The weather is a topic which is often said to preoccupy the Brits, however, I think skiers and boarders must take at least second place on the list of people who talk about and monitor the weather in detail. It’s a topic of conversation pretty much guaranteed to come up during any shared gondola or chairlift ride or indeed any encounter with your fellow snow seekers.

This week it’s safe to say that the old adage “Don’t like the weather, wait five minutes” has been true, although it’s been more like “Don’t like the weather, wait for tomorrow”. On Monday we were forced to buy balaclavas to protect us from the -14°C temperatures, which dropped to around -28°C with windchill. It’s a strong look, but probably not one that I will be rocking back in Bamford! The clouds were leaden and whilst the snow was good, it wasn’t a day for panoramic photos. Amongst other runs we skied the 11km from Peak to Creek, checking that off the list of “must do’s”.

On Tuesday the temperature remained around -14°C but the wind had dropped, sky was blue and the sun was blissfully out, softening up the slopes and making for a much more pleasant day. But as all good weather obsessives will know, it pays to look ahead, and on Wednesday we decided to take a rest day from boarding in preparation for what was being forecast, in technical terms, on Wednesday night as A MASSIVE DUMP!

Ullr did not disappoint, sending over 30cms of beautiful fresh powder. On Thursday morning we awoke to the boom boom of ski patrol bombing areas of avalanche risk and set out to catch the lift into the fresh pow which was still falling. For the first time in our visit we encountered a proper lift line (around 30mins to get up the first chair) but after the first run up this eased as skiers spread out across the mountain. Skiing in this much powder is very different to other conditions. The slopes are more forgiving, the sheer volume of snow acting as a natural brake on the steeper sections but you need some speed to plough through. The flatter sections, where snowboarders can risk grinding to a halt, are often faster, especially once they have been flattened a few times by numerous pairs of skis and boards. I haven’t really surfed but I can only imagine the sensation to be similar, it feels like you are cresting a wave and then hurtling down the other side. When you do fall (and we do, many times) it is onto a marshmallow cushion which doesn’t hurt but can be impossible to extract yourself from – the more you try to lift yourself out, the deeper you dig in! There is also a weird weather anomaly in the form of a temperature inversion. At ~1800m the temperature is around 0°C, dropping to around -10°C in the village (~670m) meaning we get colder as we descend. At the top of the last run the wind begins to whip the snow off the trees dumping more powder on to the runs and us. It’s time to go home and we are soaked by the time we get on the shuttle bus, but what an amazing day … and better still, the same again is forecast for tomorrow!