Chamonix Snow Report: 19th February 2005

The light up at Brevent today was pretty flat making riding and skiing quite tricky. However, the overcast weather and poor visibility made for a quiet day on the slopes, with most people appearing to opt for staying indoors, which was a bit of a bonus as this past week has been one of the busiest so far this winter. In spite of the flat light we had a shot at the Brevent Col off piste section, accessed along the rocky ridge from the top cable car. This was a bad choice on my part as the snow there today was pretty crusty and choppy, and there was a fair bit of debris from slides to contend with as well. The slope here is pretty steep and avalanche prone, with the Charles Bozon piste below you must be careful not to come here if the snow is unstable as you risk avalanching the people on the piste. Two days ago the snow looked superb here, and was barely tracked - it would have been fantastic then.

Unusually for this busy week there was no queue at the Index, which didn't stop one of us falling off the chair as we were getting on! After that excitement we headed up the Floria draglift. The Floria piste was in great shape today. It was recently groomed with the exception of the very top section, and it had the best snow of all the pistes we rode this afternoon as it had a light covering of loose snow, just enough to get a good edge on. It seems it's been groomed a little wider making it great for larger sweeping turns, and with there being barely anyone up there today it was a real blast. It started to snow lightly by mid-afternoon and as the cloud and snow thickened the visibility gradually worsened. By the time we returned to Brevent visibility was very poor. I had an extremely disorientating full white-out experience as I was approaching the bottom of the Parsa chair - absolutely no visible fixed points of reference like trees or skiers. I didn't know which way I was going or how fast!

We took the Nants piste back to Chamonix, and the trees helped improve visibility considerably. This run must have seen some serious amounts of traffic this week, so the stones on the upper windy section shouldn't come as a great surprise although I don't remember noticing whether there was a sign at the top warning of stones. The lower section was well covered with no stones but it is fairly hard in places with a few very icy spots right near the bottom just before it meets the Savoy nursery slope, so watch out for them. My lazy technique and blunt edges couldn't save me from falling on them.

Useful Links
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.

Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office