Chamonix Snow Report: 14th March 2006

The past couple of days I've been riding at Flegere and Brevent to make the most of the sun; these areas are predominantly south facing so really warm up later in the day. If you don't like slush then stay away from Flegere in the afternoon and head over to Grands Montets. Yesterday not all the lifts had reopened after the last snowfall, but today the Planpraz-Brevent cable car and the Floria drag lift were finally reopened. The snow off the Floria was mixed. The snow was superb on the shady aspects protected from the strong sun, as it stayed light and powdery. On other aspects where the sun had been beating down the snow was heavy, though not slushy until much lower down the hill on the slopes above the Trappe lift. The pistes from the Floria hadn't been groomed so consisted of chopped-up lumps of heavy snow, and were hard work on my legs. Elsewhere the pistes were in fantastic shape, well groomed with perfect snow. Yesterday I took the Praz run down from Flegere, and it was still in good condition even after having been avalanched: there were bits of broken tree all around on the open section where it crosses the main avalanche chute down from Combe Lachenal. It was a beautiful lazy day up at Flegere today, no wind, plenty of sun, very, very laid back: an antidote to the powder frenzy of last week.

At Brevent the run down to Chamonix is closed so you have to download on the gondola there. The pistes were great there too and in the best state they've been in all season. Yesterday before the top Brevent cable car opened the Hotel Face was completely untracked: not a common sight. Instead people were traversing about as far as physically possible from the Cornu chairlift, and there weren't many fresh lines left. I found a few pockets of untracked snow but not much, and I also wrecked my board by getting a little too close to some rocks, so be careful when you're searching for fresh tracks. The pistes at Brevent are unsurprisingly also in great condition.

It's been some weeks since I last rode at Brevent-Flegere and the terrain has changed so much since then. There's been so much fresh snow that people have been skiing lines that are normally rocky cliffs, it's crazy. There were plenty of skiers being photographed doing mad stunts, one doing a pretty good impersonation of a base jumper. It really is amazing just how much new snow there has been, I still can't get over it. On top of this, it's very quiet on the slopes at the moment; I didn't spend any time in queues at all today. Things don't really get much better than this.

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