Chamonix Snow Report: 12th February 2006
I, your regular snow reporter, have been hit with a few days indoors, because of illness, injury and the need to watch some of the winter Olympics on TV. Well done Shaun White and Antoine Dénériaz on their gold medals in the half pipe and downhill!
I was out on Friday at Le Tour (before becoming housebound) where surprisingly I still managed to find a few patches of untracked snow from the last snowfall. It wasn't bottomless powder but drifted snow and it was still soft and a reminder of what we've been missing the past few weeks. The pistes were considerably less icy although it was very cold and windy in the morning, with temperatures rising for the afternoon. This seems to have been the weather pattern over the weekend: very cold nights down to around -15ºC but rising to around 0ºC by the afternoon. Even on Friday the pistes were getting busier so on Saturday I sent some of my housemates, including a couple of Canadians, off-piste ski touring into the Berard Valley to give you a report far away from the weekend crowds on the pistes. Here's the report:
The Crochues-Berard route is one of the finest day tours in the valley with 1570m of vertical descent for just 480m of ascent; it travels down the beautiful Berard valley located just behind the Aiguilles Rouges range. The tour is accessed from the top of the Floria drag lift – the highest in the Flegere lift system. Riding up the Index chairlift the pistes looked in great condition with extensive grooming evident, but grooming wasn't what we were after. The first climb to the Col des Crochues was straightforward; we skinned up the first section, with the steeper snow at the top soft enough to take a kicked step. This first section took about 50 minutes from the top of the Floria to the Col. The long traverse skier's right from the Col des Crochues to the start of the second climb was a little icy in a few places even at 1:00pm and was easy on skis; it would have been a little harder on a board and a little more tiring as it's all on one edge. The second climb up to the Col de Berard finished with a section of hard snow at the top, which caused a couple of slips where ski crampons would have been useful. The alternative, as we did, was to walk the last part in just boots. This last ascent took us about 35 minutes after which we stopped for lunch at the Col. It was a great view down the Berard valley while we ate our sandwiches. The weather was superb all day, sunny and warm: sunscreen recommended.
From the Col de Berard the descent was in superb powder and virtually untracked since Wednesday night's snow: it was windblown to around 30cm most of the way down. After the flatter middle part of the valley there is a tricky section through the woods with the skier's left of the stream being the easier option. The tour finishes in the village of Le Buet (pub) with trains to Chamonix hourly. If you want to do this hike a guide is strongly recommended. There's also a good description of this route in the book by Anselm Baud Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles Rouges: a guide for skiers ISBN 1904207278.
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
Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
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Level 2
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 1050
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1250
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High Temp.: 2
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
