Chamonix Snow Report: 23rd January 2008
Wednesday was wet in Chamonix, in fact it rained all day and most of the night. Many of the lifts around the valley were closed for avalanche work, only Le Tour was operating in a normal way all be it with poor visibility. The temperature in the town was hovering around +2c so the prospect of the rain falling as snow high up, was enough to cheer up an otherwise gloomy day.
Thursday dawned bright as forecast and indeed stayed sunny all day. The car park at Grands Montets was near empty at 9am and it was quickly obvious as we headed up on the chair that Wednesday's rain had indeed fallen as snow on the mountain, about 20cm of it. It was not quite a full on powder day, but the off piste was fantastic, 20cm of light creamy powder with the occasional wind scoured ridge to keep you on your toes or was it your elbow. There were fresh tracks to be had everywhere and even as the day went on the snow was so light that skiing the tracked out slopes was still good. The pistes are also in fantastic condition with soft packed powder everywhere.
Mid morning I saw a couple of lads, Jamie and Magnus, dropping into the Poubelle (dustbin), this is a steep, twisting and narrow gully, and an alternative start to the Pas de Chevre. This is an off piste route from Grands Montets to Montenvers passing under the Dru and over the Mer de Glace. The usual start is from the very top of Grands Montets, this hard alternative, starts from the top of the Bochard gondola. Most people abseil the first 30m but with the fresh snow these lads were skiing from the top! They had a large admiring audience but no volunteers to follow them
I popped in for lunch at the Plan Joran, they have a good buffet salad bar where your selection including some fine traditional ham and dried beef is charged by the 100g. at 1.95€. The little lot on the left set me back 9.50€ and is central to my healthy eating program.
The snow at Grands Montets stays in such great condition in large part due to its Northerly aspect. If you crave a bit of sunshine then the first part of the mountain to get it is the Le Lavancher bowl also known as the Combe de la Pendant. The bottom of the bowl has a lovely blue run the Aroilles accessible from the Plan Joran chair. If you want to ride or ski the whole thing then there is the challenging black run the Chamois which starts at the very top and is accessed from the Bochard gondola. Alternatively there are practically unlimited lines available off piste. One word of caution, if you traverse high and far to skiers left at the very top of the bowl, you can end up in the middle of a broken cliff, and the further left you go the harder it is to extract yourself. We spent most of the afternoon in the bowl enjoying the sunshine and the tracked but soft powder.
The forecast is for fine weather for the next few days, an inversion is likely in the morning so if it looks cloudy in the valley first thing, don't panic, get high.
The avalanche level remains at 3, Considerable.
If you fancy doing the Pas de Chevre talk to these guys Chamonix Guides
Useful Information
Useful Links
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
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
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.
Stats
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Level 3
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0
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Total Pistes: 75
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Alt. Resort: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 2700
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Alt. Last Snow: 2700
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High Temp.: 4
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
