep Poma lifts on the upper mountain. This is a classic compressed Alps trail map that doesn't show any of the extensive and challenging tree skiing:
I was alone and nobody was around so the pix aren't spectacular and because there were so few people, I didn't get any in-action shots. Close to three feet had fallen over the previous 36 hours (they only reported half of that). In the trees, where I stayed pretty much all day, it was knee- to thigh-deep every turn.
Base area gondola:
While in the cabin, I got talking to two local snowboarders who were raving about a tree line that literally went down the entire mountain -- "c'est malade, je vous jure!" ("it's sick, I swear!") -- so I followed them in and spent the next I don't know how long picking my way down 2,800 verts of consistently steep trees while they zoomed ahead in "no friends on powder days" mode.
Into the woods:
A pillow store:
After I recovered from that and changed out of my soaking wet shirt at the car, I headed back to the top, had lunch, then spent the afternoon nailing low-hanging fruit alongside the trails:
... or skiing in the woods within a few yards of the Pomas and then cutting back to the lift path when I hit a flat spot:
At 3:30, I crashed, double-ejected, and lost both of my skis -- took me ten minutes to find them (it's been a while since that's happened) -- which signaled that I was done for the day. In short: while I wouldn't necessarily go there to ski the cut trails, that was world-class tree skiing.
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