Chamonix Snow Report: 15th January 2006

On Friday I went on a reconnaissance mission up the Aiguille du Midi to have a look at the glaciers. It was an unusual ride up as there weren't any skiers or boarders in the cable car, just sightseers. In fact there were more skiers in the cable car on the ride down! Riding up we noticed a few climbers heading up the front. As expected it was extremely cold up there, and even though the sun was out it wasn't warming us up very much. The glaciers didn't look too bad, but there were plenty of crevasses open and some were visible where I haven't seen them before in the winter. I saw some ski trails heading down the Vallee Blanche route, but not very many. The arête was in pretty poor shape and without its usual rope. There were a few poles in but no steps cut. I watched a solitary skier walk out only to see him return ten minutes later. Later we saw a group, apparently with a guide, head down, so I guess it's a test of courage.

Saturday morning we headed up to Grands Montets. Bochard had the snow cannons running on it again, and the hard pack was bullet proof, with the usual soft scrapings on top. Chamois is still not open, but we rode down it anyway. It was a mixture of seriously hard ice with a few rocks poking through and moguls: a little more snow and I expect it'll open. The afternoon was spent at Le Tour and as I mentioned earlier the pistes are pretty hard packed now and Le Tour is no exception. With thin patches appearing it seems that the pisteurs have resorted to pushing snow on to the runs from the off piste areas. One of my favourite jumps has become the victim of the piste bashers and is spread over the ski runs now. The pisteurs have done a good job with the snow they have but I'm glad that there is some fresh snow on the horizon as I'm not sure how long they could have kept the pistes in a good state.

Today (Sunday) we rode Flegere and Brevent. A full car park suggested some queuing at the cable car, but there was no one there. Our late start obviously paid off. Once up, we tried out the Floria black run. The top section is now bashed and gone are the moguls; however, it narrows further down and hiding there are some of the largest moguls I've seen so far this season. It's all very short-lived though and pretty soon it's back to the groomed stuff. We took a right from Floria and headed off piste; we even found a few fresh turns of real powder, but it didn't last long and we were back on the crusty stuff again. Since my last visit to Flegere there seems to have been a major increase in the rate of production on the kicker line, with them springing up all over the mountain. One in particular is impressive: a large step-up gap kicker located under the Index chair, you can't miss it! Brevent was good. Cornu came up with the goods – no rocks but a hard pack that was a test of the sharpness of your edges. Bozon from the top of the Brevent was good but I took the zigzag route down rather than the mogulled steep section, which looked too icy to hold an edge on and I didn't want to be the one to test it. We downloaded at the end of the day. No queuing at this end either; things are still reasonably quiet.

Useful Information
Cross-country skiing is Closed
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