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Chamonix Snow Report: 11th March 2009

featured in Snow report Author Tom Wilson-North, Updated

LAST ONE UP

In short, everyone in this town seemed like they were going up for a powder day, apart from me, who was slaving away at the grindstone of the ski industry, my snowboard ready, leaning against the wall.

As my 12.30 lunchbreak edged closer, I kitted up and made plans. Brevent was the original idea; a pitched attack on the Bellin and L'ENSA couloirs. Unfortunately, after checking the lift openings, it turned out that the top cable car was going to be closed for the day. Flégère? A phone call from a friend on the Index told us that the powder, though deep, was becoming grabby and sticky in the sunshine. So we set sail for Les Grands Montets, who were reporting 40cm on the upper mountain.

Truth be told, there was a lot more.

STEEP AND DEEP
We took the cable car to Lognan and were instantly confronted by a gigantic line of eager beavers waiting for the top cable car that had just that minute opened. We had bigger fish to fry though. First stop was the Couloir Phillippe, a 500 vertical metre straight shot from behind Lognan down to the Pierre A Ric homerun. The entry was a little sketchy, over some fairly gnarly rock bands and threading through some avalanche barriers, but the guts of the thing was incredible. Incredible. I was on a 164 snowboard, but I wanted ten more. In my turns I was waist deep in medium-weight powder. Not dry, not soggy, just powder. But a hell of a lot of it. Enough for your pants to create friction. In my toeside laybacks I found my rear shoulder dipping into the snow, and I had a clump of the stuff on the right hand side of my helmet, covering my goggle strap. This snow was as deep as anything I'd ever ridden in BC, Utah, Jackson, wherever. I had to time my breathing during my run, and when I mis-timed it, I had a cloud of suspended snow particles floating in my lungs, making me cough. Riding very deep snow down very steep, very long couloirs is one of the reasons I moved to the Alps; Phillippe delivered. Today was life-affirming.

When we got back to the base of the cable car, throwing out-of-breath high fives and shouting like schoolchildren, we ran right back up the steps and squeezed into the next cablecar up. As we crested the hill, our five tracks down to the Phillippe came into view; freshly laid grafitti, the best kind.

We took the Bochard, rode the high traverse into the Lavancher bowl and rode thigh-to-waist-deep powder all the way back to the Pendant Retour chair. From there, we bombed down to the Plan Joran restaurant and flew into the Trapette couloir. The 47 switchbacks are enough of a challenge on a mountain bike in the summer; in winter, it's a hell of a lot of fun, even though the thick vegetation leaves you wanting a machete or chainsaw at times. The exit of the couloir, in the Grands Montets parking lot, saw us fly past ice climbers, snow shoers, even a pair of people out on horseback.

By now it was getting close to our time limit, and two hours of incredibly deep powder was taking its toll on our back legs. We summoned up what strength we had left and headed back up to Lognan, up the Herse and into the Italian Bowl, where we ripped a line down past the Lognan Refuge, next to the glacier, spinning off the cat-track and heading back to the base station, ready to head back to work.

THE SNOW

Above 2000m the snow was of good quality - lightish and very deep - the only fly in the ointment being the stability of the freshly-fallen layer. It was obvious that there was plenty of wind effect on the snow, and a fluctuating temperature gradient throughout the storm; every few turns, a metre of snow would crack and slab around us. The slabs never once released, but it was odd snow; disconcerting. I was happy to be wearing my transceiver and carrying my shovel & probe.

Below 1000m, and in sunnier aspects such as those on Brevent and Flégère, the untracked snow soon became cream cheese and the chopped stuff more like mashed potato. Great for snowballs, difficult to snowboard in and incredibly hard work to ski. When we left around 3.15pm, even the snow at higher heights was turning a little gloopy.

What a day. If you count yourself among those on the hill on the 11th March 2009, know that you rode the best snow we've had this year.

See you out there!


Tom

Stats

Avalanche Risk
  • Level 3

Snow Report
  • 0

  • Total Pistes: 75

  • Alt. Resort: 1972

  • Alt. Summit: 3233

  • Alt. Last Snow: 2800

  • High Temp.: 3

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1050