…there’s yet more snow! It’s been snowing for about two days so it’s topped everything up again. As the roads are now warmer than in January, they dry up very quickly once they get cleared. And of course they have all the equipment and manpower out here they need to clear everything within hours.

Across the other side of the valley from Combloux lies a commune called Passy. It’s all south-facing so is the first place to lose its snow. However, there is a hidden gem of a tiny ski area called Plaine Joux which has, in total, just five drag lifts. The snow this year has been so abundant that Plaine Joux is still fully open even this late in the season. You’d expect it normally to be struggling even at the beginning of March.

So we decided to go and explore, and how glad we were that we did. We know it has stunning views back across to Combloux and to Mont Blanc but the skiing was superb too. People come here to watch paragliders take off, toboggan, walk and just sit and enjoy it all. Not many come to ski, so it was even more idyllic. It’s a fantastic area to walk in during summer too with huge dramatic peaks soaring up behind you and vast meadows of flowers.

The first photo shows the liking people have for skiing off roofs…

Great day in the sunshine though with plenty of cloud in the afternoon. From a piste on Christomet, you can see almost all of Megeve town. This is the view that you see in the brochures, so you think you can see Mont Blanc from the town but it’s tucked in too close to the much smaller Mont d’Arbois for that.

Whilst it’s still very chilly at night (minus 8C last night) and warm in the day, there’s still the chance of fog in the valley when there’s a ‘temperature inversion’ that is when the temperature is lower at lower altitudes. An odd phenomenon but great to look at when you’re up the mountain looking down at it. But then why look down, when you can sit in a deckchair and look up at the sun…?

Sundays are very busy here at the moment and being a gorgeously sunny day, lots of people who weren’t skiing (including me) were just out to soak it all up on a stroll.

There are a few orientation tables around to tell you what you’re looking at and this one’s particularly well placed, although they’ve had to hack fairly severly at the bush in front so as not to obscure the view.

The beginners’s slopes are particularly packed, mostly with people falling over. Even when they’re just standing still, some of them. Parents who’ve put their children on skis as soon as they can stand make the job of the instructors particularly challenging as mostly before about 5 years old, they don’t seem to ‘get it’ and despite everything that the instructors try to tell them or show them, they’ll be distracted by the slightest things. Ooh, look snow… a picture of controlled chaos on the baby slope.

So at last Combloux sees some more people on the slopes. This is a big gathering place at the top of three chairlifts from where people head back down in all directions. They draft in maybe 3 or 4 times the number of instructors that they have the rest of the season, to soak up all those wanting lessons. The easier pistes are full of snaking lines of skiers trying, usually unsuccessfully by the third or fourth in line, to follow where the instructor goes and what they say to do.

The ski school sessions are three hours long so there’s usually a break somewhere. These classes of young ones are given a biscuit and a picnic table to sit around while the instructors decide whether it’s a glass of red or white at lunchtime.

One slope in particular is often sectioned off from the main hoards and reserved for training for slalom. Sometimes the giant slalom gates are put out for ski school classes who will be assessed for their bronze, silver or gold stars. The slalom course however is used by teenagers and older skiers training for trials or just for the fun of it. And having tried just a few of these poles once (and not going through them like these guys do, but around them!) it’s very tricky to go at speed and get it right. This girl was about 14 I’d say.

This is the current state of the ‘ecological lake’ at Combloux. This is a small artificial lake just below the village that cleans itself by natural filtration, apparently. Anyway even when it’s not completely frozen over and covered in snow, on this side of it, the water is still only a foot or so deep, and has reeds, poles and bushes sticking out of it, so you’d be a bit silly if you attempted a swim here. Still, best to put a sign up just in case.

There seem to be an increasing number of people on the slopes with cameras that you can fit only your helmet, like Mark here. I’ve seen them on ski poles held out in front of people and one on the front of a ski. Now whilst it sounds like a great idea to capture the thrills and spills of skiing, I’m not sure how watchable these must be afterwards. There is so much jolting and vibrating going on when you’re going down a piste, whether or not it’s been bashed well, that I think the resulting video must make you feel a bit queasy.

The goggles are pretty cool though.

The French are pretty good at keeping everything well signposted and safe for us all. Sometimes, they could do with a native English speaker checking their translations though. This one faces you as you come off a chairlift and is telling you to clear the area for those coming up behind you.

You’d think there’d be hundreds of snowmen built here, wouldn’t you? Apparently everyone seems to be too busy skiing for all that nonsense. However, once in a while, people find time to create one. This one was especially good, being all of seven foot tall. Built by the Holmes family.

And the sun stayed out long enough to give us a spectacular sunset on Mont Blanc.