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Chamonix Snow Report: 23rd October 2008

featured in Snow report Author Tom Wilson-North, Updated

Right now in Chamonix, every morning I wake up it feels more like winter. Gone are the dusty, dry daybreaks of summer; when I open my eyes at 8.35am, my window is covered in condensation, from contrast of the chill of the air outside and the warmth from my radiator indoors. The snow level, currently hovering around 2500m, is creeping down towards the valley. My steering wheel is gloves-cold when I drive my car first thing.

That doesn't mean that the skis are coming out just yet though. The trails of the valley, infused and rejuvenated by the drizzle that's been on-and-off this week, are in great condition; nicely consolidated in that got-wet-then-dried-out kind of way. This means brittle earth underfoot as you kick the brown and red leaves from underfoot.

What does all this mean? Well, great conditions for hiking for starters. Earlier this week, we took a trip up to the Aiguilette D'Argentiere - a big spiky rock in the mountains - to make the most of it. Having parked at Tré-le-Champ, we headed up the footpath in the direction of La Flegère. It was a long old climb, just under 1000m of vertical, but fortunately I had the barrel-like form of my friend's English Bull Terrier - Nancy - for company. Cue plenty of (welcome) stops for aforementioned canine to chase rocks, stagger up inclines and poo in the bushes! Once we got to the Aiguillette, we managed to snap off a couple of shots of a pair of French climbers making their way up to capture the last of the sun. And after gulping down a picnic we took the same way down, passing plenty of smiling people on the trail. Check the pics (inset above right).

We also repeated our now-favourite Lavancher bike ride I told you about last week. The trail, that goes straight up to the high village, is windy and technical, and rewards riders with the excellent La Joux downhill section, followed by the classic river ride down the Balcon Sud back to Chamonix. I'm half tempted to take a shovel up next time and berm up the corners a bit! If you'd like to know the route better, just drop us a line.

As promised, your loyal columnist slogged up the Mollard (Brevent hill) the other day to have a look at the construction works on the new gondola bottom station. As a daily rider of the Brevent area, this is a project that vastly interests everyone in town - the new lines in the trees below Planpratz...the faster lift giving us more runs per day...the better parking at the bottom station...exciting times ahead for winter.

Well, it's very much a building site still. The Planpratz gondola is coming along nicely, with pretty much all of the infrastructure in to run it - cables, towers (way smaller than the old ones) and bottom station. By the looks of things, there's only a liftie hut and loading dock to come. It'll look just like the Vallorcine one when it's done. My money is on it being finished on time. The ticket office, however, is another matter. It still looks like it did in July, which is concerning. I am going to stick my neck out and say that the Brevent ticket sellers are going to be working out of Portakabins until at least January! Hopefully this'll not delay the opening of the lift.

I'm off to clean my downhill bike - La Flégère is open for the French Toussaint holiday this weekend, and I plan to ride hard and blow away a few cobwebs. See you at the up there!

Stats

Snow Report
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  • High Temp.: 15

  • Alt. High Temp.: 1050