Skip to main content
SeeChamonix

Chamonix Snow Report: 20th January 2005

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated

The past two powder days have been what we've been waiting for; the last two or three weeks of blue skies have finally given way to cloudy whiteouts and fresh powder runs. The daytime maximum temperature has dropped, with it barely getting above zero now. The nights haven't been quite so bone chillingly cold and the cloud cover has kept the sun off the snow meaning that it's been staying light and powdery all day long.

Yesterday we had the best day of the season up at Brevent. The cable car to the top was closed and is still closed today, and when it opens there'll be some good stuff to be had. First were a few warm-up runs from the Parsa chair to check the softest of the powder: it passed the grinning faces test. From the chair on the way back up, we watched the helicopter bombing for avalanches. We all agreed that chucking explosives out of a helicopter has to be the best job in the world (the avalanche risk has jumped form 1 to 4). Then we joined the queue at the Col Cornu chair, which was due to open. Luckily we were at the front, but we had to wait about an hour before they opened it up. This was worth the wait, despite a few people barging to the front, as it gave us fresh tracks down full length of the Chamois red run. Half the width of the run was bashed but the rest was untouched as was everything off to the sides. You know they say no friends on a powder day and it's true: gone was the etiquette of waiting for our buddies; if you weren't back to the bottom of the lift with your friends, they were gone! Off piste to skier's left of Charlanon was also superb although I could feel a few rocks scraping my board now and again nearer the bottom of the run. The light powder more than made up for the ptex damage inflicted. La Flegere was good too, although the snow seemed less deep than at Brevent. Most of the stones on piste appear to have been covered by the snowfall, although when the snow is this good there's little point in sticking to the piste. The Floria was closed yesterday so the runs further to skier's left were difficult to access, but will be good when it opens.

Today we headed to Grands Montets as we had heard that the Dream Forest was good. You can access it from the Plan Roujon chair, then head down into the trees below (take your transceivers and shovels though as there is no ski patrol here to make it safe for you). It's fairly steep and rocky with a lot of medium size rock drops (the occasional big one too – watch out!) and trees to navigate. Eventually you reach a cat track, along which you either walk out skier's right back to the Plan Roujon chair or skier's left to Retour Pendant chair. The snow in there was 2 or 3 feet deep and our first few runs were fresh tracks for everyone. After our fun in the trees we thought it would be interesting to see how the Bochard had improved with the new snow. At the top it was windy and visibility was poor, but the snow was soft. Things have improved with far fewer rocks on piste, although there are still some large ones near the top. Further down, things are much better than before the snowfall, although there were a few icy areas on the left where it seems snow cannons have blown water that's frozen. Pierre a Ric is good as usual, with the artificial stuff now buried under a good depth of freshly fallen snow. Grands Montets was eerily quiet today; the past few days have been very quiet here indeed, with us walking straight onto most of the lifts in the valley without queuing. Where is everybody?

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

Stats

Avalanche Risk
  • Level 4

Snow Report
  • 0

  • Total Pistes: 80

  • Alt. Resort: 2000

  • Alt. Summit: 2500

  • Alt. Last Snow: 1042

  • High Temp.: -1

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1042