A Winter Ski Season is Like a Wine Vintage

Guest blog by Mark Fielding of Huski

There are those years that live in the memory long after the oak casks have been emptied, the auction house hammers selling another case of 1989 Haut Brion for a house deposit. Then there are those that vanish into the either as your breath on a cold, frost-bitten chairlift. It’s not like it used to be lament the old-guard on the PMU steps, cigarette and beer in their 10 a.m. hands, their faces as leathery as an old jaded fishnet. 

But the weather Gods are low pressure zones out over the north Atlantic and Storm Eleanor has made pretty damn sure that 2017/2018 will be a vintage year. A fireplace fairytale for snowboarding grandparents. As if the season didn’t start off on an exquisite enough foot, two days of total carnage, 100 mph winds and the closure of every ski lift in the known universe has added an extra dimension. Conditions have been so angry drag lifts are making a comeback. Queues were forming at the bottom of the magic carpets on the green runs in the 3 valleys. There were 500 people in the swimming pool in Les Arcs. 

It is safe to say it has been a week of chaos and rumour, of avalanche warnings and rain. Sadly, for some the consequences have been hard. Skiing holidays have been shortened and customer service has been working around the clock, and we don’t wish that on anyone. So our sincere condolences if you have been affected by the extreme conditions this last week.

But every storm, apart from knocking down a few ski lifts, brings anticipation, powder panic and calmer conditions. And local weather stations are forecasting a sunny Saturday...oh…. and more snow and rain for the next week? Hold on. No, it depends which one you look at. Should I google search in French? “Le meteo”, will that give me a blue-sky day? French weather forecasters are far more optimistic, aren’t they?  Sun. Snow. Rain. Freezing point? It’s fluctuating like a seismogram.

Least we have wine. It’s a 2015. Great year.