I had an email from Sarah from the UK asking:
“Hi Rick, as the local human expert could you give me honest assessment of snow conditions mid April. I have opp to come out 10 April with my boys. We are ok on reds and generally staying in the centre of Chantemerle.”
It’s quite hard to imagine at the moment as it is still bloody cold most of the time, but as soon as the clocks go forward everything starts to change pretty rapidly and it won’t be long before I start seeing some flowers pop up in my garden. My garden is currently about a metre deep in snow at the moment. So mid April? Let’s think….
Well personally I love Serre Chevalier in April, mainly because you get beautiful long warm days and you can pretty much be in shorts and flip flops most of the day (not advised for skiing). It is definately the beginning of the BBQ season and you can walk around the villages without breaking your legs on the ice.
Of course though this does have a detrimental effect on the snow. By April most of the Briancon side will be shut and you won’t be able to ski down the green Briance run from Serre Ratier to Chantemerle, so you only option is the black Luc Alphand which will be a bit ropey by then or chairlift or cable car. Having said that you said you are OK on reds and really most of the Luc Alphand is no more than red, it just wouldn’t sound as famous as Luc Alphand himself if it wasn’t anything less than a black!
The key to skiing in April is to start out early, because that midday sun will turn the freshly groomed snow into slush which can be a bit unpleasant. Snowboarders love slush, but skiers don’t.
By the afternoon you’ll have probably had enough so why not slide down to The Station Bar at the bottom of the Luc Alphand piste? Hopefully by then there will be live music on the terrace, quite often featuring yours truly and enjoy the sunshine.
So overall my opinion is: the snow won’t be perfect, but it will be better than anything you’ll find in the UK and you will enjoy a different kind of skiing to how it is now. We normally see more sunny days than rainy/snowy days in April, so fingers crossed. The sunshine is beautiful here in the spring.If I had to choose between January and April, I would choose April. Hopefully see you here.
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Chiming in,
I’d agree fully with Rick.
April is great, you do tend to lose the Briancon end, but middle and especially the Monetier end still has great snow.
I also think the season is getting later, with snow coming all the way to the end (if it’s too cold it doesn’t snow).
For example I got married here on April 16th a few years ago and skied in falling powder in the morning and got married in the arvo.
The station is also quiet as people seem to think the season stops after half term.
No one writes about skiing in the papers, but the season officially ends 24th April – and this maybe extended by a week if the numbers and condidtions allow.