A person skiing down a snow covered slope with the sun shining brightly in the background

A person riding a snowboard down a snow covered hill

A snowy landscape with mountains in the background

A person is skiing down a snow covered slope

Chamonix Snow Report: 15th March 2010

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

Many sunny days in a row now has changed the hard pack off piste to some quit nice slushy soft re-freshened snow where it has been possible to get some fresh lines even just off the piste! Its still good to find some sheltered gullies where the snow is more powdery than slushy and there is plenty to find with less people around touring its been a great week with minimal avalanche risks to have a few adventures!

Overall the snow is a lot more stable but if more warm weather comes in this could make a larger instability in the snow pack, but if it freezes and snows we could be in for some nice safe and easy powder days before the Easter crazy times begin! A lot of people have been enjoying the softer slushy pistes, and the park has been a lot more appealing with softer landings when things don't go exactly as planned.

Today we went to on a tour from Le Tour to Trient in Switzerland, which is a classic tour nice and easy access if you like or hard if you want a longer run in some fresh pow. However not many people actually do this tour as it seems difficult to return from with only two busses that run between Trient and Vallorcine which connects back to Le Tour. Although there is possibilities of grabbing a taxi which is actually quit reasonably priced, or if you prefer to save your cash like me, you can stick your thumb out and will quickly get a lift back over the border.

We took the plan of an easy walk with the possibility of maximum powder, heading for one of the shortest hikes which start from the back chair of Le Tour which only take around 10 minutes to get to. There are a number of other options heading from the top of the front chair at Le Tour and walking straight up to the top of the ridge you can see as you exit the chair taking shorter route from the lookers left of the ridge to longer but better tours to the right.

After our short hike we where very pleased to find few tracks heading down to Trient so we strapped in and hit the pow as soon as we could, hitting small feature here and there to get some fresh air with our fresh pow. Its fairly easy to find the route down here making sure that you drop in to the obvious gulley to avoid cliffs and follow the track down till you reach a ski de fond track, which brings you in to the peaceful village of Trient. Once in Trient you can either catch the bus which runs twice a day or grab a taxi from the bar in the village but it is fairly easily to hitch hike back to Vallorcine where you can catch the train or ride back over to Le Tour. We had a lift arranged so we jumped in that and got a couple more runs in Le Tour before heading back to the Office Bar in Argentiere for some sweet Après ski and nachos!

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!