Spring Skiing in Samoëns – 5 Reasons to Ski in Spring!

Hardened skiers often approach spring skiing with caution. Preferring the colder weather and fearing poor snow, many miss out on some of the best conditions of the season. In this blog post, we’ll explain our top 5 reasons why later season skiing is often our favourite time on the slopes.

Our Top Five Reasons for Skiing in Spring

If you need any persuasion as to why March and April are a good time to ski, we have five very good reasons.

Reason 1 – Sunshine

Spring time typically brings the sunshine. Gone are the lower temperatures that we can see often see earlier in the season (it’s unlikely that we’ll get -20°C in March) and out comes the sun.

Balaclavas can be packed away until next winter and eating lunch outside on the mountain becomes the norm. Just imagine your lunchtime break from skiing featuring a deck chair and a glass of your favourite tipple. That’s spring skiing!

Reason 2 – Quiet slopes

The school holidays are over and most of the hard core snow junkies have used up their holiday. It’s typically only those in the know that can be found on the pistes (and off-piste) during the last few weeks of the season. Queues don’t exist giving you the opportunity to ski more freely without having to plan your movements around potential waiting time.

Quieter pistes are way more fun too!

Reason 3 – April Showers

April brings short bursts of wet weather and precipitation. Why are we happy enough to list this as a reason you may ask. Well, it’s often the same in the Alps (and notably the Grand Massif thanks to its prime location for arriving weather patterns) and precipitation up on the mountain means fresh white stuff!

Fresh snow and rapid dumps of powder are a regular thing in Samoëns and yet another reason why we love spring!

Need facts? We had 30cm of fresh snow last night on top of 40cm the night before…

Reason 4 – Snow Record

If you take a look at the Samoëns snow history you’ll see how well covered the area is later on in the season. You’ll also see how the fresh dumps contribute frequently to impressive late season snow depths.

In the 2005/06 season (the most comparable on record to this winter – albeit not as impressive as this year), there were multiple big dumps of snow on the during the last few weeks of the season including about a metre on the lower slopes over one of the weeks.

Spring is often a powderfest!

Reason 5 – Daylight Saving

Daylight saving? So why’s that relevant? Well, as winter turns to spring and we wake up to increasingly mood lifting daylight, we often wish we could get up on the slopes earlier. This is where the changing of the clocks helps.

In addition to getting us on the slopes an hour earlier enjoying the colder part of the day, longer evenings boost energy levels and give us an opportunity to dine outside in the evenings. Sunshine plus longer evenings equals more smiles!

What We Think

So we are big fans of the late season skiing in the Grand Massif and hopefully the reasons above help you make the most of this incredible time. We’re not saying that you won’t find yourself skiing on heavy snow in the afternoons on the sunnier days, but the high chance of powder coupled with sunshine and empty slopes make for a holiday of big smiles!

Interested in Spring Skiing? Don’t Miss Out…

If you would like to join those in the know and take part in some of this fantastic spring skiing, we only have a couple of opportunities left this season.

If a self-catered ski chalet is your thing, we’ve got one chance left to enjoy our luxurious self-catered chalet, La Roche.

We hope to see you out here enjoying our spring snow!

Until next time…