So there we were, way back when, actually March to be precise. We were staying just down from Saint Veran, which is the highest commune in Europe at m in the village of Gaudissard at the La Maison de Gaudissard. On our second day, we awoke to some light snow, and our plans changed as the locals advised that, if we were to go further towards Italy, there would be more snow as this was a 'Retour d'Est' and snowfalls of up to a metre in 24hrs are not uncommon.
That was my first experience of the Retour d'Est, more here about that first trip, and since I've lost count of the number of road trips that I've made, some exactly that, a day's excursion always a good couple of hours to get to where the snow is , whilst other trips, notably Val Maira and Limone Piemonte have been part of a week-long tour.
Since I've seen many a website jump on the Retour d'Est band-wagon and in some ways that has been detrimental, as our first road trips to the Queyras we were in the minority now you have to arrive at Abries for first lifts. However, if you're prepared to travel further afield then there are other locations that offer lift access to great off-piste and are nowhere near as busy, though will depend on the day of the week, and of course, if you're prepared to get your skins on then there are so many more options!
I'm not going to explain the science of what constitutes a Retour d'Est or Genoa Low, as the top image, and image below pretty well shows what it is.
But those lines you see on the chart, isobars, show how the front tracks counterclockwise in an area of low pressure depression , and unlike Atlantic low-pressure systems that can track across the UK in a matter of hours the "Genoa Low" will often not budge for a couple of days and will continue to dump bringing "weather" on a continually rotating basis from the East, hence "Retour d'Est". I've updated this article as we await the start of another season 15th November , in fact we were due to leave for Serre Chevalier yesterday, but the snow forecast has not been good.
