Chamonix Snow Report: 18th January 2013

With it being so cold I headed back to the sunny side of the valley today. My initial thought was Le Tour, but bearing in mind that you can easily lose an extremity to frostbite on the Autannes or Tete de Blame chairlift even on the balmiest of spring days (depending on which way the wind is whipping through the valley), I came to my senses in Le Praz and stopped at Flegere instead. Car park was pretty full but I was straight onto the first cabin; until moments prior to departure when I realised I’d left my gloves in the car, so I was then straight on the 2^nd cabin as well!

I was pleasantly surprised at the top – not a breath of wind and not anything like as cold as I expected. Brevent/Flegere was the “warmest” of the areas today with temperatures ranging from -6 to -10 but I was peeling off my scarf after a couple of runs and was almost regretting digging out my thickest salopettes. Snow was lovely though – very much a day of piste cruising today – the easy access off piste is pretty much all skied out although there are still pockets of soft powder here and there in amongst the chop. Off skiers right of the Lachenal piste from the top of the index was the nicest off piste I found today as it didn’t have the wind blown crust that some of the snow off the Floria had on the other side of the area. That said, the on piste snow off the Foria drag was fabulous, chalky, grippy loveliness as it usually is and the short black run at the top has some of the nicest snow in the area.

I mentioned in an earlier report that there is a new speed ski track on Flegere this year, to the left of the La Chavanne snack spot as you look up the mountain. It was prepared today but still marked as closed, although I did see a few people trying it out and doing their own timing (you just know they had the music to Ski Sunday ringing in their ears as they did it!!) Couple of changes at La Chavanne as well this winter; for a couple of years now they have had a hot tub and an array of big bean bags/comfy sofa seating area as well as the usual deck chairs, but this winter the bean bags and hot tub have been sectioned off to be more of a VIP area, reserved for those prepared to spend a bit of cash on champers, fois gras and some of the more “luxe” menu items on offer. If you fancy taking it over for a private party then you can book it with one of the bar staff. It may not be like this for the whole season but at the moment buying a ham and cheese baguette ain’t going to get you in the tub!

Having had such bumper snowfall so far this season, the ski outs from both Brevent and Flegere are both open. Have to say, I’m not really a huge fan of either of these runs normally unless conditions are really good. Although they are both graded black, they aren’t particularly technically difficult – they are basically roads down the mountain – but once you start, there is no way out until the bottom. I find they all too quickly degenerate into icy, stony hairpin bends, bottle necking in places and overcrowded at the end of the day. I’d rather download on the lift. But today, I headed town a little early and I had the run pretty much to myself and it was lovely. It’s very beautiful, through the trees with stunning glimpses of the valley below, and although there was the odd stone here and there, it was really pretty nice all the way down. Still wouldn’t fancy it with all the hoards at the end of the day, but the clouds were coming and I decided to knock it on the head.

And indeed the clouds have come in. It’s just beginning to snow lightly as I’m typing and more snow is forecast overnight down as low as 500m, with 5-10cms expected to fall in town by morning. We’re not going to see much of the sun this weekend I’m afraid, but at least it’ll be less bitter on the hill and we can console ourselves with some nice freshies to play in!