Opening Week

Hi everyone, and welcome to the latest update from Méribel. Well, the usual excitement from Opening Weekend has passed, and it's been a real privilege to be able to ski this early in the winter. The last two weekends have felt busy, but that's ok, everyone is allowed to grab a precious ski whenever they can this early on. Needless to say, the mountain has felt much quieter during the week.

The first week passed by with some cracking days of sunshine, and at times really quite cold temperatures. A great introduction back into winter life. On the whole, the snow conditions I would say were above average and very motivating for the upcoming Festive Period.

It's been fabulous having a relaxing cruise around the 3 Valleys. Courchevel has been quiet, with the ski lifts in Le Praz, Courchevel Moriond (1650), Le Praz and La Tania opening last Saturday. In the Méribel Valley more ski lifts have opened including Mont Vallon, with pistes opening gradually. Val Thorens has been up and running for a few weeks now, with Les Menuires opening partially last Saturday as well. I even popped over to the Orelle Valley last Thursday, the other side of Val Thorens.

Sometimes we've had beautiful weather with lovely snow conditions, but we've also had some tricky visibility to deal with as well.

You could say that it's all felt like a bit of a rollercoaster ride really, in a fun kind of way. Méribel Town is getting itself ready for the first busy stretch of the winter. The shops are buzzing around, stocking up, and training staff. Plenty of tradesmen are finishing off their projects all over the place. And one by one the bars and restaurants are opening their doors.

So how is the weather, and what are the snow conditions like during week two? We are in the middle of another annoying very mild period, with precipitation falling at times. However from tomorrow onwards the freeze level will slowly start to drop back to normal, which fingers crossed will help the mountain recover again. Several weather forecast agencies are suggesting there will be between one to one and a half metres of new fresh snow above 2,500 metres once this weather front passes. At that altitude, that's good news, other than high avalanche risk. In fact there were several very loud controlled avalanche blasts early this morning. Then it looks as though the sun finally returns for the weekend. the way, we all have our favourite apps or websites that help us keep track weather and snow forecasts, one of mine is called MeteoBlue. There's plenty of info going on there, here's a link if you are interested.

I start teaching in just a few days' time on Friday, and can't wait to get going again. Plus next week I suspect there will be an increase of visitors, with more pistes, ski lifts and mountain restaurants opening. Should be good. I hope you are all having a great build up to the Christmas period wherever you are. We certainly are here. Live With Passion. Martin.