Chamonix Snow Report: 10th November 2006

However, the drop in temperature has meant that preparation for the winter can begin in earnest and we have seen the first snow cannons burst into action. Patches of white are now visible on the Kandahar piste in Les Houches, and the Savoy and Les Planards areas on the valley floor. In fact when I took this picture of Planards there were two people skiing down it! I've seen others taking advantage of these first patches of snow and one group were having a blast building a big kicker, again at Planards, although unfortunately this particular instance resulted in a bad landing and the next 6 weeks spent on crutches for one of the participants :O|

We will of course be keeping you updated with snow fall as and when it happens and our regular winter snow reporter will be back again in December with his thrice weekly updates once the season kicks in. We know that he has built up quite a fan base over his time reporting for us and so you will be pleased to know that we have now made our whole archive of snow reports available for you to re-live. Take a look at the top of this page and begin browsing as far back as 2003.

Staying with snow reporting, we are launching a new feature on Chamonet this winter that we are VERY excited about. Video Snow Reports!! We know you love our written reports and so we're hoping that you'll be keen to subscribe to our video versions too. They will be filmed twice a week in various different locations around the area and will give you the most up to date visual glimpse of what the current conditions actually look like. If you click on this link you can see the promotional one that we filmed last week up the Aiguille du Midi. A well known face around resort, Jon Trigell will be our Chamonix reporter this winter and as a long term resident and free skier in the valley, you can be sure that he will let you know exactly where to go to get the best out of your skiing or boarding. It might look like we had a perfect day in the video clip but it was -7 and there were 70km/h winds!! We had to do a few takes because they kept making announcements over the Aiguille du Midi tannoy. So if he's looking a little serious here it's because the wind was slowly freezing his facial muscles!! These climbers that we saw climbing up the arête were having a real tough time of it – getting absolutely battered by the wind. By the way, Jon isn't our written snow reporter, he wished to remain anonymous so that he doesn't get mobbed on the slopes by people trying to follow him to the illusive Dream Forest on a powder day!!

Other than that, town was actually quite busy last week with it being French school holidays. Made a nice change to have the streets buzzing again after a rather “tranquille” October, although it will be no time at all until we're running the gauntlet on Rue Paccard once more, narrowly avoiding being decapitated by skis casually slung over the shoulders of tired and oblivious skiers!

However, until the snow line drops, the autumn is still offering very pleasant hiking weather, so last weekend we headed up the valley to Le Buet for a brisk walk up to the Refuge Pierre St Berard. I hadn't been up here for a couple of years now but it is a fabulous little refuge built into a huge piece of rock that has obviously fallen from one of the higher peaks. Previously we had overnighted there en route up the Buet (3099m), a really satisfying climb and (with the exception of early/late season snow cover) not technical at all considering the altitude gain. The entire back wall of the dorm area in the refuge is the rock face itself. While we were staying there we saw a big herd of bouquetin (Ibex) and watched two large males fighting with incredible force, both hoping to become the dominant male of the group. Made your head hurt just to watch! No such animal sightings this time but still a beautiful walk, although quite treacherous in places where large sections of the path were thick with ice. The valley is definitely freezing fast now and in the depth of winter, the refuge itself is completely covered by snow. If you have ever ski toured in the area you may have inadvertently skied over the roof and been none the wiser! They have some great pictures inside from when they head up in late May and proceed to dig the refuge out of the snow and dry it out in preparation for the summer visitors.

The forecast is not looking too bad for the weekend so may get another ramble in yet, although with the rain/snow limit set to drop to 1700m on Sunday it might be time to put the hiking boots away after that.

Useful Information
Cross-country skiing is Closed
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

We will be keeping this Chamonix snow report updated often during the season, but if you want even more up-to-date news on the ski conditions, why not sign up for our Dump Alert? We'll email you each time it snows enough to significantly change the skiing conditions. It's great to know that the snow is falling in the run-up to your holiday, and it might even allow you to book a last-minute weekend when the snow is particularly good. The service is free, and you can unsubscribe whenever you like.

Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice

Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office