Chamonix Snow Report: 14th December 2006
Since the last report the weather has settled down giving us clear blue skies with only a few fleeting clouds. The nights have been fairly cold, helping to preserve the snow, and the afternoons have been warm and sunny. For the first part of this week, the valley's lifts have all been closed so we have had to hike for our runs. Tuesday saw us at Le Tour; initially we planned just to hike to Charamillon, which is the top of the first gondola, but the snow looked so good there that we changed our plan and went all the way to the top of the Autannes chairlift. As we were hiking, just to tease us, the lift would run to allow up pisteurs! But hey, we had the moral victory having earned our run. The piste below the Autannes chair had been groomed, albeit a little bumpy, and was pretty good fun. The snow at the sides of the piste was about knee deep. It was satisfyingly light even three days after the snowfall, and it was well worth the effort of walking up there. Sadly it was over far too quickly. There were plenty of lines from the top of the Tete de Balme – the snow must have been superb if the stuff that I had ridden was anything to go by, but that would have been an even longer hike to get too. The lower run back down to Le Tour wasn't in such good shape, not for lack of snow but because the unpisted artificial snow produced by the snow cannons had formed an impenetrable crust over the natural stuff. Once the piste bashers get to work grooming the snow it'll be good to go when the lifts open this Saturday.
Wednesday saw us hiking up the mountain again, this time up to Lognan at Grands Montets. It's a long climb of about 700m of vertical up the Pierre a Ric. Pierre a Ric is covered by snow cannons and they've produced piles of artificial snow on top of the snow that had fallen last week. The lower section is very rutted and frozen solid, and really unpleasant to snowboard or ski on. There were also quite a few stones and rocks poking through just below the surface; it'll take a little more snow to cover them. Also visible were numerous streams that cross the piste, which I never knew were there! I suppose that normally they're filled in by snow but on our hike up we had to cross them on the summer footbridges. There were plenty of large piles of artificial snow waiting to be spread out by the piste bashers. The top half of Pierre a Ric was in good shape with adequate snow and just in need of bashing to remove the icy artificial snow crust. The highlight was arriving at the top, not because it meant no more hard slog, but seeing how much snow was up there. The upper areas of Grands Montets looked to have more snow than this time last year, and the crevasse just below the top of the cable car on the face looked filled in. The Marmottons and Bochard piste where groomed and looked ready to go and there were plenty of pisteurs looking busy. It all looks well set for its partial opening this Saturday. There was no sign that they had started building the all-new snow park though.
Today, the weather warmed up a little (7ºC on our balcony this morning) and I didn't have to scrape ice off my windscreen. I drove down to Les Houches to ride the recently opened lifts there. If you're a beginner it's great news as there's only a green slope open up there, otherwise it will have limited appeal but it's still nice to get out on your board or skis. We headed up the Bellevue cable car and managed a morning of laps on the little drag lift of the Mont-Blanc run before a large group of kids on ski school arrived, giving us a reason to head back down again. The snow up top was very good and the sun made it perfect for stopping and having a hot chocolate by the slope. The weekend ahead is looking interesting, with the possibility of a little fresh snow on Sunday and of course the opening of more lifts in the valley.
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
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
Stats
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Level 1
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 1250
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1250
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High Temp.: 8
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
