Chamonix Snow Report: 11th January 2013

7am. Beep, beep, beep – snow plough alarm! Bit late for the snow plough to be passing mine actually but, to be fair, the plough drivers have really had their work cut out keeping the roads clear today. It started snowing yesterday lunch time and hasn’t stopped since. I cleared a good 20cms off my car before heading up the hill this morning but I saw several cars sporting snowy top hats about twice that depth!

It has been REALLY slippery on the roads today and I’ve seen a couple of accidents around town that thankfully didn’t appear to be anything more serious that a bit of a dent to the bumper. Winter equipment (snow tyres or chains) is obligatory if you’re heading up the valley towards Argentiere, and the Col des Montets to Vallorcine has been closed for most of the day so double check the road conditions in the morning if you’re coming across from Switzerland this weekend; you may have to go the long way round via Geneva instead.

With 20cms falling in town, we knew there was going to be at least half a metre of freshies on the hill and that always means one thing – delayed lift opening. 8.30am and everywhere in the valley was “en attente” – waiting to open. As is usually the case in these conditions, good old Les Houches was the first to get its lifts going by 9.30am, followed by some openings at Le Tour, Brevent (except Cornu & top cable car), Flegere (except Index) and Grands Montets (except top cabin, Bochard & the Pendant). Amazingly the Herse was open on GM so those that headed up there would have had some fabulous descents but in pretty poor vis away from the trees.

As it was first to get going, Les Houches got my vote for today and it did not disappoint. No problem parking at the Prarion this week and at the top there was supposed to be 40cms of fresh snow fall. Well at times there felt like there was at least twice that amount. I’m 5’10 and it was easily knee deep down the edge of the piste and came halfway up my thigh when we ducked off slightly into the trees. A-may-zing! Heading over the back towards Plancerts (the one with the rather frisky drag lift at the bottom!) and we were just riding wave after wave of super light pow – face shot after face shot, back leg screaming with the burn after just a few runs.

The only downer I find being a boarder in Les Houches, is when the snow is this awesome, there are quite a lot of places where you get stuck and have to unstrap and scoot. I know this is being rather ungrateful when in the previous breath I’ve just told you it was thigh deep in the trees, but in and around the Prarion plateau there are several sections where you need a good run to make it across to the other side. Factor in dodgy visibility and I seemed to do quite a bit of scooching today. I find Les Houches a bit of a funny ski area in some ways. It always seems to me that 5 or 6 people must have had the idea to put in a ski lift; didn’t speak to each other to plan what would go where, and then someone else entirely came along and decided to build a restaurant (Le Prarion) right in the middle but just out of reach of all of them without a scooch...... Always a reliable choice on a snowy day though.

What next? Well the snow has dwindled off just now and tomorrow is going to be an early start – looks like it’s going to be a blue bird in the morning before the cloud comes in again in the afternoon/evening bringing more snow fall with it. Sunday will probably be a bit of a white out so take it easy if it’s your first day back on skis for a while and Monday more of the same. But when the snow is this good – what’s a bit of bad visibility amongst friends?