December skiing and current warm weather

[rookiemere]

Hi I'm due to go skiing to a fairly low resort 19th December. Unfortunately I can't change the date or the venue. Should I be worried that temperatures are unseasonably high for late October at the minute? So at the minute it's 16 degrees with predicted highs of 23 degrees over the next week .

You need to tell us where!

By 19th December all the major resorts will have managed to get the higher pistes open using snow canons and by moving the snow around. It might just be that there is little snow outside of the pistes and lower down - so you might need to download from the mid-stations rather than skiing down into the village. If there is no snow at all by 19th Dec then the multi-billion Euro skiing industry really is in trouble.

FWIW there is already skiing available in Soelden and Kitzsteinhorn in Austria on the glaciers, even though the temperature in the valley is over 20 deg. Tomorrow (Wed 26th) is a public holiday in Austria and the glacier resorts will be mobbed if the weather is warm and sunny.

Where are you going? If it’s a low resort but linked to a higher one then you should be fine as long as you don’t have expectations of ski in/ski out and are ok with taking a cable car down the mountain. For example- Tignes Les Brevieres is only at 1550 so might not have snow under foot there but from there you can still access the glacier skiing which is so solidly snow sure that you can ski it in August!

It's La Clusaz and Le Grand Bornand.
Stupidly I didn't think about the fact they are quite low.

It is far too early to be concerned. Last year the northern french alp resorts were still green in early December but there was a huge snow fall just before Christmas week and excellent conditions. Having said that temps have been unusually high for much of the year so I’m hoping they will start falling soon.

Thanks all particularly @myrtilles .
I've clearly started checking too soon, so fingers crossed this warm weather goes away soon.

Ah I see! Agree it’s too soon to really know anything right now. The temperature isn’t going to stay this high forever and as long as it hets below freezing they can make snow! If your beginners or lower end of intermediate it’ll be fine regardless since you don’t actually need that much. If you’re a pretty advanced skier who is after a lot of varied challenging terrain, you might be disappointed, but then that’s true of anywhere when you go early.

@FlounderingFruitcake I'm definitely more of a cruisy blue skiier than one demanding challenging terrain, so hopefully will be ok.
It's a solo 3.5 day trip so I won't be needing loads of pistes.

I'm going to a low resort for Christmas week (950m in the Village!). We were supposed to be there for Christmas last year too nit cancelled due to the PCR debacle. I watched the webcams daily during that week to torment myself and they had good snow cover all week.

Download the bergfex webcam app and stalk to your hearts content.

Just had a look at the webcams where I'm going. They've got a snow cannon in place already. I imagine resorts in France will be doing the same.

We can watch the webcam anxiously together @RhubarbFairy .
I've checked and Le Grand Bornand does have snow cannons also there is snow forecast for first week of November.

@rookiemere I will be there then as well 😀 we go at Christmas most years, have been going for over 20 years and have always had enough snow to ski, even in warm years , so fingers crossed. It is a fabulous very pretty French resort, which is really magical at Christmas.

Also, yes there are plenty of snow cannons.

@Sunsnowsun good news thank you.
I'm a bit nervous about going on my own so I wanted to be sure I'd be able to be out skiing most of the day.

Got to admit, getting a bit worried now! My best skiing is done in good conditions (whose isn’t…) and I am doing an advanced level course early in the season. Am worried a bit for the snow cover. Cannons can only do so much and the melt - freeze - repeat isn’t exactly great to ski on. But there’s still time! There’s still time, right?!

No idea on snow but great resort!

Yay temperatures are going right down and looks like some snow forecast next week at the resort.

On the other hand I will miss the balmy double digit temperatures we have been enjoying in Edinburgh in November .