Chamonix Snow Report: 10th May 2010

The winter is only really over if you want it to be, there are many options still available for those who love the fluffy white stuff and feel that no matter how little the time off the snow is, it's always too long! For me I will be riding some stuff up the Aguille du Midi making use of the valle blanche while it is still just about ok to do, followed by some higher mountain tours in the direction of Mont Blanc, whilst mixing it with some summer time love on the mountain bike, hiking trails, swimming lakes, and many climbing walls dotted around the valley. For others who it is possible for them to leave this magnetically attractive valley there are many possibilities you could choose one of the glaciers in Europe to ride: Austria has a good few along with Saas Fee and Zermatt in Switzerland only a short drive from Chamonix, also Tignes in France is within 2hrs of Chamonix, all open throughout the year and offering cheaper lift passes, and if you go on a snowboard/ski camp for a week or two you will find some really good deals through companies like Blue Mile snowsports (www.bluemilesnowsports.com) ,Maverix (www.maverix.org), Kommunity (www.kommunity.com), and many other summer camp programmes. You could also choose to head north to Scandinavia and get some midnight sun while you ride!

A lot of the Chamonix crowd are heading south to get on with their next winter in New Zealand, or South America, a good camp to go with for the younger crowd is Evolve Chile (www.evolvechile.com/) offering a great programme for gap year kids to snowboard and ski for 4 weeks with a great coaching scheme and good times to be had.

For others though it is the time to rejoice and celebrate the arrival of summer and the fun which that often brings! Last summer was amazing with so many dry warm days (at some points 40 degrees!) it was brilliant to get out and do pretty much whatever you wanted every day! Soon the lakes will be just about warm enough to swim in, and they will over the summer reach temperatures between 24-27 degrees Celsius and with the views that you will see while swimming in the lakes its totally worth coming out for that reason alone! We are looking at the middle of June for lifts to open for summer activities but the Aguille du Midi, and the Montenvers are open through the inter-season where it is still possible to ride, climb and hike, and bike from. Last year they opened the Brevent area for weekends from the end of May as there was no snow on that hill which made it possible to start downhill mountain biking, or hiking around, so stay tuned for information on that! Right now it is possible to start climbing on the lower crags and if like me you love your climbing you will know that it's great to do it when you have the wall to yourself, and that time will be for the next 4 weeks or so!

A lot of people may think that just because the winter is over and the summer isn't in full swing yet there is nothing to do here, but if you think like that you are very wrong! Book a stay out here now and I guarantee you will be having fun doing some sort of outdoor activity followed by some great nights out and some lovely restaurants open to fill your bellies!

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!