Weather and more weather

An extraordinary amount of snow has fallen in Meribel since the second week of December but the last 24 hours has still caused surprise. Yesterday morning we skied on a soft layer of fresh snow in reasonable visibility on the lower slopes of the valley. 

Limited visibility especially higher up

In the afternoon we crossed over to Courchevel and by the time we had decided the visibility was not too great and the wind was increasing the lifts had started to close. As a result we endured a difficult descent from Saulire in high winds and almost zero visibility. By the time we reached Les Allues heavy snow was falling and abandoned vehicles were blocking the road. News from  Val d’Isère  was that the road from Bourg St Maurice was closed due to high winds and avalanche risk, by the early hours of the morning the storm reached Meribel causing mini cyclones of wind blown snow up and down the main street in Les Allues. At 4.00am power was cut and by morning everyone was realising how dependent they were on electricity and mobile phone connection.

Early morning snow clearing required to free the residents from this Les Allues Apartment

Sitting at home in the decreasing temperature seemed pointless so we set off for Meribel Village and skied away a couple of hours in soft fresh snow which continued to be topped up with ongoing fresh snowfalls. Loud explosions reverberated around the valley as the Pisteurs blast away the potential avalanche risk. Off Piste today was rated 5/5 which is extremely dangerous due to the amount of fresh snow and the added danger caused by the effect of the high wind overnight.
The following pictures were all taken around the Altiport and Meribel Village, not too many people about but an awful lot of snow. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.