Skiers on a snowy slope with mountains in the background

A snowy mountain range with trees on the side of it

Two people skiing down a snow covered slope

Chamonix Snow Report: 23rd March 2010

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

Some fairly warm air has been hanging around and we are definitely in spring time mode now, with a lot of rain down low but a fair bit of snow up high. So you have 2 choices: hit high mountain for some nice pow, or hit mid mountain for some nice soft landings or fresh slush! Lower down it is very slushy and kind of gluey making it necessary for some very soft wax applied often to your skis or board! The forecast isn't looking that great for more snow, with some more sunny warm weather coming through followed by a warm dry wind which can strip a lot of the snow down low. But the snow will be back! All it takes is a little patience and a few prayers to the snow gods!

So with altitude in mind we headed up the Grands Montets to check out the snow conditions, see how far it has rained to, and check out where it might not be good to go. There has been a lot of avalanches recently, especially down low where the air has been fairly humid at mid mountain level and it has made it possible for a lot of slides to happen there too. So be careful, even when riding around just off the piste as there have been a lot of local avalanches happening. The mountain safety guys keep on top of it as much as possible but care should still be taken as conditions can change rapidly.

There is around 20cm of fresh up high and with some fairly accessible routes available from the top lift on Grand Montets and the crowds were gathered in mass to queue for the top lift. We unfortunately failed to book a top ticket and seeing the size of the queue at the time we got up the mountain (around 2 hours long!) we decided on finding the soft slushy stuff with many features to hit in the L'avancher bowl. There was actually a fair amount of fresh powder in the first section of the descent into the bowl, followed by some really nice spring snow which was excellent for landing after hitting wind lips and rock drops. The lower down we went, the more the landings would suck you down with the gluey like snow texture, making it difficult to ride away from some jumps. It was a great day for hucking yourself of features and landing in some fairly soft slush just to get the feeling of doing a different trick or rotation.

We had a good few runs down L'avancher bowl before heading over to the Herse side, which was no way near as good unless you like a lot of moguls and pretty mushy snow. However, this can be due to wind direction and aspect of the slope, so we headed back over to L'avancher and had a couple more before heading down the home run, followed by a couple of beers and nachos at the office bar, just in time for happy hour at 4pm!

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!