Meribel Snow Report: 25th February 2013

Everybody agrees the event was a triumph. French Ski Federation President Michel Vion congratulated Méribel on the performance and festive ambiance, saying: “We weren’t worried as Méribel is a major resort. We can heartily congratulate the organisers for having made such a performance during the (busy) holiday period.” Crowds of up to ten thousand supporters flooded the Chaudanne, waving flags and cheering enthusiastically. This partisan crowd was especially joyous when French skier Marie Marchand-Arvier was placed third in Saturday’s Downhill. As well as racing, there were parties, live music on the slopes, lightshows, dancers, sky-writing and of course, lots of skiing stars to spot, including Ski Sunday’s Graham Bell.

A huge effort goes into organising such an event: 800 people were involved, a quarter of whom were volunteers. The least enviable job was preparing the course overnight, done by a group of Méribel instructors. A dump of fresh snow fell on Saturday night, just before the Super-combined event when it really wasn’t wanted. Twenty-five cm of powder had to be shovelled by hand off the course so the poor instructors toiled during a bitterly cold night and then worked during the day on the course. Instructing isn’t always quite as glamorous as it may appear…

This weekend’s event was a good rehearsal for the much bigger World Cup Finals to be held in March 2015. If you can, do come to Méribel for the event because the atmosphere in the resort will be fantastic. And if you want to be involved in the event, hundreds of volunteers are needed…

I’ve been neglecting my snow reporting duties as I was a volunteer over the weekend. What is a snow reporter to write about when she hasn’t actually been on the slopes for a few days? The answer, of course, is to ring a friend….

ESF instructor Mike Harrison tells me the snow is still wonderful. “Hero snow from top to bottom; not a death cookie* or patch of ice anywhere,” he reports, having skied today in Méribel and Courchevel. Off-piste buddy Jane was skiing off La Masse in Les Menuires today. “Wind-blown and crusty, but we did find one good run,” she tells me. So there you are, conditions are still great on piste but not so great off-piste.

The slopes are busier this week and there are some lift queues. It is expected that next week will be busiest of the half term weeks, when Paris and the local area will both be on holiday. At least both the UK and Belgian holidays will have finished by then, avoiding the ‘perfect storm’ which happens some years when it seems as if all of the UK, Belgium and France decide to come to the Alps on the same week….

No more snow is forecast this week, but the temperature is still low so the great piste conditions should last well. I’ll leave the final word on Méribel’s snow conditions to Graham Bell who on Sunday said, “Conditions could not be better”.

*Death cookie: an innocuous-looking ball of wet snow which has frozen hard overnight, known for tripping the unwary….