Three Valleys, FR Mar 10-15, 2025

[EMSC]

Much belated. I'm trying to figure out how fit all the stuff(s) into this thing some of which were common themes and some daily one-offs. Plus I have like 100 pics just from 3 Valleys not counting 360 video/stills to process.

This portion of my trip was my annual guys trip with 10 of us present. Of which 4 of us met up in WDC, flying in on the same plane to Geneva for the ~2 hr drive up to our chalet (first to arrive, the rest ~4p). A heavily renovated older chalet in Le Raffort, just down valley from Meribel. But the bones of the place were clearly old with lots of 5'6" doors to rooms and bathrooms, etc... No chalet girls/boys cooking for us, but fresh croissants dropped off each morning and a few shuttle van runs and the like. Very pricy place given it could fit 12 and if snow had been good we could have skied to within 75 yards of the house at the end of the day, but instead had a few hundred yard walk to/from the final Olympe gondola stage up the valley to Meribel. Still not a bad arrangement in that regard.

On arrival day we got stuck at GVA in the worst immigration line that I've seen in years - well over an hour - so logistically didn't get into the chalet till after noon. I thought about skiing but decided not to from that late start. We instead got our tickets for the week after a 1p lunch at Jacks (the obvious place at the base area) and were told about the views at top of Saulaire gondola. That is also the top of Courchevel (basically). So we did that and had a glass of wine at the restaurant up top. We could kinda tell conditions might be an issue, with little snow and very sloppy slush in the base of Meribel (which is almost 5K feet in altitude), and closed signs at the top of the gondola and tram steeps.

He's not a giant, he's only 6 feet tall...

Meribel side

Courchevel side with predicted storm the previous night actually equaling a whole 1-2cm up top and none at the bottom.

Scenic but pricy drink location at 2:45p

More days to come...

 

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Ski day 1 - March 11

Started off as a big group ski day. All 10 of us. Oh man what a hassle trying to keep 10 varied ski abilities together for multiple runs at a place no one knows... Since we had been up it already we went up the same gondola - Saulire - to start. We skied a couple of very hard packed Both wintery and very refrozen as well as already getting skied off piste runs (Saulire to Vizelle gondola wintery, Creux very refrozen with big wet slides on S faces near parts of the run) making it down in significant crowds to Chanrossa lift. Classic Euro lift line experience (to the surprise of most of the crew). Skied the only piste down the backside, Roc Merlet to Montagnes Russes both fortunately winter snow still but very low angle and short. Taking the Pyramides poma and then Roc Merlet chair back up.

Many diverging skiers all over during the morning to that point meant is was time to split up a bit. With the 4 advanced skiers staying together and skiing 2 laps almost directly under Chanrossa. A mix of OK turns in winter snow in a couple just-barely correctly angled spots and also refrozen brick hard junk turns at times. Grabbing a sandwich for lunch at the base of Vizelle the only consisent winter snow with pitch so far. Eventually we stuck to variations underneath the Vizelle gondola for a few runs which was high enough and N enough to retain chalky snow and even the 1-2cm in a few spots. But it was clear that the combination of terrain, elevation and exposure that would interest us skiing wise was very limited to a couple of lifts/spots in scattered locations across the various valleys. With bad or even no snow across surprising parts of the expansive 156 lifts. In the making lemonade section of the report, I seem to be lucky the past few years too. Turns out for ease of access and terrain quality, Vizelle was probably one of the best spots I could have led the 4 of us to ski. Totally by accident, but that theme rings true further on this trip as well, as in luck for a few of last years timed terrain openings, etc... I can only hope that luck holds.

Eventually I tried to see if we could see some new terrain further down Courchevel by the Col de Loze area, but the snow was 'skunked' and had turned to soft, difficult to ski lines that no one else had/was skiing (off piste). Timing our way to meet up with the 3 next gen 'kids' (20's) who were already at.... the La Folie Douce Meribel party bar half way up the Soulire gondola.

Definitely not a cold day, even at the start

Top of Chanrossa/Roc Merlet

Pyramides (we would eventually ski the lines to the right with our guide several days later)

Always taking pics only for the handful of winter snow turns of course - Chanrossa

ABasin has an il rifugio too (base of Vizelle and Saulire tram)

short almost chute Under Vizelle

Hard to tell, but it's a softened sticky/grabby snow over by Col de la Loze. Got out of there as soon as we could.

No explanations needed I hope

Not a lot of snow in Meribel. What was there was slush and super slush with 'ponds' forming many afternoons, sometimes slush still in the AM every day too...

Most of Meribel is purpose built starting in the late 1930's, but this looked much older. A Scotsman bought up farmland/homes and started the ski area.

 

[EMSC]

March 12, the combined super lucky AND shit-show day with a guide. It's worth a read.

I planned the guides on this trip Wed and Fri for 3 Valleys (trying to separate them in case of snow/weather impacted one or the other). My brother opted out leaving us with 3. We met our guide in Meribel and after a short beacon check and discussion of what we do in case of one we headed up and over the opposite direction and into Les Menuires via a ridiculously long run/cat track (miles long at least). Then came the shit show for a couple of hours. First our tele skier had 112mm wide boards that din't easily fit in the Pointe De La Masse gondola racks. some sort of juggle act involving both him and a liftie ensued whereby one of his skis went flying directly under the gondola cars. Definite way to impress a guide, lol. But then at the top he took us way OB to lookers right on the map to a run that may have been good a few days aerlier, but the warm Tuesday had skunked a lot of it. It was only roly-poly terrain anyway (the usual guide test piece I suspect, to learn how good your never seen before clients actually are). But lower down the snow just flat sucked with grabby sinking in, crusty, stuff. Eventually leading to a dodge the boulders fest in rapidly melting snow, linking a few just-barely-there sections together to barely make it to the Le Bettex lift.

That's when both the luck and the shit show both turned up to volume 11. Getting on the lift suddenly my left ski was being grabbed or held back, I could feel the ski flex like crazy and then suddenly popped off. Crazy, never done that in all my years. I can easily one ski so getting off was no problem and two chairs back they brought my ski up. My brain didn't quite understand what I was seeing. Both rear and front parts of the binding had 'released' upwards. Rear being easy to just reset, but I've never seen a toe piece point straight up into the air like that. I have Marker Touring bindings which are a bit different than normal alpine, but.... Several things quickly became clear: 1) 4 chairs behind us another person in my exact spot also lost a left ski - on a lift with very few riders (hmmm, common theme, maybe?), 2) I had been lucky as hell as I don't want to know what amount of force it took to rip my toe piece upwards like that (some light calf bruising, but not enough to even stop for the day), 3) my binding was broken, and likely somewhat rare to obtain. 4) Was I screwed skiing wise? Should I let the other two go ski with the guide?

I managed to get the binding to not point upward, but it was loose and moved up and down with tons of play. I managed to ski down into Les Menuires without issue keeping strong down pressure on the front of my boot but if leaned back at all the toe would come right out. Our guide was pretty flummoxed to say the least. He stopped and asked a 'local' instructor where we should try ski shop wise and skied to it. The shop was pretty befuddled about the damage but sent us over to the lift operations/ticket office (Silver Bell is the name of the operator in Les Menuires part of the valley at least). After way too long of a aback and forth (in French) and a long call to the 'big boss' I was told to go back to the same shop. Ridiculously, they removed my entire binding and replaced it with an identical one all paid for by the lift operator. Though I was warned to ski very carefully until the glue for the new binding dried. I was worried it would be a day, but nope dries in ~30 minutes per the shop. So lets have our picnic style lunch since it is already basically noon. Our guide repeatedly said he'd never seen anything like the whole episode. not the initial issue, not the lift op paying, not having a client get back onslope with a new binding, etc...

After some discussion about our preferred terrain (way steeper) and snow (way more wintery if possible) our guide got us out of that side, down and through the Meribel Mottaret area back to.... you guessed it Courchevel side where we had found the lift or so with winter snow and decent pitch. Although he took us to the tram and when we asked what chute we were going to do he said "All of them". Closed signs in Europe are not the same. We dodged the closed banner all afternoon for the chutes under and to the skiers left of the Saulire tram. I guess the closed sign is only closing the official Piste through there. For a guide going off-piste it is his choice to ignore (or something like that). With our ultimate run requiring a ~55degree short hike up and over a rock band to access. And shockingly no issues at all from my brand new left ski binding.

Unfortunately the beginning of the theme of every afternoon heavy cloud and fog (about 2pm) started with thank god our guide available to know every cross-crossing piste marker to get us down.

Photogenic part of our Chalet

Not a lot of snow in Les Menuires...

The most magical shop in all the land. Crazy knowledgeable ski tech working there...

Chutes galore to explore

Don't worry, the rock walls provide definition

Or not. One of those statements is accurate...

See, we had some light

When you don't actually have to reach out to touch the snow...

Different chute...

 

[jamesdeluxe]

While my trip was not optimal, it was a relaxed, all-inclusive Club Med stay compared to yours. You were probably typing the entire time on the overseas flight back!

Props for the extensive lemons/lemonade efforts and we now have a better context for your previous comments. So many questions, for example how much was the binding repair that the lift operator covered?

 

[jamesdeluxe]

very sloppy slush in the base of Meribel (which is almost 5K feet in altitude),

5,000 feet is approx. 1,500m. The base altitudes where I was were as low as 1,050m and I didn't run into any slush. Not surprising but fascinating to note condition differences in various regions as we hit spring.

When I was at the 3V more or less the same week two years ago, we had mostly winter conditions; however, I recall very sloppy slush coming into the Menuires base at 1,850m, which is decently high.

 

[EMSC]

how much was the binding repair that the lift operator covered?

No idea, direct transaction between those two. My bindings currently MSRP for $480 though. So probably around half that plus an install fee. I'm sure when the shop returns the broken one to Marker the tech assigned to do failure analysis will be baffled.

 

[EMSC]

March 13, Good first half+

Our only goal when heading up was to try to see if we could go in the other direction out of Meribel (away from Courchevel) and find some wintery snow. Once up and out of the village it became apparent that some snow had fallen only on the upper elevations. I had already given up on the snow report webpage which seemed to get updated sometime in the middle of the day and not in the mornings like in North America. Early observations looked like maybe 3-4" but on top of what? S facing had lots of wet slide activity previously so no go, there Had to be very careful to stay N facing and hope. We tried out some short next to run stuff that skied decently, headed to Roc De Tougne lift and tried a more adventurous route. Lots of short pitches and random terrain that seemed like it could go bad (cliff out) in all sorts of random directions. Some decent turns on N, plenty of icy underneath when not. Too risky. We moved on. Thinking was to get to Mont Vallon, but as we approached that area two things happened. First, Mont Vallon was not operating with stiff top of ridgeline winds in the wrong direction for it. And second was seeing a fairly obvious double cliff band with a very sizable run being skied by a handful of people. We ended up lapping that multiple times having to take Chatelet and Bouquetin lifts per lap.

Eventually skiing the snow out and moving to the Cote Brun lift. But our friend the fog decided shortly after a quick grab & go lunch at the top of that lift to bring the clouds and fog back in once again at about 1:30p making for another short-ish day. Other notes: my brother at some point got on a lift by himself. He did not immediately put the bar down (being an oblivious American of course). They first yelled at him then actually stopped the lift until he realized they were yelling about his safety bar. So, So different than the US.

Not much, but a couple inches up top does help...

Getting NOT cliffed out.

Just behind the white edge of snow where they are is a 200+ foot cliff. fun and odd terrain feature that faced N so had winter snow under the new snow. Good enough for 5 or 6 laps...

Pretty sure it wind drifted in deeper here. Maybe 6" or so.

Can see small part of the cliff to the left

So much for the sun...

I mean so much for any visibility at all... (1:51pm)

Plenty of visibility down low where no snow is though

 

[ChrisC]

Very pricy place given it could fit 12 and if snow had been good we could have skied to within 75 yards of the house at the end of the day, but instead had a few hundred yard walk to/from the final Olympe gondola stage up the valley to Meribel

It's disappointing that the snow line was about at Meribel Centre and did not freeze overnight. I would expect better for early/mid-March and some decent snow at an altitude of 3000m.

I have primarily skied the Alps in late January / early February, and one reason is to aim for valley snow to 1000m and snow preservation. Also, some work trips to Helsinki (product planning) would put me in the geographic area.

Comparatively, I skied the Andermatt/Laax/Lenzerheide/St Moritz areas in March 2020 during an average winter, and there was decent at 1000m in Western Switzerland at Laax.

Then came the shit show for a couple of hours. First our tele skier had 112mm wide boards that din't easily fit in the Pointe De La Masse gondola racks. some sort of juggle act involving both him and a liftie ensued whereby one of his skis went flying directly under the gondola cars. Definite way to impress a guide, lol. But then at the top he took us way OB to lookers right on the map to a run that may have been good a few days aerlier, but the warm Tuesday had skunked a lot of it. It was only roly-poly terrain anyway (the usual guide test piece I suspect, to learn how good your never seen before clients actually are). But lower down the snow just flat sucked with grabby sinking in, crusty, stuff. Eventually leading to a dodge the boulders fest in rapidly melting snow, linking a few just-barely-there sections together to barely make it to the Le Bettex lift.

That is one of the more famous off-piste zones with usually good snow. It's not overly challenging. I believe Tony did this itinerary as well and ran out of snow.

Although he took us to the tram and when we asked what chute we were going to do he said "All of them". Closed signs in Europe are not the same. We dodged the closed banner all afternoon for the chutes under and to the skiers left of the Saulire tram. I guess the closed sign is only closing the official Piste through there. For a guide going off-piste it is his choice to ignore (or something like that). With our ultimate run requiring a ~55degree short hike up and over a rock band to access.

The Saulire couloirs are probably the most difficult, north-facing, high-elevation zone in the 3 Vallees.

"Closed" is just an opinion. Ski it, and it's just off-piste. I learned this on my first New Year trip to Europe at Grand Montets; there was about 12-18" of new snow, and everyone collectively decided to ski the Combe de la Pendant despite the closed signage.

Not a lot of snow in Les Menuires...

Les Menuires almost looks similar to when I visited Val Thornes, but that was in mid/late April 2018.

Other notes: my brother at some point got on a lift by himself. He did not immediately put the bar down (being an oblivious American of course). They first yelled at him then actually stopped the lift until he realized they were yelling about his safety bar. So, So different than the US.

Some ski resorts have alarms if the bar does not come down!

After some discussion about our preferred terrain (way steeper) and snow (way more wintery if possible) our guide got us out of that side, down and through the Meribel Mottaret area back to.... you guessed it Courchevel side

Sometimes, the first part of this request 'way steeper' can be challenging in the 3 Vallees. It's like Vail. You ski Rasputing's Revenge and ask for something similar or steeper. Does not really exist.

My impression of the 3 Vallees is vast, but with freeride terrain that is more high-intermediate/low-expert. Fun enough - IF there is good snow!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

my brother at some point got on a lift by himself. He did not immediately put the bar down (being an oblivious American of course). They first yelled at him then actually stopped the lift until he realized they were yelling about his safety bar. So, So different than the US.

Not to be a scold (and we've covered this topic recently), but there wasn't a group FYI beforehand that putting the bar down is required everywhere in the world other than the western U.S.? To be fair, stopping the lift is a bit extreme -- a few times when I didn't lower the bar quickly enough for their satisfaction, they yelled at me in their specific language and I quickly followed orders -- but rules are rules and what happens if the person who didn't lower the bar falls off the lift? I assume that the liftie gets blamed, the ski area is responsible, etc.

We've seen out west that experienced skiers have dropped from lifts. It's a very tiny percentage of overall customers but still.

 

[ChrisC]

but rules are rules and what happens if the person who didn't lower the bar falls off the lift?

They get deported to a Vail resort where ski bros give dirty looks for lowering safety bars.

 

[EMSC]

They get deported to a Vail resort where ski bros give dirty looks for lowering safety bars.

No, they fall off the lift and then the family sues Vail: Breck Zendo Lawsuit

I assume that the liftie gets blamed, the ski area is responsible, etc.

Welcome to the USA of lawyers.

 

[skiandgolfnut]

On arrival day we got stuck at GVA in the worst immigration line that I've seen in years - well over an hour - so logistically didn't get into the chalet till after noon.

Were you on the United flight that leaves DC around 5 PM? I took it last year and likewise couldnt believe the immigration situation in Geneva. I had been hoping to be on the slopes in Courmayeur earlier but the delay set me back. Ive found Milan and Zurich to be much faster, I wonder if that is common. I have avoided the three valleys to date as usually I need to ski on arrival day and I am scared I'd wind up experiencing exactly what you did.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I've found Milan and Zurich to be much faster

I've always had very quick processing at Geneva, Zurich, and Milan. The only exception was at Zurich during the middle of COVID. Like you, it took an hour to get through. Ultimately not a huge amount of time (compared for example to my recent 2.5-hour delay leaving JFK) but there's something especially unpleasant about waiting in a passport line -- almost as bad as the DMV. They blamed it on being understaffed due to the pandemic.

 

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March 14th, 2nd guided day with better results

After the Sh!t show day 2 days prior we met up with our guide again and headed back to the Courchevel side once again. Starting off with traversing into the bottom part of a supposedly hike to 'freeride' run Roches Grises. An inch or two of fresh to to ski which was sure better than the icy as heck Creux groomer I had skied several days earlier (not with guide). Going up the Chanrossa lift and traversing into the national park Vanoise under the Aiguille Du Fruit. We did two laps in a row out there. Nothing too steep, but some nice turns followed by key navigating by our guide in the up and down mounds and rock piles. You could easily get into a depression and have to hike out. We followed that up by hiking 15+ min directly up above the the top of the Chanrosssa lift and skiing the N facing Pyramide. A very good run with both good snow and some solid pitch (apparently often off limits to guiding during much of the winter due to avalanche hazard). Continuing our theme of the day by once again traversing into the national park for one more lap most since it was readily accessible as we moved back to the Saulire Col. We then were able to hike up past the normal freeride route to ~Creux Noirs for a decently long lap back into the national park area but from the opposite side and much higher up. Unfortunately by the time we were descending the clouds were once again coming back in quickly taking more such remote and open bowl options off the table.

Instead we attempted out favorite zone of chutes under the Soulire tram once again. Managing one in OK light and only making it half way down the 2nd before the lights went out, as it were. Once again relying on our guide to know all the criss-crossing piste markers to get us down. This time though the upper part headed back to Meribel side was pretty much refrozen solid ice with a wisp on top until very very suddenly a handful of turns below the Soulire gondola mid-station. In one literal turn it went from terrible ice to entirely soft spring snow as if a switch had been flipped. A few hundred yards later popping out of the cloud for slush pile skiing to the bottom. So for a third day in a row we got entirely clouded out in the mid-afternoon.

In another lemons pile somehow my 360 camera got set to single lens so for most of the day I got video of either the sky with a couple mountain peaks, or the ground with random portions of people. Neither of which is usable for vids or pics. If I had known, I would have taken more with my cell phone but alas you have to take my word for the skiing for most of our runs (cue first world crying music).

Note the large wet slides that had occurred on the S facing terrain in the distance. First run in Roches grises.

Aiguille Du Fruit traverse entry (left) and approximate 3 drop-ins we did (as seen from top of Pyramide)

Under the Aiguille Du Fruit

hiking to Pryamide

That's right I have exactly no usable pics or vids of our Pyramide run. But here we are at the top!

Does warming yesterdays fries on skis actually work (15 min lunch break at top of 2nd hike)?

Partway down final open bowl run

Back to the tram runs! (which are nicely pitched)

Until this happens

Fog even in the village that night

 

[EMSC]

Were you on the United flight that leaves DC around 5 PM?

That's the one. started with a single station open for regular joes and one for 'diplomatic passports'. Eventually they ended up with all of 4 stations open (out of about 20 available). They also had a pile of kiosks semi-installed but clearly not ready for use. I thought the swiss were supposed to be efficient, but I guess not.

 

[Sbooker]

March 14th, 2nd guided day with better results

After the Sh!t show day 2 days prior we met up with our guide again and headed back to the Courchevel side once again. Starting off with traversing into the bottom part of a supposedly hike to 'freeride' run Roches Grises. An inch or two of fresh to to ski which was sure better than the icy as heck Creux groomer I had skied several days earlier (not with guide). Going up the Chanrossa lift and traversing into the national park Vanoise under the Aiguille Du Fruit. We did two laps in a row out there. Nothing too steep, but some nice turns followed by key navigating by our guide in the up and down mounds and rock piles. You could easily get into a depression and have to hike out. We followed that up by hiking 15+ min directly up above the the top of the Chanrosssa lift and skiing the N facing Pyramide. A very good run with both good snow and some solid pitch (apparently often off limits to guiding during much of the winter due to avalanche hazard). Continuing our theme of the day by once again traversing into the national park for one more lap most since it was readily accessible as we moved back to the Saulire Col. We then were able to hike up past the normal freeride route to ~Creux Noirs for a decently long lap back into the national park area but from the opposite side and much higher up. Unfortunately by the time we were descending the clouds were once again coming back in quickly taking more such remote and open bowl options off the table.

Instead we attempted out favorite zone of chutes under the Soulire tram once again. Managing one in OK light and only making it half way down the 2nd before the lights went out, as it were. Once again relying on our guide to know all the criss-crossing piste markers to get us down. This time though the upper part headed back to Meribel side was pretty much refrozen solid ice with a wisp on top until very very suddenly a handful of turns below the Soulire gondola mid-station. In one literal turn it went from terrible ice to entirely soft spring snow as if a switch had been flipped. A few hundred yards later popping out of the cloud for slush pile skiing to the bottom. So for a third day in a row we got entirely clouded out in the mid-afternoon.

In another lemons pile somehow my 360 camera got set to single lens so for most of the day I got video of either the sky with a couple mountain peaks, or the ground with random portions of people. Neither of which is usable for vids or pics. If I had known, I would have taken more with my cell phone but alas you have to take my word for the skiing for most of our runs (cue first world crying music).

Note the large wet slides that had occurred on the S facing terrain in the distance. First run in Roches grises.
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Aiguille Du Fruit traverse entry (left) and approximate 3 drop-ins we did (as seen from top of Pyramide)
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Under the Aiguille Du Fruit
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hiking to Pryamide
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That's right I have exactly no usable pics or vids of our Pyramide run. But here we are at the top!
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Does warming yesterdays fries on skis actually work (15 min lunch break at top of 2nd hike)?
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Partway down final open bowl run
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Back to the tram runs! (which are nicely pitched)
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Until this happens
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Fog even in the village that night
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Looks like fun to me!

 

[EMSC]

March 15, final day at 3 Valleys with lots of traverses and Heavy fog.

For three of us we had not ever made it to Val Thorens and so wanted to try to get all the way over there which is not easy coming from Meribel. Starting with a multi-mile traverse back to Les Menuires back up the ridgeline via Bruyerest gondola and then back down into the village. My brother who had made it there previously leading the way to lift 27 to funitel lift #26. As unfortunately lift 333 tram to Cime Caron had been down for some time and for the season due to mechanical failure. After finding too much wind stripped (but winter snow), we tried lift #24 another funitel. But it also was both wind whipped and very short so not worth repeating. With a 2nd attempt at lift #26 which was better snow but nothing great. My brother had had some nice runs on the Pointe De La Masse gondola earlier in the week so we headed back down into Les Menuires and did several laps on that. basically directly under the gondola top, then up the Masse poma lift to some just off trail off piste next to the Dame blanche trail. That got us about 2000 verts per lap of winter snow before we traversed back on piste and skied down the very soft and mushy snow back to the gondola.

It was getting late enough (not particularly late) that we started heading back in the direction of the ridge that separates the Val Thorens and Meribel valleys, stopping to grab a quick panini at the top. Turns out we should have skied. Just as we started down, for the 4th day in a row, the clouds came in rapidly but this time became the thickest fog I've ever skied in. Everyone else was having vertigo, except for me. So I led... at a snails pace. You could not even see from one bamboo piste marker to the next bamboo stick. It took us well over an hour to ski by braille down below the cloud layer. I'd go one turn past the bamboo I could see then stop hoping to make out the next marker. Sometime I could other times I would have to slide down or guess a turn before the next marker would come into view. Thank goodness that there were no huge drop offs next to that piste.

The muddy path from the top of Olympe transfer gondola to start each day

Seriously what the H are they thinking. These mats, while everywhere I skied on the trip, are not good for your bases, the little holes constantly grab peoples pole tips, etc... Just a bad Idea IMO.

#26 Grand Fond Funicular

Top of Pointe De La Masse gondola

Masse Poma bridge over ski run

Ill advised lunch (though we were certainly hungry by 2:30p)

Heaviest fog I've ever skied. And yes the picture makes it look a bit better than it was with eyes.

Le Raffort station and the snow is sticking a bit by 5p (about 6" on the ground the next morning as we were leaving for Val d'Isere)

 

[EMSC]

Looks like fun to me!

It was finally fun after all the earlier terrible snow and issues the first several days. At least until the fog killed off the final ~2 hours of the guiding.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

It's a very small percentage of my overall ski areas in the Alps (4 out of 93) but I can clearly recall the times I got stuck on a treeless upper mountain like @EMSC (fog pix below) with nothing to visually lock onto: Ischgl, Werfenwang, Heuberge, and Anzère. Not fun, exacerbated by the fact that you're an overseas destination skier who, after spending so much money to go there only for a week, can't blithely call it a day like a local or head inside.

Of course, the solution is exactly that -- head inside to a cafe, restaurant, or pub, at least until it clears up a bit. What makes it difficult is that we Americans are not genetically set up to do that. With 99+% of our collective terrain below the treeline, this sort of thing can only happen at a small number of ski areas so we can ski through a large majority of fog and bad vis.

 

[Tony Crocker]

With 99+% of our collective terrain below the treeline, this sort of thing can only happen at a small number of ski areas

Since Mammoth is on the short list of most Alps like topography in North America, avoiding or bailing out of the worst weather days has always seemed logical to me.