Chamonix Snow Report: 25th February 2010

Chamonix is the Mecca for off piste and extreme skiing and snowboarding, if you are a pro free rider you aren't qualified as such until you have spent a good amount of time here riding, as the mountains are big, steep, and crazy! If you are over here looking for some adventure whatever level you are, there will be some opportunities available to you and the best way to find this out is enrol on an off piste, back country course or book a guide for a week. You will be taken to some of the best spots according to your ability and the conditions at the time of your stay in Chamonix.

On a powder day such as today, there is nothing better than riding the Grands Montets with its massive amounts of off piste runs available, large open bowls, tree riding and nice long open couloirs to base! It's a great choice for any condition as you can take certain routes to stay out of the wind or you can get in the trees to bring some definition in a white out. Or, like today, ride some of the largest bowls of fresh powder available with very little effort to get to.

There are two main bowls in Grands Montets at either end of the resort, one being accessible from the Herse chair lift the other from the Bochard telecabine. The first one we got involved in today was from the top of the Bochard lift cutting across left as soon as possible on the piste to enter the L'avancher or Pendant bowl. You can pretty much start riding down as soon as you find yourself in this sector or traverse right or left to find yourself a little stash of pow. There is so much available that even though it was fairly busy up there today it was not getting immediately tracked out, meaning you could hit the same route again and again still scoring some fresh! The route on the Herse lift is a fairly similar story; on exiting the chair lift turn left and pick your line either traversing slightly left under the lift or far right where you can also head for a coffee or a great meal at the Lognan refuge.

We hit this side a few times with similar possibilities of scoring fresh as the other side of the resort before heading down for a few après ski beers and some fantastic nachos at the Office bar in Argentiere only a 5 minute walk from the lift station!

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!