People skiing in front of a building that says bochard

Skiers and snowboarders on a snowy slope with a yellow sign that says t1

A man in a red jacket is running through the snow

A man in a red jacket is skiing down a snowy slope

A ski lift is going down a snowy mountain

Chamonix Snow Report: 17th January 2007

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

At last it seems that the dry period may be about to come to an end. The clouds have been building up and this morning we awoke to a wet valley after some overnight rain. It fell as snow higher up and at Lognan today there was a measly but still welcome 1cm of fresh snow. There's significantly more forecast over the next few days but it is still fairly warm so I wouldn't be surprised if we see it as rain at the bottom of the valley.

Grands Montets has been the pick of the different ski areas over the past two days as it has the best snow: deeper, better cover and not too icy. The top cable car has been running and yesterday we headed up there on our Unlimited passes; if you only have Le Pass you'll have to pay extra. There were no queues for the top cable car, which is a real bonus at the moment as you can wait an hour for this lift during busy weeks. The snow was good at the top and was unaffected by the freeze–thaw cycle that has been happening at lower altitudes. As well as Pylones, Point de Vue is now open and marked allowing skiing right down to the edge of the Argentiere glacier for some impressive views of the crevasses there. The mid section of Point de Vue was fairly bumpy but not mogulled, and the snow itself wasn't hard, and it was easy to hold an edge on. There was one tight section through a few rocks but cover was very good and there weren't many rocks on the piste to avoid. The lower third of the run had been bashed even though it's not supposed to be, but I've no complaints about that; it was wide and good for carving a few turns on.

Today we set aside a little time to do some transceiver practice. We chose the sector skier's left of the Plan Joran chairlift, just below the Liaison trail: it's a wide open area, gently sloping and away from any passers by with transceivers that might interfere with our searching. It's a good idea to practice using your transceiver every so often as there's not much point in wearing one if you don't know how to use it effectively. We started off with a few single-beacon searches before moving onto multiple beacon searches. If you're not familiar with using a transceiver most of the ski schools and mountain guide offices run short courses on avalanche awareness and training.

We've been riding the snow park a little at Grands Montets and it is much better than its previous incarnations. I'm loving the hip at the moment, more of them please CdMB? The light was flat for most of the afternoon making the landings a little difficult to spot but they have painted some of the jumps with orange paint to help. All of the jumps and rails are rated too, the same as the pistes: Blue (easy), Red (difficult), Black (expert). After a few runs in the park we headed down the Pierre a Ric as the flat light was getting a bit much and it wasn't as bad lower down. The Ric is day after day building up more and more of the dry, sugary crystals; they're fun to turn on and much better than the ice that covered it before. It's a little like sand boarding I imagine. The piste is getting thin lower down and there are a few dark icy patches coming through. Still, the run was good enough to do again so we headed up for one more. Just to emphasise how changeable the weather is, by the time we got back up to Lognan the whole of Grands Montets was in sun and the visibility was perfect. One final ride up the Herse and down rather good (in my opinion, Jack) Combes, then the Pierre a Ric finished us off, and we headed to Le Rencard bar in Argentiere for a beer and pizza. It's just another hard day at the office for your snow reporter. Now, where's that snow we've been promised over the next few days?

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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