Chamonix Mountain Report: 17th December 2012

Apart from being a world Mecca for high mountain skiing, Chamonix also has the advantage of being a strategic travel hub for accessing other superb alpine ski areas.  This is particularly handy when the valley is brimming full with stellar quality powder, and all the lifts are shut.

Thus it has been necessary for the early season ski pilgrim to travel south and worship the divine hivernal qualities of the Italian Valle d’Aoste - just a 15 minute drive from Chamonix through the Mont Blanc tunnel. Cervinia, under the watchful eye of the Matterhorn, was first to open, and like many alpine resorts had profited from a cool, showery end to the autumn and a cold, snowy start to the winter.  A decent base with plenty of powder on top providing early season fun for the Milano set and those keen enough to make the 2hr drive from Chamonix. 

The highly recommended resorts of Pila and La Thuile have followed suit.  Both offer not only great off-piste skiing (in and out of the trees) but also opportunities to use the lifts as a springboard for further, skin powered, upward progress on to some fine mountain ski journeys.

Closer to home the ‘Funivie Monte Bianco’ has seen a steady trickle of early season powder hounds enjoying both the runs from the ‘Pavillon’ mid station and, to a much lesser extent, from Punta Helbronner itself.  The former offers several attractive and steep south facing 800m descents with light trees down in to either the Val Veny or Val Feret.  Skiing the Glacier de Toule from Helbronner is a true high mountain ski itinerary and offers a glacial approach and technical descent to start (metal staircase and then, usually, a ladder but presently, an abseil!) Finally, the main course, a steep and sustained South facing descent of nearly 2,000 vertical metres.  Whilst this was skied today (Fri 14/12) a Courmayeur Guide, with raised eyebrows, described conditions as “big!”

At Courmayeur today (Fri 14/12) the snow was so good that even the Valle d’Aosta Avalanche bulletin enthused about the quality of the off-piste skiing.  Up to 40cm of fresh light, ‘stellar’ powder.  Endless ‘cold smoke’ face shots in, or out of, the trees, and hardly anyone around.  Early season ski perfection.

Back in France and down the Arve Valley a little, the Aravis have enjoyed some of the best snow conditions of anywhere in the Alps.  With over half a metre of snow on all aspects at 1,000m the options for low level ‘powder tours’ in the trees have been excellent.  A large team of Mountain Guides congregated at the café in the Aravis village of Cordon yesterday and cruised up through the woods above to sample the powder on the Petit Croisse Baulet (2,009m).  This provided a fairly mellow but enjoyable short ski tour with fun powder turns right back to the car.

Higher up the Arve Valley there are now even a few lifts open in Chamonix!  Les Houches and the Grands Montets have kicked things off albeit with limited opening.  A few folk have taken advantage of the cool and snowy conditions to ski all the way to St. Gervais from the Les Houches Prarion lift.  A fun and fairly low angled powder run through the trees.  Steeper and higher up the valley - when the Grands Montets Bochard finally opened on Tuesday it did not take a Mountain Guide to work out the off-piste conditions were going to be ‘epic’ and, yes, they really were that good!

The anticipation and, this year, reality of early season powder skiing is an exciting time.  Watching the new winter’s snow pack evolve is a fascinating process.

Early season is also a great time to train, refresh and improve your off-piste & mountain skills.  As well as ‘ripping up’ the powder, knowledge of terrain choice, avalanche awareness, safe travel techniques and emergency procedures are all vital aspects of skiing away from the pistes.  Ski travel in the mountains is a fantastic experience but one which requires good team members willing to plan, ski & work together for better or worse.  Consider how sharp your own skills are in contributing to the team you ski with and think about developing them by training with a Mountain Guide early this winter season.

Enjoy some great skiing out there and please get in touch via the comments box below with any relevant info for the next report.

Rob Jarvis
High Mountain Guides

NB: Off piste skiing and mountaineering are dangerous. The opinions expressed in these articles are very much time and condition specific and the content is not intended in any way to be a substitute for hiring a mountain guide, undergoing professional mountaineering training and/or the individual's own backcountry decision making.