Time to think about some Spring Skiing

If you've been reading J2Ski for a while, you'll know we're big fans of Spring Skiing; long days, plenty of sunshine and a pretty much daily chance to sit in the sun with a cold beer (or ice cream!) after your last run down.

After a day on the snow, you can find real warmth coming into the valleys; the streams are full of melt water and sunnier slopes will be pushing up mountain flowers and attracting the wildlife.

Then there's the snow; if the snow pack's half decent then, yes, it'll be hard first thing and getting slushy by the end of the day but for many hours in between you'll have a sun-softened few cms on a smooth base... proper "Hero Snow"! Second only to powder for fun, and more forgiving, this often extends beyond the pistes - and varies in consistency from a very fine "Slush Puppy" layer to full on Corn Snow.

And, of course, if it does happen that Spring is on the cold side then you've always got the chance of late season powder and freshies on slopes that are far quieter than any peak season week.

So, will there be snow this Spring? Well, it certainly looks like it - there's just been loads! The caveat, of course, is that you have to look for a little altitude but you don't need to take that to extremes.

Here's our snow history chart for La Clusaz, for example; deepest snow of the season (up top) in March...



We like the video France Montagnes put out this week... worth a few minutes of your time...



France, in particular, have a lot going on in the mountains this Spring and we'll be posting some more info on their events through the next week or so.

Those skis were almost as long as mine .....

It's a whole eight days since I came back from the Dolomites.

I have to wait another six days before returning to Niederau, my fifth visit in fifteen months....

Another 46 days until first and sadly only trip of the season.

Apart from January conditions have been very spring-like throughout the season. As for loads of snow, last Sunday I had an amazing powder day - and frankly only the 3rd time this season I got to ski pure untracked powder - and this time I didn't need to hike, and first time when I had confidence I wouldn't total my skis. It started snowing last Sunday evening again and kept snowing during the week, friends skied lovely powder Tuesday and Wednesday. However, now that the weather settled I have no idea where this meter of snow has gone. Apparently wind was quite strong on upper slopes, so lot of spots where snow is very hard or even icy due to windpacking. I see the same rocks sticking (until this season I didn't know they even existed) out as in January, moguls are huge and first thing Saturday morning they were also quite hard. Pistes are in amazing shape though. Go higher in the mornings as lower slopes received quite a bit of rain, so there is an ice crust. But from noon it's amazing. And it's getting quiet. But choose resorts that have slopes at altitude, it's very warm. I skied in a shell over light base layer and put my gloves into backpack. It was too warm even for thin gloves.

Ranchero_1979 wrote:Another 46 days until first and sadly only trip of the season.

You didn't miss much; if you had to miss a season due to other commitments, this was the one to miss. Nobody will cry to see the back of it.