People skiing in front of a building that says telecabine le jour col de balme

A person is skiing down a snow covered slope

A group of people skiing down a snow covered slope

Chamonix Snow Report: 17th January 2006

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated 26 May 2016

Monday started out overcast, the first day we haven't seen blue sky for some time now, and it raised our hopes that the dry spell may be coming to an end. By the end of the day a few flakes had started falling intermittently but the snow was fairly light and wasn't making much impact on the hard pack. Today (Tuesday) things had improved dramatically. Snow was falling constantly and moderately heavily this morning and continued all day long. There was about 15–20 cm of fresh snow in our garden this morning and there's more there as I write.

Up on the mountain things were variable. I headed up to Le Tour first in the hope that the backside would open up: the trees there are good in poor visibility. The front was pretty bleak: high winds and horizontal snow made the chairlift ride a bit of an ordeal, especially as seemed to stop more than normal. The snow had been blown around, forming deep drifts in places, and wind scoured ice in others. It looked like some pistes were worse than before the snow fell because of the wind; hopefully the pisteurs will be able to sort that out. Some of the off piste was pretty good if you could work out where the snow was getting deposited, although seeing much was a challenge as the visibility was poor for most of the morning. Unfortunately, after riding the frontside for most of the morning there was no sign of the back opening so I headed down.

Grands Montets and the Dream Forest beckoned as the trees there are good in flat light. It was a good choice as the visibility at Grands Montets was generally better and in the trees it was good enough to see everything you needed to see. The snow had piled up in there overnight putting down at least 30 cm. The snow depth was good enough not to feel anything hard or crusty underfoot, and landings from the rock drops in the trees were plenty soft enough. There weren't very many people around up on the hill and even fewer in the trees. We only had time for a couple of runs before the lifts shut and we headed down the Pierre a Ric. On piste it was choppy, and I could feel the icy artificial snow underneath the fresh stuff so wherever possible I rode to the sides of the piste where the snow was less tracked.

Tomorrow is looking like being good as it's snowing heavily right now and there's more due overnight and in the morning.

Useful Information
Cross-country skiing is Open
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