A woman wearing a blue jacket and ski goggles smiles in front of a snowy mountain

A person skiing down a snowy slope with a mountain in the background

A person wearing a blue jacket with the word beach on it

Chamonix Snow Report: 13th March 2011

featured in Snow report Author Kieran Sharp, Updated 24 October 2014

We have had a slight change in the weather here in Chamonix, the Foehn wind pushes its ugly head back in to our valley, which is a warm dry wind which can strip a lot of snow off the slopes. It has made the valley really cloudy over the past two days, bringing flat light and white out conditions to most hills. If you went up high it would be pretty windy but you can still find shelter on the lower slopes, like the home run at Grand Montets. The system is due to pass, but with the air warming up we might be expecting some rain lower down, but snow high up! So hopefully powder day somewhere by the end of the week!

With the Foehn effect you can find that a lot of precipitation (snow) will be dumped the other side of the hill as warm wet air moves from the Mediterranean and is pushed up over Mont Blanc and forced to offload its moisture on the Italian side then all that remains is dry windy stuff for the French side. Taking this in to account, it's always worth checking the weather forecasts for both Courmayeur and Chamonix as if you have the unlimited ski pass you will be able to benefit from whoever has the most snow! This season there has been a lot of weather systems pushing up from the Mediterranean so Courmayeur has done really well, and if you head over there you will see a lot of snow still on the roofs of houses which is something that has pretty much disappeared now in Cham.

You can get a free bus with the unlimited lift pass over to Italy or a discounted tunnel pass if you have a car in resort, and you really should take the time to visit this amazing town with great customer service, wonderful empty wide pistes and off piste which doesn't get even close to as much attention as any slope in the Chamonix valley!

The day before the wind and cloud came in we headed for a short hike up the back side of Le Tour for a short 15 minute walk and pleasurable ride in to the quaint little Swiss village of Trient. The walk is very easy and normally boot packed in to so pretty straight forward to find your way, although you should employ the services of a guide for the safest route selection. Once at the top we chose the line with the most fresh tracks still possible and made out way down in to the valley. We were expecting hardly any snow cover down low but we were absolutely amazed to find we could ride the whole way down, apart from one small river crossing. We took the fairly simple route straight down to the valley bottom and out to the village, but there are so many different routes in this large area where you can find fresh powder even weeks after it snowed!

Once in the village we headed to the bar in the town, where we had a beer and ordered a taxi which works out to be the same price per person as the bus does. We even made it back round to Vallorcine where the taxi drops you, to get another ride in at Le Tour and back down to get a bus down the valley.

Check out our Mountain Guide Listings for contact details of local guiding and activity companies.

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