23.1.2012 Time to clear the snow off the car port.

23.1.2012 Skied over to the 4th Valley in glorious sunshine

31.12.12 Still snowing and no where to shovel it to off the drive, the river is full! Old gondola bubble in the garden is nearly buried and I measured 90cm of snow in the garden (compacted of course).

29.12.11 Panoramic view from the top of the La Tania chair, Mt. Blanc in the left hand corner

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND ALL THE BEST IN 2012

Nick

13.12.11The new season is upon us and La Tania opening day was amazing. I measured 37cm in the garden and more snow is expected today and tomorrow so looking very good for Christmas and New Year and the season ahead. Lots of updates, pictures and snow forecasts on www.latania.co.uk.

I couldn't resit being first down the gasex on La Tania opening day 10th December 2012

Summary of the Season 2010/2011

Here is my opinion of how the season really was in La Tania and The Three Valleys. Due to the extensive investment in snow making, the huge area and high links in the Three Valleys I think we faired better than many other resorts. Our guests are all pretty keen skiers ranging from beginners to experts and all enjoyed their weeks skiing despite reports in the UK press. For the same report with photos added by Toffa (who runs www.latania.co.uk) see http://www.latania.co.uk/photos/2011/info/NicksSeasonReview2011.html

How good was the skiing this season? With France Meteo saying the least snow in a generation and HAT (Henrys Avalanche Talk) saying the least snow since 1949.... Well, from 11th December until the beginning of April the 3 Valleys had at least 90% of pistes open but generally 95%.

What really happened?

As always we started to ski in November in Val Thorens and finished as planned 8th May. This season the snow and cold weather arrived about a month ahead of average and by the opening day of Courchevel 4th December and the 3 Valleys links there was far more snow than normal and what a great first day we had skiing back home to La Tania. Then, a huge temperature change with rain and very warm weather, you could almost see the snow melting in resort. However things picked up and the week of 11th December was fabulous with around 50cms at mid station and a few classic powder days. Then, on New Year week after some more snow the Grande Couloir opened the earliest I remember in 10 years. This indicated that we had a huge amount of snow base higher up as the steepest run in Europe is very rocky and normally opens at the end of January. We then had a medium powder day on Wednesday 12th January followed by rain up to around 2300 metres which put a crust on almost all the off piste. The pistes were pisted and we started to enjoy some fabulous piste skiing but the off piste was impossible to ski below around 2700mtrs, very cold and sunny days for week after week until the week of 19th February when the snow returned. By this time the pistes were becoming very hard packed, not icy though, but the best skiing was in the first couple of hours. The sunny slopes like Mur and the bottom of Marmottes started to close even though it was very cold the sun was melting these and similar facing pistes throughout the 3 Valleys. .

The season then seemed to be more normal with a few medium snowfalls which freshened the pistes and made the off piste much better but extremely dangerous on steeper slopes because the layers of snow had not and were not bonding.

So, March progressed and the final sting in the tail happened with temperatures reaching heights that had not been seen since the late 1800s. The snow then started to melt rapidly and many pistes were closing by the start of April. Folyeres kept going until 8th April and after then we were basically 2 weeks ahead of normal which would mean everywhere except Val Thorens would normally be closed. However, the outstanding work by the piste bashers continued to astound us and the Three Valleys links were kept open until Easter Monday with some downloading into Mottaret for the last week .

So, to sum it all up a season of extremes, generally cold and sunny season until the end of March and then very warm. Only a few snow falls after December but by then the base was well above average and helped tremendously by the snow making facilities and the skills of the piste basher drivers who took snow from everywhere possible at the sides of the pistes. Did we have fun? Of course what could be better than being in the mountains with lots and lots of sunny weeks. How about our guests? On a number of occasions when ski hosting the guests said it was one of their best days skiing ever. It was especially important to pick the best routes and pistes this season but there was lots and lots of fabulous skiing to be had. See you next season.

OLD STUFF

Have a look at this...photos bringing fame again... Times on Line (sorry link seems to be broken but you might get a cached version)

There are some new guest reviews on www.latania.co.uk : click here and select Nickski or Chalet Juba and we also have a couple of Trip Advisor Reviews

First tracks down Suisse, Courchevel opening day 2009 (still my favourite photo - Nick)

At the end of a long day its nice to get this close to the boot room!

Wifi ; We now have improved Wifi available to our guests in the chalet and all are welcome to use it. If you have a company laptop please check that it is set us to access "public" Wifi. We do have some problems occasionally so cannot guarantee that it will always be available however Pub Le Ski Lodge has wifi and PCs should you need to access the internet.