Chamonix Snow Report: 19th January 2006
Yesterday the snow stopped falling and left a fresh covering of powder between about 50–60cm deep. Grands Montets was mostly open except for the Bochard Gondola and the top cable car, which has a mechanical fault. However, my late start meant that the most obvious off piste lines had been taken, so I headed into the Dream Forest, which usually takes a little longer to get tracked. It was good in there, although quite a few people had beaten me to it including a UCPA instructor and his small army of followers. Still it was light and deep enough, although a little chopped up in places. The off piste to the skier's left of Remuaz had a few good lines in it, but meant having some very close encounters with bushes to find them.
Today was the big one though. All day yesterday we could see that the Index lift hadn't been moving at Flegere so we knew that there would be some good snow saved up there. An early start and the first cable car up from Flegere saw us riding up the Index chairlift looking at all the untracked powder, even some of the pistes had a deep covering. There was plenty of evidence of slab avalanches (hopefully triggered by the pisteurs) on all the lee slopes visible to our left as we rode up. This made us decide to try Combe Lachenal but to stick to the skier's left of the bowl. The snow in there was superb, for the first hour or two we did laps of it. We made the most of the light fresh snow, which was deep enough not to feel the old snow below and light enough to make huge rooster tails. Skier's right of the bowl near the top there was a fairly large area of avalanche debris but it was soft and easy to ride: another indicator of the unstable new snow. With five avalanche deaths reported in the Alps today, the TV news this evening is calling this a ‘black day': a sobering reminder of the need to pay attention to the avalanche flags and to read the bulletins before heading off piste.
As the day drew on temperatures rose and the sun was strong. This had a fairly negative effect on the snow as far as my legs were concerned, making it feel heavy and wet. Fresh lines became harder to find and the pistes that started as powder fields became chopped up and bumpy. There were still plenty of cornices and jumps to have fun with and even some light snow in the shadier spots. Floria drag lift never opened all day but there were plenty of energetic skiers willing to traverse as far skier's right of Flegere as possible.
At the end of the day I headed down Praz to catch the bus home. The run down became heavier and heavier the lower I went. Until by the time I reached the open section, the snow felt like spring slush and my base was starting to stick. The cover was good all the way down, and I imagine with some grooming in the morning it'll be in the best condition so far in the season.
Two powder days in a row can't be bad, although I need to go and lie down now: I'm exhausted!
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
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
Stats
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Level 4
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 1050
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1250
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High Temp.: 4
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
