Chamonix Snow Report: 10th April 2005
Temperatures have dropped and the rain/snow limit finally crept right down to below the town. Yesterday we woke to see our garden, once again, white with about 5–10cm of wet snow. Following the good reports of Grands Montets on Friday, we spent yesterday morning there. We arrived at about 10.30 to find only a small queue for the Argentiere-Lognan cable car, although we heard grumblings that it was busier than it had been the day before, when it was, apparently, deserted. The top cable car was shut yesterday when we were there on account of bad weather but opened up today. There were some great lines to be had nevertheless, particularly off the Bochard gondola in Combe de La Pendant. Visibility was not great however so we mainly stuck within sight of the Bochard and Chamois pistes. At the top of the Bochard we found thigh-deep powder in places and up there it was proper light stuff as it was pretty cold.
The snow finally began to peter out late yesterday. Overnight the wind picked up and we began to worry that the fresh snowfall would be ruined before we'd had a chance to ride it in good visibility. This morning dawned with a mixture of blue sky and fast-moving cloud. We decided to give Brevent a try as we'd heard it was good yesterday. There was thick cloud above about 2000m so our first ride of the day, down Charles Bozon, was in poor visibility but on piste the snow was excellent. The poor visibility higher up persisted all morning so we mainly stuck to the lower pistes – Vioz, Sources. The pistes at Brevent are in very good shape after the snowfall of the last few days. The brown patches on Vioz, for example, have gone and the pistes are well covered and still cold so there is none of the slush and bare patches that have become so familiar.
We were about to take a final ride up the Planpraz-Brevent cable car when the cloud finally cleared. We also bumped into two friends and were enticed into a couple of short hikes behind Brevent and down the couloirs that drop onto the Charles Bozon. The snow off piste was fantastic and near perfect. It was tainted only by a thin windcrust of maybe a centimetre or two and a slightly heavy consistency, which made it important to keep the nose of the board up to avoid tumbling. It was still amazingly easy and fun to ride and barely tracked on both of our runs – normally these routes get tracked out in no time.
Unusually, we didn't venture over to Flegere today because the Index lift has been broken down for a few days and will remain so until Tuesday morning according the Compagnie du Mont Blanc website. The Chavanne chair, which had been shut for good, has reopened but with so much fresh to ride elsewhere we didn't think it was worth a visit today. Conditions are near perfect at the moment – no lift queues, very quiet pistes and excellent snow conditions on and off piste.
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
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Level 4
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1042
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High Temp.: 4
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042
