A person carrying skis on their back climbs a snowy mountain

A person is skiing down a snow covered slope and the sun is shining brightly

A person is skiing down a snow covered slope

A snowy mountain range with a blue sky in the background

A person skiing down a snow covered mountain

Chamonix Snow Report: 21st March 2010

featured in Snow report Author Kieran Sharp, Updated 24 October 2014

So the weather has turned for the worse now here in Chamonix with lots of rain below 2300m, but this doesn't mean its not possible to still get some pow, you just need to get up high, and with some of Europe's highest lifts operating in this gorgeous valley it can be possible to get snow up high even in to the summer. It certainly doesn't seem appealing when you get out in the morning for your ski but there is a fair amount of snow being laid down up high as long as you can bear the rain on the way down the home run! So if your out over the next few days some very waterproof equipment would be strongly advised along with taking extreme caution when heading in to the off piste especially on the lower slopes where the rain has been breaking away the snow layers and causing a lot of slides around the valley.

Before the rain started we where still enjoying some of the sunny weather and getting out on some great tours in search of what powder might still be hanging around, and it is very surprising just what can be found even 3 weeks after it last snowed! The other day we headed for another tour looking to score some fresh in between the Croche Du Berrard and the Col du Berrard, which is a tour starting from the top of Flegere and which brings you out in Buet a peaceful little village on the train line just out of the Chamonix valley. This is a fairly popular route for skiers and snowboarders being very accessible and easy to just follow tracks, but its not to be taken lightly especially with the conditions that are now present in the valley some very large avalanches will occur throughout the whole tour. Once over the first ridge which is accessible from the top of the Floria lift in Flegere we would normally head down an 800m or so face of fresh pow, however it looked fairly wind blown and crusty so it wouldn't have been that enjoyable, so we decided on the traverse round instead which makes it less of a walk.

After the traverse we changed our gear back to snowshoes and skins and made our way over to the first Col which is quit a popular tour. You could also take the longer ascent over to the Croche du Berrard where there is a longer face to ride, however a lot of people had been doing both tours so there where quit a few tracks on both routes. We decided to beat the crowds and head to the Col but once at the Col we headed up the ridge a little there to drop in to some of the gulley's between the two tours, and guess what…. We got a whole load of fresh powder! It did become slushy at the bottom but for the most part of the ride down we had some great fluffy powder turns, hitting some of the natural features and living the dream!

Once on the flat area after our 1500m of powder, we picked our way through the small trails heading through the woods next to the river before exiting in to Buet village where we found many other people who had spent a great day touring grabbing a few beers at the Hotel Buet, so we thought it rude not to join them before making our way back on the train.

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