Chamonix Snow Report: 10th January 2005
With the sunny weather and lack of snowfall continuing in Chamonix yesterday we decided to use one of the Aosta Valley tickets that come with the season pass and head over to Cervinia in Italy to visit some friends on holiday there. Because of its high altitude and snow making facilities, Cervinia had some pretty good snow on its pistes all the way down to resort at 2050m. The pistes there were little hard and icy in places and seemed remarkably flat compared to what we're used to in Chamonix. Despite this we had a good time, with the friendliness of our Italian hosts and the quality of the food playing a big part in it. I'd definitely recommend using the tickets that come with the Chamski pass and sampling what some of our neighbouring resorts have to offer, especially with the weather being as it is at the moment.
Today we were back at good old Le Tour. The warm sunny weather (up to 10 degrees c the past few days) is starting to take its toll on the pistes here. The brown patches are growing and vegetation is beginning to poke through on the runs that are more well travelled and exposed to direct sun (such as the Bechat and Solonges runs). The snow itself, because of the warm temperatures and sunny aspect is fun to ride and easy to turn on. We decided to have a break at the Charamillon restaurant, and soak up the suns rays on the terrace, currently one of the best options while the weather's so good, and Le Tour isn't in one of it's usual windy whiteouts. It's a good time for a picnic too.
The Liaison Balme that connects the front and back of le Tour is in remarkably good condition given that it crosses the sunniest section. The sun never really makes it round the back of Le Tour however, so the blue Esserts run down to the Tete de Balme chair is not too bad, although it does have some small loose stones, bare patches, odd bits of grass poking through and the snow is becoming brown in the sunnier sections. I chatted to some boarders on the Tete de Balme lift who had tackled the red Belle Place piste and they told me that it was very icy. The two runs off L'Aiguillette drag lift also benefit from facing away from the sun so they are holding out well and are even a bit hard (beware, however, a random, large patch of exposed earth at the very top of the blue Posettes run as it loops back across the drag lift).
This afternoon things were softening up nicely and the home run Caisets was a bit slushy, the snow feeling quite spring like. The piles of slushy stuff are good to turn on or spring off. The coverage on this run is good with no bare or worn patches at all, mainly because this run has snow cannons the length of it. The final flat run out at the very bottom is a bit hard but not as icy as it was at the beginning of the season.
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
-
Level 2
-
0
-
Total Pistes: 80
-
Alt. Resort: 2000
-
Alt. Summit: 2500
-
Alt. Last Snow: 1042
-
High Temp.: 10
-
Alt. High Temp.: 1042
