Chamonix Snow Report: 11th January 2009

We got the worst of the wind up at Les Grands Montets the other day when we headed out on an optimistic venture from the top, down the backside of the to the valley glacier. We were hoping that the wind had buffed the snow down into the couloirs, but instead we were greeted with vast, steep expanses of blue glacier ice which had had all of the rideable snow scraped off it. So, on snowboards, we were obliged to sideslip most of the way down the route. We passed the Rognan rock, skiers right of the piste, which this year has an enormous (15m+) hole around it...one to avoid! Then it was down more ice, before routefinding our way into the couloirs and down onto the flat of the valley glacier. We stuck low, threading seracs down to the 'Point de Vue' lookout where we stopped for some pictures and a sip of water. Then it was back onto the piste, over to the Argentière refuge and into the woods, finally ending up on the Pierre A Ric piste to the bottom.

It's fairly worrying that we haven't had any new snow since New Year's Eve, but the mountain isn't looking too bad as a result. Probably as a result of the cold temperatures we've been having. There are no big bare patches; no cows grazing on the piste and no reps organising mountain biking excursions. The fields are white all the way down to Sallanches, hundreds of metres below us. So if you're coming here on holiday soon, don't dispair; winter is winter in Chamonix still.

We had a fun couple of hours at Les Grands Montets earlier, riding laps of the Bochard and the small Marmottons terrain park. There are three sections. To skier's left, a section of eight tiny rollers serves as an excellent introduction to freestyle, letting beginners get used to unweighting and jumping. The main line is a pair of red kickers next to a pair of blue kickers, both not too whippy...although there was a snowboarder spinning 900s off them today. Then there's a flat-down rail, a flat-down box and a ten-turn boardercross back down to below Lognan level.

So, to sum up; there's nowhere I'd rather be than Chamonix right now. Bring your sunscreen and some sharp edges. See you out there!

Tom

PS If you're riding the Bochard gondola at Grands Monetets soon, check out the funky posters on the cabin windows that tell you current temperature and the day's highs and lows. Nice work, lifties!