Chamonix Snow Report: 12th May 2008

It was a fairly leisurely couple of days on the hill for me, heading up around 11am to avoid the early morning bullet proof conditions. With only the Bochard and Marmottons open, we just spent the first few runs zipping up and down the Bochard enjoying the sugary snow conditions. Incredibly, there are still no rocks at all coming through on the piste and with the current snow depths, I'm sure there'd be no problem at all skiing until the end of the month. Off piste, it's a bit of a different story and there are some areas on the main face where large expanses of shrubs and rock are now showing through, although there's no problem whatsoever making your way between them and it's still easy to traverse from Bochard over to the Herse to profit from fewer people and great snow. The snowpark has been pretty much flattened now, so anyone wanting to get airborne had to make do with the multitude of hits and lips along the edge of the piste.

The wait time for the Grands Montets cable car this weekend was about 15 minutes, with never really more than a cabin's worth of people ahead of you. We popped up about 2pm and dropped straight down the front face. There is still a massive 5.80m snow depth at 3300m but conditions at the very top were pretty crunchy despite being well into the afternoon and they didn't noticeably soften until we were level with where the Pylones piste joins the front face. From there down, we were carving through some nice choppy spring snow with the occasional crusty patch until we hit the Combes piste. Smooth, nice and soft and deserted, there was no option but to hoon the whole way down in big sweeping turns until the lumps of sugary snow on the return track slowed you down.

All in all, it's been a great couple of days and a fitting end to a fantastic winter. The Aiguille du Midi, Panoramic gondola to Helbronner and the Montenvers train are all still open, so if the urge takes you, there is no problem skiing the Vallée Blanche from the French or Italian side**. Hook yourself up with a Mountain Guide if you aren't experienced on glacial terrain as conditions can change dramatically in these warmer days as the crevasses begin to re-emerge. (**The Montenvers cable car and the ice caves are currently closed, so if you do fancy doing the Vallée Blanche, you'll need to walk up from the glacier to the train station (approx. 45 minutes). To make life easier on the climb up, you can put your skis and backpacks in a service lift if you enquire at the base of the gondola. Re-opens June 10th 2008.)

That's it from us then for another winter and I hope you've enjoyed our regular written and video snow reports over the season. Big thanks go to Jim Brady and Jonathan Trigell, our winter reporters, who've been out on the slopes regardless of the weather over the last 5 months, keeping you posted on the latest conditions. So whilst it's sad that the lifts have closed and the snow is melting, on the up side, the lower hiking and biking trails are already clear and dry and we've wasted no time at all in switching the skis for our mountain bike and walking boots. Chamonix has so much to offer over the summer months that there's no way we could just keep quiet about it, so our summer reporter, Tom Wilson-North, will be bringing you weekly round up's of what he gets up to during interseason and more regular updates at the season gets into full swing. Hopefully he might tempt you to try a summer visit to Cham if you've never been!

Until then, thanks for reading and keep checking out Chamonet.com for the all latest news and going's on in the valley. Have a great summer!