It may not have snowed since 11.01.11, but you’d never guess by looking at the pistes…
Alpe d’Huez has over 900 snow cannons, more than any other resort in France. And really it’s just as well, as so many of the pistes here are south-facing. So the fact that it’s not snowed for nearly a month doesn’t matter too much; the cannons are blasting water into the air each night, creating piles of new snow that’s being spread around the resort to keep the pistes topped-up. This technique is all well and good when the weather’s cold enough for the cannons, but if it starts warming-up at night we could be in trouble…
According to French weather forecasters, today is the last day of autumn. They’re predicting an extreme change of weather tomorrow that will see us wading through snowdrifts early next week…
Okay, so it’s unlikely to be that dramatic but we have been blessed with a long and relatively warm autumn here in the Oisans region. At the start of half term we received an unexpected dump of early snow, but that’s mainly retreated to above 2600m now, leaving the resorts and the valley warm, sunny and dry.
This weekend is easily the busiest of the summer as thousands of people descend on the Oisans region for a variety of events. In Les 2 Alpes there’s freestyle ski and snowboard event, the Kumi Yama, and the Raidlight Trail on Sunday. In Alpe d’Huez it’s all about road bikes with La Marmotte taking place on Saturday and the Ascent of the 21 Bends on Sunday.
It’s one of those weekends when you need to be in at least two places at once and manage without sleep or food in order not to miss out. But I’m recovering from a nasty cold and my car is being repaired it’s going even harder than usual to report on all the exciting stuff.
So this year I’m not going to stress about it. I’m going to go where I can go, see what I can see and bring you the best photos and films I can… so stay tuned to Destination Oisans!
Stage 6 of the race started just outside Grenoble and took the cyclists 151.5km over mountainous terrain, ending with the ascent of Alpe d’Huez’s famous 21 bends. The pace of the cyclists was much slower as they steadily pedaled their way up the hill. We were hoping to film at the finish line in Alpe d’Huez but the police closed the local roads earlier than expected and – as we’d taken the single lane back road from Freney to La Garde – we stopped to film at Bend 16, La Garde.
Wow do those guys go fast! After waiting for numerous support vehicles and police to pass us at our spot on the edge of the Lac du Chambon, the 218 riders whizzed past so fast it was impossible to see who was leading and who’d dropped behind.
The weather here in the Oisans Region is getting warmer every day and today was by far the hottest day of the year so far. As temperatures hit 29°C in Bourg d’Oisans we had a quick flit around the Saturday market then set off for our first climb of the summer…
