Chamonix Snow Report: 20th January 2007

Yesterday all we could hear from 5:00 in the morning was avalanche bombing, as the snow and high winds on the upper parts of the mountain created some very unstable conditions. Consequently many of the lifts were closed. When I went up to Flegere in the afternoon there was only the cablecar up and the Trappe chairlift running. One piste was open, Libellules, which suited our needs perfectly as I was snowboarding with a newbie getting her first experience of a chairlift on a snowboard. The snow up there was good for beginners too, as it was soft and slushy and fairly forgiving when the inevitable falls happened. According to my friend, it was much better than the icy pistes of Le Tour where her lessons had been. The snow cover was quite good on the piste but there were some fairly wet patches where the rain had puddled, mainly at the top and bottom of the run. The flat section by the buvette at Flegere was worst hit: mostly grey slush mixed in with some stones. It wasn't great visibility either, but the trees did help break up the thick fog a little and provide some definition for most of the time. The sun managed to break through now and again giving us a couple of fleeting glimpses up to the Floria, which was plastered in fresh snow. Not surprisingly it was very quiet up there with just a couple of ski school lessons going on to keep us company. Grands Montets was much busier on the same afternoon as most of the lifts were open, but queues were a little tense according to some reports.

I'd been told that the snow was not bad at Grands Montets yesterday; it was heavy but if the top cablecar had opened up it could have been good higher up. So, I set my alarm and headed up ready for first lift. We took the Plan Joran chairlift up instead of the cablecar as the queue was already building up. That was a bad choice as the lift broke down within seconds of us getting on. I've been on lifts before that have stopped so I don't worry too much when it happens, even for a few minutes, but the smoke coming out of the lift station made me think it could be terminal. Sure enough, after 10 minutes of sitting there watching lifties with sticks poking around at the mechanism we were told that it had broken down for good and that we were to be evacuated. Now, last season some of our friends were stuck on the same lift for an hour and a half (that day we sailed past them on the cable car waving and laughing): I now know your pain my friends, because I have received some karmic pay back! I wondered exactly how they were going to get us down: ropes, stepladders, harnesses, who knows? (Others, in front of us, just jumped for it only to be told off by the lifties.) I never guessed that we would be rescued in the bucket of a big yellow digger. But that's how it went and very effective it was too, although I'm not sure if it would pass any health and safety test in the UK.

So about 45 minutes later than planned, and with a pre-printed card from the CdMB saying sorry for the delay, we were heading back up to Lognan on the second part of the Plan Joran chairlift, which was working fine by now. The snow was a little disappointing after all of the fuss getting up there, only one or two centimetres of fresh. We headed into the top of Combe de la Pendant, but its crusty off piste made us quickly traverse out onto the Bochard piste. Bochard seemed reasonable: hard and icy as always but with a little soft snow on top. Combes below the Herse seemed icier than Bochard as the rain on it had frozen hard; the low cat track back to Lognan was softening by late morning and the Pierre a Ric wasn't bad either. The snow park was hard and icy in the morning too, but the well-shaped transitions helped make the take offs and landings a little smoother. A twanged ankle finished me off early today, but I'm sure conditions would have improved in the afternoon as the snow softened up.

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