Méribel & Courchevel Opening Week - Winter '24/'25

Hi everyone and welcome back to a few minutes of alpine escapism courtesy of your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. Last weekend saw Méribel and Courchevel open their ski lifts, which I reported on at the time. Since then I've been fortunate enough to head out on skis a few times this week and have had a more extensive ski around the fabulous 3 Valleys area. All of these photos have been taken over the last few days.....

First of all, the weather has been divine; freezing temperatures overnight, and pretty cold during the day accompanied with sunshine and blue skies, a skiers dream. Opening weekend had tricky weather conditions and poor visibility at times, so it was was nice to be rewarded.

On social media I returned back to my 'Piste du Jour' theme which I've been running for several years now, and it was often tough to choose just one each day because there were so many. Whatever I chose, a positive response was received from followers, especially when the pistes looked like the above.

It was nice to have a cruise around and see what was happening. Over the last few years the Panoramic mountain restaurant, found at the top of the Saulire Express bubble from Méribel and Courchevel's cable car, had been out of action. However, there was definitely signs of activity going on there this week. So perhaps it will reopen, coincidentally timed with the completed renovation of Courchevel's cable car!

As mentioned in my previous post, Courchevel often changes their mountain art displays each winter. Here is another new one called 'Dark Knight Thinker' at the top of Courchevel's Biollay chairlift.....

The long awaited upgrade of the Côte Brun chairlift looks as though it is finally taking fruition. It is a few years behind schedule from the original plan, I'm guessing mainly due to the lost covid years. This often very cold chairlift is being replaced by a fancy bubble, that's great news. I attended the massive early season ESF ski school meeting last night, and the lift company confirmed this upgrade will take place over the summer of 2025.

Snow conditions are good at the moment. I recently saw a comment on social media that natural snow cover was unremarkable! This made me stop and think, and to be honest this statement is probably true. Snow depths are certainly adequate, especially for this early in the winter. The mountain is skiing well, particularly the top half, and there's been a shed load of snowmaking going on the past ten days or so which is great news. So no complaints from me, and pleased with where we are at.

Having a ski this early in the winter is a very precious experience. It's a fabulous way of easing yourself back into winter life, of reminding yourself why you love this sport and the mountains so much. It's also a great way of spending quality time with friends who although you will see during the main ski season, it will just be a fleeting glimpse.

Right, that's enough from me. I start teaching this weekend and can't wait to get going. Snow conditions are good, more of the ski area and ski lifts will be opening, the weather forecast is positive, and as I'm typing this blog post there's light snow falling in Méribel Town. What a great start to this ski season. As ever, don't forget to Live With Passion, Martin.