Chamonix Mountain Report: 29th January 2013

There has been a real air of calmness about Chamonix over the past couple of weeks. What a treat it has been to ski on relatively quiet slopes with no lift queues. If you can manage to take a ski holiday, this time of the year is perfect. You will more than likely have excellent snow conditions due to the cold January temperatures plus you will practically have the slopes to yourself, what could be better? Even when the Swatch Freeride World Tour by The North Face hit Chamonix last weekend you were still able to find uninhabited pistes!

Over the past week we’ve had a mixture of weather conditions, very cold sunny days, days with high winds and the most welcome of all, fresh snow. The changing weather patterns have had a big affect on the snow conditions both on and off-piste. The skiing conditions off-piste in Le Tour were very changeable. Some of the slopes were very much wind affected making conditions somewhat similar to skiing on corrugated iron. In other less wind affected areas however, you could find beautiful pitches of untracked powder! Hunting out the powder was the order of the week for me as I had a group of clients who were participating in a Backcountry Course to hone their off-piste technique and touring skills. The constantly changing weather conditions were ideal as backcountry skiing is not just about powder - far from it in fact!

On Monday we awoke to a blanket of fresh snow - approximately 20cm had fallen overnight. Due to the large amount of fresh snow the majority of ski areas were late opening as ski patrol took the time to make them safe for skiers. Les Houches however opened on time much to everyone’s delight. For the majority of the day there were fresh tracks to be had and judging by the smiles on most people’s faces, they were having as much fun as we were. Unfortunately the powder only lasted one day so the search was on again yesterday to find untracked snow.

With the changing weather conditions and low cloud forecast to come in early in the afternoon, I decided that a short ski tour up towards the Col du Belvedere and back towards the Flegere was a plan. There was totally untracked snow on the descent and whilst it was a little heavy and wind affected, it felt like we were rewarded for our skinning. Having said that as we got lower on the descent towards Flegere, the snow did become very heavy indeed. Route selection was very important as there were some large wind lips formed from the previous high winds. If you are willing to put the touring gear on and head out for a little skin, the chances are you will not be disappointed. Current reports indicate that the snow over towards Le Buet in the Berard valley is still in great condition.

This month was also the start of the seasonnaires programme that I've been running for a number of years. Many of the seasonnaires live in the valley and have progressed from piste to off-piste and ski touring. Over the season they all have personal ski goals that they want to achieve from being a more efficient off-piste skier to mastering the steeps that Chamonix has to offer. We meet once a week on a Wednesday morning and each session has specific goals. Over the last couple of weeks the focus has been on confidence on steeps and route selection. Every area in the valley is used during these sessions. Each area provides a fantastic training ground with a huge selection of varying terrain on offer. Most recently we’ve been tackling the steeps of the Grands Montets, you never know maybe we’ll find the next World Freeride champion!!!!

Enjoy the slightly bizarre warmer temps - there's more snow forecast for the weekend.

If you would like to find out more about the seasonnaire programme, or any other courses that I run, do please drop me a message.

Dee O'Neill
BASS Ski Instructor

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.