Chamonix Snow Report: 1st March 2007

Today the rain in town deterred me from heading up snowboarding early so it wasn't until after lunch that I mustered up enthusiasm to head out into the pouring rain. Unsurprisingly there was no queue for the lift to go up to Planpraz at Brevent. As I rode up the lift it wasn't long before the rain turned to snow and it felt instantly more wintery, in fact it felt much more like being in a blizzard with the wind buffeting the gondola. It was at this point that I also thought that there were better places in the valley to go in this kind of weather: basically anywhere with trees such as, Les Houches, the Dream Forest at Grands Montets or the trees above Vallorcine, and even Courmayeur.

Up in the blizzard on Brevent there were a few closures evident: the cable car to the top of Brevent was closed and the top of the Charlanon bowl was closed from Cornu (this time unlike in my last report the pisteurs really meant it as they had fenced it off totally). Most of the skiing public today seemed to be on the Col Cornu piste, which was fairly busy, especially considering the conditions. The piste had plenty of deep, soft snow on it and you would have had difficulty believing that it had ever been groomed. The snow at the sides of the piste was even deeper and very good quality powder.

Riding up the Cornu chairlift was quite a character-forming experience with the wind in our faces and the horizontally falling snow adding to the sense of being out in some extreme weather. In fact it was enough to make us ride the chair only a couple of times before seeking somewhere more sheltered. The Charlanon chairlift fitted the bill: it's a lower lift, there are some trees around to help the visibility and most importantly it was sheltered from the wind. We just stuck to the piste and the off piste immediately below the lift. The piste was very good, as you'd expect after the massive amounts of snow recently. The off piste had a layer of 20–30cm of fresh super-light powder on top of the now quite humid and heavy snow from a few days ago. It was a good combination of light powder to push around on top of something with a little more density.

The Nants run back down to Chamonix is still closed: the snow just isn't falling low enough. So we took the gondola down. However, we stayed up as long as we could, reckoning that most people would have headed down early because of the stormy weather. We did a few extra runs on the Parsa, which was practically empty at 4pm, before biting the bullet and joining the queue. Luckily the plan paid off a little, with the queue taking only about 30 minutes before we were on the way down and descending back into the rain below.

Check out what to do around town once the lifts have closed with our all new Apres Ski Report - a weekly round up of what's hot and where to party in Chamonix!

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