The Chamonet.Com Chamonix Snow Report

Annabel Wilson and the first signs of frost nip!

Its remained fairly cold here in Chamonix and very cold up high mountain, which has been good after the warm weather we had last week to help stabilise the snow pack in preparation for another dump of snow, which we are all patiently waiting on. There is still the possibility to find patches of powder in sheltered north facing gullies, or where the wind has been blowing the snow around a bit, although exercising caution to wind slab avalanches.

With the snow conditions not being so great on or around the piste and after a couple of days of hiking for powder we decided on taking a trip down the Valle Blanche, to check out snow and crevasse conditions, try to find a bit of powder but mostly for a bit of sightseeing and getting in to the high mountain. The Valle Blanche is a great day out, and accessible from the highest lift in Europe the Aguille Du Midi. The route should not be taken lightly the whole descent is on a glacier and if you find yourself at the top of the Aguille looking for a piste then go back down catch the bus to Brevent and get on one up there. There are many guides that operate in the valley that can take you down a safe route up here depending on your ability and level of experience, so I would recommend highly using the services of one of the many highly trained guides that operate in the valley.

We got up for a fairly late start at around midday and even then walking down the arête from the Aguille to the start of the route on the Valle Blanche it was -30! And the wind was blowing up a storm so I wouldn’t even want to guess the wind chill factor! Annabel who was riding with us actually got a bit of frost nip on her cheeks just from the 5 minute walk down the arête! So it was cover up the skin for her for the rest of the trip!

We decided on the direction of the Petit Envers which is a more vertical descent than the classic route but has more crevasses to pick your way through. We had a little look in to the Grande Envers but with the wind and the massive crevasses which you have to traverse above we decided it would be a bad idea, however there was some fresh powder in to this route! We hoped that once we descended in to the valley the wind might let up a bit but it just kept on howling the whole way down so we made our trip down fairly quickly stopping for as many photos as our near frost bitten fingers would allow! We traversed over toward the foot of the Grand Envers and headed for a cup of hot coffee in lovely and warm refuge Requin which is just before the long flat section of the glacier which leads to either the train station or the narrow ski trail back to Planards. Once warm and feeling more motivated we headed down the last section where we managed to score a wee bit of pow just before the wind really picked up which made it fairly hard to see the crevasses which we had to slowly pick our way through to make our way back to the train station.

Unfortunately due to the wind the gondola which brings you up to the train station was not in operation, so our day of not doing much hiking turned in to a last little un-expected slog, but we managed to catch the last train down and get in to town for quick bit of après ski at the Chambre Neuf!


Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!

[1] Generally described in more detail in the resort avalanche bullettin (e.g. altitude, aspect, type of terrain etc.)
[2] Additional load:

• High: e.g. group of skiers, piste machine, avalanche blasting
• Low: e.g. skier, walker
• Steep slopes: Slopes with an incline of more than about 30°
• Steep extreme slopes: Particularly unfavourable in terms of the incline, terrain profile, proximity to ridge, smoothness of underlying ground surface.

This is an indication of status at time of writing. Please check latest situation at the lift stations before setting out.