15/16 Winter Catch-Up

Well, what can we say about the Winter of 2015/16…

Excellent staff.  Epic snow. Great guests. An amazing season enjoyed by all!

After mother nature once again took a bit of a lie in during the early months of November and December, we were left wondering if this season would ever get going.

First staff ski day - Col de L’Iseran  (23/12/2015)

Final staff ski day - Bottom of Genepi piste (27/04/16)

The fireworks of New Year seemed to be the wakeup call for mother nature, and she duly provided us with a much needed delivery of the white stuff with seemingly continuous dumps of 10cms or more throughout January.
That set the tone for the rest of winter, and from then on there was no shortage of snow.
By the start of January the staff had settled into their roles nicely and we were receiving glowing reviews from guests. January disappeared in a flash amongst the excitement and enjoyment of fresh snow and before we could say ‘school holidays’ it was February Half Term Week.

Staff ski day- hiking the Toviere ridge

Staff ski day- bubbles in the Sache valley

After half-term we managed to get together as a team once again. We enjoyed excellent conditions despite poor visibility, we even treated ourselves to some well earned bubbles on the hill and some melted cheese at the bottom in Les Brevieres!

Last staff day out of winter 2016 - 27th April - The TCC from Ultimate Snowsports on Vimeo.

We cruised through the remainder of February and into March, continuing to enjoy fantastic conditions.
The final staff ski day was arguably one of the best days of the season. It was the 27th April, and we had received about a foot of fresh snow in resort and almost 30 cm's of fresh cold powder above mid-station. We had a week of unseasonably cold weather which resulted in an amazing end of season conditions.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to our staff and all of our guests that come to enjoy the winter with us, here’s to more of the same next season!

Last Supper

First Supper

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At which ski resorts are you guaranteed to get a snow fix this winter?

Of course Tignes and Val D'isere are at the top of the list according to the Telegraph.co.uk.

But we can't be the only resort in the norther hemisphere that has a great record of snow cover during the winter?

Here's a couple of places we have visited and can personally recommend for a potentially epic powder day:

Whistler- BC, Canada.

A view from the snow covered trees of Whistler mountain.

Having visited Whistler Blackcomb myself in March a few years ago I can certainly vouch for the snowfall. After a few sunny days in a row (which we were told were extremely rare) the heavens opened and we received over a metre of snow in 24 hours. Despite the snow being quite wet and heavy between the bottom lift and mid-station up top there was plenty of good powder, although not of the champagne variety but pretty close!

Similarly to Tignes, Whistler Blackcomb has a glacier and there is usually skiing available from late November through to May with summer skiing from Late June until the end of July.

It is widely regarded as one of the best places to ski in North America, in my opinion the variation of terrain it offers is pretty amazing, in one run you can ski off the glacier and through the alpine into into some of the best tree skiing to be found anywhere.

Hakuba Valley, Nagano, Japan

Aerial shot of the Hakuba Valley courtesy of snowjapan.com

The Hakuba Valley is one of Japans biggest skiing areas, consisting of around 10 separate ski areas.
It consistently averages around 10m of snowfall each winter despite the bottom lift located at around 700m altitude. The valley also hosted the downhill events for the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics.

The resort is mainly popular with Australians during the winter with few visitors from the northern hemisphere.

On a good day the skiing can be spectacular with some of the best powder tree skiing in the world with light fluffy snow in usually well spaced deciduous trees.
Most of the skiing is below the tree line with the resort of Happo-One offering the most skiing with some alpine skiing above the tree line.
There is also a significant amount of backcountry to explore. However this is notoriously very dangerous due to the large amounts of snow fall and the steepness of the mountains creating a high risk of avalanche!
I had my best day skiing the trees of the back of Hakuba Cortina- this resort allows skiers to ski the trees whereas some of the resorts in the valley only allow tree skiing in designated areas.

On a good day the skiing is spectacular with some of the best powder tree skiing in the world with light fluffy snow in usually well spaced deciduous trees.

It's truly a stunning place and well worth a visit, and the skiing is pretty awesome as well!

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Dumping down in South America!

Portillo (Chile) got 25 inches in 24 hours- dude where's my car?

Snow is continuing to fall in South America after over 200cm in some places last week!
Chile and Argentina were inundated with snow last week, weather men said that it may this may have been the largest storm to hit central Chile in the past 5 years.
This good for central Chile which has suffered from many droughts over the last few years.

Originally, central Chile had 19-feet of snow forecast in 4 days last week!

View from the Nubes chairlift at Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina.

It was reported that a spectacular day of powder skiing was to be had on Monday at  Catedral ski resort in Bariloche, Argentina.

Of course this amount of snow help's to fill in rocky features, creating new airs and hits all over the mountain, and it's always to nice to have that extra cushioning on any landing especially when it goes wrong! Although it has to be said putting ski's back on in deep powder and even finding skis can be an extreme challenge. On these occasions it's useful to have a powder trace on your skis to help locate them when they have nose dived into deep snow.
How often do we see people having this problem in the Alps! 

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