Chamonix Snow Report: 16th April 2005
Things have taken quite a turn for the better since the last report. It started raining continuously late yesterday afternoon. It had been fairly mild all day, about 10ºc, but higher up it was snowing. This morning it was still raining and the snow line was visible low down on the trees at the sides of the valley so we headed straight up to Les Grands Montets, past Flegere, which has now closed for the season. It was still raining in Argentiere this morning but it was only just rain rather than snow, and by the time we reached Lognan the snow was coming down thick and fast.
The Bochard gondola provided our morning's entertainment as it offered a little shelter on the way back up after each run. Our first was a little tentative as we weren't sure how much snow had fallen and we stuck a little too much to the piste, which was well covered by the fresh snow but a little lumpy and hard work. A quick detour off-piste revealed that there had been a seriously large dump of snow overnight and this morning. The top section below Bochard was knee-deep powder of the light and fluffy variety. The lack of skiers and boarders meant that large areas were left totally untracked for us; we couldn't believe our luck. Lower down the snow was heavier and less deep; there was just about a foot of fresh at Lognan.
After a hot chocolate to warm up from all the tumbling in the powder, the afternoon saw us switch over to the Herse chairlift. We didn't expect much as the area has been moguled and we assumed it would have taken quite a bit of snow to bury them. Again we couldn't believe how good it was: the moguls were gone and the powder was fantastic. We headed skier's left under the Herse into more untracked powder. It was awesome riding, and just about as good as it gets: bottomless light snow and the slope the perfect pitch for full speed powder turns. Lower down we cut skier's right of the lift and dropped into another untracked section and connected up with the Point de Vue cat track; again the snow was superb and although only about 30cm deep it is still remarkable for this time of year.
All day it was very quiet up at Grands Montets; the rain in town was deterring people from skiing I'm sure, as there were no queues once we were up there (although we did have to wait 10-15 minutes to get the Lognan cable car up first thing). The lack of people also meant that on practically every run right to the end of the day we were finding large areas of untouched powder to ride. Visibility wasn't great because of the continuous snowfall, but it wasn't all that bad either and it certainly wasn't a complete whiteout. Pierre a Ric was the only downer of the day. It really should be closed now as from about halfway down it's littered with stones and the cover's very thin. Take the lift if you value your equipment. When we finally came down for the ritual post-powder-day beer and pizza the rain had turned to snow in the valley and the temperature seemed to have dropped through the day as our car told us it was 1ºc on the way home. As I type this it's still snowing and our garden is turning white again. More snow is forecast for tonight, so it looks like tomorrow's going to be another powder day.
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
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
Stats
-
Level 2
-
0
-
Total Pistes: 80
-
Alt. Resort: 2000
-
Alt. Summit: 3000
-
Alt. Last Snow: 1042
-
High Temp.: 1
-
Alt. High Temp.: 1042
