Chamonix Snow Report: 16th April 2007

It's only a week to go before Brevent, Flegere and Le Tour close. Grands Montets stays open for another two weeks. Today, for a little variety, we headed up to Le Tour to see what state it's in for the close of the season. The hot weather has given Le Tour a bit of a hammering especially low down. La Vormaine is definitely closed, with more patches of grass than snow on the slopes there. Caisets, the home run from Charamillon down to Le Tour, is closed now too as the lower section is completely snowless. The snow cannons have all been removed, further making the point that the season is almost over at Le Tour.

Elsewhere though the snow is in much better shape and probably is still in better condition than it was over Christmas and New Year (with the added bonus of being practically deserted and much warmer now). We arrived at around 11am and it was already softening on the south-facing slopes, but Ecuries below the Autannes chair was still a little firm. The pistes had been freshly groomed but not particularly smoothly so if you're looking for perfect corduroy you'll be disappointed.

Le Tour has its fair share of flat cat tracks to get along and as the day wore on and the snow became warmer, wetter and stickier our way along the flats became harder. The worst culprit was the Retour Charamillon piste where I almost had to unstrap and push myself but in the end I just about managed to keep moving.

The best snow was on the Belle Place red run on the Vallorcine side of Le Tour. For most of the winter it's a hard and icy piste but at the end of the season it comes into its own as it stays firm and manages to avoid becoming too slushy. It even had a few rollers for jumping and some nice little ramps at the sides of the piste. Even the surrounding off piste had softened nicely to become some good spring snow, soft on the top few centimetres. The lower section of Esserts through the trees was looking like it is on its last legs: it has narrowed through lack of snow and the snow is very thin at the bottom of the Tete de Balme chairlift.

Back on the front and later in the afternoon Ecuries had softened up well and lost its early morning hardness. We did a few laps before calling it a day and heading down on the gondola for the first time this season. Not bad really considering that according to the British press we've had a winter with no snow. All the lifts at Le Tour were running today and I doubt that anyone had to wait anywhere to get on a lift; we certainly didn't. Elsewhere in the valley almost every lift is running with the main exception of the Liaison lift between Brevent and Flegere, which has now closed for the season; so now you can only get to these areas directly from Chamonix or Les Praz.

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