Chamonix Snow Report: 13th February 2007
Today was without question the best day of the season and ranks up there with some of the best powder days of last season. It was hard to imagine yesterday as the rain poured down in the town for the whole day that today was going to be so good (even though we know that when it's raining in the town, not much higher up the mountain it's snowing). Our optimism increased when the rain turned to heavy snow in the evening and this morning there was 15-20cm of new snow in our garden. This morning the chances of anything much opening looked slim: from early in the morning all we could hear was a barrage or avalanche bombs going off up on the ski areas. I think our pessimism must have been shared by quite a few others as when we arrived at Grands Montets at 10:30, instead of finding the usual masses of extreme skiers queuing to get up the hill, there was barely anyone there, superb!
The lifts were partially open this morning: The cablecar to Lognan, and the Plan Joran, Tabe, Plan Roujon and Marmotton chairs opened first with the Herse opening later at 11:00. Herse being the highest and quickest of all the lifts was our lift of choice today and without the Bochard running I was surprised at how little queuing we had to do for it: 3–4 minutes at the most. I'd already had fantastic fun on the small off piste areas bewteen the Tabe chair to the Herse so I was pretty excited by the prospect of a decent run off of the Herse. As we rode up, the cloud and morning's snow was starting to clear allowing us to see the vast areas of untracked off piste. Everyone below us was cutting first tracks through the powder.
The wind had been very strong up here during the past day or two and the windloading of the slopes was pretty obvious. With the avalanche risk at level 4 (any higher than that and you should stay indoors), we made sure that we avoided any dangerous terrain. Since the snowfall of the last few days the landscape has changed radically: many of the rocks are now buried, and there are wind lips and cornices on some of the ridges; there has been a massive amount of snowfall up there.
Snowboarding down was a case of riding the best powder that we've had all season, again and again. The first few runs we had off of the Herse were to the skier's left: the first basically below the lift line. Our second, heading further left and joining the bottom of the Bochard piste, was better. The steeper aspect made turning in the deep powder easier and faster, as the problem when the powder is as deep as today is finding a slope steep enough!
The best run of the day though was a little variation on the Hotel Variant piste, which joins the Pierre a Ric. The section of this run level with Lognan was superb and the best of the season. The scattered trees and bushes had kept the wind off the snow so that it was perfectly preserved with no windcrust or windblown snow, just waist deep, light powder and the perfect terrain for it. It was amazing.
We also had a go through the dream forest, which is found in the triangle between the Plan Roujon and Retour Pendant lifts. It was good but others had beaten us to the best of it. The lower part, after which you're walking out rather than traversing to Plan Roujon, was less tracked and very good fun too. The rocks and small bushes have all been well covered by the recent snow and it's in very good condition, if only we'd been there earlier. Retour Pendant chairlift wasn't running so we hiked out to Plan Roujon chairlift.
Just as we were leaving a friend told me that the pisteurs were putting the cars on the Bochard gondola and laying out the mats. If the Bochard opened later this afternoon and you were up there, then you're a very lucky person: it would have been superb! It's not all over yet though, as there is some more snow forecast so the next few days could see the snow continue to improve.
Useful Information
Useful Links
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
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
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
Stats
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Level 4
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 2800
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Alt. Last Snow: 1900
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High Temp.: 2
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
