Chamonix Snow Report: 17th March 2005
It's been hot here and it's getting even hotter. The melt continues. Our garden now has only 40cm of snow, and temperatures reached 20ºc today. The positive side is that we have beautiful warm sunny weather, ideal for being outside and having picnics. However, it's not so good for people wanting to get out onto the glaciers. A combination of snow bridges melting in this heat and the fact there's less snow than normal on the high mountains means that crevasses are a real danger now. A friend of one of our housemates fell in one today on the Argentiere glacier but miraculously escaped unhurt; sadly others haven't been so lucky and we have heard of two deaths this week (one on the Vallee Blanche, and one on the Argentiere glacier).
The snow up at Grands Montets is much less slushy than the kind we've being enjoying during the past couple of days up at Flegere. The Grands Montets variety only softens up a bit late in the afternoon. That is with the exception of the Pierre a Ric, which because of its low altitude is extremely slushy and by the end of the day has mini moguls made of wet stuff. Higher up though everything is better, that is if you don't like it soft and wet. The pistes are harder and even slighty ice in a few spots, but the cover is good and there are only a few snowless patches starting to show through. Bochard is in excellent shape, smooth and well groomed, although a few rocks on the narrow section right at the top are appearing so watch out.
Combes off the Herse chairlift is in very good condition too, but there are a few patches were the snow looks like it's thinning. The snow itself is superb and in the late afternoon it had softened up making it very easy to hold an edge for easy carved turns. The ramps of soft snow piled up at the edges are great for spinning off too.
We spent most of the afternoon watching the Chamrock big air contest just to the side of the Marmottons piste. It went well, apart from a few crashes and a nasty collision, with skiers and snowboarders pulling some impressive tricks. Tomorrow there's a skier and boarder cross at the same location if you want to see some high speed tumbles, or why not enter yourself?
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
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Level 3
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1042
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High Temp.: 22
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Alt. High Temp.: 1042
