Grand Massif Skiing December 2009

After a sucessful early ski holiday in the Grand Massif of France in Decmber 2008 we decided to repeat the timings in 2009. Arriving in Les Carroz d’Araches on Saturday December 12th, there was a few inches of snow in the village which had arrived that day. Flaine had seen similar dumps of snow with the resort opening on December 12th. On Monday 14th December we skied in Flaine, with fantastic conditions, a sunny cold day with clear views of Mont Blanc, as seen in the image below.

An estimated 100 cm of snow at 2200 m and 20 cm at 1600m was sufficient for a good day of skiing in Flaine. Disappointingly, there were only 3 ski lifts open; the small beginners lift at 1600m, the large DMC telecabine providing access to the top of Flaine and the Col de Plate chair lift accessible the bottom of the Serpentine/Crystal ski runs.

The ski runs in Flaine were in great condition with plenty of snow cover until reaching the village at 1600m where some stones had been churned up. The images above show the ski runs at the top of Flaine.

Snow continued to fall in the village of Les Carroz d'Araches from Monday Dec 14th, with a centimetre or so every day until Friday 18 December when heavy snow continued to fall all day, leaving at least 10 cm in Les Carroz village and continuing to the upper slopes at 2200m.
The snow cannons were active all week, with sub zero temperatures (typically -10 degs C during the daytime) throughout. The good snow base built up in November and the blown snow, plus the snowfalls in Decmber made for excellent sking over the Christtmas period.