Chamonix Snow Report: 25th April 2006
Monday and Tuesday have been the first days where we haven't had to think where to go snowboarding, as, with the exception of the Aiguille du Midi, the Grands Montets is the only ski area now open in the valley.
The weather has taken a turn for the worse, or better depending on the way you look at it. Yesterday's sunny morning turned into thunderstorms and heavy rain in the evening and the snow line was fairly high. It was still raining this morning when we woke up so motivation to head out was low, but we knew that it would be snowing higher up on the mountains.
Yesterday there had been quite a queue at Grands Montets, presumably because it was sunny and warm. But today was totally different: not many cars in the car park and zero queuing for lifts. Within a few minutes we were up at Lognan (there had been little snow at this level) and a few minutes more we were at the top: all with no extra ticket too, because the top cable car is now free for the remainder of the season. It was still a little foggy at the top, as the clouds hadn't lifted yet, so we headed around the back on the Point de Vue piste. The snow wasn't bad but I was a little disappointed at first, as the moguls seemed not to have been buried on the first section. A little lower down though and things improved massively. Where the Pylones and Point de Vue pistes separate there were large untracked sections with bump-free fresh snow and it was time to let rip in the fresh stuff. It's been a little while since I've ridden such good snow and I was starting to wonder if we'd see any more powder this season. The snow was good for quite a way down but by mid-mountain it started to get heavier thus making my legs feel like lead. The runout back to Lognan was extremely sticky and I was lucky to get back to the Combes piste without having to unstrap a foot.
We went straight back to the top cable car and onto the next bin for some more powder. This time we decided on a route down the Face, as it still looked fairly untracked. By hugging close to the rocks skier's right we found some totally untracked snow again. This time the steeper pitch of the Face made it even better, and the snow seemed deeper than on the Point de Vue: deep enough not to feel any hard stuff below, which is as good as it has to be. From the Face it was one long high-speed run down to skier's left of the top of the Herse chair at which point the snow started to get heavy and wet. A little lower still and it started to turn sticky making the ride back to the cable car a leg burner. Still the powder/leg-pain balance was in favour of the powder so we did a few more laps on the cable car with variations of the route down the Face. Each time we'd see skier's with big grins on their faces, which just about says it all. Eventually I felt we'd had the best of the powder so I called it a day and took the cable car down to Argentiere rather than ride the sticky Pierre a Ric. I love rainy days like this.
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: 2000
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Alt. Summit: 3000
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Alt. Last Snow: 2000
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High Temp.: 16
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Alt. High Temp.: 1050
