I parked in a big underground garage and popped up out of the ground like a rabid squirrel right at the lifts. This was the first and only day I've skied alone the entire trip (I've been out here since Feb 3). I had absolutely no idea where to go. I jumped on the Olympique tram-gondola because I'd never seen a setup like that before. Each cabin was massive, holding maybe 40 people or more, with tons of seating. Everything is so civilized here.
Last week alone, parts of western Switzerland were buried under 1 to 1.5 meters (3 to 5 feet) of snow. Another meter fell this week in some regions, pushing fresh storm totals to as much as 2.5 meters (8 feet). The new snow has helped erase what had been a snow-poor winter in the west, with snow depths in some areas now well above seasonal averages.
We awoke yesterday to about two feet of new snow at the house down at 4,500′. The plan was Méribel in Les 3 Vallées, France. The largest ski resort on Earth. The Epic Pass works here. The morning started a bit rowdy as we tried to get my friend's kid to ESF (École du Ski Français) ski school. The Golf chair wasn't scheduled to open until 10 am, so we dug out Esfand's car, loaded the kid and all the gear.
We loaded the chair around 10:30 a.m. and followed a new local friend, Luke, into a wild pillow-stacked gully. That first run showed us exactly how deep and perfect the snow really was. I lapped the chair twice more before noticing a sign saying another, higher chair would open at noon. It was 11:24 a.m. Perfect timing. I headed over to wait for the Marquise chair, which rises above treeline into mellow, rolling alpine terrain.
An intense storm system is hammering the region, dropping significant snow on top of an already fragile snowpack. So far, up to 30 cm (12 inches) of fresh snow has fallen in the Pre-Alps above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), while the Dolomites have picked up around 15 cm (6 inches)-with much more on the way. The fresh snow is falling onto a poorly bonded surface layer left over from last weekend, which itself sits on deep, persistent weak layers made up of angular crystals-a classic recipe for avalanches.
