Chamonix Snow Report: 22nd February 2013

Last weekend seemed to be just the beginning of the great weather. With a snow dump on Friday, check out our dump alert page, we were very excited about getting out on the mountain on Saturday. As the weather was cold and sunny and with fresh snow on the ground there is only one place we thought to go – Grands Montets. We headed up the Plan Joran chairlift and went straight off to the Bochard bubbles, on our way up we checked out the off piste under the Herse and in the Lavancher bowl which already seemed to be pretty tracked out despite the fresh snow. With this in mind, we thought it best to warm up by whizzing down the pistes, with freshly groomed snow and not many people around it was a treat. We went straight back up the Bochard and thought we would have a go in the Lavancher bowl and, despite the tracks, the snow was fresh and light. All in all a great sunny day at Grands Montets!

This week I was excited, not only about the forecast being beautiful sunshine nearly every day but, about the arrival of some visitors to Chamonix. Along with the masses in a busy half term school week I had some guests arriving. They’ve both skied and snowboarded loads before, but never in Chamonix so I decided to take them to Brevent/Flegere for the day to guarantee being in the sunshine with great views over Mont Blanc. We took the Plan Praz bubbles and with no queue for the Brevent cable car we whizzed straight to the top to look at the glorious view and tackle the black Bozon piste down. We clipped on our skis and snowboards and headed off. The run was soft and not too bumpy and surprisingly given the time of year nearly completely empty, this was just the start of what was a great day. We jumped onto the Cornu and took the Cornu red piste down – again another great run, with soft snow and a few crisper patches here and there it was in near to perfect condition.

Heading over to Flegere (connected to Brevent via the Liason gondola) each run seemed to be in great shape and even with the sun beating down there was a cold air temperature so the snow was not turning to the usual sunny weather slush, it was staying nice and soft – just how we like it. After cruising around the red runs off the Index lift at Flegere and all the way down to the Trappe lift we thought it best to make our way back over to Brevent. The Chavanne bar did, however, seem very tempting but we were on a roll and thought the beer and hot tub might distract us!

One of the ways to get back over to Brevent is to take the run that goes off to skiiers right from the top of the Index lift down to the Liasion lift. The piste is called the Lachenal and is marked as a red but in my opinion this may be a bit of an underestimation. A steep and long run that in some resorts may be a black, it was nice and smooth with no moguls but having had a day of cruising on surprisingly empty pistes this one seemed to be busy with a few people struggling with the steepness. Nevertheless the snow was still great until you got to the bottom of the run, near the Liaison lift, where you could tell the piste had been in the sun all day and the snow started to become a little more slushy.

Once we got back over to Brevent we had a quick bite to eat and did a couple more laps of the Cornu lift. We thought it was then time to treat ourselves to a beer or hot chocolate and what better place to do this than the top of the Brevent cable car in the sunshine. We caught a table nestled in the middle of the panoramic restaurant with amazing views and rested our aching legs and quenched our thirst, reflecting on what a great day it had been.

I had never been to Courmayeur before and being a Chamonix resident I thought I had to go and see what the talk was all about. So on Wednesday we packed the car and headed over, with low cloud on the Chamonix mountains we were looking forward to seeing if the Italian side of the mountain provided some sunshine (although I hear the cloud did clear in Chamonix). Courmayeur is great! If you can manage to head over during a trip to Chamonix than I would definitely recommend it, with special offers/free days with Chamonix Mont Blanc Unlimited passes and ladies day in Courmayeur on a Wednesday reducing a pass from 44€ to 25€ it is worth the car journey (just don’t forget the tunnel fees). With a quick trip through the Mont Blanc tunnel you can be there in less than half an hour. Not only are the pistes rolling, cruisey and lovely you also have a huge range of mountain restaurants where you can get the delicious Italian food, wine and atmosphere!

I have read the weather is due to stay cold and may be a little cloudy at times this weekend so make sure if you are heading out on the mountain you have those layers at the ready!