Chamonix Snow Report: 11th February 2005
It's finally snowing again here in Chamonix. It started at around midday in the town and has been snowing moderately all afternoon, although I think it may now be turning to rain. At least it will be snowing higher up. The temperature is fairly mild (around 2–3°c all day) and it's very wet and slushy in town. It hasn't really amounted to much down here as we still have only 60cm in our garden; however, up on Brevent this afternoon we reckoned there was about 5-10cm of fresh snow by the time we left at 4:30pm.
A boozy night out last night and hangovers this morning meant a late start. We finally made it up on the mountain at about 2pm but the new snow up there had already made quite a difference and thankfully the flat light seemed to have kept everyone indoors – always the best reason for going out when it's snowing and the visibility is poor! Unlike yesterday with its long lift queues, today we barely waited for any of the lifts; even at the usually crowded Chamonix–Planpraz gondola we didn't have to wait to go down at the end of the day. Another bonus of the miserable weather was being able to enjoy turning on the full width of the pistes again without having to be continually on the look out for potential collisions. Today there were a few pistes closed at Brevent: the Variante Charlanon (large bare patches) and the Nants return piste to Chamonix (very stony), but if the snow keeps on falling, hopefully they'll be able to re-open soon. The rest of the pistes were in pretty good condition with this afternoon's snow putting a silky smooth surface on top of the hard pack. Whilst there wasn't enough fresh snow to bury the moguls, the new snow this afternoon was excellent for holding an edge – a relief as I'd started to get fed up of losing edges on the ice.
Some of the patchy sections on Chamois off the Col Cornu chair were beginning to get covered by the snowfall and if it keeps on coming tonight with any luck they should be gone by tomorrow. The small sections of off piste that I tried today were still pretty hard and crusty under the fresh snow; it was difficult to ride it well, but in some areas where the snow had drifted a little deeper things were easier and almost fun. We found the best snow on the Charles Bozon piste: the sides of the run had more fresh snow and also seemed to be the less tracked; it was almost like riding powder. Sadly, we didn't do Charles Bozon until the end of the day; it would have been worth doing a few runs more but our time was up.
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 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: 1042
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High Temp.: 3
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042