Happy Holidays

Hi everyone and welcome to another post from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. Méribel and the other ski resorts in the 3 Valleys are in full swing now during the busy Festive Period. The week before Christmas is often beautifully quiet, and so it was this year. Christmas week usually picks up quite a lot, and so it did. As I tap away on the keyboard today (Saturday Dec 24th), loads of people are leaving resort with more replacing them. The skiing today was really good fun on - sometimes - quiet slopes. So how are the snow conditions I hear you ask? All photos have been taken in the last nine days or so......

Before I go ahead and answer that burning question, let me talk about what the weather has been up to. The last major dump was around a month ago at the end of November. I reported on it at the time and explained this would really help the start of the season by making a base on the pistes especially at mid to high altitude. On the 7th December, the day after Opening Day, we had a weather front come through with some snow above about 2,400 metres, and rain below. Not ideal, but we absorbed this minor hiccup so to speak. Since then it's mostly been beautiful sunshine and blue skies, day after day of it.

Thankfully at this early stage of the winter, the sun stays low and the days are short. In other words the sun doesn't damage the snow too much, unless there are any low pistes facing south. However the temperatures have stayed mild, with skiing feeling comfortable for this time of year, that's one positive. But too mild for the snow cannons to run at night time. Thankfully the average temperature has dropped the last few days, with the cannons now running at night.

With all this in mind, the snow conditions have held up really well and we've had some fabulous skiing. On the top slopes the skiing is still great, especially on those that are groomed every night. And particularly in the mornings the pistes are in lovely condition. The lower slopes are a little different. They are also pretty good during the morning, but certainly get chopped up, and quite icy in places in the afternoon. A few stones are appearing on non snow cannoned pistes. This is mostly down to the increase in traffic, ie more skiers on the mountain. The crowds are now arriving for the New Year period. On a positive note, it looks as though the temperatures should drop considerably mid-week. This will help the condition of the current snow, and definitely enhance and increase snow making.

All of this last week, I've skied with a lovely bunch of people. The Dad is Parisian, his Fiancée half Venezuelan and half Columbian, and their two kids. Oh, and they all live in Miami by the way. Antoine has a sister who was here on holiday as well and her partner is Canadian. They live in Malta for most of the year, but also spend time in Canada. This is one of many parts of this job that I love, meeting people from very different walks of life. It was fascinating listening to their conversations, and I took the opportunity to ask questions about all sorts of things. Antoine in particular was very interesting. He has run various businesses in the food industry, especially in restaurants. He even once owned a restaurant for four years in Risoul in the French Alps.

Christmas Eve was quite dramatic for us. We had that Sea Of Cloud thing going on, firstly just below ski resort level, before it slowly climbed during the course of the afternoon. It's soo pretty when this happens, it's like a little present from Mother Nature.

Right then, New Year week is just about to start. My goal is to help my clients find the nicest snow conditions using local knowledge, and help them have a great holiday. I'm bound to be on a New Years Eve torchlight descent, which is always an experience. I'll do my best to stay in touch via Social Media, with an occasional 'Piste du Jour'. Happy Holidays everyone. In the meantime, don't forget as ever to Live With Passion. Martin.