Chamonix Snow Report: 22nd January 2006

It turned out to be pretty busy at the Brevent–Planpraz gondola; the queue for the tickets was long. We left our friends that needed day tickets and headed up, getting in a couple of runs before they made it up. It was certainly the busiest Sunday since New Year, and the car parks were full of people driving from nearby. I'm hoping it'll quieten down a little tomorrow. The weather was superb today, with clear blue skies and sunshine. Higher up the mountains you could see that it was very windy because the snow was being whisked off the high peaks: in fact the high wind had stopped the top cable car at Grands Montets from re-opening today. You couldn't really feel the wind at Brevent, even at the top of the Brevent cable car. As you'd normally expect, the snow on Charles Bozon piste was very good; its shady aspect kept it cold. Elsewhere, on the sunnier slopes the off piste was pretty crusty where it had refrozen overnight and today's temperatures weren't enough to soften it up again. We did a few runs on Vioz below the Parsa chair. Again, the snow was very good: well packed but not icy. Charlanon was good too if harder and a little icier, but still soft enough to hold an edge on if you were determined enough. The black Variante Charlanon is still unopened though.

We headed back to Flegere later in the afternoon, where we found that the off-piste had at some point been softened up by the sun and then as the shadows extended had been refrozen into spiky hard lumps that made it feel like I was snowboarding over broken concrete. The pistes, however, were much better, and since the last snowfall the extra snow has meant the some parts of the Pylones piste are looking good. I thought that Praz, which leads back down to Les Praz, would be a good option rather than queuing to download on the cable car. But it was a busy run, even at 3:30pm when I thought people would be eking out every last run on the mountain. Busy wasn't too much of a problem but the stones on the run and the fact that I was riding my friend's nearly new snowboard made me feel a touch less happy. Things improved though, and the stones were only a real problem on a couple of stretches; the snow on the open section lower down had good cover although it was a little bumpy and icy in places.

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