A ski slope with a ski lift in the background

A person is skiing down a snow covered slope on a sunny day

Chamonix Snow Report: 11th March 2005

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated 26 May 2016

Today we went to Grand Montets to ride with some friends who were visiting from Courmayeur. They've had no new snow for a month, so we made them jealous with stories of the powder we found in the Berard valley the day before yesterday. Today felt really spring-like (the forecast was for a maximum of +11?C, a high that was easily reached on our balcony down in town) – glorious sunshine and unusually warm temperatures, especially for Grands Montets. The car park was unexpectedly full when we arrived at around midday; perhaps the weather had something to do with that.

As we rode up the Plan Joran chair and rose out of the woods we were greeted by the unpromising sight of moguls as far as the eye could see. The off piste appears to be completely tracked and bumpy, but the pistes we visited were well bashed, if a little hard - conditions that are perhaps better for skiers than for boarders. Nevertheless, we managed to have some fun jumping off the sides of the Bochard run, and a couple of us even managed to ollie a piste sign – the kind of showing off that you might reasonably expect to be rewarded with a painful face plant, but not today.

We took a ride up La Herse chair so we could try the red Combes run down. The surface was hard-boiled to say the least but some loose stuff had gathered at the sides so all hope of keeping an edge was not lost. We went straight back up and took the unbashed Blanchots black run down via the Chalet Refuge de Lognan for a coffee. The refuge is well worth a lunchtime pitstop if you don't mind the off-piste routes in and out. This is not least because you get an astounding view of the Argentiere glacier from there. We sat in the sun drinking our coffee trying to spot climbers on the ice falls. Some friends were up around there the other day and saw a small serac fall – a spectacular sight but definitely something you'd only want to see form a comfortable distance!

We took the Hotel Variante piste down to join the Pierra a Ric. The former has enormous moguls and the latter, its familiar ice patches but it is hard to grumble when spring is in the air like today. We took the chair back up and after a few final runs we headed in early for our first barbecue of the year. The weekend looks set to be cloudier, with some snow expected so we wanted to make the most of the sunshine.

Useful Links
Cross-country skiing is Open
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.

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