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Chamonix Snow Report: 15th April 2010

featured in Snow report Author Kieran Sharp, Updated

Spring is definitely here now in Chamonix so that means a few things….sun cream is a must, fewer layers, waxing your ride more often, and of course enjoying parties on the hill and beers in the sun! We have had a wee bit of snow which has been great to top things off and give us a fresh layer to play in, but with warm weather hanging around it has transformed the pow in to slush. You might be thinking dust on crust with a small amount of snow on top of a frozen slush layer but during the course of the day as the snow transforms it will still be possible to locate some fresh slushy type pow, being more dust on crust in the morning, transforming in to pow followed by slush in the afternoon. When your coming out to Chamonix be aware what hill your riding as this process can happen quicker on the more south facing slopes, sometimes making it better to hit the south slopes in the morning and the north in the afternoon.

A lot of holiday makers believe that you cant really ski that much after mid-March and when you experience the warm weather we have been having this at the moment no one will blame you for thinking that way. However for those who have lived through the seasons here for years on end have seen a different point of view to this confusion. Every season I have been here it has become warm like it did in March but towards the end of March, and in to the beginning of April, it has chucked it down with snow! With no one else around during the final months of the season and either riding powder or some nice forgiving slushy snow, it's been wicked if you've been in the valley!

Today we went for a few runs up Grand Montets looking for some early morning patches of hidden pow! A lot of people might get put off when heading up the hill early noticing that the pistes or the off piste might be quit icy at the Grand Montets and it can be a much better idea to head to somewhere like Flegere when its like this, but persevering we checked out different a different altitude where the freezing level hadn't risen above. We headed up for a top lift and right now you don't even need to queue, with hardly anyone on the pistes! We took the direction toward the Argentiere Glacier but sticking left toward the ridge that breaks up two routes accessible from the top lift. We kept in to the ridge closely before finding some fresh pow! Where the wind had blown some of the snow around it was very good indeed! We had a few runs off the top lift taking full advantage of the pow available, before the lower down stuff started to transform and headed for the lower slopes.

Its been great riding around the lower sunny pistes at the moment, as long as you have a mass of soft wax on the bottom of your board or skis as the snow has become fairly slushy. Although it is hard work on the legs, so if you're coming out on holiday get down the gym do some squat lifts and book a longer stay out here so you can really enjoy the conditions! And don't forget there are a lot of parties going at the moment - the Winter Sessions Weekender is about to start with parties all over the hill and the town, and you will find there are more and more parties on and off the hill as the season draws to a close so don't miss it get out here now!


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!

Stats

Avalanche Risk
  • Level 3

Snow Report
  • 1

  • Total Pistes: 75

  • Alt. Resort: 1972

  • Alt. Summit: 3233

  • Alt. Last Snow: 2000

  • High Temp.: 20

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1050