Ski Club News And Events

After realising that all I had been doing for the past three weeks was telling people how good the snow in Europe is and that it is the best start to a ski season for over 10 years, I suddenly had a realisation. All I wanted to do was get out there and ski and escape the Christmas shopping madness.

So last Thursday lunchtime, after drooling over the latest photos of fresh snow, I decided to hatch a plan to get to the snow at the weekend.

After a chat with Julie from ski tour operator Action Outdoors, she told me they had a coach leaving London at 5pm on Friday. Could I face a coach journey to the Alps for two days of skiing? I decided the answer was yes, as long as I could fly back. So after finding a flight, booking the coach and securing a sofa in Chamonix I was all set.

The coach journey was relatively pain free and we arrived in Chamonix just before 10am on Saturday morning. I have never seen so much snow in Chamonix village in December, and as the white mountains glistened under the sun, there was no time to hang around.

It was on with the kit, on with the skis then we were off. We spent the morning skiing a fantastic off-piste run with British mountain guide Jonny Baird. The snow was just amazing - light fluffy powder everywhere and considering how early in the season it was, we hardly hit any rocks. It was exactly how I had imagined it to be.

After another go at the same run, we then headed up to La Tour for the rest of the afternoon and were more than pleased to find the snow in prestine condition on and off the piste. We had fun cruising down the main slopes and also trying to find fresh snow away from the pistes - which was easy to do. So as the sun started to set and we enjoyed an apres-ski beer, it was safe to say that the snow reports I had been reading back at Ski Club HQ were more than accurate - the snow was fantastic

The next day we woke to find cloudy skies and a warm Foehn wind. This meant some of the top lifts in Chamonix were closed, so we made the decision to head through the Mont Blanc tunnel to the Italian resort of Courmayeur which is included on the Mont Blanc Unlimited Ski Pass. Most of the lifts were open and it was dumping with snow. Conditions were out of this world with fresh snow everywhere. It was so deep at one point I was buried in powder and took at least 10 minutes to get out! This minor incident didn't hinder us, however, as we skied hard all day and only decided to stop as the clock headed towards 5pm. Back at the car it was clear that over half a metre of snow had fallen over the course of the day and it was still falling. As I stood watching the snow, I felt satisfied that I could head home in the morning and officially report that the snow is as good as everyone has been saying.

This is an exceptional start to the season and if you are heading out to the Alps for the Christmas holidays I can assure you there is currently loads of snow. For those heading out later in the season there is an amazing snow base, and if you have not yet booked your ski trip then I can tell you that this is a season not to be missed.