IST Ski Conditions Updates

Snow Report from Piau Engaly 10 Feb 2008

Weather excellent, warm and sunny. Snow surprisingly good and abundant especially over 2000m New skis were a pleasure - good to have edges again, although there was not much ice. GPS data interpretations attached. RNJ. 

Paiu Engaly - Sunday 13 January

Conditions in the mountains very good today. I received a ‘powder alert!’ e-mail yesterday morning from Piau Engaly and wasn’t disappointed. 40Cm fell on Friday night followed by more snow on Saturday. The hills around St. Gaudens had fresh snow which is always a good sign.

Access to the station, the highest in the French Pyrenees, was tricky and luckily I had my chains. The access road was covered in thick, compressed snow which was made all the more awkward to navigate by the people without chains & making sure there was enough space for the snow plough to pass. I would always recommend chains for this station or you will end up abandoning your car & hitching a ride like the couple I rescued.

Conditions were ideal, if you like fresh powder. 95% open & every piste covered in thick powder that hadn’t yet seen the piste ‘basher’. The sun shone for most of the day but the temperature remained about zero so there was none of the dreadful late afternoon slush. The main lift taking you up to the highest point, 2600m, is the best bet as most of the runs start at this point but be prepared for a biting wind, even on a sunny day. From the top there is a large choice of red, blue & even a black run that fan out down the mountain. Today there was some difficult skiing as moguls formed quickly in all of the loose powder and some pistes didn’t seem to have had much snow previously & rocks & stones were perilously close to the surface. The long swooping runs were great however & a fantastic day was had.

The station isn’t particularly attractive, just some strange circular apartments, but the smell of chips at the bar is! Also be prepared for the cold. Don’t be deceived by the bright sun on the slopes in the morning as the mountain is in shadow for most of the afternoon, and the lifts to the upper slopes are freezing, and quite slow by modern standards.

Don’t forget your chains!

James P

Le Mourtis - Tuesday 1st Jan 2008

Afternoon spent skiing at Le Mourtis.

Le Mourtis is meant to be the closet ski resort to Toulouse but I believe that the travel time is not greatly different from that to Ax-les-Thermes. 

Only about 50% of the pistes and lifts were open.  Conditions were good in places but icy and rocky in others.  There was a good snow covergae but the resort needed fresh snow fall.  I could only see one snow canon!

There are two chairlifts - one a four person lift, the other a two person lift.  Only the four person lift was open and it is rather slow!

We will return later in the season I think it is a good, friendly resort when fully open.  A great place to teach and learn. 

Luchon Webcams

Luchon seems to have improved their webcam coverage. Three webcams now cover the three sectors of the resort.

IST Ski Conditions Updates

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