Meribel Snow Report : 15th December 2012

Eugh, it’s raining here. I’m looking out of my window watching rain and sleet fall on a grey and windy Meribel. Rain always looks dismal in a ski resort and somehow feels all wrong. Surely it ought only to snow onto snowy ski slopes? Sadly, mild and rainy weather does sometimes visit even the highest mountains in winter and we just have to put up with it. According to the lift company, it rained last night right to the summits, though the snow-rain limit has now dropped to just above the resort.

Looking on the bright side, rain does far less damage to the snowpack than most people realise. Rain barely melts the snow – a warm, dry Foehn wind melts snow much faster - it just makes the snowpack a little wetter and heavier. We still have exceptional snow conditions for early December, just not quite as extravagantly fabulous as last week. And the forecast is for lots more snow to low altitude.

Conditions on piste today were generally lovely, just a bit sticky in the places where piste bashers hadn’t groomed. Off-piste, the snow was perfectly ski-able, just not quite as light and powdery as before. However, off-piste skiing is particularly dangerous at the moment: heavy snowfalls followed by wind and rising temperatures is a perfect combination for creating big avalanches. The avalanche guns were booming away this morning and we’ve noticed quite a few natural avalanches (ie ones that set themselves off) on slopes where I’ve never seen them before. Caution is the watchword of the week, especially after two recent deaths in other French resorts.

A good way of spending a bad weather day is to take a ski lesson. You learn just as much during inclement weather as fine, and concentrating on your technique (or following a cute instructor’s backside) is a very effective way of taking your mind off dreary conditions. Today, I only ventured out because I had booked a shared lesson with Derek, Director of Marmalade, a small British-run ski school that opened just a few years ago in Meribel. Derek took us through some theory then had us all doing drills including skiing on one leg, and we soon completely forgot about the poor visibility and nasty weather. By the end of the morning I was feeling a lot more dynamic on my skis and enjoying having some technical issues to work on. (And by then the sun had mercifully returned) I’m a great believer in taking lessons, whatever level a skier you are – after all, the very top racers all still have regular coaching. Skiing is more fun the better you do it – and the only way to get better is to have professional instruction. Méribel is fortunate to have a many excellent ski schools and lots of talented ski instructors who can teach you in your own language. I know that ski holidays are costly and lessons may feel like yet another expense, but if you go home having enjoyed your skiing more because you are getting better and fall over on your face less, doesn’t that make your whole holiday very much more enjoyable?

Apologies for the technical bug: our ‘latest conditions’ box to the right of this report in not automatically updating. The official snow depths are now 90cm at 1100m and 155cm at 2952. Don’t worry that the figures mysteriously seem to be going down – the light powder is just packing down a bit and forming a good, solid base for all the snow about to fall…..