Chamonix Snow Report: 13th January 2008

Sunday did not disappoint, bright early sunshine revealed the mountains were plastered. The only question was where to go? I favoured Flegere as the Floria drag had now opened, and a lot of new terrain would be available.

Just after 9am the Flegere car park was very busy and the queue out of the building. A quick change of plan and we headed into a Perfect Storm at Grands Montets. The combination of, the powder, the sunshine, it being Sunday plus a biathlon competition had resulted in a huge number of cars, and the most enormous queue for the cable car I have seen this year. There must have been hundreds outside the building, plus the chair was not working.

Plan “C”, found us at Vallorcine (valley of bears), thankfully it was empty of both people and bears. When we finally made it onto the mountain, the conditions were fantastic, 25-30cm of fresh everywhere, the pistes were immaculate, soft powder and perfect to ride and ski on. All of the hard patches evident on my last visit had disappeared under the fresh snow.

Looking down from the top of the Tete de Balme we could see that Charamillion looked hectic, so we decided to lap the off piste under the Tete de Balme chair. On my previous visit, the snow here was good at the top but hard lower down, today it was soft and light all the way, with plenty of fresh tracks to be had, yeeha!

The drag up the Aiguillette de Posettes was quite busy. The Marie (Mayor) of Vallorcine has banned descents of the north facing chutes from the top of the Aiguillette down to Vallorcine due to the risk of boarders and skiers starting avalanches on to the Nordic Skiing tracks below. This move is controversial with some questioning his authority to do this. I would not wish to comment on the legality, but the Marie is a qualified guide plus I noticed today, that all the chutes had already avalanched. The top of the drag is plastered with banners warning of avalanche danger and risk to the nature conservation area.

We skied both the left side and right side of the east ridge of the Aiguillette with both being superb, plus fresh lines still to be had. The area above the Vallorcine gondola was also in great condition.

Le Tour is a greatly under rated area, living as it does in the shadow of its big brother Grands Montets. The open and wide blue and red pistes here are great for intermediates and advanced boarders and skiers, however the “Blue” left hand variant on the Esserts piste just before the gondola is steep for its grade and while in good condition at the moment does quickly get icy.

The off piste terrain at Le Tour is glacier free, most is easy angled, and perfect for aspiring powder hounds to hone their skills on. However the Tete de Balme back bowls, and Vormaine chutes, while amazing, are notorious terrain traps when there is an avalanche risk, plus the back bowls tend to remain dangerously loaded long after other slopes have become safe. If you want to explore the area's off piste, an instructor or guide is a good idea.

The avalanche level was posted as 3, Considerable. There was also a specific warning posted on the increased threat on South facing slopes. The weather forecast for the next few days is for snow showers each day.

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our latest Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!

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