Winter, it would seem, has finally arrived in the Alps. How fantastic it is to finally see Sauze adopt its winter coat after an excruciatingly long period of warm weather and no snow.

We are not out of the woods yet but the snow that hit us on Saturday (27th December) couldn’t have been timed better. It’s holiday season and the Italians flock to Sauze d’Oulx in their thousands, add to that the influx of foreign tourists and this week becomes one of the busiest of the season.

The lead up to Christmas was a warm one with Spring like conditions. It didn’t help get you into the festive spirit when you felt you were at the end of the season instead of the beginning. We had seen the promise of snow on the 27th for sometime but dare not count our chickens until the first snow flake started to fall.

The weather system came in from the North West so hit France really hard causing chaos on the roads and at airports. Authorities in the Savoie region estimated that 15,000 cars were stranded on motorways and at Chambery airport 2,000 people were stuck as planes either failed to land or couldn’t take off. Emergency overnight shelters had to be set up to give refuge to people trying to either get home after their Christmas break or get to the slopes to begin their holiday.

This side of the Frejus tunnel we were spared the massive disruption to travel. A plus if you’re trying to get somewhere. The downside being we had less snow than our French cousins. In the village though we had over 15cm of snow and weather stations up the mountain were reporting over 40cm of fresh snow so not a bad little dump all the same.

Wind played it’s part yesterday with high winds closing everything above Sportinia but I’m glad to report that today (Sunday 28th) we have clear blue skies and little wind. The Clotes chair lift and Lago Nero are now running and it is possible to ski down run 2000 to the bottom of Lago Nero. At the time of writing this the Clotes run down to the village is officially closed but they have the cannons firing on it and I’m hopefully that it will be open next week, don’t quote me on that though.

If you’re coming out this week then you’ve timed it well. The forecast for the week is clear blue skies and sunshine. It’s going to be cold though so I hope you’ve packed your thermals. Here’s to a great week in Sauze d’Oulx and a very merry New Year’s Eve.