Chamonix Snow Report: 23rd February 2006
Woohoo, I've finally broken my heliboarding virginity! Yesterday I was taken up by helicopter high onto the Trient Glacier by the excellent Chamonix-based McNab Mountain Sports, who specialise in backcountry snowboarding trips and courses. The run down was easily the longest and probably best powder run I've ever had and I'm still getting over how good it was. Heli trips don't come cheap, but I can say without a doubt that they are definitely worth every penny. Having never even been in a helicopter I was excited just to go for a ride around the mountains, but the snowboarding down blew my mind. Heliskiing and snowboarding is illegal in France, but it is allowed in Switzerland where the helicopters have designated landing spots (they can't just drop you exactly where you want like in the movies). Chamonix's proximity to Switzerland makes it easy to get a ride up from just over the border. Our helicopter picked us up from a lay-by at the side of the road and dropped us thousands of metres high up on the glaciers. It was a full-on high-mountain experience with an easy 1-hour hike in snowshoes and roped together as we crossed the Trient Glacier to get to the slopes that we were to ride down. Our mountain guides knew exactly where to take us for some amazing powder riding on wide-open slopes at the perfect pitch for high-speed powder turns. There were crevasses to avoid in a few places, which the guides helped us navigate through safely. The whole way down the snow was fantastic: totally untracked for over 2000 metres of descent. The final run out took us to the small Swiss village of Trient for lunchtime where we had a few very well-deserved beers. Everyone in our group just sat there looking at their photos on their cameras not quite taking in how good it was. The weather had been great all day, a little cloud but mostly blue skies and sun. It was a cold start especially once we were up on the glacier at well over 3000 metres. My fingers went numb with all the fumbling around with snowshoes, but once we were moving and the adrenaline started pumping things warmed up pretty quickly.
Stoked on yesterday's trip we decided to go back to Trient again, but today we hiked up the Grands Autannes at Le Tour (it's the high ridge to the skier's left of the Autannes chairlift) and crossed over the back to ride down to le Tour. There were few other people doing the same route as us today, but there was already a trail in from yesterday going up which made it much easier for us. It took us around an hour and a half to get from the top of the chairlift to the Grandes Autannes. It's good to do this ascent in the morning, as the slope is in shade then and the snow more stable. It's deceptively steep towards the top and I was glad to have my crampons on. Today, it was beautifully sunny again with only a little cloud. From the top we could look across the mountains and see our lines from yesterday. Seeing them from a different perspective made it look all the more impressive as we could see almost the whole of the route down to Trient. There were a few other ski trails up there, and it felt a real privilege to know that some of them were ours. Our ride today took us into an area which had a few tracks in it, twelve was my count, but it was a large open bowl, so it wasn't going to spoil things, as it was easy to find untracked areas. We savaged the deep and still fresh powder pretty quickly and it wasn't long before we were level with the restaurant at the Col de Balme. We headed a little further down, trying to make the most of the powder before bushwhacking and finding our way into the main gully that leads from the Col de Balme to Trient. We didn't hang around in the gully, as it's a major avalanche channel. It was getting warm by the afternoon again, and I could hear the sound of trickling water from the rocky south-facing side of the gully. I'd also noticed a reasonably large slab avalanche had happened above the gully. So we got out of there sharpish and found ourselves at the café for beers again. It's a tough life being a snow reporter – powder everyday. I think I need a rest.
There are buses that go from Trient back to the French border, at 9:00, 12:15 and another at 4:15. There's also a car park if you have two cars and can arrange a drop off in advance. The Anselme Baud book, Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles Rouges: a guide for skiers, has the Grands Autannes routes on Page 132–134. There are plenty of dangers so it's a seriously good idea to use a mountain guide.
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
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
Stats
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Level 3
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0
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Total Pistes: 80
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Alt. Resort: 1050
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 1250
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High Temp.: 4
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
