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Chamonix Snow Report: 21st February 2005

featured in Snow report Author Ellie Mahoney, Chamonix Editor Updated

Yesterday afternoon up at Brevent it was snowing lightly with a few passing showers. There was a mixture of poor visibility in the clouds and good visibility where the sun broke through. The weather was different on each run. We kept to the Col Cornu lift as the snow was pretty good there, with 10–15 cm of fresh. The pistes were very quiet with barely any queues – waits of only about 3-minutes at the Cornu chair and 1 or 2 minutes at the end of the day as we headed down the Brevent-Chamonix gondola. I noticed that the signs were up at the beginning of Nants, which leads back to Chamonix, warning of stones on the piste, so I would only recommend that run if you want to be p-texing your base. Reports from our housemates yesterday confirmed that in places there is bare rock and it was also very icy.

At our house at about 9am this morning it was snowing lightly, but it didn't last for long as some brighter weather moved in. However, it did leave a few centimetres of snow on our car. Today we went up to Grands Montets for the afternoon. Our car said it was about –3ºc at the carpark there. As we looked up it was in cloud from above Lognan so we expected some poor visibility, which seems to about normal at the moment. First up was the Bochard gondola and the black run Chamois through Combe de la Pendant. We were right about the poor visibility but what we didn't expect was the snow – whilst we had some sunny spells back in Chamonix when we left home, up here it was snowing moderately heavily and there was already about 15 cm of fresh snow. Chamois must have recently been groomed as there wasn't a mogul in sight, and it was pretty empty too. The snow was firm but not too hard and there was some loose stuff. Coverage was 100% and a far cry from the early season when rocks were visible.

The Bochard red run was in similarly excellent condition although a little busier than Chamois; nevertheless the queue for the Bochard gondola was non-existent. On the way down my wife got frost nip on her nose (she had a small white area about the size of a penny), so make sure you cover up your face if you're out in the wind and snow. La Herse was also empty so we took a ride down the red run Combes; it had good snow and not many people out, with the poor visibility being the only downer. Last run of the day was Pierre a Ric, this one was the busiest run of the afternoon as everyone was heading home. There were a few icy patches, but there were plenty of small piles of loose snow to turn on. The visibility down here was much better with the cloud level being above Lognan.

Apologies, but stupidly, I left my camera at home today so I've posted a photo looking up to Brevent from our house. The cloud level is visible as you can't see any higher than Planpraz. The snow level in our garden is just a few centimetres over 60 this evening.

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 2

Snow Report
  • 0

  • Total Pistes: 80

  • Alt. Resort: 2000

  • Alt. Summit: 3000

  • Alt. Last Snow: 1042

  • High Temp.: -4

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1042