A snowy mountain with a purple sky in the background

A snowy mountain with a blue sky in the background

The sun shines brightly through the clouds above a snowy slope

Chamonix Snow Report: 16th March 2010

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

Still more sunny days here in Chamonix which has been crazy good but today it has become a wee bit cooler and some wind has been blowing the snow around, so its back to finding spots where the wind has transported the snow to. Its fairly easy if you look at wind direction and grab a compass to a map where you may just be able to spot sides of ridges and sheltered bowls which may hold patches of the fluffiness.

Today we went for a few runs up Grand Montets looking for some of these patches of hidden pow! A lot of people might get put off when heading up the hill and noticing that the pistes or the off piste might be quite icy and heading down calling it a bad day. However if you persevere and look for it, checking out different aspects and altitudes you can actually find some fun! We headed up for a top lift taking 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 a long open face of kind of powder which if you pressed hard enough against felt pretty good!

You get some amazing views down toward the glacier from here and it feels like you are really up in the high mountain down this route but at the same time not to far from a piste and safety. On a powder day this route is amazing but still good with just a little bit of pow kicking around which kept us happy for the day.

After a couple of top lift runs we headed up the Herse side, again in search of some more little bits of pow that might be hanging around, getting in to some of the bowls and gullies available skiers right of the chair lift. We managed to find quit a lot of moguls hanging around so we had a little dip in to these, and it looks like the guys entering the Boss de Bosses this Wednesday might have some fairly well shaped moguls for the inter-resort competition. If your in Chamonix you should not miss this, it's a great party on the hill with music and some great talent competing, it will be a great day out!

We managed to find a few pockets of smooth but not hard packed sort of pow so we had a good few runs down the Herse having fun in some of the many features in the off piste, the gullies, and little rock drops, before calling it a day and heading back down for a couple more Après ski beers at the famous Office Bar in Argenitere, which will be holding a great party this Wednesday after the Boss de Bosses with some great deals on food and alcoholic beverages!

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!