Chamonix Snow Report: 11th April 2006
Today we've had an amazing late season powder day here in Chamonix. The storm that we were waiting for in my last snow report finally blew through yesterday and last night leaving a decent dump of fresh snow even low down to past Les Houches. I had to scrape 10-15cm of snow of my car this morning in Argentiere. The mild temperatures have backed off too, and today we had a maximum of just +3ºC, enough to keep the snow in good shape in the shadier more sheltered spots. After the dump of snow my initial reaction was to head up to Grands Montets as it does have some of the best off piste in the valley, but instead a friend tempted me up to Le Tour today and I'm glad I went.
The weather improved progressively through the day. On the first lift up there were some low clouds and fog blowing through in the bitterly cold northerly wind. Somehow at Le Tour it often seems cold and windy especially at the top of the two chairlifts, and today was no exception, with my fingers feeling numb on the chairlifts. But by mid afternoon the sun was out for most of the time and visibility was good; lower down the mountain things were heating up too where the strong sun had broken through, and the home run was very slushy at the end of the day.
On the backside, the snow was mostly excellent. With the windloaded slopes off piste being the best to ride. The worst were a few patches where the wind had scoured the fresh snow leaving icy patches but these were easily spotted and avoided. For most of the day we barely touched the piste, as the snow off piste was so good. First thing in the morning we hit the slopes above the top of the Vallorcine Gondola. There are a couple of gas tubes for avalanche bombing here and they had super deep snow around them, plenty deep enough not to feel the hard stuff below. I guess there were about 20-30cm of new snow but it was much deeper than that in the drifts. Later in the day we thought about heading up the Aiguillette des Posettes drag lift but we made the mistake of forgetting that it is now closed (for reasons unknown to us) every day at 1pm. Instead we tried a few runs at the back heading skier's left of the red piste Belle Place where we found some great rollers and jumps with plenty of soft snow for my sketchy landings. At the back of Le Tour the run back down to Vallorcine has closed now for the season but the Vallorcine gondola is still running so it's possible to download to Vallorcine.
Our last run was the best and involved a little hike up to the top of the Tete de Balme and a traverse into the second bowl skier's right of the chair. These bowls are notoriously avalanche prone and some of the most dangerous spots in the whole of Chamonix. It looked like one group had been through before us and had caused a fairly thin slab to slide near the top so we traversed a little more to find a safer-looking line. The snow was the best and totally untracked. It was fairly sheltered from the sun so had stayed cold enough to still be light and powdery even late in the afternoon, perfect for big turns and massive rooster tails from our boards. The terrain was superb too, little gullies to power up and windlips to slash. The snow became more humid and less powdery as we descended but was still very good even if it was wet and heavy at the bottom because it was almost totally untracked. We finished by the reservoir where we hiked for 10-15 minutes back to the Tete de Balme chair.
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
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
Stats
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Level 3
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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: 1250
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High Temp.: 3
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
