Chamonix Snow Report: 13th January 2007

On Thursday we rode Grands Montets and found that the snowpark has finally been built. It's served by the Marmottons chairlift and has been built by a new team of park designers brought in especially to make a good job of it and it looked ok to me. I didn't try it out as the snow was hard-packed that morning: I imagine it's a little softer by the afternoon and less likely to cause any broken bones. As I mentioned before, snow cover at the higher elevations is very good, and the top of Bochard now looks like it should. All of the rocks, bales of straw and hazard poles are a distant memory and the piste is as wide as you like at the top. The same is true of the red run Combes below the Herse chairlift: all of the moguls, rocks and hazard poles have been buried and topped off with a well-groomed but hard-packed surface. We tried the top of Grands Montets, which was cold and very windy. The upper section was wind-scoured but still had a few soft patches of snow to turn in here and there. The Point de Vue marked run from the top wasn't open, but the Pylones run that heads back to the front was open with a different route to normal, and I couldn't quite work out why it deviated as the snow was good down to the top of the Herse chairlift.

Le Tour seems to be suffering in the warm weather, especially Esserts. Normally a beautiful easy blue through the picturesque woods above Vallorcine, on Thursday it was a horror show of frozen puddles from melted snow and even a water channel running down it in one place. I know I can be fussy, and one of the guys I was skiing with did point out that bad as it was, being out there was still a whole load better than being at work, but I have to say that I've never seen that piste look so bad. The frontside above Charamillon was in better shape and Caisets, the slushy home run, was great fun to monkey around on. The pistes from the Autannes chair were starting to show signs of wear with a few brown patches emerging.

Yesterday and today we've been riding Brevent and Flegere, which are in fairly good shape right now so long as you can accept that they will be hard and icy in the morning and slushy in the afternoon. If you don't like the ice then just take it easy in the morning, sleep in a little, have a few coffees, miss the morning queues and head up for midday like us. It surprised us but after Thursday night's dusting of snow we even managed to find some powdery turns off the top of the Floria draglift in Flegere, and we didn't even have to go too far off piste to find them. True, it wasn't real light powder but the deep wind-loaded slopes put a few smiles on our faces. For the rest of the run down it was a case of heavy crud and crust but the top was good enough to merit a few laps.

Brevent has been fun in the afternoon, and with 100% sunshine today it was hot and I regretted wearing my thermal first layer: it was a real spring day in mid January. Weird and a little worrying but I'm sure the weather will return to a more normal pattern soon; in the meantime the slush and sun are fun enough. The very top of Brevent seemed to remain cold and the snow cover was excellent: we even spotted a few crazy coconuts skiing the couloirs above the Bozon piste. I didn't get to ask them but I doubt if the snow was that good off piste. It's been a quiet week on the slopes and to top off a good day in the sun the queue for the gondola back down to Chamonix wasn't even that bad: just a 10-minute wait for us today.

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Useful Information
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.

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