01/06/2026
The Elusive Seven Month Season
Could the winter of 2025/26 be one for the history books? I don’t recall a season where we've had so much snow both at the start and end, since Cool Bus started 25 years ago. Our first day snowboarding in Les Arcs was the 3rd November and the last was today, 1st June, in Tignes. Seven months.
Now both these dates are well outside the lift opening periods and involved leg power to get up but neither were just token efforts. On the 3rd November we rode from the top of the Trans Arc in Les Arcs all the way down to Arc 2000 and today from the top of the Grand Motte cable car almost all the way down to Tignes Val Claret. In between we’ve ridden in resorts of the Tarentaise every single week.
We had consistent snow throughout November and went split boarding in Les Arcs and La Rosiere on a regular basis. Tignes and Val d’Isère were both on excellent form for their opening dates in November and December respectively.
La Plagne pre-opening weekend on the 6th December also had amazing conditions but then a dry patch hit through until mid-January, bringing icy conditions to most resorts. It did prompt us to make a quick sortie down south to the Italian resort of Limone which had been lucky enough to catch 1.2 metres of fresh snow.
Things improved again towards the middle of January and all our local resorts received a much needed top up and then a huge storm right in the middle of the February holiday period brought chaos. It was only the second time that we can remember that we’ve had an avalanche risk of 5/5. Roads closed, curfews were put in place and most resorts only had a quarter of their lifts running
March was back to normal with consistent snowfall throughout and then April and May have seen freezing levels yo-yoing. Full sunshine and valley temperatures of 20+ degrees one week, then snow at 2000m the next. It’s these regular spring top ups that have really extended the end of the season.
Definitely one to remember.
NB: Please don't take this as further proof that climate change is a hoax, It really isn't. This is just weather. To be honest it was nice to have a winter where it didn't rain at 2000 metres mid-January, something we've experienced for at least the last six winters. And this was also a La Niña year
