For the first time in a few years, it’s been a fairly mild start to the season. Coming off a pretty dry autumn, this means it’s looking pretty green in the Tarentaise valley, although up high, the white tops have definitely returned.

I’ve actually not headed too far up the mountains in the last week or so, but the ‘resort level’ conditions in Sainte Foy, Arc 1600, Montalbert (at the end of La Plagne) and La Rosiere are not exactly snow-fests. Temperatures have been low in the last week, meaning that snow-creation (snow cannons) has been firing in various places, but we’re still waiting for that big dump to fill the substantive gaps between about 1400 and 2000 metres.

There was some fresh snow put down at the higher echelons this morning (Friday 6th December) and there could be a significant amount of powder on Saturday afternoon/night, which might come all the way down into the valley. This could be 20cm or more, regardless of whether you are in Tignes, Les Arcs, Val d’Isere, Ste Foy, La Plagne or La Rosiere. It just depends how quickly the temperature drops on Saturday morning as to how quickly the lower slopes see snow rather than sleet. Fingers crossed it all goes white pretty quickly. Otherwise, the rest of the week is looking fairly dry, but temperatures should stay low, so snow creation can go on unabated.

In the meantime here’s a short round-up of the official snow reports from the Tarentaise ski resorts:

Tignes

Tignes has been open for a couple of weeks now, and second-hand reports suggest it’s pretty good up there, especially if you get a lift’s altitude higher than resort. I’ve seen a few nice pics and videos of people riding powder – not sick, deep powder, but powder nonetheless.

The official channels are reporting that at Tignes le Lac (2100m altitude), there’s a 57cm snow base. Up at La Grande Motte (3300 metres), it’s up to 90cm, which is not spectacular but steady. Wind is still moving stuff about a bit, meaning coverage is not unbroken by any means, but it’s all respectable for early season.

Val d’Isere

Posting a very exact 33cm at 1800 metres and 53cm at 3000 metres, the conditions in ‘Val Dizzle’ are likely to be very similar to Tignes. Apparently, there was a nice layer of fresh powder put down today (around 5cm), which is probably more noticable higher up. In line with everywhere else in the Tarentaise, we can expect 15-20cm of new powder on Saturday at all levels.

La Rosière

It’s still a week until La Rosiere opens (Saturday 14th December) and there isn’t any official information being posted on their website at this time. The resort itself (and Les Eucherts) is not in full ‘winter wonderland’ mode yet, but the white stuff is beginning to accumulate on the pistes. Sufficiently for people to start taking a hike up in the absence of open lifts anyway…

Sainte Foy

Ste Foy’s ski lifts were due to open this weekend. This always seemed a little ambitious the way November was going (dry and mild). The lifts are now opening on Saturday 14th December instead. Like La Ros above, there are no official figures available. However, Sainte Foy is pretty visible from the valley although it looks a bit sketchy at resort level, it seems really quite good at the top of the first lift (Grand Plan) and above.

La Plagne

Whilst La Plagne is due to open a few lifts for a preview weekend tomorrow, there are still only a handful of details about the conditions up there before the proper start of the Paradiski season on Saturday 14th December. Officially, at 2000m you can expect 30cm, with there being 69cm at 3000m. La Plagne might cop the best of the fresh snow tomorrow, with over 20cm anticipated from 1600m upwards.

Les Arcs

Last but never least, Les Arcs is reporting 20cm snow depth at Arc 1600 and Arc 1800, 65 cm at Arc 2000 and 98cm at the Top of the Aiguille Rouge (3226m altitude). That’s really not a terrible start. Again, the lower pistes may need some work to start with, but it’s all pretty encouraging at this early stage.